Keen On

What unites Rudy Giuliani and Hunter Biden? According to the New York Times reporter Kenneth Vogel, they are both on the payroll of corrupt foreign interests. In his new book, Devils’ Advocates, Vogel reveals the hidden story of Giuliani, Biden and the other Washington insiders who sold access to American foreign policy. From the Balkans to Brazil, shadowy foreign players have discovered that the path to influencing Washington runs through well-connected Americans willing to take their money. Vogel exposes how shadowy figures like lobbyist Robert Stryk—who has openly admitted that he’d work for Kim Jong-un or the Taliban if they paid—have turned foreign influence into a lucrative industry. The Trump family’s multi-billion-dollar cryptocurrency ventures and Hunter Biden’s Romanian land deals represent the same often questionably legal phenomenon: foreign interests paying for perceived access to power. As enforcement weakens and the regulatory regime loosens, this shadow diplomacy system is shaping U.S. foreign