Devils' Advocates: How Washington Lobbyists Get Rich Enabling Dictators, Oligarchs, and Arms Dealers (While Thwarting Democracy)

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 readers 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.

© 2025 HarperAudio (Audiobook): 9780063341265

Release date

Audiobook: August 5, 2025