| | | | |  | | By Caitlin Oprysko | | Presented by |  | | | With Daniel Lippman CONTINENTAL'S BUSINESS PICKS UP: It looks like there’s a new Florida lobbying firm on the rise following Donald Trump’s win last month. Continental Strategy, which was started by former Florida lawmaker and Trump adviser Carlos Trujillo, has quickly been adding and elevating staff with ties to the incoming administration. The firm has also signed up three new clients since the election, according to disclosure filings. — Among the new clients is Google Cloud, which retained Continental on Nov. 15 to lobby on issues related to artificial intelligence and innovation, per the disclosures. Trujillo lobbies for Google in Florida, but the expansion to federal lobbying comes as President Joe Biden’s FTC has scrutinized competition in both the cloud and generative AI sectors. Google’s fate following a ruling deeming the company an illegal monopoly also rests in Trump’s hands, along with the future of guardrails for AI technology — with which the cloud industry is intertwined. — Continental also registered to lobby for GEO Group, the private prison giant that was Trump’s largest corporate supporter and which is readying for a massive payday if Trump — whose pick for attorney general, Pam Bondi, previously lobbied for the company — follows through on his promise of mass deportations for undocumented immigrants. — The final client added since the election is Haitian industrial conglomerate GB Group, whose chair was hit with Canadian sanctions in 2022 for alleged support of armed gangs in the country. Trujillo is tasked with securing meetings with members of Congress, according to a disclosure filing. — Trujillo founded Continental shortly after Trump left office, having served in his first administration as ambassador to the Organization of American States. This year, Trujillo was instrumental in helping Trump craft his appeals to Latino voters ahead of the election — which paid off in historic gains across the country and helped power the former president to his second term. — Just days after the election, Continental announced a promotion for Katie Wiles, whose mother, Susie Wiles, had just been named Trump’s choice for chief of staff. A few days after that, the firm said it was bringing on Alberto Martinez, a former chief of staff to Trump’s pick as chief diplomat Marco Rubio, as a managing partner to help grow the firm’s footprint in D.C. Yesterday, the firm said it had hired the Trump campaign’s deputy political director Alex Garcia as a partner. — Continental registered to lobby for five federal clients in total between 2021 and 2023. This year alone, the firm has signed 15 federal clients, disclosures show. They include Miami-Dade County, offshore energy developer U.S. Wind, American Sugar Refining, real estate company CREI Holdings, the University of North Florida, and several Argentine utility and mining companies. — Lobbying revenues at the firm have also surged: Continental has brought in $819,000 through the first three quarters of this year, an almost eightfold increase from the $105,000 in revenues Continental reported in 2021, its first year in Washington. Happy Wednesday and welcome to PI. Send influence tips: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on X: @caitlinoprysko.
| | A message from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network: Congress, when you prioritize the fight against cancer, you make time for survivors to live their lives to the fullest. As you finish work before the end of the year, support robust funding increases for cancer research and prevention at the NIH and NCI and pass H.R. 2407 / S. 2085 to provide a pathway to coverage for multi-cancer early detection tests once FDA-approved and clinical benefit is shown. Congress: Fight Cancer. Make Time. | | | FORMER ROKU LOBBYIST TAPPED FOR DOJ ANTITRUST ROLE: Trump this afternoon said he plans to nominate Gail Slater to lead the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, filling a key post that signals how his administration will approach antitrust the second time around. — Slater is an alum of the FTC and the now-shuttered Silicon Valley group Internet Association. She worked as a special assistant to Trump on tech, telecom and cybersecurity issues during his first administration before moving over to Fox Corp. as senior vice president of policy and strategy and then joining streaming company Roku as one of its first in-house lobbyists amid antitrust fights with larger media companies. More recently, Slater worked as an economic adviser to Vice President-elect JD Vance, who has been a rare Republican defender of current FTC Chair Lina Khan. — While Trump pledged that Slater, if confirmed, will enforce competition laws “both vigorously and FAIRLY, with clear rules that facilitate, rather than stifle, the ingenuity of our greatest companies,” he also knocked the tech industry right off the bat, accusing Big Tech of having “run wild for years” and abusing its market power. — The initial reaction from tech antitrust hawks to her selection has been positive. “As we’ve been saying for years, antitrust enforcement is a popular, bipartisan, political winner and here to stay,” Tech Oversight Project’s Sacha Haworth said in a statement. Matt Stoller of the American Economic Liberties Project applauded the pick as well, calling it “a very powerful statement that Trump wants to take on big tech.” AND A PERSONNEL SHUFFLE: In a flurry of personnel announcements this afternoon, Trump also announced a new role for another K Streeter tapped for the administration. Bill McGinley, the GOP lawyer and Vogel Group lobbyist picked to be White House counsel, will instead work with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy on their outside project to massively scale back the reach of the federal government. David Warrington, one of Trump’s personal attorneys and the top lawyer on his 2024 campaign, will become White House counsel, Trump said. HELP FOUND: “Chris Winkelman, the top staffer at the House Republican campaign arm, will be the new president of the Congressional Leadership Fund,” our Ally Mutnick reports. “Winkelman will replace Dan Conston, who has led the super PAC for six years and announced Monday he will be stepping down.” — “As its leader, Winkelman will court major party donors and direct hundreds of millions of dollars in ad spending to help Republicans grow their narrow majority. He spent three cycles as general counsel for the National Republican Congressional Committee before taking over as its executive director in 2023. His tenure at the NRCC has given him strong relationships with members and the chairman, Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.),” as well as Speaker Mike Johnson. KNOWING EITAN ARUSY: The Wall Street Journal’s Christopher M. Matthews, Jenny Strasburg and Bradley Hope write that the former Israeli intelligence officer “who made his name more than a decade ago as a dogged sleuth helping the Manhattan district attorney uncover a well-disguised — and deadly — terror-financing operation” is “now on the other side of a major investigation.” — “As part of a globe-spanning probe, the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office is scrutinizing Arusy’s role within an insular network of Israeli investigators who sought damaging information on opponents of Exxon Mobil, hedge fund Elliott Management and others, according to people familiar with the matter.” — “One case in which Arusy played a key role was in 2016, when Exxon Mobil was defending itself from a high-profile campaign alleging the company knew about climate change for decades and hid it from the public.” — “Exxon said in court filings and public statements that the campaign was a politically motivated conspiracy between members of the Rockefeller family, environmentalists and Democratic attorneys general.” Arusy shared an internal memo — which authorities said was stolen in a hack — with Exxon’s consulting firm DCI Group that appeared to bolster that point, “and within weeks, the firm leaked the memo to media outlets,” per WSJ. — “Among the crucial questions for prosecutors is who ordered the hacking, who conducted it and what the companies knew about the efforts to make public their enemies’ private correspondence. Neither Exxon nor DCI have been accused of wrongdoing.”
| | | | A message from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network:   | | | | | — After stepping in as SoftBank’s interim head of government affairs in August following the retirement of Brian Conklin, Jeff Dressler has been hired for the position full time. Dressler joined SoftBank in 2019 and more recently also served on the Afghanistan War Commission. — Kevin O'Connor will be senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary at Lockheed Martin. He was previously senior vice president and chief legal officer for Carrier. — Eli Cain is joining the Carbon Removal Alliance as a senior policy manager. He most recently was at the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. — Will Lemke has joined Monument Advocacy as vice president of public affairs, based in Seattle. Lemke previously managed corporate and industry communications at Zillow Group. — Constellation Energy has named Andrew Malcolm as vice president of federal government affairs. He’s currently chief of staff to Constellation CEO Joe Dominguez and is a Greg Walden alum. — Andrew Rakaczki is joining Career Education Colleges and Universities as senior vice president of government relations. He was previously vice president of government relations for BankMobile. — Pat Thompson is joining CR Federal. He most recently was a staffer on the Senate Armed Services Committee handling Army and Marine Corps programs. — The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association has hired Kyle Alexandre as vice president of state government relations. She was most recently Florida deputy political director for the Kamala Harris campaign and is an Orlando Regional Realtors Association alum. — Dave Heinzinger is now the head of media strategy at X. He was formerly president of the public relations group Haymaker. — Peter Nonis is joining global investment and transformation company General Catalyst as vice president of policy communications for the newly launched General Catalyst Institute. He is vice president of marketing and communications at the Business Council for International Understanding. — Hannah Thoburn is now EUCOM strategy director at Anduril Industries. She previously was a senior professional staff member for Europe and Eurasia for Senate Foreign Relations Committee Republicans.
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| | Facts in Politics (Super PAC) FIRST PRINCIPLES PAC (Hybrid PAC) Florida Firebrand PAC (PAC) Perimeter Solutions Inc. Political Action Committee (PAC) Southwest Virginia Rising (PAC)
| | New Lobbying REGISTRATIONS | | Continental Strategy, LLC: Geo Group Continental Strategy, LLC: Google Cloud Continental Strategy, LLC: Hondurass Prospera Inc Continental Strategy, LLC: The Gb Group S.A. Cornerstone Government Affairs, Inc.: W&T Offshore, Inc. Fierce Government Relations: Securing America'S Future Energy Alliance Holland & Knight LLP: Trinity Housing Development King & Spalding LLP: United Cdpap, Inc. Pilot Company: Pilot Company | | New Lobbying Terminations | | | Smith Dawson & Andrews: Aurora University
| | A message from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network: Over 2 million people in the United States will be diagnosed this year. Others will grieve the loss of a friend, colleague, or family member, one of projected 620,000 lives that will be lost to this disease. As you finish this year, Congress has the opportunity to prioritize the fight against cancer to help millions of people.
When Congress prioritizes policies to end cancer as we know it, for everyone, you make time for patients, loved ones, caregivers, and everybody else affected by the 200 diseases known as cancer. Now is the time to support robust funding increases for cancer research and prevention at the NIH and NCI and pass H.R. 2407 / S. 2085 to provide a pathway to coverage for multi-cancer early detection tests once FDA-approved and clinical benefit is shown. Congress: Fight Cancer. Make Time. | | | | | | | Follow us | | | | |
