Jamaican PM Golding: I Okayed Hiring Manatt, but Party Paid

Update, 5/14/2010 at 6:15 p.m. – Calls are mounting for the resignation of Jamaica Prime Minister Bruce Golding over his opposition to a U.S. extradition request for an accused drug lord, the Associated Press reports. Golding met with top advisers Friday, the AP says, and leaders of his Jamaica Labor Party have called an emergency meeting for Sunday in the resort city of Ocho Rios to discuss the political crisis. Read the full AP report here.

Jamaica’s prime minster admitted for the first time this week that he authorized hiring Manatt, Phelps & Phillips to lobby U.S. officials in connection with an extradition dispute involving an alleged international drug kingpin that has strained relations between the two countries and resulted in an ethics complaint against the firm.

As reported by local news sources and The Associated Press, Prime Minister Bruce Golding (pictured here) told his country’s parliament on Tuesday that he had approved retaining Manatt to help resolve the extradition standoff over Kingston businessman Christopher Coke, indicted by federal prosecutors in New York last August for trafficking in illegal narcotics and firearms.

Golding contended, however, that it was his ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), not the Jamaican government, that hired and paid Manatt–despite the firm’s continuing insistence to the contrary.

“I sanctioned the initiative, knowing that such interventions have in the past proven to be of considerable value in dealing with issues involving the governments of both countries,” Golding said Tuesday, reading from a lengthy prepared statement. “I made it clear, however, that this was an initiative to be undertaken by the [JLP], not by or on behalf of the government.”

Golding acknowledged authorizing Kingston attorney and leading JLP member Harold Brady to approach Manatt. Somehow, Golding said, the firm was “made to believe that Mr. Brady was acting for the government of Jamaica, rather than the JLP, and that their engagement was authorized by the government of Jamaica.” The prime minister did not explain how Manatt was “made to believe” that was the case.

Golding also said a payment of nearly $50,000 made to Manatt last September came from JLP coffers. “Rumors and speculation carried in the media that these funds were provided by Christopher Coke are completely false as the Party is fully aware of the source of these funds,” Golding stated. He said the funds came from unnamed “financial contributors to the Party,” and maintained that there was “absolutely nothing illegal or surreptitious” about his actions or those of the JLP.

As with previous comments on the matter made by Brady, Golding, and other government officials, the prime minister’s statement on Tuesday directly contradicts Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filings made with the U.S. Department of Justice by Manatt. Those documents say the firm represented the Jamaican government. None of those filings–available at the bottom of this story–make any mention of lobbying conducted on behalf of the JLP.

A search of Senate lobbying records also reveals no such filings by the firm, which on Thursday stood by a previous statement from general counsel Monte Lemann II that Manatt was retained by the Jamaican government, through Brady, “to assist with existing political and economic matters, including existing treaty agreements between Jamaica and the U.S. The firm was never employed by or did work for Christopher Coke.” (As disclosed in a March FARA filing, Manatt ended the relationship in February.)