PROGRAMMING NOTE: We’ll be off this Thursday and Friday for July Fourth but will be back in your inboxes on Monday, July 8. With Daniel Lippman NEW BUSINESS: The nonprofit in charge of planning Philadelphia’s celebrations for America’s 250th birthday has turned to K Street for help securing federal funding ahead of the 2026 festivities. Craig Snyder of Ikon Public Affairs registered to lobby on behalf of Philadelphia 250 beginning last month, according to a newly filed disclosure. — Philadelphia 250 is separate from the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission created under a 2016 law and its nonprofit counterpart the America250 Foundation, which are spearheading planning for the nationwide commemoration of America’s founding (with a special focus on festivities in cities of historical significance to the American Revolution — of which Philadelphia is obviously one) in collaboration with state-financed affiliates like America250PA. — The foundation has pitched a series of festivals, exhibitions, tours, community-based investments and other initiatives that it says will be “organized by contemporary applications of themes from the Declaration of Independence — revolutionary actions, pursuit of happiness, people’s histories and shared prosperity.” — It’s not clear exactly what kind of federal funding Philadelphia 250 will lobby for; the nonprofit and Ikon Public Affairs did not respond to requests for comment. Its financing thus far has come from the city of Philadelphia as well as private and corporate donors including Comcast, Wells Fargo, the William Penn Foundation and the University of Pennsylvania, according to its website. — The semiquincentennial group isn’t the only one lobbying for federal help putting on a major event in Philly in 2026. The city will also host several matches for the FIFA World Cup — including one on July 4 — and the Philadelphia-focused nonprofit charged with planning for that event retained Foley & Lardner last year to lobby on funding opportunities and awareness of hosting needs. — Philadelphia 250 is also not alone in its lobbying on the semiquincentennial, according to PI’s analysis of disclosure filings. The National Parks Conservation Association reported lobbying in Q1 on a bill directing the National Parks Service to shore up its operations in advance of the anniversary. — Previously, battlefield preservation group American Battlefield Trust, which was selected in 2018 as the official nonprofit partner of the semiquincentennial commission and helped form the America250 Foundation, lobbied for legislation in 2020 that allowed the commission to accept federal funding and made changes to the commission’s membership. Happy Tuesday and welcome to PI. If you’re looking to unburden yourself of influence gossip ahead of the holiday, my inbox is open: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on X: @caitlinoprysko. GOP LEADERSHIP VET HEADS TO K STREET: Annie Wolf is leaving the Hill after more than a decade and a half working for multiple members of House GOP leadership, to join Mehlman Consulting as a principal. — Wolf was most recently deputy floor director for House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, for whom she worked for five years. She’s also done stints working for then-House Chief Deputy Republican Whip Drew Ferguson, former House Rules Chair Pete Sessions (R-Texas), and former House speakers Paul Ryan and John Boehner. — “I've been honored to have Annie work in my office, and I think so many people on both sides of the aisle have been better legislators because of the professionalism of Annie Wolf,” Scalise said in a statement provided by the firm. DEMAND JUSTICE PREPS A SCOTUS DELUGE: Liberal judicial activist group Demand Justice plans to dump seven figures into a campaign aimed at boosting support for judicial ethics reforms and elevating the court as a central issue in November’s elections, Heidi Przybyla reports. — “According to plans first shared with POLITICO, the group intends to spend $10 million by the end of this year on a range of activities, from conducting opposition research on potential Supreme Court picks to advocating for ethics reforms for the high court.” — “It will also work to mobilize key constituencies affected by the court’s decisions, including women and young people, and to call out a network of far-right judicial activists that laid the groundwork for the conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court.” — “Demand Justice has led an unsuccessful push to expand the Supreme Court since its founding in 2016, which was prompted by the Republican-led Senate effectively blocking then-President Barack Obama’s high court nominee, Merrick Garland. The group largely went silent after the September departure of its previous executive director, Brian Fallon.” — “Now, multiple court reform groups are working to build an advocacy ecosystem to challenge a deep-pocketed network of ultraconservative judicial activists helmed by Leonard Leo, the Federalist Society co-chair.” GUN CONTROL ADVOCATES FIND A NEW HOME: José Alfaro is now executive director of Community Justice and Adzi Vokhiwa is now the organization’s vice president. Alfaro was previously the founding director of Latinx leadership and community engagement at Everytown for Gun Safety and succeeds Greg Jackson, who now co-leads the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention. Vokhiwa most recently served as the federal affairs director at Giffords. A NEW TRUMP-SAUDI CONNECTION: “The Trump Organization has signed a new deal with a Saudi real estate company to build a residential high-rise tower in the city of Jeddah, extending the family’s close ties with the kingdom,” The New York Times’ Eric Lipton reports. — “Saudi Arabia has become one of the few reliable sources of growth for the Trump family’s business operations, as new real estate deals in the United States have slowed or stopped since the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol and since former President Donald J. Trump left the White House.” — “This new deal is like other international projects the Trump family has signed over the past decade. It offers the family’s name and brand to a well-financed developer that will build the project and sell luxury resident units, it hopes at a premium, based on the marketability of the former president’s perceived star power. Other projects include a resort complex in Oman and Saudi-backed golf tournaments at Trump courses in recent years.” MENENDEZ KICKS OFF DEFENSE: Attorneys for Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) kicked off their defense on Monday in the senator’s trial for bribery and foreign agent charges, but our Ry Rivard reports that “prosecutors poked holes in the defense witnesses’ accounts that may have seriously wounded the senator’s defense case.” — “In particular, prosecutors emphasized that the forensic accountant, who Menendez’s team has fought for weeks to call to testify, fabricated data Menendez’s legal team presented to jurors. … Likewise, they undermined a key point made by the senator’s sister, Caridad Gonzalez” aimed at conveying how “Menendez makes calls on behalf of his constituents.” — “But prosecutors showed text messages that suggest his own sister didn’t get the kind of VIP treatment that prosecutors say the men who bribed the senator got. When his sister’s neighbor needed help with an immigration issue, Menendez directed her to contact his office’s staff. When the men accused of bribing the senator wanted help, according to prosecutors, the senator would take up their pet issues with the New Jersey attorney general, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey or with a senior official in the Trump administration.” — “Prosecutors have had witnesses stumble on the stand during the trial, now in its eighth week. … Still, the cross-examination of the accountant stood out as particularly brutal because Menendez plans to call only five witnesses.” FDA REVOLVING DOOR GUIDANCE HIGHLIGHTS ETHICS LOOPHOLE: “During his final three years at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the physician scientist Doran Fink’s work focused on reviewing Covid-19 vaccines. But a decade after joining the agency Fink had accepted a job with Moderna, the Covid vaccine manufacturer. … As he left for the private sector, the FDA’s ethics programme staff emailed him guidelines on post-employment restrictions, ‘tailored to your situation,’” Peter Doshi writes in BMJ. — “The email, obtained by The BMJ under a freedom of information request, explained that, although US law prohibits a variety of types of lobbying contact, ‘they do not prohibit the former employee from other activities, including working “behind the scenes.”’” — “The legal ability to work ‘behind the scenes’ is enshrined in federal regulations and highlights a ‘critical, critical loophole’ in US revolving door policy,” said Craig Holman, a lobbyist for the good government group Public Citizen. — “‘So, people will leave government service and can immediately start doing influence peddling and lobbying,’ Holman explained. ‘They can even run a lobbying campaign, as long as they don’t actually pick up the telephone and make the contact with their former officials—and that’s exactly the advice that’s being given here.’” — “The documents obtained by The BMJ show that the FDA’s advice regarding work done ‘behind the scenes’ was not limited to a single email but appeared several times in emails to Fink and in emails to Jaya Goswami, an FDA medical officer who reviewed Moderna’s covid vaccine before leaving for a position with the manufacturer.” — Asked “whether it had any concerns that proactively informing employees about their ability to work behind the scenes could be interpreted as encouraging former FDA staff indirectly to lobby the agency,” an FDA spokesperson told BMJ that “working behind the scenes does not necessarily equate to direct or indirect lobbying activities.”
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