On May 3rd, the Department of Justice charged Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and his wife Imelda Cuellar for accepting bribes in exchange for influencing U.S. foreign policy in Azerbaijan. According to the indictment, Cuellar—referred to as “boss” by his Azerbaijani handler—coordinated efforts to shoot down legislation that supported U.S. cooperation with separatists in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. But Cuellar may not have been the only one doing Azerbaijan’s bidding in Washington without registering under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
The international community has largely acquiesced to Azerbaijan’s claims over Nagorno-Karabakh, after a lightning-quick military offensive that displaced some 120,000 Karabakh Armenians. But this didn’t happen in a vacuum. Facing allegations of genocide and ethnic cleansing due to their blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan needed credibility under international law to build support. In August of 2023, they zeroed in on their man in leading international legal expert Rodney Dixon, a barrister at Temple Garden Chambers.
Dixon is no stranger to high-profile cases, having represented Al Jazeera after the murder of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and the government of Afghanistan in proceedings before the International Criminal Court. Azerbaijan commissioned Dixon to publish a report in an attempt to absolve Azerbaijan of genocide in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Dixon promoted the report in the media, including doing a TV interview with the BBC and giving an advance copy to CNN. The Friedlander Group, a lobbying firm representing Azerbaijan, coordinated meetings between Dixon and more than 50 government officials on Capitol Hill the very same week that Azerbaijan kicked off its military offensive. In the meetings, Dixon promoted his report refuting the allegation of genocide, and did not respond to a suggestion from a Hill staffer to use his influence to ask Azerbaijan to lift their blockade on Nagorno-Karabakh.
According to multiple congressional staff who were invited to these meetings and spoke on condition of anonymity, during his meetings on the Hill, Dixon made no mention that he was commissioned by the government of Azerbaijan. Instead, the invitation burnished his credentials as an objective source. “We would like to invite you to participate in a roundtable discussion with Mr. Rodney Dixon KC, in your capacity as congressional staffer, to get an unbiased, objective, and credible perspective on the situation in the Karabakh region,” read the invite, which was shared with The American Prospect by congressional staff. The invite was not filed as “informational materials” under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Azerbaijan had hired Dixon to respond to a provocative report by the former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo. In his report, Moreno Ocampo alleged that Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Nagorno-Karabakh region constituted genocide: “There is an ongoing Genocide against 120,000 Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh,” reads the opening statement of the report.
Dixon published his report just two weeks later, excoriating the Moreno Ocampo opinion. In his legal assessment, Dixon claimed that the charge of genocide was a “plainly groundless allegation” that drives an “unjustified wedge between the peace-seeking governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan.” He also waved away reports of starvation, and blockage of aid, food, and medical supplies. The Dixon report scoffed at the suggestion that “a population of more than a hundred thousand people may be ‘destroyed in a few weeks’. That is a suggestion, implausible on its face, for which the [Moreno Ocampo] Opinion offers no substantiation.”
In his appearance on BBC’s The Context, Dixon’s fellow panelist was Orxan Amasov, an analyst from Azerbaijani-affiliated media outlet Caliber.az. The interview began with BBC host Christian Fraser clarifying Dixon’s relationship with the Azerbaijani government:
“You’ve been hired by the Azeri government, if I’m right in saying this, just on the basis of the opinion that Luis Moreno Ocampo has put forward to contest his view that this is a genocide, correct?”
“Yes, I’ve been commissioned by the government of Azerbaijan to review the report and the allegations made and the findings,” Dixon replied.
When pressed by Fraser to comment on whether Azerbaijan has any obligation under international law to allow aid into Nagorno-Karabakh, Dixon refused to answer, instead pivoting back to the question of genocide.
“What I’ve looked at is whether or not this allegation of genocide is properly made out. Why it’s important to do that is that because by making such an emotive allegation … it inflames the situation … The genocide allegation must be removed from the equation,” he said.
In the meantime, Azerbaijan was gearing up for war. Azerbaijan’s president signed a decree ordering citizens to report for military service in August, and in early September began concentrating forces, arms, and mortars around the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Thomas de Waal, a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe, told the Telegraph at the time, “We’re at a dangerous point and we are only a couple of steps away from a new conflict.”
On Dixon’s Washington trip, he met with six U.S. representatives, members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee staff, and dozens of congressional staffers in just two days. According to FARA filings disclosed by the Friedlander Group, the purpose of these meetings was to “learn about the state of affairs in the Karabakh region and the process of normalization between Azerbaijan and Armenia.” According to sources with knowledge of the meetings, Dixon was “shepherded” around the House office buildings by Ezra Friedlander, CEO of the Friedlander Group, which is registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act to represent the government of Azerbaijan.
The Friedlander Group, which also represents the Turkish government, boasts on its website, “We know how to reach the ears of relevant legislators.” With Dixon’s aid, the Friedlander Group delivered on its promise—and pocketed $833,330 over the course of six months in the meantime, according to federal disclosures.
Just days later, on September 19, 2023, Azerbaijan launched its military offensive in the separatist region, displacing over 120,000 Karabakh Armenians.
Josh Rosenstein, a partner at Sandler Reiff Lamb Rosenstein & Birkenstock, which advises clients on FARA compliance, explained in an interview that the Department of Justice might be justified in sending a letter of inquiry to determine whether or not there is a foreign agent registration requirement for Dixon. “Coming to the U.S. to present a report’s findings commissioned by and promoting the interests of a foreign government, and representing the interests of that government before the U.S. government, are both regulated. So while there may be some nuance or fact that I’m not aware of, this does on its face seem to trigger the Foreign Agents Registration Act,” said Rosenstein.
Rodney Dixon, the Embassy of Azerbaijan, and the Friedlander Group all did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Dixon was previously registered under FARA, not as an agent, but as a foreign principal. In 2018, Dixon paid fellow international criminal lawyer Haydee Dijkstal 8,000 British pounds to organize a series of lectures in the U.S. about the war in Yemen, which Dixon spoke at. Dijkstal consulted the FARA unit to ask whether this would constitute a political activity. In her telling, the FARA unit advised her to register as a foreign agent because “opinions might be expressed during the course of the lecture by speaker [Dixon] which might have an influence on those listening and their opinions of policies.” Foreign principals are not always aware that agents register under FARA on their behalf.
The Department of Justice has increasingly prosecuted FARA cases, including one that bears a resemblance to Dixon’s work. In 2012, law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom helped prepare a report on behalf of the Ministry of Justice in Ukraine on the prosecution and trial of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, in order to influence U.S. policy and public opinion. Skadden did not register under FARA at the time, despite promoting the report in American media outlets. One Skadden partner wrote to another saying their work “should not include PR advice,” considering they are “lawyers, not spin doctors.” Yet, as part of its rollout strategy, Skadden lawyers hand-delivered a copy of the report and gave an interview to The New York Times prior to the report’s release.
Skadden reached a settlement with the Department of Justice for $4.7 million and registered under FARA retroactively in 2019.
At least one partner at Skadden, former Obama White House General Counsel Gregory Craig, refused to register under FARA, for fear that it would sully his future political prospects. Craig was initially charged with a FARA violation and making false statements to prosecutors. According to former head of the FARA Unit Heather Hunt, Craig “wanted to make clear to us that all the communications they had with the media were done independently … not at the request or under the direction or control of Ukraine.” According to an analysis by Just Security, the trial relied on informal communication as evidence and excluded several key witnesses, and Craig was eventually acquitted.
The similarities between Dixon and Craig are striking. Both prepared a report at the request of a foreign government. Before the public rollout, Dixon gave a copy of his report and an interview to CNN, just as Craig did with The New York Times. Both did not register under FARA.
Evidence also suggests that Moreno Ocampo’s work might have necessitated FARA registration as well. Moreno Ocampo wrote his report alleging genocide at the “request” of the government of Artsakh. The request came directly from Nagorno-Karabakh President Arayik Vladimiri Harutyunyan: “As the President of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), I am asking for your expert opinion on the current situation of 120,000 Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
Moreno Ocampo then testified in front of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in early September 2023 on the blockade and military buildup in Nagorno-Karabakh. During the hearing, Moreno Ocampo endorsed the position of his fellow witness, Georgetown University professor David Phillips, that the U.S. should lock up Azerbaijani officials in jail when they come to New York for the General Assembly. Moreno Ocampo made no mention of President Harutyunyan’s request during the hearing.
In response to a question posed via email as to whether he should have registered as a foreign agent, Moreno Ocampo initially admitted, “I don’t know,” before following up with “I did not represent any government.” Moreno Ocampo added that he did not receive any money for his report, nor was he asked by the Nagorno-Karabakh authorities to testify in front of Congress. “My only comment on Dixon’s report is that he did not present a good argument,” explained Moreno Ocampo in an email to The American Prospect.
Moreno Ocampo’s report was cited in legislation introduced by Rep. Christopher Smith (R-NJ) on September 22nd that would repeal a long-standing presidential waiver that allows security assistance to flow from Washington to Baku. The bill would also provide some $42 million in arms and humanitarian assistance to Armenia.
“What the separatist government did by hiring Moreno Ocampo amounts to instrumentalization of human rights law and discourse on behalf of a specific political agenda. Azerbaijan tried to defend itself from those critiques and Dixon’s report stood up, but it’s still the case that Azerbaijan paid for it so that has to be taken with a grain of salt,” said a staffer familiar with the meetings, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “They hire them to say what they want to say,” they added.
Ironically, at several points, Dixon made this exact point, criticizing Moreno Ocampo for producing a legal opinion at the request of the Artsakh government, without acknowledging that he did the exact same thing for Azerbaijan. In an op-ed for the Azerbaijan News Gazette, Dixon criticized Moreno Ocampo for partiality: “This is not the methodology of an independent and fair-minded expert,” he wrote.
This article has been republished with permission from The American Prospect.
