Ad watch: Portman didn't work for Haitian dictator

WASHINGTON — An online ad released this month by the Ohio Democratic Party, which trumpets false allegations that GOP Sen. Rob Portman once worked for a Haitian dictator, shows just how easy it is to twist the truth.

Here’s the recipe: Take a few ominous images, mix with sinister music and seemingly straightforward text, and voila — you have one doozy of a distortion.

In this case, the ad implies that Portman, while working as a lawyer for a private firm in the mid-'80s, represented Haitian dictator Jean-Claude ‘Baby-Doc’ Duvalier. But there is no evidence Portman did any work for the government of Haiti or for Duvalier, who ruled Haiti with a vicious, oppressive brutality.

Ad Title: Baby Doc

Who’s paying for it: The Ohio Democratic Party, which supports Portman’s challenger, Ted Strickland, in Ohio’s blockbuster Senate race.

Claim: “In 1985, Rob Portman joined a D.C. lobbying firm and became a ‘registered foreign agent’ for the government of Haiti. In 1985, Portman’s lobbying firm revealed traveling to Haiti to meet with Baby Doc.”

The ad is careful to never directly assert that Portman worked for the Haitian government or for Duvalier. But it leads viewers to that conclusion by linking those two statements together and interspersing the video with news clips reporting on Duvalier’s “private army of thugs” and his “unchecked brutality.”

Fact-check: Portman did work for the law and lobbying firm Patton Boggs in 1984-85, after he graduated from law school. And the Terrace Park Republican did register as a foreign agent for Haiti and other foreign entities Patton Boggs represented at that time.

But Portman never did any work for Haiti or Duvalier, according to a 2005 affidavit written by Stuart Pape, then the managing partner at Patton Boggs.

“At no time did Mr. Portman do any work for any foreign government or entity of a foreign government,” Pape wrote in the document.

Portman registered for the foreign entities because it was the firm's "standard procedure," according to Portman's campaign. The senator's campaign also notes that Pape filed the affidavit after George W. Bush nominated Portman to serve as U.S. trade representative. Because no one can serve as the American trade chief if they have ever lobbied for a foreign government, Pape’s statement was needed to clear Portman’s nomination.

Pape said the only foreign entity Portman represented was a company called Duty Free Shoppers Ltd., a Hong Kong business that operates airport duty-free shops.