A congressman’s secret trip to Cyprus

The New York Times reports on some creative travel accounting by a Staten Island congressman:  When Representative Michael G. Grimm, a first-term Staten Island Republican, went on a fact-finding trip abroad last year, he widely publicized his first stop, Israel, sending off a stream of messages about his activities there via Twitter. But he was ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.

The New York Times reports on some creative travel accounting by a Staten Island congressman: 

The New York Times reports on some creative travel accounting by a Staten Island congressman: 

When Representative Michael G. Grimm, a first-term Staten Island Republican, went on a fact-finding trip abroad last year, he widely publicized his first stop, Israel, sending off a stream of messages about his activities there via Twitter. But he was largely silent about his second stop, Cyprus.

In fact, Mr. Grimm did not file required paperwork about the trip, which was paid for by a private organization, with the House clerk, according to Congressional records. Nor did he initially report the Cyprus trip on his Congressional financial disclosure filing in May, even though he did list the Israel trip, according to the records.

But in June, Mr. Grimm amended his financial disclosure filing to report the Cyprus trip, the records show. The amended filing came one day after his host on the trip, Peter Papanicolaou, the president of the Cyprus Federation of America, which paid for the $6,890 visit, was arrested in Brooklyn on federal corruption charges.

According to Grimm’s office, the discosure had nothing to do with the arrest. But a month before the congressman, who is also being investigated for accepting illegal campaign donations, left for Cyprus, he issued a press release saying he would "co-sponsor a bill to help give Americans who own property in what the release called “Turkish-Occupied Cyprus” recourse to seek restitution for the “illegal use and occupation of their property.""

Influence peddling seems to work best on the issues the public pays the least attention to. In American politics, Cyprus policy would seem to be a pretty good example. 

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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