The participation of an employee of the US Embassy in Georgia in the lobbying process of convicted ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili is an alarming fact, said Kakha Kaladze, Secretary General of the ruling Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia party, Mayor of Tbilisi.

According to documents published on the website of the US Department of Justice, Evan Elliott, an employee of the American Embassy in Georgia, and former Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili are associated with lobbying companies hired by the family of convicted former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. The US Embassy called this data disinformation, and Margvelashvili – lies and propaganda.

"Of course, it is alarming when it comes to an employee of a foreign embassy, especially a strategic partner. It was stated in the recording that he was entrusted with the organization of meetings with Salome Zourabichvili. What kind of cases can an embassy employee have to participate in such actions? This is very bad and disturbing", Kaladze told reporters.

When a lobbying company hires a specific person, it is obliged to reflect everything in official documents, Kaladze noted.

"It was published on the web page of the Department of Justice, they are available to everyone. This document specifically contains the name and surname of a person who is an employee of the embassy", Kaladze added.

As for Margvelashvili, who also appears in these documents, according to Kaladze, it is shameful when a politician takes money in return for expressing his position.

"In general, it is immoral when you take money for you to fix some position and call yourself a politician. It's immoral and shameful. The amount of money does not matter. When you take this step and do something like that, it's very hard", Kaladze said.

Last week, the US Department of Justice released data on the work of Akerman and GP International lobbying companies hired by the Saakashvili family.

According to the document, efforts were made to organize a meeting with the current President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili during her visit to New York in order to obtain a pardon for Saakashvili. Evan Elliott, an employee of the US Embassy in Georgia, is listed as the contact person in the documents.

Earlier, Georgia's ambassador to the United States Kelly Degnan said she was not familiar with the document published by the U.S. Department of Justice. Meanwhile, Evan Elliott also appears in the documents of the Department of Justice in connection with the discussion of the arrival of Polish doctors to examine Saakashvili, which eventually turned into a scandal.

According to another document, for an article about Margvelashvili leading a coalition for Saakashvili's "life-saving efforts", the PR company Cision PR Newswire, hired by GP International, received more than 11.5 thousand dollars in February 2023.

According to the documents of the US Department of Justice, the activities of lobbying companies include campaigning for the imposition of sanctions against Georgia, draft resolutions of the European Parliament. The declarations of these companies contain, among other things, commissioned articles that were published in the Western media.