Lobbying firm of McCain's campaign manager may have violated anti-espionage act

Big mess.

The McCain campaign is strongly denying the paper's reporting that in 2005, a White House National Security Council staffer called John McCain's Senate office to complain that [McCain campaign manager] Rick Davis' lobbying firm was "undercutting American policy on Ukraine" by representing a Kremlin-backed politician....

The story also raises the possibility that Davis' firm may have violated the anti-espionage Foreign Agents Registration Act, by failing to register work for Yanukovich with the U.S. government....

If the account of the NSC staffer's call is true, it suggests McCain should have known about the work by Davis' business -- but installed him as campaign manager anyway.