FARA FRIDAY, CONT.: Miller Strategies, the firm started by GOP fundraiser Jeff Miller, has signed its first foreign government. Miller set up shop in Washington shortly after Donald Trump became president, like several other lobbyists close to the incoming administration. But unlike those Trump allies on K Street, Miller had resisted the cash cow of helping foreign governments, who were scrambling to decode and get close to the new president. — The firm is providing “services, assistance, advice and counsel” to the Japanese Embassy on matters of interest before the federal government, along with strategic advice on engagement with the U.S. government and education on U.S. politics, according to documents filed with the Justice Department. Miller and Johnny Hiler, former Vice President Mike Pence’s legislative affairs director, will work on the yearlong contract, which is worth $250,000. — Miller Strategies is not the only firm on Tokyo’s payroll with close ties to Trump. Last spring, Japan hired Ballard Partners, whose founder Brian Ballard is close to both Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. BIG TOBACCO’S PRO-MENTHOL COALITION: The Washington Post’s Fenit Nirappil has a big investigation out examining how “the tobacco industry has expanded alliances with activists representing Black, LGBTQ+ and other disenfranchised groups to defend” menthol tobacco products from a potential federal ban, which critics say boosts the industry effort’s credibility. — ”As the tobacco industry faces increasing federal scrutiny, some of the industry’s biggest names are supporting causes important to civil rights activists. Juul, a major e-cigarette manufacturer, courted the Rev. Al Sharpton and his activist group, the National Action Network, with a multimillion-dollar smoking cessation partnership, according to court documents.” — “Reynolds American, which makes Newport, the nation’s top-selling menthol brand, donated to the National Action Network and to scholarships run by civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, and has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to organizations representing Black law enforcement officials and Black newspapers, according to the recipients.” RED STATE ABORTION ADVOCATES FLY IN: “Personal stories have taken center stage in the legislative debates, campaign ads and the broader public discourse about abortion, especially since the Supreme Court ended a federal right to abortion nearly two years ago,” writes The 19th’s Grace Panetta, who shadowed a group of abortion-rights advocates from red states around the Hill this week as part of a program organized by Planned Parenthood. — The fly-in comprised more than a dozen advocates from a dozen states like Iowa, South Carolina and Nebraska who “had the added challenge of talking to staff for Republican representatives whose opinions on abortion differed from theirs. While the Supreme Court sent the issue of abortion back to the states, Congress still holds tremendous power to shape reproductive health policy, including through federal funding.” PENCE’S TCJA PLAY: The nonprofit run by Pence “is launching a $10 million campaign to preserve the Trump-era tax cuts that are set to expire after next year as he presses conservatives not to stray from the fight before the November election,” per the Associated Press’ Lisa Mascaro. — “Advancing American Freedom released a 13-page blueprint Thursday with arguments being made to Capitol Hill and to voters in swing states, particularly in those that could decide control of the Senate. ‘We will be urging conservative leaders to join us in this fight,’ according to the document.” — “The group envisions a lengthy campaign that will spin into 2025 when the White House and Congress will have to decide whether to keep the tax code as approved in the 2017 tax law when Republican Donald Trump was president or make adjustments. If nothing is done, many of the individual tax policies would expire after 2025.”
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