The top adviser to Hillary Clinton's campaign says that an executive who brought heightened scrutiny to the public relations giant he runs by helping out Blackwater USA is no longer with his firm.

During an appearance on the public radio show Fair Game, Marc Penn was asked about Burson-Marsteller, of which he is CEO, accepting a contract from Blackwater USA in the aftermath of the September killing of 17 civilians in Baghdad.

"I'm not working on those clients," Penn responded. "The Blackwater was actually I think either a nine-day or two week assignment by somebody who had a personal relationship with them, who actually doesn't continue to work at the firm. And so there are 2,000 clients. I'm really focused on some of the management, but really my focus is on Senator Clinton's campaign."

The Huffington Post confirmed with a Burson-Marsteller spokesman that Penn was referring to Robert Tappan. News reports last month noted that Tappan, a former top official in the State Department's public affairs bureau, had brought the Blackwater contract to a Burson-Marsteller lobbying subsidiary, BKSH, through personal connections.

Tappan had been with Burson-Marsteller since July 2006. But the Burson-Marsteller spokesman said that Tappan had not been fired.

"Rob left the firm on his own volition," he noted. Tappan has signed on as president of the public affairs department at Weber Merritt.

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