IF YOU MISSED IT OVER THE WEEKEND: Katie Miller, a key adviser to Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency, is taking a leave of absence from P2 Public Affairs, the GOP communications and consulting firm at which she had been simultaneously advising clients, The Wall Street Journal’s Josh Dawsey and C. Ryan Barber report, days after the paper highlighted the dual roles that her designation as a “special government employee” allowed her to hold. — “Two people familiar with Miller’s decision said it was unclear whether she would return to the firm, and one of them said Miller told others she was leaving permanently,” per WSJ. “It was Miller’s decision to step away, the people said. She is expected to continue her role in the Trump White House, these people said.” FIRST IN PI — NEW FACES AT AMFREE CHAMBER: The American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce, a business group formed during the Biden administration to compete with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is standing up a new advisory council as it prepares to boost Trump’s deregulatory agenda. — The council features former Ambassador to New Zealand and Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.), former Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry President and CEO Gene Barr, former Trump lawyer Bobby Burchfield, Mark Colson of the Alabama Trucking Association, John Eddy of the Institute for American Innovation at America's Frontier Fund, Chris Furlow of the Texas Bankers Association, Dawn Grove of Karsten Manufacturing Corporation, Frank Jemley of the Kentucky Association of Manufacturers, Kevin Kolevar of Dow, former Rep. Steve Stivers of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce and Randall Ussery of Murray Hill Group. — The group also added Citadel and Citadel Securities global public affairs chief Cason Carter and California Business Roundtable President Rob Lapsley to its board of directors. The additions follow the AmFree Chamber’s recruitment of Bill McGinley to lead its legal arm following McGinley’s short-lived stint as White House counsel and then DOGE attorney. ALPINE GROUP FIRES LOBBYIST: The Alpine Group on Friday fired Courtney Johnson, a principal at the firm and head of its health care practice, after she was seen in a viral video making racist comments, per Daniel. Johnson had been at the top D.C. firm for more than two decades and was registered on behalf of numerous companies including AWS, Amgen, Leidos and Lyft, according to recent lobbying disclosures. — “Following a thorough internal inquiry, Courtney Johnson’s employment has been terminated, effective immediately, due to conduct inconsistent with company policies and standards,” the firm said in a statement. “The views expressed are deeply offensive and inconsistent with our firm’s values and culture.” Johnson didn’t respond to requests for comment. NEW LOOK: HLP&R Advocacy is undergoing a rebrand and has added a top former aide to Secretary of State Marco Rubio as it retools for the new administration. The firm has changed its name to Penn Avenue Partners, a move co-founder Tim Hannegan said is aimed at reflecting “our growing brand and the client services we provide on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.” — As part of the glow-up, the firm has also hired Lauren Reamy, who was Rubio’s deputy chief of staff and legislative director in the Senate, as a senior vice president. Two other Republican lobbyists at the firm, former Johnny Isakson aide Jay Sulzmann and former Mario Díaz-Balart staffer Christina McGarry David, are receiving promotions — to senior vice president and vice president, respectively. GOOD LUCK WITH THAT: “European Union politicians who helped shape the bloc’s crackdown on Big Tech are trying to sway United States policymakers who've been listening to tech bros like X’s Elon Musk and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg,” per POLITICO’s Eliza Gkritsi and Max Griera. — But a delegation’s trip to D.C. last month didn’t go off without a hitch: After meeting with House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, the Ohio Republican fired off subpoenas to eight U.S. tech giants demanding they turn over their communications with foreign governments related to compliance with laws Jordan said are overly restrictive on free speech. — That illustrates the uphill battle for the bloc after Trump’s administration “took aim at EU rules on online content moderation and digital competition, saying these amount to government censorship and unfairly target American companies. Trump even threatened tariffs to fight back against foreign fines or restrictions on U.S. tech giants.” KNOWING JUSTIN PETERSON: “A Washington, D.C., strategist and lobbyist with deep connections to the Republican Party, Justin Peterson is accustomed to fighting aggressively on behalf of powerful clients such as Exxon Mobil,” WSJ’s Christopher M. Matthews and Jenny Strasburg write. — “But at a November 2015 breakfast with an Israeli private investigator, Peterson launched a yearslong campaign that federal prosecutors now say crossed a line. As he put it in an email following the breakfast, Peterson wanted the investigator to ‘operationalize the research on the bad guys.’ According to prosecutors, a practice that led to something very specific: hacking into the email accounts of Exxon’s enemies.” — “Peterson hasn’t been accused of wrongdoing or charged in connection with the alleged hacking, but his alleged role in commissioning the operation is described in detail in court documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.” His firm, DCI Group, “cooperated with prosecutors in 2020 but the firm hasn’t had contact with them in three years, according to a lawyer for DCI. The lawyer said prosecutors told DCI it wasn’t a target.” In a post on X today, Peterson said: “I follow the law and direct all our employees and consultants to do the same. I did not commission any hacking, nor would I ever condone it. To assert otherwise, as the WSJ does in its reporting is false and defamatory.” FLYING IN: Fly-in season is in full swing as talks for a potential stopgap spending bill and Republicans’ reconciliation legislation heat up. Breakthrough T1D is on the Hill today and tomorrow to push for funding for type 1 diabetes research. — Rep. Kim Schrier (D-Wash.), the only member of Congress who has type 1 diabetes, will speak with the attendees, who will urge lawmakers to renew the Special Diabetes Program, prevent cuts to indirect funding from NIH and retain key agency staff leading work related to type 1 diabetes. — The National Association of Broadcasters has more than 565 broadcasters from all 50 states coming to town this week. Tomorrow they’ll hear from a slate of policymakers before blanketing the Hill to discuss their new campaign to update broadcast ownership rules and on legislation to maintain AM radio in new cars. IN MEMORIAM: “Lincoln Díaz-Balart, a Cuban-American Republican politician who defended immigrants and fiercely opposed Fidel Castro’s regime to help restore democracy in his native Cuba while serving for almost two decades in Congress representing South Florida, died on Monday at 70,” the Miami Herald’s Nora Gámez Torres and Sarah Moreno write. Díaz-Balart’s death was announced on X by his brother, Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.). — After leaving Congress in 2011, Lincoln Díaz-Balart set up shop on K Street, launching Western Hemisphere Strategies. He was registered to lobby for the Dominican Republic as well as the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, Taiwan’s diplomatic outpost in Washington, as recently as January, according to DOJ filings. — And Shannon Oscar, a principal at The Oscar Group and managing director of the American Subcontractor Association Subcontractor Legal Defense Fund, died last week at the age of 50. She was an Anne Northup, Fred Thompson and Wayne Allard alum, and her funeral was today. SPOTTED at the Mr. C Hotel for a launch party for Forward Global’s new Miami office, per a tipster: John Procter, Noe Garcia and Jose Mallea of Forward Global, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, Christina Crespi of the Miami Downtown Development Authority, Florida state Rep. David Borrero, county commission Vice Chair Kionne McGhee, former Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez, Alex Rodriguez-Roig of Boys and Girls Club Miami, Adam Mehl and “Disrupt” podcast host Tony Delgado.
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