With help from Daniel Lippman FIRST IN PI: Fast fashion giant Shein has tapped a veteran retail lobbyist to steer its lobbying operation as the e-commerce company works to fend off criticism from Washington over a slew of issues including their trade practices, alleged use of forced labor and its origins in China. — Kent Knutson, the former longtime head of Home Depot’s D.C. office, is joining the retailer, which is now headquartered in Singapore, as its chief U.S. government affairs officer. Knutson was most recently vice president of government relations at Tractor Supply Co. Before that, he led Home Depot’s public policy team for more than 16 years and did stints on the government relations teams at Microsoft and the National Retail Federation as well as the Senate Small Business Committee. — Shein has steadily scaled up its lobbying operation over the last year and a half, retaining K Street heavyweight Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and Venture Government Strategies, the firm led by former Rep. Ben Quayle. — Former Biden administration trade official Sirat Attapit joined the company last year as one of Shein’s first in-house lobbyists, and Shein’s lobbying expenditures in the third quarter of 2023 nearly tripled from the beginning of the year. FIRST IN PI PART II: Three years after supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol in an effort to disrupt the certification of his loss to President Joe Biden, Republicans who voted against certifying the 2020 results have continued to haul in millions of dollars from corporate PACs and trade groups, according to a new analysis from liberal watchdog group Accountable.US. — Scores of companies and trade groups announced pauses in donations to election objectors in the immediate aftermath of the attack. But the freeze ended quickly, and for the top 10 recipients of corporate cash who objected to the election results and remain in Congress, more than $12 million in corporate donations have flown into their campaign coffers over the past three years, according to the analysis. — That list mostly comprises committee chairs or members of House leadership: House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) tops the list with more than $1.7 million raised from corporate or trade group PACs, followed by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, House Transportation Chair Sam Graves (R-Mo.), former Kevin McCarthy deputy Garret Graves (R-La.) and NRCC Chair Richard Hudson (R-N.C.). — The top corporate donors to election objectors overall, meanwhile, have funneled $8.6 million to those members since the insurrection. PACs for the American Bankers Association, National Automobile Dealers Association Political Action Committee and National Beer Wholesalers Association Political Action Committee topped the list with more than $1 million in donations apiece. AT&T gave the most out of any other Fortune 500 company and fourth overall, with $879,000 in total donations to election objectors, according to the analysis. TGIF, and welcome to PI. Send lobbying tips: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter: @caitlinoprysko. FOLEY & LARDNER COMPLETES THE SET: Foley & Lardner has signed its 11th and last remaining 2026 World Cup U.S. host committee as the soccer tournament inches closer, according to a newly filed disclosure. Boston Soccer 2026 Corp., the host committee for matches that will take place in Boston, hired former Rep. Dennis Cardoza; former Harry Reid aide Jared Rifis; former Hill aide Katie Schoettler and Kate Kros at the beginning of December to help secure federal funding and raise awareness of “World Cup hosting needs,” per the disclosure. — Foley & Lardner now represents the host committees for each U.S. city slated to feature matches in the tournament, which will be played across the U.S., Mexico and Canada for the first time. Los Angeles’ host committee first brought on the firm last February, followed by host committees for Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Miami, New York and New Jersey, Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle. — All of the host cities have similar lobbying priorities, though as The Hill reported last year the North American bid for hosting duties highlighted that there would be no “stadium construction or other major public investment” necessary to host the World Cup — so it’s unclear what kind of taxpayer funding the host committees are looking for. KNOWING MENENDEZ’S CO-DEFENDANT: “Before prosecutors charged Fred Daibes with bribery, he was a bold-faced name to New Jersey politicians,” NJ Spotlight News’ Benjamin Hulac reports. — “Daibes, a real-estate developer and longtime campaign donor to U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, has since the late 1980s given more than $250,000 to politicians running for federal office, a review of Federal Election Commission records shows, as well as to state and national committees of the Democratic Party.” — “In September, federal prosecutors in Manhattan accused Menendez and his wife, Nadine, of accepting bribes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from three businessmen in the state, including Daibes, in exchange for actions to help the Egyptian government. On Tuesday, prosecutors said in an updated indictment that Menendez and his wife had also exerted their influence to aid the fossil energy-rich nation of Qatar.” — Though Daibes, who like the Menendezes has pleaded not guilty, “may not be as close to other New Jersey politicians as he is to Menendez — ‘he’s an amazing friend and as loyal as they come,’ he said of the senator to Nadine Menendez in a 2021 text message — he’s been supporting them for decades.” LOEFFLER’S NEXT ACT: “Former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler is back on the national political scene trying to give Republicans a leg up in the campaign tech space,” per our Madison Fernandez. — “She shared plans with POLITICO to roll out RallyRight, a technology company that offers a suite of products: DonateRight, a donation processing service intended to rival major players like WinRed; FieldRight, a gig economy app that connects canvassers to campaigns; and RelayRight, a texting tool.” — “Republicans have long attempted to close the gap with Democrats in online fundraising infrastructure. Democrats established ActBlue, the party’s major donation platform, years before Republicans had their version, WinRed,” and though it remains dominant on the right, WinRed isn’t without its critics. — “Loeffler’s fundraising platform builds on technology purchased from top GOP firm Targeted Victory,” and will offer lower transaction fees in a bid to compete with WinRed and seek to avoid aggressive tactics that can lead to donor fatigue. MUSK GOES AFTER LABOR COPS: “Lawyers for Elon Musk’s SpaceX alleged in a lawsuit Thursday that the National Labor Relations Board’s in-house courts are unconstitutional and the agency should be prohibited from taking enforcement actions against it,” our Nick Niedzwiadek and Olivia Olander report. — “The company has been embroiled in employment-related complaints with the NLRB and other federal agencies. If successful, the suit would immediately throw the NLRB’s authority to police the workplace into chaos and create a thorny political issue in an area that for decades has divided Congress.” MEHLMAN’S LATEST: Mehlman Consulting’s Bruce Mehlman is out with his latest slide deck, which makes the argument that 2024 will amount to one big trust fall. “Rarely has trust been in greater demand and shorter supply,” Mehlman writes. — “While Parties bicker in Washington, 40 states are now led entirely by one party. Look for competing state approaches to regulating tech, health care, energy, education & civil rights, pressuring Congress. Partisans & courts will continue provoking culture warriors, but fewer businesses will take the bait & engage in 2024,” the deck says. “Luck will favor the prepared. Buckle up.”
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