Conway will advocate pro-Ukrainian positions to U.S. officials and will be paid $50,000 a month by a Ukrainian businessman.
Kellyanne Conway, a longtime political adviser to former President Donald Trump, has registered as a foreign agent to represent Ukrainian interests in Washington.
Conway was the campaign manager for Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and later served in his administration for three years as a “Senior Counselor to the President.” On Aug. 2, Conway’s consulting firm, KAConsulting,
registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) as a representative of Ukrainian
billionaire businessman Victor Pinchuk’s personal foundation, for which she will lobby U.S. lawmakers and political leaders.
Conway’s FARA filing indicates that she will “make best efforts to convince US lawmakers, experts, and opinion makers to attend the annual meeting of Yalta European Strategy in Kyiv on September 13-14,” referring to an annual conference hosted by Pinchuk to “create an international network of support for Ukraine and to strengthen public diplomacy in favor of the country,” according to its
website. Several world leaders,
including Trump, have spoken at previous iterations of the conference.
Pinchuk’s foundation has been a leading donor to U.S. philanthropies with political connections,
including the Clinton Global Initiative run by former President Bill Clinton and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, which attracted widespread Republican
criticism for its foreign funding sources.
Conway’s registration to represent a pro-Ukrainian foreign interest comes at a time of deep skepticism within the Republican Party regarding U.S. support for Ukraine. Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), has vocally opposed more U.S. military aid to Ukraine, as have many populist Republican members of Congress.
“We are actively endangering our national security by focusing on Ukraine to the exclusion of other priorities,”
wrote Vance in June.
Conway’s FARA filing indicates that she will “engage US lawmakers, experts, and opinion makers to explain the importance of Ukraine to the rules-based order and the protection of democratic principles,” suggesting she will argue against Vance and others’ Ukraine-skeptic positions. The filing leaves open the possibility that Conway could lobby Trump himself on the issue.
Trump and Conway appear to have maintained a close relationship despite her not having a formal role in his 2024 campaign. On Aug. 2, she posted on X a
picture of herself and Trump in New Jersey, wearing a blue “Make America Great Again” hat.
Conway’s duties will also include providing Pinchuk with an “assessment of the current state of views on Ukraine among US elected officials, candidates, experts, and opinion leaders.” Pinchuk has connections to the Ukrainian government, with his foundation’s philanthropic activities supporting the government. Conway’s filing indicates that “the Ukrainian government is the principal beneficiary” of her activities.
Conway’s contract with Pinchuk’s foundation will terminate on Nov. 14, nine days after the 2024 election. She will be paid $50,000 a month.
Several high-profile Republican and Democratic-affiliated political operatives and individuals have been retained as foreign agents by Ukrainian interests in recent years. These include former 2016 Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who was an agent of
Ukraine’s pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovich and later pleaded guilty to FARA violations, and
Gordon Sondland, a former U.S. Ambassador to the European Union and leading witness in Trump’s first impeachment.
Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, is also under
congressional scrutiny for his work for Ukrainian interests—specifically, the energy company Burisma—while his father was vice president. Like Conway, Hunter Biden was also paid
$50,000 per month for serving on the company’s board.
Conway’s service in the Trump administration attracted controversy for her media appearances and alleged
violations of the
Hatch Act, which prohibits government employees from partisan politics using their official titles. Until 2023, Conway was married for 22 years to lawyer George Conway, a founder of the Lincoln Project and prominent anti-Trump advocate, with the relationship eliciting public scrutiny of her personal life.
KAConsulting and the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
