John Vincent Weber (born July 24, 1952) is an American politician and lobbyist from
Minnesota
Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...
. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a member of the
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...
Weber was press secretary to Representative Tom Hagedorn from 1974 to 1975 and a senior aide to Senator Rudy Boschwitz from 1977 to 1980. He had been the co-publisher of Murray County, Minnesota newspaper from 1976 to 1978 and the president of Weber Publishing Company. Weber was a delegate to the Minnesota State Republican conventions in 1972 and 1978. In 1980, at the age of 28, he was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives, defeating Archie Baumann, 53% to 47%. Baumann had been an aide to former Representative Rick Nolan.
Weber chose not to run for reelection in 1992 and retired from Congress following the House banking scandal, in which he was implicated for writing 125 bad checks worth nearly $48,000.
As secretary of the House Republican Conference and key adviser to incoming Speaker
Newt Gingrich
Newton Leroy Gingrich (; né McPherson; born June 17, 1943) is an American politician and author who served as the List of speakers of the United States House of Representatives, 50th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1 ...
, he was considered one of the architects of the Republicans' success in 1994. He was a commentator on NPR the following year about developments in Congress after the Republicans took control of the House, providing commentary on the "revolution" he had helped create. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting reported that Weber frequently offered his opinions on NPR about health care issues, but never revealed that he was a paid lobbyist for several health insurance giants.
Weber was a member of the now defunct Project for the New American Century (PNAC) and was one of the signers of the PNAC Letter sent to
US President
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed For ...
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
on January 26, 1998, advocating "the removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime from power", along with
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American former politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He has been called vice presidency o ...
, Donald Rumsfeld and 29 other notable Republicans.
Weber opened and managed the Washington, D.C. branch of lobbying firm Clark & Weinstock. In 2006, home mortgage giant
Freddie Mac
The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC), commonly known as Freddie Mac, is an American publicly traded, government-sponsored enterprise (GSE), headquartered in Tysons, Virginia.subprime mortgage crisis. Weber also lobbied for
Gazprom
PJSC Gazprom ( rus, Газпром, , ɡɐsˈprom) is a Russian State-owned enterprise, majority state-owned multinational Energy industry, energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. The Gazprom name is a contract ...
, Russia's state-owned natural gas company. In 2011, Clark & Weinstock merged with Mercury, and Weber became a partner in the combined firm.
Weber is a prominent strategist in the Republican Party, serving as a top advisor on Dole for President in 1996, the Bush reelection campaign in 2004, and
Mitt Romney
Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American businessman and retired politician. He served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Utah from 2019 to 2025 and as the 70th governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 ...
for President in 2008. Weber is chairman of the National Endowment for Democracy, a private, nonprofit organization designed to strengthen democratic institutions around the world through nongovernmental efforts. He is a senior fellow at the Humphrey Institute at the
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...
Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank focused on Foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is an independent and nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organi ...
and co-chaired the Independent Task Force on U.S. Policy toward Reform in the Arab World with former
United States Secretary of State
The United States secretary of state (SecState) is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State.
The secretary of state serves as the principal advisor to the ...
Madeleine Albright
Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright (born Marie Jana Körbelová, later Korbelová; May 15, 1937 – March 23, 2022) was an American diplomat and political science, political scientist who served as the 64th United States Secretary of State, United S ...
. In addition, Weber is a member of the
United States Secretary of Energy
The United States secretary of energy is the head of the United States Department of Energy, a member of the Cabinet of the United States and fifteenth in the United States presidential line of succession, presidential line of succession. The po ...
CNBC
CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...
'' on August 3, 2016, "I can't imagine I'd remain a Republican if he becomes president." But in 2019, Weber said that the Trump administration "was not as bad as I thought it would be" and that he would "probably" support Trump for reelection.
On August 17, 2016, the Associated Press reported that Mercury Public Affairs LLC, which Weber heads, had received $1.02 million from
Paul Manafort
Paul John Manafort Jr. (; born April 1, 1949) is an American former lobbyist, political consultant, and attorney. A long-time Republican Party campaign consultant, he chaired the Trump presidential campaign from June to August 2016. Manafo ...
's European Centre for a Modern Ukraine to lobby Congress to support pro-Russia Viktor Yanukovych during the Autumn 2012 Ukrainian elections and to block the release from prison of Yanukovich's rival, Yulia Tymoshenko. For his lobbying Congress on behalf of pro-Russia entities, Weber received at least $700,000.
Established in 2012, the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine had been supported by Yanukovich's pro-Russia
Party of Regions
A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...
and continued to pay Mercury for lobbying until February 2014, when Yanukovich fled Ukraine for Russia after the Maidan revolution. From 2012 until February 2014 and directed by Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, Weber, who was the principal for Mercury's Ukraine-related lobbying portfolio beginning in 2012, acted as an unregistered agent of a foreign government and foreign political party, a felony offense under the
Foreign Agents Registration Act
The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) ( ''et seq.'') is a United States law that imposes Public disclosure of private facts, public disclosure obligations on Foreign agent, persons representing foreign interests.
(FARA), with a penalty of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. On April 28, 2017, Mercury retroactively filed with FARA within the Justice Department that it had been hired by the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine. Mercury had filed its lobbying efforts with Congress under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995. Files between Mercury and the Manafort and Gates firms connected to Yanukovich and his Party of Regions were subpoenaed by the
Mueller special counsel investigation
The Robert Mueller special counsel investigation was an investigation into 45th U.S. president Donald Trump regarding Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections and was conducted by special prosecutor Robert Mueller from May 201 ...
.
In July 2018, New York prosecutors were referred by Mueller to investigate any wrongdoing by Weber and Mercury Public Affairs LLC. The
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...
dropped the probe of Weber and Mercury Public Affairs LLC in September 2019.
See also
* Podesta Group, another lobbying group hired by Paul Manafort and Rick Gates from 2012 until February 2014
* Stop Trump movement