With Daniel Lippman FARA FRIDAY: Squire Patton Boggs has deregistered as a foreign agent representing a Saudi government entity named in a U.S. intelligence report blaming Saudia Arabia's Crown Prince Muhammed bin Salman for the 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, days before the third anniversary of the killing. — "Our Firm has not performed lobbying work on behalf of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in over four years," Angelo Kakolyris , spokesperson for the firm wrote an email to PI. "Accordingly, we updated our reporting and deregistered under FARA on behalf" of the center, which he said "no longer exists and hasn't for several years." — Squire had represented the Center for Studies and Media Affairs at the Royal Saudi Court since 2016, according to a contract filed with the Justice Department then. According to an intelligence report made public by the Biden administration in February, part of the Saudi team that was in Istanbul just before Khashoggi's murder inside the Saudi consulate included "officials who worked for, or were associated with" the center. It also noted that "at the time of the operation, CSMARC was led by Saud al-Qahtani, a close adviser of Muhammad bin Salman, who claimed publicly in mid-2018 that he did not make decisions without the Crown Prince's approval." Al-Qahtani is listed in Justice Department filings as the official with whom Squire Patton Boggs primarily dealt. — Earlier this month, activists with Democracy for the Arab World Now ramped up pressure on the firm ahead of the anniversary of Khashoggi's death next week. According to Mother Jones, which first reported the deregistration on Thursday, the pressure has led to several lawmakers publicly refusing to meet with Ed Newberry , the top lobbyist on the account, as long as the firm, one of the top-grossing on K Street, still counted the center as a client. "My office will not be meeting with" Newberry, wrote Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), who chairs the Appropriations Commitee's Defense spending panel, in a tweet earlier this month. — The firm has not conducted any reportable activities for the group since 2017, and a Justice Department filing from July shows the firm took in no money from the center over the previous six months. A filing from January showed the firm took in $157,300 from the center over the six-month period before that for "general legal advice," compared to an initial $100,000 per month retainer back in 2016. Happy Friday and welcome to PI. Got some juicy K Street gossip? Let's hear it: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko. |
TAYLOR RESIGNS FROM NISKANEN CENTER: Joseph Coon, a co-founder of the libertarian-leaning Niskanen Center, has stepped in as interim president after its previous leader, Jerry Taylor , resigned as president of the think tank he helped found earlier this month. "On September 6, the Niskanen Center board of directors accepted now former-president Jerry Taylor's resignation," spokesperson Louisa Tavlas wrote in an email to PI. Tavlas added that the board thanks Taylor, who founded the think tank in 2014 after more than two decades at the Cato Institute "for his leadership in building one of the most effective, principled, and strategic thought leadership institutions in the political world." Tavlas did not disclose the reason for Taylor's departure. BIDEN'S PICK FOR TOP BANK COP GIVES BANKER LOBBYISTS JITTERS: "President Joe Biden's decision to nominate Cornell law professor Saule Omarova to regulate the nation's banks is triggering intense anxiety among the lenders and their Washington lobbyists and threatens to set off a bruising battle in Congress," POLITICO's Zach Warmbrodt reports. — "Omarova is more than just a finance industry critic — she has proposed essentially ending the banking industry as we know it by letting the Federal Reserve take on the deposit accounts of all Americans. News of her nomination this week to be comptroller of the currency has touched off a scramble among Washington's powerful bank lobbying associations about whether to take the rare and risky step of speaking out against someone who could end up being the industry's top regulator." — "Groups including the American Bankers Association are plotting whether to publicly fight back or gin up opposition behind the scenes as their members raise alarms, according to more than a half-dozen industry sources. 'We have serious concerns about her ideas for fundamentally restructuring the nation's banking system, which remains the most diverse and competitive in the world,' American Bankers Association President and CEO Rob Nichols said in a statement. — "The nomination risks opening up the biggest rift yet between bankers and Biden, who has been under pressure from the left to pick regulators with a clear track record of challenging Wall Street. So far, Biden's nominees for financial agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, have largely aligned with the goals of the party's progressive wing." MEET THE FOLKS LOBBYING FOR HOLLYWOOD: Behind the scenes of Hollywood's fascination with the nation's capital, "the film and TV industry's biggest players have also employed powerful lobbying hands to represent their interests," Business Insider's Kayla Epstein and Natalie Jarvey report. "Issues like net neutrality, copyright protection, trade, taxes, and, most recently, economic relief all affect the entertainment sector (including music), which has spent $26.4 million this year, per Open Secrets, lobbying for favorable policies." — "The COVID-19 pandemic, which put thousands of people in the entertainment industry out of work as states instituted shutdowns and social distancing, added a new urgency to Hollywood's work in Washington." Insider lays out 17 of the top K Street hands representing production studios, streaming services, trade associations, and unions in D.C. The list of course includes Danny O'Brien, the former Biden aide who now leads Fox Corp.'s Washington office and Jay Carney, the Obama White House press secretary who now leads Amazon's lobbying operations, but others who made the cut include Disney's Susan Fox, WarnerMedia's Andrew Reinsdorf and CAA's Tyrone Bland. A LOOK AT THE LOBBYING BEHIND FAILED POLICING REFORM TALKS: "Formal talks on bipartisan police reform legislation broke down on Wednesday after the two parties failed to put forward any joint legislation on the issue. That underscores the political power of police unions, which have rallied against reform," per OpenSecrets' Isaiah Poritz. — "Negotiators from both parties took aim at each other for the failed talks, with Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), President Joe Biden and other Democrats arguing that Republicans rejected even the most minimal reforms, while Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said Democrats walked away from a clear comprise. But Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), the lead negotiator for House Democrats, blamed the disintegration of negotiations on police unions." — "Chief among the issues that forced the stalemate was qualified immunity, the legal principle that protects police officers from facing civil lawsuits. The National Fraternal Order of Police , which represents over 355,000 members, is against legislative efforts to end qualified immunity." The union and its subsidiaries "spent $90,000 on federal lobbying expenditures in the first half of 2021, and spent $270,000 in 2020." Other police unions have dropped similar sums on lobbying: "The National Association of Police Organizations spent $80,000 on lobbying through the first half of this year and $160,000 each year since 2008. The International Union of Police Associations spent $40,000 so far this year and $80,000 each year since 2005." SPOTTED last night at S-3 Group's tenth anniversary party at The Salt Line, per a PI tipster: Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Reps. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), Jennifer Jose of the National Association of Broadcasters, Kasper Zeuthen of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Arjun Mody, Jeff Shockey of Raytheon, Pete Giambastiani of GE, James Min, Amy Barrera, Chris Erb, Matt Lira, Justine Handelman of Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Ryan Eaton of Rocket Mortgage, Jordan Stoick of National Association of Manufacturers, Tori Barnes of U.S. Travel, Patrick Magnuson, Brian Barnard of Uber, Sarah Rittling and Sarah Rubinfield of First Five Years Fund, Matt Meyer, Ben Napier, Will Dunham, Jonathan Nabavi of NFL, Brett Horton, Alex Maggos of Juul, Blandon David, Joe Hack, Nathan Daschle, Rachel Pearson, Kunal Parikh, Margie Almanza, Martin Reiser of Edelman, Adam Peterman of T-Mobile, and Courtney Genosi Watson of Parsons. CORRECTION: Thursday's edition of Influence misspelled Milan Dalal's name and misstated Plaid's lobbying priorities. PI regrets the error. |
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