LAW FIRM PRESSURE CAMPAIGN HITS CONGRESS: President Donald Trump’s retribution tour against Big Law has arrived on Capitol Hill, Dasha Burns, Daniel and I report. An email circulated by a high-level Republican Senate staffer to GOP Senate offices Friday instructs them to pay heed to the lobbying clients of Covington & Burling and Perkins Coie, two prominent law firms that Trump has singled out for punishment.

— “We wanted to let you know that these firms also lobby the Senate and you can find a list of their lobbying clients at this link,” the missive obtained by POLITICO states. It provides a link to the Senate lobbying disclosure database along with instructions for how to navigate it.

— A person familiar with the email who was granted anonymity to speak freely said the goal was to signal “that maybe Senate Republican staffers should consider twice whether or not they should be helpful to these individuals [that hire Covington and Perkins Coie], given their affiliation with firms deemed to be anti-Trump.”

— The person predicted the impact could extend beyond Congress: “If you’re Google or Meta or Apple — you’re thinking, ‘Do I really want to use these firms?’ That could make it harder to work with the White House.”

— The effort to squeeze the firms may have limited impact — neither firm has lobbying practices on par with some of the top-earning law and lobbying shops on K Street — though Covington has several big-ticket clients, including PhRMA, SK Americas and an intellectual property arm of Samsung.

— One of the firm’s longest-running — and most lucrative — lobbying contracts is with software and semiconductor giant Qualcomm, which has paid the firm tens of millions of dollars since 2004. Covington’s quarterly lobbying fees for Qualcomm regularly break seven figures and are often among the largest, if not the largest, individual lobbying contracts in Washington each quarter.

— In comparison, Perkins Coie was registered to lobby for just three clients last quarter, and reported less than $55,000 in lobbying revenues last year between two of them.

— If the pressure campaign seems familiar, that’s because it has echoes of last year’s bipartisan threats to blacklist lobbying firms who represent certain Chinese military-linked companies. There was also a 2023 effort by a conservative nonprofit urging Hill aides to boycott meetings with the clients or lobbyists of firms that had hired former staffers on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

— It’s also reminiscent of yet another GOP-led effort to shape the activity of organizations working to influence federal policy. In 2002, The Washington Post reported that Republican lobbyists were “researching the party affiliation and political contributions of hundreds of lobbyists in Washington, part of a campaign that could deny government access and prime lobbying jobs to Democrats.”

— The undertaking triggered a warning at the time from the heads of the Senate Ethics Committee, who warned in a “Dear Colleague” letter that determining access based solely on such information might violate the chamber’s ethics rules.

— “Identifying those seeking access to Members based on party affiliation, political contributions or past employment, or encouraging others to do so, suggests a motive to grant special access, or deny access, based on those criteria and tends to adversely affect public confidence in the Senate,” wrote the late panel Chair Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and ranking member Pat Roberts (R-Kan.). Roberts, who is now a lobbyist at Capitol Counsel, did not respond to a request for comment.

Happy Tuesday and welcome to PI. What’s going on out there? Send K Street tips and gossip: And be sure to follow me on X: @caitlinoprysko.


AI’S SEA CHANGE: “For just over two years, technology leaders at the forefront of developing artificial intelligence had made an unusual request of lawmakers. They wanted Washington to regulate them,” The New York Times’ Cecilia Kang writes.

— “The tech executives warned lawmakers that generative A.I., which can produce text and images that mimic human creations, had the potential to disrupt national security and elections, and could eventually eliminate millions of jobs.”

— Since Trump’s election, however, “tech leaders and their companies have changed their tune, and in some cases reversed course, with bold requests of government to stay out of their way, in what has become the most forceful push to advance their products.”

— “In recent weeks, Meta, Google, OpenAI and others have asked the Trump administration to block state A.I. laws and to declare that it is legal for them to use copyrighted material to train their A.I. models. They are also lobbying to use federal data to develop the technology, as well as for easier access to energy sources for their computing demands. And they have asked for tax breaks, grants and other incentives.”

ANNALS OF CAMPAIGN FINANCE: E-commerce giant Shein and digital identification company ID.me have both formed corporate PACs, a new step in each company’s growing political footprint ahead of next year’s midterms.

— The companies are newer on the Washington influence scene. Shein, which has faced scrutiny over its roots in China and trade practices, only registered its first lobbyists in 2022. And ID.me — which has partnered with agencies like the IRS, VA, HHS and FBI — has retained federal lobbyists consistently since 2020.

— A spokesperson for ID.me told PI that the PAC will “support candidates who share our vision of making it easier, more secure, and more accessible for Americans to seamlessly login and prove their identities online,” adding that the company’s PAC dollars will go to politicians from both parties. The company was one of dozens to help bankroll Trump’s inauguration in January, kicking in $100,000 to support the festivities. ID.me also reported dropping $800,000 on federal lobbying in 2024.

— Shein, meanwhile, spent nearly five times that — $3.9 million — as it went on a lobbyist hiring spree last year amid a crackdown on China-linked companies. A spokesperson framed the PAC’s launch as the latest phase of Shein’s ramped up presence in Washington, partially as a result of the company’s boom in U.S. staff in recent years.

BINANCE BACK:Binance is back in the lobbying game after a yearlong absence from K Street, amid the crypto industry’s resurgent power in Washington.

— Both Binance and its founder Changpeng Zhao — who is reportedly seeking a presidential pardon for charges related to violating anti-money laundering requirements — retained Teresa Goody Guillén of Baker & Hostetler back in February to lobby on “financial services policy issues relating to digital assets and cryptocurrency” and “executive relief,” according to disclosure filings.

— Binance’s U.S. arm parted ways with its last remaining lobbyists at the beginning of 2024, while the global crypto exchange lost its last lobbyists in October 2023, weeks before Binance and Zhao agreed to plead guilty to failing to prevent money laundering on the platform.

— But in spite of an industry-wide crackdown by the Biden administration, crypto is ascendent in the nation’s capital after spending more than $130 million last year to elect the industry’s friendliest Congress and president ever.

— Last month, on the same day Baker & Hostetler began lobbying for Binance and Zhao, the exchange and the SEC jointly moved to pause the agency’s lawsuit accusing Binance of operating an unlicensed securities exchange.

ZILLOW GONE WILD: “A government contractor and lobbyist who served in President Donald Trump’s first administration bought Vice President JD Vance’s Virginia home in an above-market deal, a sale his spokesperson says was based on the market,” per Forbes’ Zach Everson.

— The buyer, a Nevada-based LLC that lists Christopher Garcia as its main point of contact, bought Vance’s Alexandria home earlier this month “for $1.9 million — about $170,000 over the asking price, according to government records and real estate listings.”

— “Garcia served as a political appointee in Trump’s Commerce Department from 2017 to 2018 — The Washington Post reported at the time that he left after being denied a permanent security clearance,” a claim Garcia denies. Now he’s the head of the PPE company Health Supply US, which has spent $1.3 million on federal lobbying since 2021 and has won $179 million in government contracts. Garcia is also a consultant for the Livingston Group, the lobbying firm founded by former Rep. Bob Livingston.

— “Garcia’s spokesperson said the purchase had no connection to his government work or political ties, and called any suggestion otherwise incorrect.” And though Vance’s home sold for above-asking price, “the $1.9 million purchase price works out to $642 per square foot — below the $741 per square foot average of 10 comparable Alexandria homes sold in 2024, according to city data.”

SPOTTED last night at a kickoff event hosted by the Republican Italian American Committee, per a tipster: House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Reps. Mike Rulli (R-Ohio), Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), Nick Langworthy (R-N.Y.), Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), Rob Bresnahan (R-Pa.) and David Joyce (R-Pa.); Mike Ferguson of AT&T, Chris Berardini of Becker, Dwayne Carson of the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America, Ryan Rusbuldt of the National Association of Realtors, Kraig Siracuse of Hither Creek Strategies, Gracey Roskam of Uptown Solutions, Cliff Riccio of NCTA, Shawn Smeallie of ACG Advocacy, Tillie Fowler of EssilorLuxottica, Fred Sottnick of Disney and Lindsey Ledwin of the Tiber Creek Group.


— Adfero has named Steve Lombardo as its new CEO. He was previously president and CEO of Chatham Advisory Group and is a Koch Industries, Burson and Edelman alum.

— Mitch Vakerics has launched Veritas Health Policy, a health care-focused lobbying firm. He previously served as vice president at The Petrizzo Group and spent a decade before that at Prime Policy Group.

— Rachel Michael has been promoted to director of federal affairs at McDonald’s, leading its overall federal government relations strategy and engagement in Washington.

— Megan Bailey is now a manager for government relations at Whirlpool Corporation, focusing on energy, manufacturing, environment and tech. She previously was federal affairs liaison at Americans for Prosperity and is a Rick Scott alum.

— Alex El-Fakir is now senior adviser for strategic operations at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He most recently was managing director and head of operations at AFF Foundation and served in the first Trump White House.

— Christina Amestoy is joining Dewey Square Group’s communications practice as a principal. She previously led political communications for Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and is a DGA and Steve Sisolak alum.

— UC Berkeley Law’s Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice is adding Seth Frotman, Sam Levine and Doha Mekki as senior fellows. Frotman previously was general counsel and senior adviser to CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. Levine previously was director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. Mekki previously was acting assistant AG in DOJ’s Antitrust Division.

— Shane Helm has launched RightPixel, a creative collective for helping right-of-center causes. He previously was with Rune.


Arentfox Schiff LLP: Church & Dwight Co., Inc.

Baker & Hostetler LLP: Binance Holdings Ltd.

Ballard Partners: Signature Performance, Inc.

Becker & Poliakoff, P.A.: Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc.

Becker & Poliakoff, P.A.: Terawatt Infrastructure, Inc.

Blank Rome Government Relations: Watergen Inc.

Caprock Strategies, LLC: Propel, Inc.

Clark Street Associates: Aigen Inc.

Cornerstone Government Affairs, Inc.: Workday, Inc.

Covenant Government Affairs, LLC: Woolpert, Inc.

Federal Science Partners LLC: Bastion Technologies Inc.

Marshall & Popp, LLC: Grail, Inc.

Williams And Jensen, Pllc: Hei, Inc.


Tiber Creek Group: Sap America Inc.