T-Mobile hires Hogan Lovells to lobby on Sprint merger Presented by the Consumer Brands Association

With David Beavers, Daniel Lippman and Garrett Ross

T-MOBILE HIRES HOGAN LOVELLS TO LOBBY ON SPRINT MERGER: “T-Mobile has hired a pair of lobbyists from Hogan Lovells, including former Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, to lobby on its pending $26 billion merger with Sprint, records show,” POLITICO’s Steven Overly reports. “Coleman, of Minnesota, served in the Senate until early 2009. The other T-Mobile hire is Aaron Cutler, who served as a senior adviser to former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.). T-Mobile and Sprint are actively courting Washington regulators and lawmakers as they make the case for their merger. … T-Mobile is the third-largest carrier and Sprint the fourth-largest, with Verizon and AT&T in the top two spots.” Full story.


— Earlier this year, T-Mobile registered lobbyists from Kountoupes Denham Carr & Reid, InSight Public Affairs and Turnberry Solutions. T-Mobile also has Mercury Strategies, Forbes-Tate, Rivendell Group, Washington2 Advocates, S-3 Group, Wilmer Culter Pickering Hale and Dorr, American Continental Group, Thorn Run Partners and the Steve Buyer Group working on the merger, according to disclosure filings. In June, POLITICO reported that former Trump chief of staff Reince Priebus offered advice to T-Mobile. T-Mobile has also turned to former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski for advice on the merger.

MONUMENT TO OPEN BAY AREA OFFICE: Monument Policy Group plans to open an office in the San Francisco Bay area and is seeking someone to lead it, according to Stewart Verdery, the firm’s founder. Monument currently has offices in Washington and Seattle. The firm recently signed three new lobbying clients based in the area: Phylagen, a microbiome-monitoring startup; Twilio, a cloud communications company; and Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving car unit. Monument will lobby for Phylagen on fraud prevention and Department of Homeland Security technology development, among other issues, according to a filing shared with PI. The firm will lobby for Twilio on cloud communications and data security, and for Waymo on — you guessed it — self-driving cars.

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MANAFORT DEFENSE RESTS: “Paul Manafort’s defense rested Tuesday without calling any witnesses — including Manafort himself — a decision that will send the tax- and bank-fraud trial into its final stages,” POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney, Josh Gerstein and Darren Samuelsohn report. “Closing statements will begin Wednesday, with jury deliberations to follow. U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III rejected a last-minute bid by the defense to toss out the charges against Manafort, the former chairman of President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. Special counsel Robert Mueller's team brought the charges as part of its investigation into Russian interference during the presidential election.

— “The defense's announcement followed an unexplained two-hour delay Tuesday morning as lawyers and the judge apparently haggled behind the scenes over an unspecified defense motion. It was the third court day in a row where Ellis took the court into a secret session. The judge said Monday afternoon that the closed hearing was needed because of a sealed motion filed by the defense. He did not elaborate, but insisted that transcripts of the hearing would eventually be made public.” Full story.

FORMER EPA DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF JOINS CROWELL & MORING: Byron Brown, previously deputy chief of staff for policy under former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, is joining Crowell & Moring as senior counsel. He will join the firm’s environment and natural resources and government affairs groups. Prior to his role at EPA, Brown was senior counsel for the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, under Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.). Asked whether Brown will register to lobby, An Pham, media, public relations and communications manager at Crowell, told PI that Brown “expects to be lobbying at some point” and “is prepared to register.”

NEW REPORT ON FACEBOOK AND GOOGLE’S INFLUENCE VIA CAMPAIGN ‘EMBEDS’: The Campaign for Accountability is out with a report today on the conflicts that could arise from Facebook and Google employees providing free consulting services to presidential campaigns. “Having such political staff ‘embedded’ inside campaigns helps both sides.” the report says. “Campaigns get free help targeting and persuading voters; the companies reap valuable intelligence for their lobbying operations and forge relationships with politicians who will be responsible for laws affecting their interests. The practice gives the companies a level of inside knowledge from the campaigns and sway with policymakers few other industries can match. Overall, a review of available evidence suggests that the embed program constitutes a unique, undisclosed, and largely unregulated influence channel that greatly benefits the companies’ business.” Read the full report here.

IN TODAY’S NOTABLE REGISTRATIONS AND TERMINATIONS: The Seattle Times Company terminated its own registration to lobby. As recently as the third quarter of 2017, the Seattle Times spent $12,500 to lobby on pension reform, according to disclosure files. Frank Blethen, the paper’s publisher and CEO, is the most recent lobbyist listed. The newspaper has Groom Law Group and Washington2 Advocates on retainer to lobby on pension legislation, disclosure filings show. In other notable disclosure news, Switzerland’s Transocean hired Miller & Chevalier to assist with “collection of debt from Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Ltd., including outreach to U.S. Embassy in Abuja.” Travelers Indemnity Company hired The Smith-Free Group to lobby on insurance issues.

IS BEZOS MORE POWERFUL THAN TRUMP? “There’s a new scandal quietly unfolding in Washington,” Vanity Fair’s May Jeong writes. “It involves the world’s richest man, President Trump’s favorite general, and a $10 billion defense contract. And it may be a sign of how tech giants and Silicon Valley tycoons will dominate Washington for generations to come. The controversy involves a plan to move all of the Defense Department’s data — classified and unclassified — on to the cloud. The information is currently strewn across some 400 centers, and the Pentagon’s top brass believes that consolidating it into one cloud-based system, the way the CIA did in 2013, will make it more secure and accessible. That’s why, on July 26, the Defense Department issued a request for proposals called JEDI, short for Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure. Whoever winds up landing the winner-take-all contract will be awarded $10 billion — instantly becoming one of America’s biggest federal contractors.

— “The process of crafting JEDI bears all the hallmarks of the swamp that Trump has vowed to drain. Though there has long been talk about the Defense Department joining the cloud, the current call for bids was put together only after Defense Secretary [Jim] Mattis hired a D.C. lobbyist who had previously consulted for Amazon. The lobbyist, Sally Donnelly, served as a top advisor to Mattis while the details of JEDI were being hammered out. During her tenure, Mattis flew to Seattle to tour Amazon’s headquarters and meet with Jeff Bezos. Then, as the cloud-computing contract was being finalized, Donnelly’s former lobbying firm, SBD Advisors, was bought by an investment fund with ties to Amazon’s cloud-computing unit.” Full story.

TRUMP’S TURKEY SPAT COULD ROUSE ARMY OF LOBBYISTS: “Whatever the result of President Donald Trump’s tariff fight with Turkey, it is almost certainly going to rouse a well-financed and deeply entrenched influence peddling operation in Washington,” Roll Call’s Stephanie Akin reports. “The Republic of Turkey spends hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on well-connected DC lobbyists to promote its interests in Washington. It makes major gifts to American think tanks that do not have to be reported under the Foreign Agent Registration Act. And it donates money to political candidates through PACs like Turkish Coalition USA.” Full story.

SPOTTED at Es Torrent, a coastal eatery in Ibiza known for serving oligarchs and celebrities: Sanofi’s Nina DeLorenzo, Qorvis’s Grace Fenstermaker, Magnolia Strategies’ Nick Owens, and Hachette author and U.S. Fashion Industry Association’s Samantha Sault eating with London photographer Mary Morgan. The D.C. lobbyists were celebrating the birthday of Matt J. Lauer.

JOBS REPORT:

— Drew Maloney has officially joined the American Investment Council as president and chief executive. He was previously assistant secretary for legislative affairs at the Treasury Department.

— Rick Dearborn is now a senior policy adviser at Adams and Reese, in addition to his current role as a partner at The Cypress Group.

— Jeff Holmes has left SKDKnickerbocker where he was a director. He is now deputy director of communications for Fred Hubbell for Iowa Governor.

NEW JOINT FUNDRAISERS:

Baer 2018 Victory Fund (Lauren Baer for Congress, Democratic Executive Committee of Florida, DCCC)

Harris Leadership Fund (Mark Harris for Congress, NRCC)

Johnson Leads Committee (Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio), Belief in Life and Liberty PAC, NRCC)

Missouri For GOP Senate Majority (McSally for Senate Inc., Mike Braun for Indiana)

Mucarsel-Powell 2018 Victory Fund (Debbie Mucarsel Powell for Congress, Democratic Executive Committee of Florida, DCCC)

Shapiro 2018 Victory Fund (Democratic Executive Committee of Florida, DCCC, David Shapiro for Congress)

Soderberg 2018 Victory Fund (Nancy Soderberg for Congress, Democratic Executive Committee of Florida, DCCC)

NEW PACs:

Growing Our Own Dynamic Economy Now (PAC)

Help America Dump Trump Super PAC (super PAC)

People For Pappas (super PAC)

Stop Socialist Ocasio-Cortez (super PAC)

NEW LOBBYING REGISTRATIONS:

Armory Hill Advocates (formerly known as Rawlson Policy Group): Waleed Elyaman, MD

Atlas Crossing: Virgin Hyperloop One

Fact Coalition (A Project Of The Fund For Constitutional Government): Fact Coalition (A Project Of The Fund For Constitutional Government)

Hogan Lovells US LLP: T-Mobile US, Inc.

J M Burkman & Associates: S&B Drilling LLC

Kadesh & Associates, LLC: Protagonist, Inc.

Miller & Chevalier, Chtd: Transocean Ltd.

The Smith-Free Group, LLC: Travelers Indemnity Company

Van Scoyoc Associates: Little Rock Port Authority

NEW LOBBYING TERMINATIONS:

O'Keeffe Strategies, LLC: Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety

Mr. HUGH MCGILLICUDDY: Evluma

Bold Strategies, LLC: American Ethane Company, LLC

Direct Marketing Association, Inc.: Direct Marketing Association, Inc.

Mr. Mark Micali: Direct Marketing Association, Inc.

The Seattle Times Company: Seattle Times Company

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