practicing law at the office of Patton Boggs, in the areas of public policy, energy, international trade, and tax law. He has since moved to the firm of Pillsbury, Winthrop, Shaw, Pittman. Laughlin was contracted to work with the controversial Israeli spyware firm NSO Group, according to documents filed with the FARA Registration Unit of the Department of Justice. The firm's software was implicated in the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The software was also deployed on world leaders, journalists, dissidents and human rights activists. Laughlin is one of the observers that declared the 2004 presidential elections in Cameroon as being fair. According to the BBC, he stated "we have never seen such a transparent way to show who got the vote". See also List of American politicians who switched parties in office List of United States representatives who switched parties References External links 1942 births Living people United States Army personnel of the Gulf War United States Army colonels Military personnel from Houston Texas A&M University alumni Texas Republicans People from Bay City, Texas Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Texas Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives United States Army reservists 20th-century American politicians Members of Congress who became lobbyists