I. Irving Davidson
I. Irving Davidson was an American arms dealer, political middleman and lobbyist. According to Davidson, he began to establish himself as an "expeditor" for the War Production Board during World War 2 and that he had been "expediting ever since".
Davidson was registered under FARA as a lobbyist for the Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle. Over the duration of 1955-1960 he was paid over $500,000 by Somoza. In 1963 he testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on his lobbying for Nicaragua. Davidson's testimony was taken in a closed session, with the transcript running to 175 pages. After Dominican president Joaquín Balaguer was exiled from the country in 1962, the US Department of State kept in touch with the former president with Davidson functioning as a liaison. Davidson was a lobbyist for the Haitian dictator François "Papa Doc" Duvalier.
Davidson was a close associate of Jimmy Hoffa. During 1961 and 1962, he received a $7 million loan from the Teamster Pension Fund. He served as an intermediatory between Hoffa and then-Vice President Richard Nixon's representative Allan Oakley Hunter. He introduced Hoffa to Texas governor John B. Connally at a Democratic Party event in Los Angeles, 1960. He also had ties to New Orleans crime boss Carlos Marcello, who Davidson boasted that he was a "door opener and arranger" for. In 1981 Marcello and Davidson were put on trial for attempting to obtain public insurance contracts via bribery and kickbacks. Marcello was convicted but Davidson was found not guilty. The FBI had wiretapped Davidson's phone and recorded his conversations. Davidson claimed that the FBI had offered not to charge him if he agreed to provide them with information on Marcello.
In April 1980 he set up a meeting between Gary Sick of the National Security Council and Dr Omar Zawawi, the brother of Omani foreign minister Qais Zawawi. He helped negotiate a water desalinization enterprise between Aqua-Chem and Dr. Zawawi's Omzest Corp.
Another client of Davidson's, was the Texan oilman Clint Murchison Sr. He was a contact of the journalists Jack Anderson and Drew Pearson, serving as a source of information for their reporting. Anderson rented office space to Davidson and over the years Davidson would provide him with a number of individuals who would serve as sources for his stories, for instance Bobby Baker, Lyndon B. Johnson's advisor. On 2 November 1978 Davidson was interviewed by the House Select Committee on Assassinations about his dealings in Haiti and his suspected ties to George de Mohrenschildt.