| | | | | |  | | By Caitlin Oprysko | Presented by the American Beverage Association | With Daniel Lippman VAN GRACK'S NEW GIG: Brandon Van Grack, the first-ever head of the Justice Department's FARA office and a lead prosecutor for special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, has left DOJ after more than a decade to become a partner at the law and lobbying firm Morrison & Foerster, where he will co-chair the national security practice and handle investigations and white collar defense. — Van Grack oversaw several of the high-profile prosecutions that stemmed from Mueller's investigation, which ensnared former Trump campaign chair, Paul Manafort, and his deputy Rick Gates as well as former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn. Van Grack withdrew from Flynn's case after the DOJ moved to drop the charges against the former national security adviser, at former President Donald Trump's request, despite two guilty pleas. Manafort and Flynn were both pardoned by Trump before he left office. — Flynn and Manafort both came under scrutiny for potential unregistered work on behalf of foreign governments and politicians, and though neither were ultimately charged with FARA violations, their cases coincided with a major crackdown on foreign agents under Van Grack after decades of lax enforcement. Under Van Grack, the department saw foreign agent registrations soar as it began issuing more advisory opinions to provide lawyers with guidance on when registering was necessary. During Van Grack's tenure, DOJ also cracked down on other methods of foreign influence such as state-run media outlets like Russia's Sputnik and RT. Van Grack oversaw the FARA unit beginning in 2019. — The FARA unit did suffer a handful of prominent defeats in recent years, however. Former President Barack Obama's White House counsel, Gregory Craig, was charged with lying to the Justice Department about his work for the Ukrainian government, but was acquitted in 2019. After the department secured a conviction against one of Flynn's associates, Bijan Rafiekian, a federal judge later overturned the guilty verdicts. And hours before leaving office last month Trump granted a pardon to Elliott Broidy , a GOP megadonor who pleaded guilty last fall to failing to register as a foreign agent. Good afternoon and welcome to PI. Send tips: coprysko@politico.com. And follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko. | | A message from the American Beverage Association: America's leading beverage companies are working together to help make our communities healthy, sustainable, and economically strong. Our companies are providing family supporting jobs, more beverage choices with less sugar, and 100% recyclable bottles that are made to be remade. We stand ready to roll up our sleeves and work with the Biden Administration and Congress to address the problems facing our country and strengthen the quality of life for all Americans. AmericanBeverage.org | | | FORMER PHILLY MAYOR LAUNCHES FIRM: Former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter is teaming up with two other veterans of Mike Bloomberg's presidential campaign, Michael Berman and Kevin Kinross to found the public affairs shop 40 North Advocacy. The firm will specialize in city and county-level comms, according to a press release. The firm already has three clients: Bloomberg Philanthropies' What Works Cities, the pro-Obamacare group Protect Our Care and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. WARREN, WHITEHOUSE ASK YELLEN TO 'REIN IN' DARK MONEY GROUPS: Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called on Yellen "to 'rein in' what they called abuses by tax-exempt 'dark money' political organizations," our Aaron Lorenzo reports. Whitehouse and Warren, who announced Tuesday she would join the Senate Finance Committee after anchoring her 2020 presidential campaign around hiking taxes on the wealthy, asserted in a letter to Yellen today that the "tax exemptions granted by the IRS are being exploited … with some nonprofits appearing indistinguishable from political action committees. They traced the problem to 'ambiguous and unenforced regulation,' along with an explosion of spending by dark money groups following the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Citizens United." — The lawmakers asked Yellen to, among other priorities, increase disclosure requirements on donors, probe inconsistencies in their expenditure reports and provide legal support in cases that threaten to further erode political spending boundaries, as well as look into whether tax-exempt groups played a part in last month's insurrection to "restore transparency to our political landscape." AVENUE STRATEGIES TO WIND DOWN: Avenue Strategies , the lobbying firm founded by former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and 2016 campaign adviser Barry Bennett, is planning to close up shop, CNBC's Brian Schwartz reports, "making Avenue Strategies one of the first lobbying shops that had direct ties to Trump to do so" following his reelection defeat. — Bennett attributed the shutdown to the spate of recent protests near the firm's downtown offices rather than Trump's loss, telling CNBC that they were headquartered "in the middle of BLM [Black Lives Matter] square and a block from the White House. Turbulent neighborhood," and that "Covid and the violence made continuing to keep the office open impossible." Bennett will be joining a new firm soon, he added, without providing further details. — Though Lewandowski left Avenue, which he and Bennett started not long after Trump's victory in 2016, the next year, it attracted other administration allies, including those with ties to former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, and represented clients like CITGO, Puerto Rico's Federal Affairs Administration, the Qatari Embassy and former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. | | | | Designed specifically for regulatory affairs professionals - AgencyIQ FDA Forecast 2021: In its inaugural year, AgencyIQ's FDA Forecast predicts the FDA regulatory changes that will take place in 2021 and what they will mean for the life sciences industry. Read more about the report and download the summary here. | | | | | IT'S NOT BYE BEZOS YET: Jeff Bezos' surprise announcement on Tuesday that he will step down as CEO of Amazon merely signals the end of his first act in American public life, Recode's Teddy Schleifer reports. "That's because, unlike many leaders in Corporate America, Bezos's public profile far outstrips his role as leader of Amazon. Even if he isn't the CEO — or maybe because he isn't the CEO — Bezos will remain one of America's most famous business leaders, wielding power in politics, philanthropy, and media" with "$200 billion at his disposal to expand his influence and burnish his legacy" à la Google's Eric Schmidt or Microsoft's Bill Gates. THE FALL OF BIG OIL?: "Exxon Mobil, BP and other large oil companies collectively lost tens of billions of dollars last year, posting their worst performance in years and, for some companies, in decades," The New York Times' Clifford Krauss reports. Though the pandemic contributed to plummeting demand, "such painful years could become more commonplace as growing concerns about climate change, tighter regulations, and the rise of electric cars and trucks force a reckoning for an industry that has dominated the global economy over much of the last century. General Motors further raised the stakes for the industry last week when it said it aimed to do away with internal combustion engines and sell only electric cars by 2035. The oil industry is slowly transitioning to a future dominated by cleaner energy." REST IN PEACE: "John J. Sweeney, a New York union researcher who climbed to the pinnacle of the American labor movement in the 1990s, leading the A.F.L.-C.I.O. for 14 years through an era of fading union membership but rising political influence," died on Monday at the age of 86, the Times' Robert McFadden reports. Sweeney ran the country's largest labor union from 1995 to 2009, and "flexed labor's political muscle with thousands of volunteers and helped elect Barack Obama to the presidency in 2008. Over the years, he also helped elect Democrats to seats in Congress, to governorships and to state legislatures across the country," and helped bring diversity to the labor movement. | | | |   | | | | | | — Nicole Cornish has been named chief executive of Subject Matter. She was previously president and COO. — The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has hired Latricia Boone as vice president to help lead its equality of opportunity initiative and Crystal Roberts Jezierski as associate general counsel. — Jay Carney, Sarah Cleveland, Benedict Morelli, Nazanin Rafsanjani and Mara Wallace have joined the board of directors of Human Rights First. Carney is senior vice president of global corporate affairs at Amazon and a former White House press secretary; Cleveland is a professor for human and civil rights at Columbia Law School; Morelli leads the Morelli Law Firm; and Rafsanjani is the former head of new show development at Gimlet Media and Spotify. — Cinnamon Rogers will be the first in-house head of global government affairs for DocuSign . She was previously executive vice president for public advocacy at CompTIA. — Mark Green will be the president and CEO of the Woodrow Wilson Center. He was previously executive director of the McCain Institute and USAID administrator. — Josette Sheeran will become executive chair of the McCain Institute. She was most recently president and CEO of the Asia Society and U.N. special envoy for Haiti. — The Ethics and Public Policy Center has hired Roger Severino as a senior fellow focused on health care policy. He was previously director of HHS' Office for Civil Rights. — Krissy Katzenstein is now a partner in Baker McKenzie's North America employment and compensation practice. She previously was a partner at Morgan Lewis, Playbook reports. — Edgar Burch is now a principal at the Raben Group, per Playbook. He previously was director of government relations for the NCAA. | | | | TUNE IN TO NEW EPISODE OF GLOBAL TRANSLATIONS: Our Global Translations podcast, presented by Citi, examines the long-term costs of the short-term thinking that drives many political and business decisions. The world has long been beset by big problems that defy political boundaries, and these issues have exploded over the past year amid a global pandemic. This podcast helps to identify and understand the impediments to smart policymaking. Subscribe for Season Two, available now. | | | | | | | | Jeffries Victory Fund (Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Jobs, Education, & Families First - JEFF PAC) | | | 4th Amendment Protection PAC (Hybrid PAC)
Consequences Now (Super PAC)
Get McCarthy Gone PAC (Super PAC) | | New Lobbying Registrations | | Banner Public Affairs, LLC: Huntsman International LLC
Barker Leavitt, Pllc (Ska Mr. James C. Barker): Knowmadics, Inc
Emmer Consulting, Inc. (Formerly Known As Emmer Consulting, P.C.): Poly, Inc.
O'Keeffe Shahmoradi Strategies, LLC: Skinny Labs, Inc. Dba Spin
Pauley Management Inc.: City Of Cocoa, Florida
Pioneer Public Affairs: Charm Industrial
Pioneer Public Affairs: Hannon Armstrong
Pioneer Public Affairs: Nextera Energy Resources LLC
Sonoran Policy Group, LLC D/B/A Stryk Global Diplomacy, Formerly Known As Sonoran Policy Group LLC: Zamzam Consulting, LLC
The Lucas Firm, LLC (F/K/A Travis Lucas): Advancing States
The Lucas Firm, LLC (F/K/A Travis Lucas): Arcare
The Lucas Firm, LLC (F/K/A Travis Lucas): Baylor Scott & White Health
The Lucas Firm, LLC (F/K/A Travis Lucas): Nossaman
The Lucas Firm, LLC (F/K/A Travis Lucas): Nossaman On Behalf Of Williamson County Conservation Foundation
The Raben Group: Verizon
Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale And Dorr LLP: Alden Torch Financial LLC
Wynne Health Group: Society For Healthcare Epidemiology Of America (Shea)
Wynne Health Group: Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc. | | New Lobbying Terminations | | Big Sky Bluewater Strategies, LLC: Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil And Gas Association
Energy Advance Center: Energy Advance Center | | A message from the American Beverage Association: America's beverage companies—Coca-Cola, Keurig Dr Pepper and Pepsi—are working hard to support families as they reduce sugar in their diets. That means offering more great tasting options with less sugar or no sugar at all, putting clear calorie labels on every product we sell and working with public health organizations and other national and local partners to deliver innovative solutions. Our commitment to reduce beverage calories consumed means working across the country and in communities where health disparities are prevalent and obesity rates are high to help encourage balanced choices. Our efforts are having an impact: today, 55% of the beverages we sell have zero sugar and two-thirds are low- or no-calorie. Providing more choices, smaller portions and less sugar are just a few of the ways we're working together to build healthy, sustainable communities. Learn more about our efforts at AmericanBeverage.org. | | | | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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