Iraq — Lobbying and Influence in the United States

Iraq is one of the few countries with two separate lobbying tracks in Washington. The federal government in Baghdad files one set of disclosures. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) files another. This page walks through both, plus a landmark case that shaped how the Justice Department now reads the law.

Why this page matters now

Since 2003, U.S. policy toward Iraq has been a front-burner issue. Troop levels, oil contracts, arms sales, and sanctions on Iraqi banks all pass through Congress or the executive branch. When a foreign client wants to shape those choices, U.S. law requires public filing under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). The DOJ’s FARA Unit runs the system, and FARA eFile is the public portal.

Readers who only track Baghdad miss half the story. The KRG runs its own foreign policy shop in Washington. Its FARA filings are separate, its firms are different, and its goals do not always match Baghdad’s. Seeing both tracks side by side gives a fuller picture of how Iraqi interests reach U.S. lawmakers.

What the FARA record shows

FARA is a disclosure law, not a ban. Firms that lobby for foreign governments must register, list their contracts, and file reports twice a year. Those reports are public at efile.fara.gov.

Over the years, Baghdad has hired several well-known U.S. firms. Public reporting and FARA records show work by Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, Mercury Public Affairs, and, in earlier years, the Podesta Group. The scope of each contract varies. Some firms cover general government relations. Others focus on a single issue, such as arms sales or debt.

The KRG track is different. Greenberg Traurig, BGR Group, Dentons, and Squire Patton Boggs have all appeared in FARA filings tied to the Kurdistan Regional Government or entities close to it. OpenSecrets Foreign Lobby Watch is the best public search tool for these records. KRG lobbying often centers on direct U.S. military aid, arms transfers to the Peshmerga, and recognition on Capitol Hill as a distinct partner.

None of this is secret. It is just scattered. The FARA eFile portal and OpenSecrets let anyone pull the raw filings.

The Sam Patten case and why it matters

In August 2018, lobbyist Sam Patten pleaded guilty to a FARA violation. The DOJ press release laid out the counts. His case grew out of the Special Counsel’s probe and covered work tied to Ukraine and, separately, the KRG. Patten admitted he acted as an unregistered foreign agent.

This was the first FARA-related plea of the 2018-2019 enforcement wave. It signaled that the Justice Department was willing to charge FARA directly, not just use it as a paperwork tool. The case did not accuse the KRG of wrongdoing. It accused a U.S. operator of failing to register. Still, it put Iraqi Kurdish lobbying in the spotlight and pushed firms to tighten their filings.

Scale, in plain numbers

Iraq is a mid-sized FARA client. It is not in the same league as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, or the United Arab Emirates in terms of yearly spending. But it is a steady presence.

Across FARA records, Iraqi government and KRG contracts have typically run into the low millions of dollars per year combined, split across several firms. Exact yearly totals shift with each contract renewal. The best way to check a current year is to search efile.fara.gov for “Iraq” and “Kurdistan” as client names.

On the aid side, the U.S. has sent Iraq billions of dollars since 2003, though yearly amounts have dropped sharply since the peak years of the occupation. Current figures appear in the Congressional Research Service report RS21968 and in the State Department’s U.S. Relations With Iraq fact sheet.

The right takeaway

Iraq’s FARA footprint is real but modest. The key point is the split: Baghdad and Erbil each run their own Washington operations. Reporters who lump them together miss where the money and message actually come from.

The Sam Patten plea is the single biggest enforcement event tied to this country file. It is worth citing by name when you see new Iraqi or KRG contracts appear, because it set the current bar for how firms register.

Stay close to the primary filings. They are public, searchable, and updated twice a year.