PROGRAMMING NOTE: We’ll be off this Monday for Memorial Day but will be back in your inboxes on Tuesday. With Daniel Lippman FARA FRIDAY: The government of Turks and Caicos has brought on FGS Global for help fending off accusations that the British territory has been targeting American tourists after a spate of arrests for violating the islands’ strict gun laws. — FGS will provide the islands with “strategic communications and government relations counsel,” according to documents filed with the Justice Department on Tuesday — just one day after a bipartisan congressional delegation returned from Turks and Caicos blasting its leaders over the detentions. — Sens. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) and John Fetterman (D-Pa.), as well as Reps. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.), Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.), Michael Cloud (R-Texas) and Bob Good (R-Va.) traveled to the islands last weekend to plead for the release of four Americans who are currently detained in Turks and Caicos after they were found with ammunition reportedly left in their luggage. A fifth person was also arrested but has since been allowed to return to the U.S. for medical reasons. — The charge carries a minimum sentence of 12 years in prison in Turks and Caicos. But earlier today, a judge there spared Pennsylvanian Bryan Hagerich from that stiff penalty and has allowed him to return to the U.S. after paying a fine. Hagerich, a constituent of Reschenthaler, had been held on the island since his arrest in February. — Oklahoman Ryan Watson and Virginian Tyler Wenrich were both arrested in April and Floridian Sharitta Grier was arrested earlier this month for illegally possessing ammunition, ABC News reported. A fifth American, 72-year-old Michael Lee Evans, was arrested in December and allowed to return to the U.S. due to medical reasons. — Last year, Indiana resident Michael Grim pleaded guilty after 20 rounds of ammunition were found in his luggage. He was sentenced to eight months in prison and was released this past February. The uptick in arrests has been significant enough to prompt a warning to U.S. travelers by the State Department last month. — During last week’s CODEL, the lawmakers met with their constituents as well as Turks and Caicos’ governor, deputy governor, attorney general, premier, police commissioner and deputy commissioner, as well as a representative from the foreign ministry, according to the group, which said it had been blunt with TCI officials. — “I reiterated that with Turks and Caicos’ economy being 65 percent based on tourism, and with 80 percent of that coming from the United States, it is in their interest to ensure justice prevails,” Brecheen said in a statement, warning that “America must respond appropriately, using every economic tool in our toolbox,” if not. — In media interviews this week Reschenthaler, a member of House GOP leadership, went even further — accusing the islands’ government of targeting American citizens with harsher treatment and alleging government officials had been disrespectful in meetings with the lawmakers, while asserting that the territory’s prison had been cited by the UN for human rights concerns and prompting a rebuke from Turks and Caicos’ governor. — This isn’t the first time Turks and Caicos has turned to FGS Global with a PR crisis on its hands. The territory hired FGS back in 2022 to tout its new security measures after a gang “indiscriminately” opened fire on a tourist excursion, killing a Virginia man who was on vacation. TGIF and welcome to PI. Send us the best K Street gossip you overhear over the holiday weekend: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on the platform formerly known as Twitter: @caitlinoprysko. FARA FRIDAY CONT.: Diplomatic tensions between the U.S. and Georgia deepened today over a controversial bill that would require Western-funded nonprofits and media outlets to register as foreign agents, with the State Department rolling out travel bans for Georgian officials responsible for pushing the law through and cracking down on mass protests. — “The State Department will also conduct a comprehensive review of bilateral cooperation between the U.S. and Georgia, which currently sees the country receive significant military and economic support,” our Gabriel Gavin reports. — “In a statement, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Georgia’s new legislation, brought forward by the governing Georgian Dream party, ‘would stifle the exercise of freedoms of association and expression, stigmatize organizations that serve the citizens of Georgia, and impede independent media organizations.’” — The visa restrictions announced today also target family members of the politicians responsible for the law — a much broader version of the U.S. statute Georgian officials say it’s meant to emulate — as well as others “responsible for suppressing civil society and freedom of peaceful assembly in Georgia through a campaign of violence or intimidation.” — “Blinken said the U.S. hopes ‘Georgia’s leaders will reconsider the draft law and take steps to move forward with their nation’s democratic and Euro-Atlantic aspirations,’ adding that future actions would determine Washington’s next steps.” CASHING IN THEIR CHIPS: “A backroom Washington deal brokered two years ago is undercutting a key part of President Joe Biden’s policy to grow the national high-tech manufacturing base — pushing more than $3 billion into a secretive national-security project promoted by chipmaker Intel,” per our Christine Mui. — “In recent weeks, Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have been taking victory laps for the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, a law intended to create jobs and fund innovation in a key global industry. It has already launched a series of grants, incentives and research proposals to help America regain its cutting-edge status in global semiconductor manufacturing.” — “But quietly, in a March spending bill, appropriators in Congress shifted $3.5 billion that the Commerce Department was hoping to use for those grants and pushed it into a separate Pentagon program called Secure Enclave, which is not mentioned in the original law. … No company has been named yet to execute the project, but interviews reveal that chipmaking giant Intel lobbied for its creation, and is still considered the front-runner for the money.” — The diverted funding “amplifies a larger concern about the landmark CHIPS Act shared by many of its original supporters — that a taxpayer-funded law meant to boost America’s skills and know-how in a key industry could be turning into a spigot for large corporate players, at the expense of the rest of the ecosystem it was intended to support.” GETTING IN THE WEEDS: Our Paul Demko reports that “the alcohol industry has a message for Congress when it comes to intoxicating hemp products: Prohibition doesn’t work. On Thursday, the House Agriculture Committee adopted an amendment to the farm bill — with bipartisan support — that seeks to ban intoxicating hemp products.” — “Those lightly regulated products have proliferated across the country in recent years, sparking public health concerns and conflicts with state-legal marijuana businesses. ‘I have doubts about the ability to eliminate all of these products any more than they’ve eliminated the cannabis marketplace,’ Dawson Hobbs, executive vice president of government affairs at the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America, said in an interview.” — “Instead, the industry group would like to see Congress adopt a regulatory approach similar to alcohol. That would include empowering a federal agency to ban synthetic products and take other steps to protect public health. In addition, they want states to be given explicit authority to establish their own rules and regulations for hemp products.” ALL K STREET EVER WANTED: “Lobbyists and lawmakers, with less than six months before the elections and limited plans for moving legislation, will be spending less time roaming the Capitol and more time schmoozing at tony resorts and big name concerts as they turn their attention to the fundraising circuit,” Bloomberg’s Kate Ackley writes. — “When they’re in town on Capitol Hill, members of Congress will squeeze in events to pad their campaign coffers at local haunts Capital Grille, Mi Vida, and Charlie Palmer Steak … When they’re off the Hill, lawmakers want lobbyists and other donors to join them on fundraising jaunts around the country.” — Fundraising trips “provide a more relaxed environment for conversation and connections than the formal, scripted sessions on Capitol Hill, lobbyists say,” meanwhile “summer fundraising hauls can make or break campaigns as they head into the critical final weeks in September and October, said Sarah Bryner, research director at OpenSecrets.org.” — Trips on tap for this summer include a fly fishing trip this month with Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.) and a retreat for NRCC Chair Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) tied to the U.S. Open golf tournament, plus trips to Jackson Hole, Wyo., Nantucket, Mass., Vail, Colo., and more. SPOTTED at a book party last night for Brody and Luke Mullins and Ja’ron Smith held at CGCN Group’s offices, per a tipster: Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.), Roy Blunt and Andy Blunt of Husch Blackwell Strategies, Sarah Craighill of Capital One, Alex Oehler of Columbia Pipeline Group, Gentry Collins of the American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce, Colin Rom of Bio + Health, Michael Berg and Tate Mitchell of the NRSC, Steve Clark, Tracey Schmitt, Jill Hamaker, Sam Geduldig and Matt Rhoades of CGCN, Jamie Rhoades of Quartus Strategies, Nicole Frazier of Dentons Global Advisors, Molly Lolli of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Arjun Mody of the Senate GOP, Adam Telle of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Raynard Jackson. — And at an AI policy forum on Wednesday hosted by Americans for Responsible Innovation, per a tipster: Sens. Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Reps. Don Beyer (D-Va.), Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and Jim Himes (D-Conn.); Brad Carson, Eric Gastfriend, Doug Calidas and Satya Thallam of ARI, Stewart Baker of Steptoe, Diane Rinaldo of the Open RAN Policy Coalition, Jared Brown of Global Shield, Jason Green-Lowe of the Center for AI Policy, Joe Hoellerer of the Information Technology Industry Council, Clara Langevin of the Federation of American Scientists, Conor McGrath of Apple, Charles Moskowitz of Accenture, Lisa Kountoupes of Kountoupes Denham Carr & Reid, Tony Samp of DLA Piper and more.
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