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Delivered daily, Influence gives you a comprehensive rundown and analysis of all lobby hires and news on K Street. | | | | |  | | By Caitlin Oprysko | With Daniel Lippman FARA FRIDAY: Here are a few notable recent Foreign Agents Registration Act filings, as part of our occasional Friday roundup. Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture and Information Policy has enlisted the help of several American and European PR firms to launch a campaign aimed at attracting businesses and investors to the war-torn country, according to an outline of the effort filed with the Justice Department this week. — Although the British conglomerate WPP announced the partnership with Ukraine’s ministry of culture in June, the DOJ filings this week offer more insight into who will be involved in the initiative as well as its general scope. GroupM Poland is coordinating the effort, but the firm’s U.S. arm as well as several other WPP subsidiaries including Ogilvy, Hill + Knowlton Strategies and Hogarth , will work on the multi-pronged and global initiative to signal that “Ukraine is still open for business and has the potential to be a key cultural and digital technology European hub,” according to the documents. — The PR firms are providing their services for the campaign, dubbed Advantage Ukraine, pro bono. A draft scope of work filed with DOJ lists 18 countries throughout North America, Europe and Asia that will be the targets of the initiative, which will include outreach to business leaders as well as social media, print, out-of-home and digital ads, earned media and possible events. — Meanwhile Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck is pushing for Vice President Kamala Harris to meet with their client, Liberian President George Weah , when Weah comes to Washington at the end of September. In a letter to the State Department dated Aug. 7, the Liberian Embassy wrote that Weah is set to meet with members of the Congressional Black Caucus and other members of Congress to mark the country’s bicentennial. — A Harris-Weah confab, the note argues, “will provide an opportunity to reaffirm the strong and vital relationship between the United States and Liberia.” No such meeting has been announced, and a spokesperson for Harris did not return a request for comment. — And SSTEK, a defense manufacturer owned by Turkey’s defense procurement agency, has not renewed its contract to lobby for the country’s reentry into the F-35 joint strike fighter program. SSTEK hired Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer last February to advise the company on “continued participation” in the program, from which Turkey was booted by the Trump administration in 2019 over Ankara’s purchase of a Russian air defense system. — The initial six-month, $125,000-per-month contract was renewed last August for a full 12 months, with Arnold & Porter agreeing to “undertake a targeted outreach to the U.S. commercial partners and stakeholders” in the fighter jet program “to sound out and understand their interests with regard to SSB's continued involvement as a strategic ally and valued partner in the JSF Program.” — The updated contract also noted that Arnold & Porter would take into consideration and address “the complex geopolitical and commercial factors at play.” That agreement lapsed earlier this month, and Arnold & Porter filed a termination notice with the Justice Department affirming the contract was not being renewed a second time. — The issue of U.S. sales of fighter jets to Turkey was renewed earlier this summer, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan threatening to withhold his support for Finland and Sweden’s bids to join the NATO alliance. A day after Erdoğan dropped his opposition to the NATO additions, President Joe Biden announced his support for selling less advanced F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, though Biden has denied the developments were connected. A Turkish military delegation was in Washington last week for talks on the sale, which is now facing roadblocks in Congress. Happy Friday and welcome to PI. Influence is going dark next week for its annual summer hiatus. But we’ll be back in business on Sept. 6. In the meantime, I hope you’re spending the last weeks of summer on a beach somewhere. I’ll still be working most of next week, so keep sending me your tips, ideas and complaints: coprysko@politico.com . And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko.
| | | | SUBSCRIBE TO POWER SWITCH: The energy landscape is profoundly transforming. Power Switch is a daily newsletter that unlocks the most important stories driving the energy sector and the political forces shaping critical decisions about your energy future, from production to storage, distribution to consumption. Don’t miss out on Power Switch, your guide to the politics of energy transformation in America and around the world. SUBSCRIBE TODAY. | | | | | WHO’S FUNDING HALEY’S NONPROFIT: POLITICO’s Alex Isenstadt got his hands on the unredacted tax return for former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley ’s nonprofit advocacy group, Stand for America, offering “the clearest picture yet of how a prospective 2024 presidential candidate is cultivating a secret network of high-dollar contributors as she builds a political apparatus.” — Among the group’s benefactors in 2019 are New York hedge fund manager Paul Singer, investor Stanley Druckenmiller, and Miriam Adelson and her late husband Sheldon Adelson, Suzanne Youngkin, the wife of fellow potential presidential hopeful Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and former Pennsylvania Senate candidate David McCormick. — “The biggest givers were New Jersey health executive Vivek Garipalli and his mother, Lakshmi Garipalli, who contributed $500,000 apiece. Vivek Garipalli has been a regular Democratic donor, giving to the likes of President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats — but he has a ‘longstanding personal friendship’ with Haley and her husband,” per Alex. — “And the names of her donors demonstrate the deep connections Haley has formed at the top levels of the Republican Party, with some of the GOP’s biggest super PAC donors among those who gave money to fund the launch of her organization after she left the Trump administration.” ON THE AIR: “The American Action Network, a conservative advocacy organization with ties to House GOP leadership, is going up with a national ad campaign for the next 10 days arguing President Biden's student debt forgiveness plan is unfair to working-class Americans,” Axios’ Josh Kraushaar reports, as some Democrats in tough races distance themselves from the White House’s move. — “ The ad , which will be airing during upcoming college football and Major League Baseball games, features a waitress, mechanic and landscaper talking about working extra shifts to help theater majors and business majors get out of debt.” AAN is putting $350,000 behind the campaign, which will also “microtarget blue-collar voters on digital platforms.” MORE ANTITRUST TROUBLE FOR SILICON VALLEY?: “Justice Department lawyers are in the early stages of drafting a potential antitrust complaint against Apple, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter — a sign that a long-running investigation may be nearing a decision point and a suit could be coming soon,” per POLITICO’s Josh Sisco. — “Various groups of prosecutors inside DOJ are assembling the pieces for a potential lawsuit, the individual said, adding that the department’s antitrust division hopes to file suit by the end of the year.” — “Still, the Justice Department has made no decisions whether or when to sue Apple, the world’s most valuable public company, cautioned that person and one other familiar with the probe — and it’s still possible no case will be filed.” — “The Apple case is particularly significant because it would open a second, massive battle with the tech industry at DOJ. The Justice Department is already litigating a case against Google over its search business and is preparing a second lawsuit over its advertising operations. While DOJ could still decide not to sue, the deliberations about how to frame a complaint make a case more likely.” KNOWING WASHINGTON’S UFO LOBBYIST: Washingtonian’s Luke Mullins has a profile out of Stephen Bassett, D.C.’s first registered UFO lobbyist who’s “spent more than a quarter century pleading for lawmakers and the administration to stop snickering at the issue,” culminating, for now, in Congress’ first public congressional hearing on the issue in half a century earlier this year. — “‘In Washington, no one takes your issue seriously unless you have a lobbyist, a PAC, and press clippings,’ he once told a reporter. ‘My job is to make sure we have all those things.’ So, in the fall of 1996, Bassett submitted his official lobbying registration forms with Congress … With his DC credentials in hand, Bassett did what any other influence peddler would do: He began working to line up meetings with congressional offices.” — “But Bassett, of course, wasn’t just another lobbyist. The overwhelming majority of congressional offices had no interest in discussing aliens with him, and the few meetings he did secure were with junior staffers or interns. Not even Steven Schiff, the New Mexico representative who once called for a federal inquiry into the government’s response to the Roswell incident, would make time for him.” — “It soon dawned on Bassett that this ‘ridicule curtain’ would make it impossible for him to engage in the sort of grip-and-grin lobbying that traditional K Street operators practiced. So he decided to shift tactics. Instead of directly lobbying officials on Capitol Hill, he began working to reach them through the media. ‘You want to get an issue into Congress?’ he says. ‘Get it into The Washington Post.’”
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | | | | — Erin Pelton is joining Shopify as vice president of communications and public affairs. She previously was special assistant to the president and chief of staff at the Domestic Policy Council at the White House.
| | | Conole Victory Fund (Conole for Congress, New York State Democratic Committee)
Riley Victory Fund (Josh Riley for Congress, New York State Democratic Committee)
Rose Victory Fund 2022 (New York State Democratic Committee, Max Rose for Congress)
| | | Caricom PAC (PAC)
Citizens for Social, Racial and Economic Equality (Super PAC)
Dolores Huerta Political Action Committee (Super PAC)
Millennials Allied for Progressive Politics (Super PAC)
| | New Lobbying Registrations | | Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld: Ahs Management Company, Inc
Albertine Enterprises, Inc.: Spartan Education Group, LLC
Capitol Energy Advocacy, LLC: Genesis Consolidated Industries, Inc
Covington & Burling LLP: Southwebb Bridge Company LLC
Hargan Strategies, Formerly Reported As Hargan And Associates: Md Health Pathways
Hargan Strategies, Formerly Reported As Hargan And Associates: New Light Healthcare
Hobart Hallaway & Quayle Ventures, LLC: Liv Golf, Inc
Horizons Global Solutions LLC: Nighthawk Biosciences
Ml Strategies, LLC: 4Moms
Mr. Louis Cherington: Zerogunviolence In Schools
Platinum Advisors Dc, LLC: Crowley Maritime Corp.
Pointclickcare Technologies USa Corp.: Pointclickcare Technologies USa Corp.
Venable LLP: Kerbey Harrington Pinkard LLP On Behalf Of Cabot Corporation
Williams And Jensen, Pllc: Data Is Safety Coalition
| | New Lobbying Terminations | | Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld: Sig Sauer Inc
Ax Global, LLC Dba American | Kinetix: Andrii Dykun
Bose Public Affairs Group: Endress+Hauser USa
Bose Public Affairs Group: Ford Motor Company
Bose Public Affairs Group: Houlihan Lokey Capital, Inc
Bose Public Affairs Group: National Writing Project
Bose Public Affairs Group: Republic Airways
Bose Public Affairs Group: Unitedhealth Group
Cross Potomac Consulting LLC: Neural Propulsion Systems, Inc.
Fti Government Affairs: Ocular Science/Osrx
Grayrobinson Pa: Council Of State Community Development Agencies
Grayrobinson Pa: National Community Development Association
Key Advocates, Inc.: National Independent Automobile Dealers Association
Lehman Nilon & Associates, LLC: Artist Rights Society
Mr. Daniel Delich: Tarrant Regional Water District
Mr. Robert Gustafson: Ipas
Mr. William Spencer: Potomac Strategic Development Co On Behalf Of Nat'L Assoc Of State Fire Marshals
Sims Strategies, LLC: Sidecar Health, Inc.
Texas Retailers Association: Texas Retailers Association
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