FIRST IN PI — PETERS’ TOP AIDE HEADS DOWNTOWN: Dan Zawitoski is leaving the Hill after more than a decade to join Tiber Creek Group. Zawitoski most recently served as chief of staff to Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.), a member of the business-friendly New Democrat Coalition, and served as a top adviser on a number of policy areas including trade, student loans, health care, energy and technology — issues he will work on at Tiber Creek as well. — “An original member of my staff, Dan has done almost every job for me and has done so successfully. I know he’ll do the same at Tiber Creek,” Peters said in a statement provided by the firm, adding that “I have relied on his counsel for ten years and consider him a friend. I wish him great success in his future pursuits; he’ll be missed.” FIRST IN PI — WITH BUDS LIKE THESE: One of Anheuser-Busch’s lobbyists in Tallahassee is also a major bundler for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign, even as DeSantis and other conservatives hammer the company for featuring a transgender influencer in an social media campaign for one of its beers. — During the “Ron-A-Rama” fundraising effort and donor summit at the Four Seasons Hotel in Miami during DeSantis’ launch last month, GOP lobbyist Slater Bayliss was at one point the third-largest bundler for the campaign with $242,600 raised, according to a photo from the event obtained by Daniel. Anheuser-Busch and its beer Bud Light have become the target of boycott efforts from some Republicans upset that the beer company partnered with transgender actress and social media personality Dylan Mulvaney. — Bayliss, who was also a bundler for Jeb Bush’s 2016 campaign, is a partner at The Advocacy Partners where he has dozens of clients including Altria, AT&T, Duke Energy and JetBlue. DeSantis recently criticized Bud Light, saying in an interview with conservative personality Benny Johnson: “Why would you want to drink Bud Light? I mean, like honestly? That’s like them rubbing our faces in it. These companies that do this, if they never have any response, they’re just going to keep doing it.” — Bayliss and a spokesperson for DeSantis’ campaign declined to comment but pointed to DeSantis on Brian Kilmeade's radio show today where he criticized Nikki Haley for attacking him for taking $50,000 from Disney. "How utterly bizarre. I mean, somebody does a campaign contribution and you're supposed to lay down for them?" he said. "That's not how I operate, people can support me or not support me. I call them as I see them and if you've supported me but you're wrong, I'm gonna do what's right.” Anheuser-Busch didn’t respond to a request for comment. SEC GOES AFTER BINANCE: “The SEC filed more than a dozen charges against Binance and CEO Changpeng Zhao on Monday stemming from what the agency called the company’s ‘blatant disregard’ for U.S. law as it grew into the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange,” our Declan Harty writes. — “In a 136-page complaint, the Wall Street regulator alleged that Binance, its American affiliate, Binance U.S., and Zhao have been operating unregistered U.S. financial institutions, misleading investors about the companies’ risk controls, inflating trading volumes and mixing ‘billions of dollars of investor assets’ and sending them to a third-party entity owned by Zhao.” — “Since the fall of FTX seven months ago, the SEC has orchestrated a sweeping crackdown on the $1 trillion crypto market. But the Binance case represents [SEC Commissioner Gary] Gensler’s biggest salvo to date, with the agency taking a broad swing against the exchange and its high-profile CEO. At one point in the complaint, the SEC alleges that customer money was ‘at Binance’s and Zhao’s mercy.’” — “Binance denied the SEC’s allegations in a blog post, including the claim that customer assets at Binance.US were at risk. The company said it was ‘disheartened’ by the SEC’s decision to bring the case to court after the two sides had been engaged in talks about a settlement.” FIRST IN PI — VOGEL GROUP ADDS RETAIL LOBBYIST: Hayden Jewett is joining the Vogel Group as a director in the firm’s government affairs practice. Jewett spent the past two and a half years in house with Gap, where he was among the top advocates for the Inflation Reduction Act’s corporate minimum tax. — Before that, Jewett was director of government affairs for Boys and Girls Clubs of America and worked for former Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas), who chaired the House Appropriations Commerce-Justice-Science Subcommittee. — In a statement, Vogel Group chief executive Alex Vogel praised Jewett’s broad policy chops. “The retail industry’s wide reach into a variety of issues – including trade, labor, and tax policy – positions Hayden to provide valuable insights to clients in a wide range of industries,” he said. SHEIN WORKS TO WOO WASHINGTON: “Shein, the world’s largest online fashion retailer, is out to change its negative reputation in Washington,” POLITICO’s Gavin Bade reports. After years of letting accusations that the fast-fashion company’s clothes are made with the forced labor of oppressed Chinese Uyghurs and that it is purposely skirting American tariffs go unanswered, “now the e-commerce giant is going on the offensive.” — “The firm has hired Washington lobbyists for the first time and is talking up its new status as a Singapore-based company after relocating its headquarters there from Nanjing. And its executives are offering previously unreported evidence to the press that they say clears the firm of human rights violations related to its cotton supply. ‘We are committed to respecting human rights and adhering to local laws in each market we operate in,’ said Peter Pernot-Day, Shein’s head of strategy and corporate affairs.” — “The fabric testing is only part of Shein’s new charm offensive. It has also sought out media attention for its new designer programs to counter charges that it steals intellectual property from independent fashion designers online, and it is planning future campaigns to counteract the reputation that its fast-fashion model is wasteful and fueling environmental destruction.” — But so far, some of the company’s most important critics aren’t swayed: “Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) argued that Shein’s own cotton test results show that it still has work to do to weed out forced labor in its supply chain. ‘I’m not sure that mostly-not-made-with-slave-labor is a good advertisement,’ said Gallagher, chair of the House Select Committee on China, which has opened an investigation into Shein and other suspected trade cheats.”
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