News : GOP senators ask DOJ about ‘inconsistencies’ in Blue Star FARA registration

Tuesday, May 24, 2022

GOP senators ask DOJ about ‘inconsistencies’ in Blue Star FARA registration

May 24, 2022

With Daniel Lippman

GOP SENATORS QUESTION ACCURACY OF BLUE STAR FILING: The top Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Judiciary committees on Monday asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to provide them with more information on the retroactive foreign agent registrations of the lobbyists working for Ukrainian energy company Burisma and one of the company's executives.

— "Based on our investigative records and recently published Foreign Agents Registration Act ('FARA') forms, it appears that Blue Star Strategies' top executives, Karen Tramontano and Sally Painter, filed incomplete and misleading information with the Department of Justice," Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking members of the Homeland Security and Judiciary committees, respectively, wrote. Neither Tramontano nor Painter responded to requests for comment.

— Blue Star registered retroactively for that work earlier this month, noting that the registration came "pursuant to guidance from DOJ personnel." POLITICO reported last year that the Justice Department was investigating the firm for potentially failing to comply with FARA requirements for its work dating back to 2015.

— The senators, who spearheaded an investigation into Burisma ahead of the 2020 election because of its ties to Hunter Biden, who sat on the company's board while his father, President Joe Biden was vice president, wrote that the date listed on Blue Star Strategies' DOJ filings for a meeting with State Department official Amos Hochstein was different than dates given for two meetings with Hochstein in testimony from Tramontano and Painter themselves.

— The senators note that it "appears Blue Star Strategies failed to disclose on the FARA form at least nine other meetings it had with U.S. government officials—including two meetings with sitting U.S. ambassadors to Ukraine—regarding Burisma" and Mykola Zlochevsky (also known as Nikolai).

— While Blue Star's filing contends that the entirety of the firm's FARA registrable work "began and ended in 2016," Johnson and Grassley noted the firm's first meeting with Hochstein occurred in 2015, and other meetings with U.S. officials took place as recently as 2019. They again pointed to Tramontano's and Painter's own representations to congressional investigators.

— Johnson and Grassley asked the Justice Department to turn over any letters of inquiry and letters of determination the department may have sent on the matter to Blue Star, its officials, or any affiliated entities, in addition to any requests for an advisory opinion on its potential registration obligations by Blue Star.

— They also want to know whether Blue Star disseminated any informational materials on behalf of Burisma or Zlochevsky, whether DOJ was aware of the meetings with U.S. officials not included in Blue Star's FARA documents, and how the department will address the apparent inconsistencies in the filing.

Good afternoon and welcome to PI. Send some lobbying tips instead: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko.

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BINANCE TAPS TOP LOBBYIST: The U.S. arm of the world's largest crypto exchange has hired Josh Wilsusen to lead its new Washington office. Wilsusen, who will be Binance.US' chief policy officer, spent the past decade and a half on the government affairs teams at Ally Bank and Morgan Stanley, and before that was counsel for the House Financial Services Committee.

— "Josh is a veteran of Capitol Hill and his deep financial services expertise will be invaluable as Binance.US develops its own voice in Washington and plays an active role in the crypto policy dialogue," Binance.US CEO Brian Shroder said in a statement.

— Binance.US is building out its D.C. footprint after announcing in April that it would leave the industry trade group the Blockchain Association. Last week, the exchange hired Krishna Juvvadi, former global head of operations compliance and chief regulatory counsel at Uber, as its head of legal.

CRYPTO AND OLD FINANCIAL GUARD DUKE IT OUT AT CFTC: "A crypto trading platform's bid to let day traders place leveraged bets on digital assets has turned a small federal agency into a lobbying battleground, pitting the startup against old-school financial exchanges that see it as a major threat," POLITICO's Sam Sutton reports.

— "FTX, a global crypto exchange led by 30 year-old billionaire and political mega-donor Sam Bankman-Fried, has engaged in a full-court press convincing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to sign off on its plan to let investors use borrowed money to trade crypto around the clock. If successful, it could clear a path for FTX to build an empire where individual investors could use leverage to bet on everything from bitcoin to corn futures contracts."

— "The startup's ambitions have thrown it on a collision course with major exchanges and clearinghouses — including the owners of the NYSE and Chicago's storied commodities trading pits — that have long held sway over the multitrillion dollar commodities market. FTX's plan to speed up trading and let traders make bigger bets threatens to upend their business models — or, as they warn, kick-start a competition to eliminate market speed bumps."

— And "the incumbent exchanges are leveraging deep ties in Washington to fight back," in the "latest Washington flare-up between titans of new and old finance as officials try to figure out how to set rules for the digital currency industry."

— "CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam has pushed Congress for more authority to oversee digital asset markets. While industry leaders and key members of congress have been supportive of those entreaties, the fight over FTX's trading plan is forcing the agency to balance the interests of storied financial institutions and crypto's upstarts."

ALWAYS BE CONTRIBUTING: In a podcast interview today, Bankman-Fried threw out an eye-popping estimate for future campaign spending, saying "he could spend $1 billion or more in the 2024 election, which would easily make him the biggest-ever political donor in a single election," NBC's Alex Seitz-Wald writes.

— "Bankman-Fried, the 30-year-old founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, said in a podcast interview released Tuesday that he expects to give 'north of $100 million' in the next presidential election and has a 'soft ceiling' of $1 billion, with his spending likely to be on the higher end if former President Donald Trump runs again."

— "'That kind of money would be 'in a league of its own,' said Alex Baumgart , a researcher with the campaign finance tracker Open Secrets. Bankman-Fried, who is estimated to be worth more than $20 billion and says he has already given away more than $200 million to various causes, cautions that his political plans are still in flux and will be contingent on what the landscape looks like."

— "'I would guess north of $100 million. As for how much more than that, I don't know. It really does depend on what happens. It's really dependent on exactly who's running where for what," he said on the Pushkin Industries podcast What's Your Problem. '[$1 billion] is a decent thing to look at as a — I would hate to say hard ceiling, because who knows what's going to happen between now and then — but at least sort of as a soft ceiling.'"

— "That amount of money would be unprecedented and shatter existing records several times over — at least if it was all spent as so-called 'hard money,' which includes donations to candidates, parties, super PACs and other groups who have to report to the Federal Election Commission. ... The most hard money any individual has spent in any election cycle was $218 million in 2020 by the late Republican casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, according to Open Secrets."

THE MAR-A-LAGO PRIMARIES: "The campaigns of seven Republican candidates endorsed by former President Donald Trump spent over $400,000, combined, at his private club Mar-a-Lago in the buildup to Tuesday's primary clashes," CNBC's Brian Schwartz reports.

— "Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker's campaign has spent almost $200,000 so far during the 2022 election cycle at the exclusive resort in Palm Beach, Florida: a payment of just over $135,000 in December and another of roughly $65,000 in April, according to Federal Election Commission filings."

— "Trump's pick for Georgia governor, former Sen. David Perdue , spent over $20,000 from his campaign coffers at Mar-a-Lago in May, according to state campaign finance disclosures," though the former president's backing does not appear to be enough to defeat incumbent GOP Gov. Brian Kemp. The campaign of Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.), who is running for secretary of state in Georgia, "spent over $38,000 in February at Mar-a-Lago, campaign records show."

— "Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is competing in a primary runoff against George P. Bush, the son of former Florida governor and failed presidential candidate Jeb Bush , spent over $45,000 of his campaign funds between November and December at Mar-a-Lago, according to campaign finance records."

— The piece includes this take from Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich, referencing the other Trump property at which the president spends time: "In Republican politics today, there's only two seasons that matter: Mar-A-Lago season and Bedminster season, because it's where candidates, organizations, and donors want to be."

Jobs Report

— Phyllis Cuttino will be the next president and CEO for the Climate Reality Project, the nonprofit founded by former Vice President Al Gore. Cuttino previously served as executive director of the Climate Action Campaign .

— Aimee Witteman is now vice president for the states and regions program at the Energy Foundation. She most recently was deputy assistant secretary for intergovernmental affairs at the Department of Energy.

— Martha Miller is now a senior associate at CGCN Group. She most recently was scheduler and executive assistant for Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio).

— Julia Rege is now general manager for regulatory affairs at Mercedes-Benz AG. She most recently was vice president for energy and environment at the Alliance For Automotive Innovation.

— Chris Gober, Simone Ledeen and John Lappe have founded the due diligence and risk analysis consulting firm Vantage Point. Gober is the founder and managing partner of the law firm Gober Group, Ledeen was the deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Middle East policy under the Trump administration, and Lappe ran a research and due diligence firm.

— Jennifer Holdsworth Karp and MichaelAaron Flicker are launching Z/Axis Strategies, a political consulting firm focused on reducing polarization, per Playbook. Holdsworth previously owned JC Strategies, was a senior adviser at XenoPsi and is a Pete Buttigieg alum, while Flicker will continue as CEO of XenoPsi. David Grant will be a senior strategist.

— Jeff O'Neil will be a director of government affairs at Planet, Playbook reports. He previously was deputy chief of staff for policy for Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.).

— Gavin Wilde is now a senior fellow in the technology and international affairs program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He previously was a managing consultant at Krebs Stamos Group, is a nonresident fellow at Defense Priorities, and is an NSC, NSA and FBI alum.

— Claudia Flores is joining Bitwise Industries as a senior external affairs manager. She previously was a senior campaign manager at the Center for American Progress.

— John Galer has been named chief of government relations at the Aerospace Corporation. He previously was assistant vice president for national security space at the Aerospace Industries Association.

— Tania Mercado is now senior manager of public affairs and corporate comms at Intuit, per Playbook. She most recently was a vice president at Fenton Communications, and is an SKDK, Xavier Becerra and Kamala Harris alum.

New Joint Fundraisers

None.

New PACs

Coalesce Mississippi (Super PAC)
Committee to Organize and Remove Abusers PAC (Super PAC)
Ready for Ron (Hybrid PAC)

New Lobbying Registrations

Capitol Connections, LLC: Natural Fiber Alliance
Capitol Connections, LLC: United States Association Of Reptile Keepers
The Hayes Initiative LLC: Newtown Creek Group
The Livingston Group, LLC: Shetland Space Centre Ltd

New Lobbying Terminations

None.