Mari Stull

Mari Stull is an expert in global regulatory, trade, and market access issues and a former political appointee in the President Trump administration who served as Senior Advisor to the United States Department of State's Bureau of International Organization Affairs. Stull has been erroneously characterized as a “wine blogger”, perhaps in confusion with her published syndicated columns under the byline “The Vino Vixen” which was trademarked by Stull. Stull has never written a blog.

Pre-State Department career

Prior to 2003, she served as director for international regulatory policy for the food and beverage industry where she represented the industry before International trade and regulatory bodies within the United Nations and OECD. She spent five years working at the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture. From 1992-1994 she served as the acting director of Regulatory and Procedural Development at the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation of the US Department of Agriculture. She represented the Grocery Manufacturers Association for a number of years.

She is the founder and former executive director of the Caribbean Agribusiness Association: Trinidad and Tobago and also the Executive Director of the International Council of Grocery Manufacturers Association, a recognized International Non-Governmental Organization

State Department career

During her tenure at State Department, Stull focused on reversing the bloat, corruption, and anti-Isreal bias in the United Nations system. While Senior Advisor at State Department, Stull recommended the defunding of United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, withdrawal of the United States from the Human Rights Commission, and withdrawal of the United States from UNESCO - all for their anti-Israel biases and policies. Stull also recommended the de-funding of CICIG, which she believed impugned the sovereignty of Guatemala. Stull also supporting focusing US funding to UN Agencies which directly support US policies. An internal email from Stull to the White House National Security Council revealing her re-focus plans was leaked to Foreign Policy Magazine in October 2018

Stull has been a particular subject of intense interest by American Oversight (AO), an activist and litigation organization launched in March 2017 by former Obama officials, following and in response to the election of President Trump’s inauguration and is headquartered in Washington, D.C

As of January 2019, all of the investigations and litigations are directed at Trump Appointees and it claims to be “the top Freedom of Information Act litigator investigating the Trump administration,” with more than 1000 open records requested and 56 lawsuits filed in 2018. 

Loyalty lists controversy

Soon after being appointed to a senior position in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs it was alleged that Stull was creating lists of those perceived as loyal or disloyal to the President. This included reviewing employees social media accounts for hints about their political and social positions. However, an extensive FOIA search on her web-searches, emails, office, and phone found no such “loyalty list” exists.

Life after State Department

Stull is an active USO volunteer and has returned to the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, where she worked over twenty years ago.