Reed registers under FARA

From: POLITICO Influence - Friday Dec 23,2022 10:20 pm
Presented by Binance: Delivered daily, Influence gives you a comprehensive rundown and analysis of all lobby hires and news on K Street.
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By Caitlin Oprysko

Presented by Binance

With Daniel Lippman

PROGRAMMING NOTE: We’ll be off next week for the holidays but back to our normal schedule on Tuesday, Jan. 3.

FARA FRIDAY: Former Rep. Tom Reed has registered as a foreign agent just seven months after leaving Congress. The New York Republican, who joined Prime Policy Group in May following his early retirement from the House, is one of four members of the firm representing the South Korean publisher Jayu Press, according to documents filed with the Justice Department earlier this month.

— The firm will be monitoring North Korea policy for Jayu Press, Chair Rich Meade said in an email, and according to a copy of the contract filed with DOJ will also brief officials across the federal government on disinformation efforts by North Korea to stoke division in South Korea, in part, through civic institutions.

— The yearlong contract, worth $600,000, was signed by the chief executive of Jayu Press, which publishes an online newspaper, as well as the pastor at a conservative Christian megachurch in Seoul. Sarang Jeil Church made headlines earlier during the coronavirus pandemic when the congregation became the epicenter of an outbreak and clashed with former President Moon Jae-in.

— In addition to identifying lawmakers to champion the cause in Congress, Prime Policy Group will also work to recruit “other influencers in the U.S., such as Christian Protestant denominations” and “key” think tanks to press lawmakers on North Korea issues.

— The firm already netted meetings with three members of Congress on the issue, according to DOJ filings. The firm met with Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), whose former aide Andrew Terp is working on the account, as well as Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.)

— Reed's work is still under post-employment ethics restrictions from his time in office. Former members of Congress are barred from lobbying their former colleagues on the Hill or from representing a foreign government or political party before any part of the federal government for a year after leaving office.

Happy Friday and welcome to the last PI of 2022! This newsletter would be nothing without readers like you, so continue to send me your best tips and K Street gossip over the break so I can run them down for the first edition of the new year: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko.

 

A message from Binance:

It’s been a tough year for crypto. After unprecedented fraud and mismanagement, industry confidence has been shaken. As the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance believes greater transparency is critical. At Binance, user assets are backed 1:1 and our capital structure is debt-free, and we are eager to work with regulators to help bring order to the markets. Learn more about our commitment to moving forward in Politico this week.

 

IRS PUNTS ON GIG TAX: The IRS on Friday said it will grant a one-year reprieve to gig workers and small sellers facing new tax reporting requirements after a push to address the issue in the omnibus spending package fell short this week, per The Wall Street Journal’s Laura Saunders and Richard Rubin.

— “The delay means the platforms won’t have to send sellers and the IRS a blizzard of 1099-K tax forms early in 2023, and it gives opponents of the $600 threshold more time to push for a change in the law next year. ‘The additional time will help reduce confusion during the coming 2023 tax filing season and provide more time for taxpayers to prepare and understand the new reporting requirements,’ said Acting IRS Commissioner Doug O’Donnell.”

— Democrats’ Covid relief package in 2021 lowered the 1099-K threshold — which requires platforms to report information about users exceeding certain revenues to the IRS — from $20,000. The bill also did away with a 200-transaction minimum in the reporting requirements.

— The changes were set to go into effect next year, and a coalition of platforms including eBay, Airbnb, Block, Etsy, Mercari, PayPal, Poshmark, Rover, StubHub and more mounted a lobbying campaign earlier this year seeking to raise the threshold. The companies argued that the new reporting standards could saddle even the most casual sellers with additional tax paperwork or spook sellers from their platforms by asking for their Social Security number in order for companies to produce the 1099-K forms.

— The omnibus released this week left the threshold untouched, prompting a last-minute lobbying blitz and bipartisan efforts to secure a vote on an amendment to either raise the reporting threshold or delay its implementation. Those efforts fizzled amid gridlock over a broader tax title, leaving advocates to turn their efforts to the IRS, said Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld’s Arshi Siddiqui, the head of the Coalition for 1099-K Fairness.

— The American Institute of CPAs , which wrote to congressional leaders last week to express “deep concerns” with the new reporting threshold, called the delay “the right move for taxpayers, tax practitioners and for the IRS.”

— Though AICPA President Barry Melancon said in a statement the delay “will both allow taxpayers to better understand and comply with the law and allow the IRS sufficient time to prepare for the implementation,” he nevertheless urged lawmakers to “strongly consider previous recommendations to raise the threshold.”

CHECK THAT LIST TWICE: “Megadonor and disgraced crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried burrowed his campaign cash so deep into the Democratic Party that lawmakers are now preparing internal investigations to be sure they’re rid of it — and prepared for any potential restitution to victims of Bankman-Fried’s crimes,” Rolling Stone’s Kara Voght reports.

— “The campaign of Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) is currently conducting an internal assessment of any donations it may have received from political or professional associates of Bankman-Fried. Once those donations have been identified, the Torres campaign will set them aside for a fund it expects the Justice Department will set up to compensate the victims of the fallen crypto magnate’[s] crimes.”

— “Bankman-Fried had individually donated to dozens of political candidates and committees as well as funneled millions of dollars to a pair of political action committees run by his brother, Gabe Bankman-Fried.”

— “Democrats, the chief beneficiaries of Bankman-Fried’s stolen largess, have been scrambling to rinse themselves of any lingering ties to the disgraced crypto mogul. What they’re learning, however, is that there will be no swift recovery from what’s quickly becoming one of the most explosive campaign finance scandals in recent memory. SBF’s straw donor allegations have a long, murky, tail — and campaigns who may have been on the receiving end of it are bracing for a messy investigation.”

TIKTOK’S BAD WEEK CONTINUES: As a ban on the video sharing platform on government devices heads to President Joe Biden’s desk, an internal investigation by TikTok parent company ByteDancefound that employees tracked multiple journalists covering the company, improperly gaining access to their IP addresses and user data in an attempt to identify whether they had been in the same locales as ByteDance employees,” reports Forbes' Emily Baker-White, one target of the surveillance.

— The company said it had fired multiple executives and staffers involved in the surveillance, but Senate Intelligence Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.) warned in a statement to the magazine that “this new development reinforces serious concerns that the social media platform has permitted TikTok engineers and executives in the People’s Republic of China to repeatedly access private data of U.S. users despite repeated claims to lawmakers and users that this data was protected.”

— Warner also swiped at federal agencies working to address potential vulnerabilities. “The DoJ has also been promising for over a year that they are looking into ways to protect U.S. user data from Bytedance and the CCP — it’s time to come forward with that solution or Congress could soon be forced to step in,” he said.

TWITTER GUTS PUBLIC POLICY TEAM: Reuters’ Fanny Potkin and Paresh Dave report that Twitter’s public policy chief “has left the company amid additional layoffs to the unit on Thursday, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, as billionaire owner Elon Musk continues to slash costs.”

— “Sinead McSweeney, global vice president for public policy, has left Twitter, according to two sources.” McSweeney will be replaced by senior director for global public policy strategy Nick Pickles , according to the outlet, while one staffer who was laid off wrote that half of the remaining public policy team had been cut.

 

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A message from Binance:

It’s been a tough year for crypto. Macroeconomic headwinds have ushered in challenging market conditions, followed by unprecedented fraud and mismanagement. The combination rocked consumer confidence and created a level of skepticism about the future of crypto. Binance strongly believes crypto’s best days remain ahead, but to get there, transparency is the only path forward. At Binance, we are investing in transparency protocols to demonstrate our strong financial health. Our capital structure is debt-free and all user assets are backed 1:1. Binance does not borrow against customers’ funds or invest them without their consent. Most importantly, we look forward to working with policymakers to better protect consumers while promoting innovation. Learn more about our commitment to moving forward in Politico this week.

 
 

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