There is a suspicion that the Orbán government played a role in building a “bridge” between Russian President Putin and President elect Trump. At this point, we don’t know whether this “bridge building” effort is significant enough to register on the radar screen of the ongoing US Congressional and Senate investigations in Washington DC.
According to the European Council on Foreign Relations there are strong ties between Russia and the Hungarian government with corruption being the “key facilitator” of the growing Russian influence. The “political proximity” of the Hungarians to the Kremlin is remarkable and “Russian intelligence services see Hungary as a sanctuary and have increased their activities there.” (Read more here.)
From a Hungarian viewpoint what I find most intriguing is the current US investigation of J. D. Gordon, a former Trump campaign advisor. Gordon was interviewed by the House Intelligence Committee and it was publicized that he “doctored” the Republican Party platform to include a pro-Russian position on the defense of Ukraine. He also met with then-Russian ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak.
J. D. Gordon is one of the critical “players” in the Manafort investigation
Gordon also worked with Paul Manafort, the former chairman of Trump’s presidential campaign who is being investigated by the Senate Intelligence Committee. It was reported that the FBI conducted a predawn raid (!) on Manafort’s home seizing documents and other materials. We don’t know whether the FBI searched J.D. Gordon’s home. Manafort has extensive business relationships in Russia and Ukraine and J.D. Gordon also travelled in the area.
J. D. Gordon is listening to Mr. Zoltan Kovacs, Hungarian government spokesman at the Embassy.
In a short time J. D. Gordon visited Budapest six times; it seems he was invited by the Antall József Tudásközpont, a government funded, pro-Orbán think tank. Gordon also maintained close ties with the former Hungarian Ambassador to the US, Réka Szemerkényi and regularly attended Embassy events.
We don’t have information about Gordon’s activities in Hungary e.g. who paid him for his lobbying or other efforts. It is worth mentioning that after the Senate Intelligence Committee started its investigation Russian Ambassador Kislyak and Hungarian Ambassador Szemerkényi were both recalled.
Gordon is greeted my Ambassador Szemerkényi at the Hungarian Embassy in Washington DC.
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A couple of weeks ago Paul Behrends, a top aide to California Representative Dana Rohrabacher, was fired from his role as staff director of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee that Rohrabacher chairs. Behrends accompanied Rohrabacher on a 2016 trip to Moscow in which the Congressman said he received materials from Russian prosecutors. US embassy officials warned them that the mission might be compromised by the Russian Secret Service. Rohrabacher brushed off the warnings and now it seems that the delegation may have had inappropriate contacts with Russians. Several stories have also appeared about Behrends’s relationships with pro-Russian lobbyists but according to the Los Angeles Times Rep. Rohrabacher is not under Congressional investigation.
Congressman Rohrabacher with Viktor Orbán in Budapest in the middle of the group photo. Next to Mr. Rohrabacher is Ms. Colleen Bell US Ambassador
Rohrabacher’s decade long friendship with Putin is well known and the Congressman vigorously lobbied for lifting US sanctions, as did Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s Prime Minister. Rohrabacher is close with Orbán; he visited him Budapest. A press report even claims that Rohrabacher received explicit instructions by the Kremlin on how to attack sanctions against Russia.
Paul Behrends helped to organize an unusual House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee hearing on May 19, 2015 entitled, “The Future of US-Hungarian Relations”. The chair of the hearing was Rep. Rohrabacher who stated: ”I personally came up with the idea for this hearing. Those who suggest otherwise just don’t know what they are talking about.” (Click here to read the transcript of the hearing.)
The Obama administration was represented by Mr. Hoyt Brian Yee, Deputy Assistant Secretary who warned about the situation in Hungary “..we do believe it is important to watch trends, especially alarming trends in either anti-Semitism or xenophobia or anti-immigration in a way that is at odds with democratic traditions and democratic values that—on which the European Union and NATO are based.”
Rohrabacher dismissed the Obama administration’s concerns and defended Orbán. The hearing was crucial to the Orbán government to deflect growing US criticism and it is worth mentioning that Kurt Volker also testified at the hearing in support of the Orbán government. Volker is a close friend of Orbán and has called the Orbán regime a “robust democracy”. He is also close to former Ambassador Szemerkényi who also has Russian connections. (Read more about Szemerkenyi’s role.)
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The Congressional probe into Russia’s influence in the 2016 presidential election is run by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, ex-director of the FBI. He recently hired a Justice Department attorney, Lisa Page, who has extensive experience on money laundering and organized crime cases. Ms. Page was a member of the FBI task force in Budapest, Hungary, focusing on Eastern-European organized crime. She put together the money laundering case against Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash, a one-time business partner of Mr. Manafort. Firtash owned several businesses in Hungary and one of his Hungarian business partners, Mr. András Knopp is also being prosecuted by the US government. Some press reports have even raised the possibility that Mueller is investigating Semion Mogilevich (Száva bácsi), the one-time head of the Budapest-based Russian-Hungarian mafia organization with ties to Hungarian politicians. (Read more about Mogilevich here.)
At this point, it is impossible to tell how all these pieces fit together. If the Congressional and Senate investigations uncover foul play with Hungarian involvement it could have far-reaching consequences in Hungarian-American relations.
Too early to tell.
György Lázár
