This summer, Esposito earned $1.6 million from the embattled Chinese telecommunications company Huawei, a massive sum for a single lobbyist. And last year, his firm Federal Advocates landed lucrative Ukrainian clients.

According to contract bids from Federal Advocates reviewed by the Post, Esposito has claimed to have “an open line of communication to the President of the United States” and be in “regular” contact with Trump. He has also boasted of ties to Trump’s youngest adult son, Eric Trump, and his son-in-law and White House adviser Jared Kushner. But Eric Trump, a White House official and press secretary Stephanie Grisham have separately denied that any of the three men know Esposito.

Eric Trump offered a more forceful denial after his father’s tweet Monday, dismissing Esposito as just one more player in the D.C. swamp the president has pledged to drain.

“This makes two of us! I keep hearing this name (Michael Esposito) but have no idea who this person is... could I have met him, possibly but he certainly doesn’t have ‘direct line,’” the younger Trump wrote in a repost of the president’s tweet. “If he ever worked on a Trump project, he didn’t make a lasting impression. Welcome to the swamp.”

Esposito also serves on an honorary advisory board to the chair of the Republican National Committee, a position he got by meeting a certain donor threshold as a member of the Trump Victory Finance Committee. According to the Post, the RNC recently sent Esposito a “cease and desist” letter for misrepresenting his ties to the committee.

