George News, Editor October 9, 2026
One line in the New York Times scoop has gone unanswered all week.
James Blair and Chris LaCivita, per Ken Vogel at the Times, were “paid hundreds of thousands of dollars each through a Washington-based law firm that was retained by Republika Srpska’s government to provide counsel on voting issues.” The Times didn’t name the firm.
The next day the President wrote on Truth Social that he does “not have any idea who else they work for but will, on reflection, ask them.”
So we checked.
That’s what point nine of our thirteen-point thread of May 28, 2024 asked for: #FollowTheMoney. Twenty-eight months later, we went to the place foreign money is supposed to show up, the Justice Department’s Foreign Agents Registration Act database. Here’s what the documents show, what they don’t show, and the question that’s left.
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What the FARA Files Show
No registration. As of October 9, the FARA database shows neither Chris LaCivita nor James Blair registered as a foreign agent, or listed as an individual agent, for any foreign client. Neither man is listed as an agent for any of the more than a dozen firms that have registered for Republika Srpska since 2025.
One Washington law firm. The only Washington-based law firm on file for Srpska is Becker & Poliakoff, engaged as a subcontractor at $40,000 a month by another Srpska registrant, Zell & Associates. Its filing doesn’t mention either man.
The firm in the story says it isn’t one. Continental Strategy, the firm Semafor ties to the trip, signed a Srpska agreement dated February 11 and filed February 16, 2026. Its standard terms state: “The Firm is not a law firm, and this Agreement does not include legal services or create an attorney-client relationship. This Agreement does not include the services of any third party.”
The caveat. Filings lag. New agents have ten days to register, semiannual reports are due a month after each period closes, and for most of these firms the next round won’t come until early next year. Not finding a filing today proves nothing.
But it sharpens the question. If a Washington law firm paid two of the President’s top political advisers hundreds of thousands of dollars each to advise a foreign government on its election, which firm was it, and will its next filing say so?
The Money Trail at Continental
On Thursday, Semafor’s Shelby Talcott and Eleanor Mueller reported that Continental, which they describe as a Washington law and lobbying firm “with close ties to President Donald Trump’s network,” helped arrange the trip, citing three people familiar with it. (Its own contract, again, says it is “not a law firm.”) Per Semafor, the trip came after Alex Garcia, a former Trump campaign adviser now at Continental, “initially reached out to LaCivita.”
Continental pushes back. After publication, a firm spokesperson told Semafor: “It is wrong for Semafor to report Continental Strategy organized the Election Day trip.”
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Continental’s own filings aren’t in dispute. Its Srpska agreement sets a $35,000 monthly retainer to arrange meetings with “key stakeholders in the executive and legislative branches.” Its semiannual reports show a $28,750 wire on February 26, then six $35,000 wires from April through August, for $238,750 through August 31. The same report logs Srpska meetings with administration officials Walker Barrett, Jarrod Agen and Richard Walters. And per the Times, Garcia arranged a September meeting between Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Željka Cvijanović, who holds the Serb seat in Bosnia’s presidency for Dodik’s party.
That gives us two separate things. One firm is paid by Srpska to open doors in Washington, and per Semafor, it helped get LaCivita and Blair to Banja Luka. A law firm, still unnamed, paid them. We are not claiming those are the same firm, and Continental’s contract suggests they aren’t.
A Firm to Watch, and a Second Client
McGinnis Lochridge. The Austin-based law firm has represented Srpska since 2019. Its current agreement sets a $130,000 monthly retainer “inclusive of all payments to any independent members of our team.” Nothing in the filings or the reporting connects that firm to LaCivita or Blair, and we are not suggesting it paid them. It’s simply the kind of arrangement the next reports should spell out.
Albania. Per Semafor, LaCivita “has also advised another Continental client looking to ingratiate himself with Trump: Albania’s Sali Berisha.” Continental’s contract with Berisha’s Democratic Party of Albania, filed April 24, 2025, sets a $250,000 monthly retainer for a 24-month package. LaCivita is not named in it.
The bigger pot. Semafor reports that Srpska “has signed lobbying contracts worth at least $9 million since Trump was inaugurated.” Per the Times, citing DOJ records, operatives and lobbyists connected to Trump and his allies have been paid more than $4 million by Srpska since the start of 2025. Late last year, the administration lifted sanctions on Dodik.
Why the Timing Matters
Per the Times, the men spent part of last week in Srpska ahead of its October 4 elections. The Times describes the government there as having “aligned itself with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.” Blair runs MAGA Inc., which per the Times had $415 million in the bank at the end of August. LaCivita is its senior adviser. While they were abroad, the Times reports, the President “crisscrossed the country trying to help his party avoid a blowout.” A MAGA Inc. spokesman told the Times they “remained fully engaged.”
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The Circle
The Financial Times reported Thursday that Katie Wiles, Susie Wiles’ daughter, works at Continental.
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Fairness first. The firm told CBS News that her August trip to the region was for a different U.S. client’s feasibility study, and that she “has not spoken with any United States Government official regarding Srpska.” A White House official told CBS that “Susie does not discuss work matters with her daughters,” and that Garcia, not Katie Wiles, set up the Cvijanović meeting. She is not listed as a registered agent on Continental’s FARA filings, which fits the firm’s account.
We take that at face value. But look at how small the circle is. The 2024 campaign’s political director runs the President’s super PAC. Its senior adviser is the 2024 co-manager. A deputy political director from that campaign now lobbies for Srpska, at a firm where the chief of staff’s daughter is a partner. That firm’s filings also show it logged an August 21, 2025 phone call with “James Blair (WH Deputy Chief of Staff)” on behalf of a Dominican Republic trade client. Disclosed contacts like that are routine and legal. But when the President asks his team about a conflict, who in that room doesn’t know everyone else?
Two Statements, One Day
The full Truth Social post, from Wednesday at 12:02 p.m. ET:
“Chris LaCivita and James Blair are outside consultants. They do not work for me, other than as outside consultants. They most likely have numerous clients, but for that, you would have to ask them. They are allowed to do work for others, just like all consultants in Washington, D.C. I do not have any idea who else they work for but will, on reflection, ask them and, if there’s a conflict, I will terminate them, immediately! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
Later that day in the Oval Office, per the Daily Beast: “They don’t have a conflict because they are independent people.” Semafor reports that Trump and Blair have since spoken, and one source called it “a good conversation.”
Which is it? You can’t rule out a conflict before you know who paid them. “Outside consultants” who run the President’s nine-figure midterm war chest aren’t outside of anything.
The Defense, and the Irony
Their side deserves a hearing. A source told Axios the 48 hours were “strategic advice on Election Integrity and what to look for to spot and avoid potential election fraud,” because Srpska was using new ballots and Smartmatic equipment for the first time. NRCC Chairman Richard Hudson called them “two of the most effective and loyal advisors President Trump has ever had” and said “This is a distraction, let’s get back to work.”
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Election integrity. Points one and two of our 2024 thread were the Charlie Spies hire as RNC chief counsel, and an election-integrity operation we said had been left without a leader. Now, by their own account, election integrity is a service they sell to a foreign government, in October, with the House on the line.
This Isn’t New
The LLC. The Daily Beast reported in 2024 on money flowing to LaCivita’s Advancing Strategies LLC, a figure later corrected to $19.2 million. He sued. The Eastern District of Virginia docket shows a joint notice of voluntary dismissal entered January 16, 2026. Per the Beast, he got no retraction, no apology and no damages.
The audit. In October 2024, the Guardian reported that Corey Lewandowski’s internal review “raised questions about roughly $80m of campaign money that went on television advertising actually went to commissions through a company co-managed by LaCivita.” The report also said Trump hadn’t seen it and it was unclear what Lewandowski found. Was it ever finished, and who has it?
Texas. Per Axios, LaCivita became senior adviser to the pro-Cornyn super PAC Texans for a Conservative Majority in 2025. Per the Texas Tribune, pro-Cornyn forces outspent Paxton’s side close to nine to one. Paxton won anyway. (Our takes: Vindicated, Nostradamus Was Right, Terminate Him.)
Same pattern every time: big money through consultant-controlled channels, and the funders never see the books.
What We’re Asking For
Steve Bannon told Politico Playbook: “We need a forensic audit of where the money went so the president has the information to hold people accountable.” We agree, and we’d add specifics.
Mr. President, you said you would ask. Ask in writing, and make the answers public:
The law firm. Name the Washington law firm that paid them for the Srpska work, how much each man received, and whether any FARA registration covers it. As of today, the public record shows none.
The client list. Every foreign government, party or politician either man has advised since January 2025, including Republika Srpska and Sali Berisha.
The audit. An independent forensic review of 2024 campaign and MAGA Inc. money paid to consultant-owned entities, starting with the Lewandowski questions.
The base funded this operation. The base is owed the receipts.
We said follow the money in 2024. We’ll keep following it until someone opens the books.
Reported facts above are attributed to the outlets and documents linked. FARA records were reviewed on October 9, 2026. Interpretations and questions are ours. LaCivita, Blair, MAGA Inc., Continental and the firms named are welcome to respond, and we’ll publish any response.