Devils' Advocates: How Washington Lobbyists Get Rich Enabling Dictators, Oligarchs, and Arms Dealers

by Kenneth P. Vogel

New York Times investigative reporter Kenneth P. Vogel takes us inside Washington’s murky foreign influence industry, providing an unsparing look at the politically connected and morally flexible Americans who get rich working to shape public policy and popular opinion on behalf of brutal dictators, corrupt oligarchs, and pitiless arms dealers.

It has been the source of some of the most explosive scandals in American politics over the last century, quietly shaping U.S. foreign policy while producing lucrative paydays for some of the biggest names in Washington. But the foreign influence industry has remained shrouded in mystery, defying understanding and explanation—until now.

Devils' Advocates shines a harsh light on the shadowy intersection of U.S. government diplomacy and private dealmaking. It is a billion-dollar business with a fundamentally undemocratic goal—wielding huge sums of often ill-gotten cash to help shape the exercise of American power around the world on behalf of foreign interests that are often anathema to American values about human rights and democracy.

The beneficiaries include African dictators and Serbian arms dealers, as well as the families of American presidents, “America’s mayor,” and a major lobbyist who burst onto the scene under Trump. The losers include impoverished people living under oppressive regimes around the world, and American taxpayers, whose money is spent propping up the regimes.

Kenneth P. Vogel has broken some of the biggest stories about foreign influence in American politics. Using his expansive source network, thousands of documents, and on-the-ground reporting, he takes listeners from an oligarch’s wooded compound outside Kyiv and a South American presidential palace to Washington, DC, and the C.I.A., revealing the stories of the people, places, and deals behind this industry of devils' advocates.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

400 pages, Hardcover

First published August 5, 2025

Reviews

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

exceedingly fair recounting of the past decade or so in foreign influence peddling in Washington, from a reporter who was ringside for much of it and patiently untangled some extremely convoluted webs.

I have been thinking a lot about ethics, partially because of my work and partially curiosity about the choices people make every day in their moral behavior. as someone who spends most of their time wracked with neurosis about the optimal ethical action I find people like Stryk unnerving in their complete lack of not even a moral compass but seemingly any anchoring points beyond a desire for power, proximity, and capital accumulation.

I continually get responses on my review of the Facebook memoir for my temerity in suggesting that a tech VP/ Commonwealth origin immigrant to the Bay Area might, in fact, be more culpable in moral choices surrounding employment than your average migrant who braved the Darien Gap. People seem shocked at the depravity of Facebook but readily forgive the cogs within its violent machine who are handsomely compensated for their role in corroding global politics and social trust. It suggests to me a limitation of moral worldview that affords endless sympathy for someone's need to retain health insurance in America and disregards the cost in the Global South, which in Myanmar can be numbered in thousands of lives. This book made me think about the choices people make not only in performing unethical behaviors but in apologizing for their human cost.

I suspect part of why Vogel's book isn't as prominent as others on lobbying is his truly bipartisan approach. I was thankful for a thorough recounting of the numerous knowing abdications of ethical behavior from Hunter Biden, and for the way Vogel skillfully separates fact from fiction to point out that influence peddling is an all-encompassing and toxic part of Washington.

[Jerry · Rating 1 out of 5]

A more appropriate title would be 'Chicanery: How I Attempted to Make the American People Think Joe Biden Is a Saint'. That Vogel spends most of this in-depth probe into the corrupting influences of lobbyists by looking into possible relationships between a scalawag-like lobbyist, Robert Stryk, who had close contact with men close to President Trump and a scant amount of time with the antics of Biden's son Hunter belies the book's title. For Vogel, Trump is guilty by innuendo and association with men who themselves have contact with a lobbyist of questionable character. Whereas Joe Biden is free from having a scintilla of corruption by his close association with Hunter and Hunter's 'business' partners. To illustrate, Vogel gives an exhaustive account of the misdeeds, the financial failings, the extravagances, etc Stryk because of his association with Giuliani. But what does he reveal about Hunter...wave top accounts of Hunter's earnings, virtually nothing about Hunter's three dozen or so rides on Air Force Two with Dad the Vice President to overseas places where Hunter was conducting 'business'. We learn from Vogel nothing about Hunter's art earnings...earnings reported in the millions. All created without a paint brush. We know nothing from Vogel about Hunter's squandering hundreds of thousands on prostitutes, chronic drug additions. We don't know who paid Hunter's legal fees or covered his rent but we do know what kind of cars the Stryk bought, the names of people he stiffed on payments, his credit card non-payments, and his lavish lifestyle in the Virginia countryside with guys like Erik Prince as neighbors. In my view, Vogel's intent isn't to expose corruption, it's to exonerate Joe Biden from hints of corruption due to his familial association with the son he pardoned for unspecified crimes and his brother Jim...mentioned but briefly by Vogel.

[W · Rating 3 out of 5]

An even-handed indictment of both major parties whose politicians and lobbyists do not differ much from the courtesans of the “Sun King” era in their goal to sell us out for lucre.

[Eric Bott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Foreign governments can purchase our government for embarrassingly small sums.