A Cleveland-born lobbyist who is implicated in the Paul Manafort indictments has had a long-term cozy relationship with Ohio Republicans and even served on John Kasich’s 2016 Presidential Steering Committee. Ed Kutler was a senior lobbyist at powerhouse DC Public Affairs firm, Mercury, until he departed in 2017 to found his own shop. According to their own Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filings and numerous press reports, Mercury is “Company A” in the Manafort indictment. Kutler also has extensive family connections to the somewhat forgotten pornography empire of Cleveland’s own Reuben Sturman and La Cosa Nostra.

It is […]