Veteran congressman calls on Biden to ban oligarchs’ UK lawyers from the United States
The UK lawyers that have worked on behalf of Russian oligarchs in their efforts to silence journalists should be banned from travelling to the United States, a senior congressman has said.
In a letter to US secretary of state Anthony Blinken, Democratic Party congressman Steve Cohen called on the Biden administration to impose travel bans on six British lawyers for their role in enabling Russian oligarchs.
The Memphis congressman argued the US must “establish deterrents” to deter foreign enablers from carrying out “unscrupulous work” on behalf of oligarchs, as he argued “enablers” must be held to account.
In his letter, the US politics veteran argues lawyers working for oligarchs are “undermining democracy” on behalf of the “individuals responsible for enabling Putin’s war in Ukraine.”
“Oligarchs… cannot exert malign influence in our system and the systems of our democratic allies without their enablers,” the congressman said. “Among the worst such enablers have been certain lawyers in the United Kingdom.”
Travel ban!
Specifically, Cohen’s letter calls on the Biden administration to ban six British lawyers from the US, as it argues that visa bans could be imposed as part of the US sanctions regime.
The letter calls for travel bans to be imposed on CMS’ head of reputation management Geraldine Proudler, Harbottle & Lewis litigator John Kelly, barrister Hugh Tomlinson, Schillings chairman Keith Shilling, Rechtschaffen Law founder Shlomo Rechtschaffen, and Carter Ruck’s managing partner Nigel Tait.
In his letter, Cohen puts forward various allegations against the six senior lawyers as he notes that John Kelly, Hugh Tomlinson, and Shlomo Rechtschaffen have all worked on behalf of sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.
The letter also notes that Kieth Schilling has previously brought forward various “abusive lawsuits” against journalists on behalf of 1MDB scandal mastermind Jho Low, as he noted the lawyer sent legal letters to booksellers seeking to block them from selling books about the fugitive businessman.
Cohen’s letter also singles out Tait for his role in working on behalf of the Kremlin’s state-owned oil company Rosneft to “stifle investigative reporting” and launch abusive lawsuits against journalists.