CAPITOL COUNSEL TO LAUNCH DEFENSE PRACTICE Lisa Whisler is joining Capitol Counsel to launch a defense practice for the firm. Whisler has spent the past six years as vice president of government affairs at thermal imaging infrared camera manufacturer Teledyne FLIR, leading the company's legislative and regulatory initiatives and managing its political action committee. — Before that, she spent a decade as director of government affairs at Lockheed Martin (a Capitol Counsel client) and was a senior policy adviser to former Sen. Max Baucus and a Senate liaison for the Air Force. In an interview, Whisler said the firm's decision to launch a defense practice stemmed from the influx of requests it fields for help navigating the NDAA, in addition to the volume of work to be done pertaining to veterans issues. WYDEN TARGETS SURVIVING CRYPTO EXCHANGES: Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) today "pressed Binance, Coinbase and other major cryptocurrency exchanges to explain how they would protect their customers in the event of a financial calamity, as Washington braces for further fallout from the collapse of FTX ," The Washington Post's Tony Romm reports. — The demands "arrived as Democrats weighed a battery of new bills and oversight hearings targeting the mostly unregulated crypto industry. Wyden directed his letters to the U.S. division of Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, KuCoin, Bitfinex and Gemini, major exchanges that allow customers worldwide to buy and sell various digital tokens." — "The senator asked them to reveal more information about the way they manage customers' deposits and assets. Wyden also requested the firms' balance sheets, while demanding they explain their policies in the event of a crisis, such as bankruptcy." — "Wyden pointed to a wide array of federal laws that protect investors in registered securities or customers at regulated banks — but, often, not those who purchase crypto. He cited that discrepancy as he blasted the 'outrageous mismanagement' at FTX, which had been the world's third-largest cryptocurrency exchange until a liquidity crisis plunged it into insolvency this month. 'If these protections had been in place before the failure of FTX,' Wyden stressed, 'far fewer retail investors would be facing precipitous financial harm today.'" — "Wyden's missives came as the FTX meltdown continued to rattle the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem. The latest casualty arrived Monday, when BlockFi, a crypto lender tied to FTX, indicated that it had more than 100,000 creditors as it filed for bankruptcy." ICYMI — BIDEN DROPS THE HAMMER ON RAIL TALKS: "President Joe Biden on Monday asked Congress to intervene to prevent an economically crippling freight rail strike, even though it means delivering a defeat to his allies in the labor movement," POLITICO's Tanya Snyder writes. — "Biden had held out for months on seeking congressional action, instead opting to give the freight rail industry and 12 of its unions more time to negotiate a contract. But as warnings mounted that a strike could begin as soon as Dec. 9, threatening to interrupt U.S. power and water supplies and devastate the broader economy, the pro-labor, pro-rail president said Monday that he saw 'no path to resolve the dispute at the bargaining table.'" — Biden asked Congress to act "without any modifications or delay" to impose an administration-brokered agreement struck in September. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said earlier today that the House will vote tomorrow to move forward with implementing the Biden-backed deal that multiple rail unions rejected, and other members of congressional leadership supported the move as well. — "But that kind of quick passage is more complicated in the Senate, where dissenters from both parties have threatened to slow the action , saying it gives short shrift to rail workers who have been demanding sick leave, which was left out of the deal," our Alex Daugherty, Garrett Downs and Tanya report. JUSTICES DEFENSIVE OF LOBBYING IN ARGUMENTS FOR CORRUPTION CASES: Supreme Court justices spanning the ideological spectrum " searched Monday for a way to condemn bribery without criminalizing political lobbying " as they heard arguments for overturning several bribery convictions, according to Courthouse News Service's Kelsey Reichmann. — "The justices appeared hesitant to fully embrace the arguments of Joseph Percoco, 53, who claims a temporary leave from the office of the former governor, Andrew Cuomo , gave him the green light to conduct a $35,000 bribery scheme." — "'You can spin lots of different versions on it up to the point where a public official just resigns his office every time he wants to take a bribe and then picks up his office again when he's completed the bribe,' Justice Elena Kagan said. 'There has to be something wrong with that.' Instead, the high court searched for a test to define political corruption." — "'How do you distinguish that person from a lobbyist,' Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson asked. 'Lots of people leave their former employment … and continue to engage in relations with people they formally worked with.'" — "The justices worried that adopting a broad definition for political-influence campaigns could upend lobbying. Justice Samuel Alito noted that some lobbyists have deep-seated connections that make them very good at their jobs. He asked if a ruling in the case could criminalize 'super-super effective lobbyists.' 'There's a concern about interpreting this statute to sweep in lobbying,' the Bush appointee said."
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