Overview:
Advocates in the United States and Haitian political leaders are demanding that Haiti’s transition government explain its lobbying contract with Roger Stone’s firm, Drake Ventures LLC. They question the agreement’s broad mandate, cost and timing as Haitians in the United States face deportation and Haiti prepares for elections amid an accelerated humanitarian crisis and uncertainties caused by gang-fueled insecurity.
Haitian American advocates and political leaders are demanding that Haiti’s government explain why it agreed to pay longtime Republican political operative Roger Stone $65,000 a month to lobby United States officials on its behalf.
The Haitian American Foundation for Democracy (HAFFD) is among the first groups to publicly raise concerns over the agreement. In a Sept. 23 press release, the organization’s leaders asked Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé’s government to explain the purpose of the lobbying deal with Stone’s Fort Lauderdale-based firm, Drake Ventures, LLC.
Several Haitian political actors have also questioned and criticized the contract.
For one, Jean Elysée Céliscar, a leader in the political platform Chemen Delivrans Ayiti (Road to Haiti’s Deliverance), described the agreement as “a gratuitous scandal” in an interview with The Haitian Times.
“At Chemen Delivrans,” said Céliscar, “we question the motives behind Haiti’s government authorities’ decision to spend nearly $1 million a year to hire a lobbying firm to advocate on their behalf, while the same government earlier rejected a $250 million budget proposal for elections, calling it ‘absurd’.”
“This is another unwarranted scandal among too many, orchestrated by this transition government, while national security forces complain about the lack of resources and materials to carry out their duties. The country also faces an acute humanitarian crisis, in addition to the uncertainty surrounding the upcoming elections,” said Céliscar, who is also a high school teacher.
André Michel, a lawyer and political leader in a newly formed coalition of 44 Haitian political parties and organizations called Coalition of Republican Forces (CFR), also criticized the agreement, calling it “an absolute scandal” and “a waste of public funds,” according to the Miami Herald.
What is Haiti paying for?
The deal was signed Sept. 2 between Foreign Minister Raina Forbin and Stone, a staunch Trump ally and supporter of the administration’s policies harmful to Haitians.
Under the agreement, Drake Ventures, LLC receives a $65,000 monthly retainer, paid in quarterly installments of $195,000, for a total of $780,000 a year. The contract runs through Sept. 2, 2027, and renews automatically under its terms.
The public filing broadly describes Stone’s assignment as advocacy before the U.S. government and political activities on Haiti’s behalf. It does not specify whether his lobbying will focus on support for elections, security assistance, immigration or other U.S.-Haiti policy issues.
That lack of specificity is at the center of HAFFD’s concerns.
The organization said the contract does not specifically mention Temporary Protected Status (TPS), deportations or the safety of Haitians in the United States, even as the Trump administration’s termination of TPS has left hundreds of thousands of Haitians vulnerable to deportation.
“Five weeks after 350,000 Haitians lost their legal status and deportation flights to Cap-Haïtien resumed, the Haitian government found $780,000 for a lobbyist — and chose the one man in Washington who helped build the movement that is deporting our people,” Patrick Gaspard, HAFFD’s vice chairman, said in the organization’s statement.
“Roger Stone has never spoken a word in defense of a Haitian migrant,” Gaspard said. “Haitians at home and in the diaspora deserve to know whether he is being paid to undo this policy or to make it easier.”
Neither Stone nor his firm’s associates have responded to The Haitian Times’ request for comment. A call to a number listed under Grant Smith as a contact was answered by someone who declined to speak, saying, “that’s not his number” [in reference to Stone].
Haiti’s government has not yet responded to critics, nor has it publicly detailed the contract’s specific policy objectives either.
Questions over Stone’s record
HAFFD is also questioning the government’s decision to hire Stone, citing his long political association with President Donald Trump and his criminal conviction.
Stone was convicted in 2019 on seven felony counts, including lying to Congress and witness tampering. Trump commuted his sentence in 2020 and later pardoned him.
HAFFD also cited Stone’s history of racially offensive comments about Black people. Stone has denied that he is racist and has defended himself against such accusations. The Miami Herald reported that Stone did not respond to its request for comment on the Haiti contract.
The foundation said Haiti’s choice of Stone is particularly difficult to understand given the country’s current challenges and the government’s existing lobbying arrangements in Washington.
Haiti has also retained Continental Strategy and Continental Law PLLC, a firm led by Carlos Trujillo— former U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States. According to Miami Herald reporting, a March 2026 filing showed Haiti had paid Continental Strategy $314,940 for work performed between October 2025 and February 2026.
HAFFD said arrangements with the two Trump-aligned lobbying firms would cost Haiti at least $100,000 a month if both contracts remain active at their reported rates.
HAFFD seeks six answers
HAFFD said it has written to Forbin and Fils-Aimé seeking answers to six questions, including what Stone was hired to do, why the contract does not specifically address TPS or deportations, whether the government reviewed Stone’s record and whether Haiti’s Superior Court of Auditors reviewed the agreement.
The group also questioned provisions covering Stone’s legal fees and liability and the requirement that disputes involving the Haitian government be handled in Broward County, Florida.
“This is not a question of politics. It is a question of whom the Haitian state represents,” Jocelyn McCalla, HAFFD’s executive director, said. “If the government has a case for this contract, let it make that case to the Haitian people. If it does not, it should cancel it.”
HAFFD has asked the government to respond within 15 days and said it will share the contract and any response with members of Congress.
