Corey Lewandowski (pictured) and Barry Bennett, also an ex-Trump campaign aide, started the firm, Avenue Strategies, soon after the election. | Getty Lewandowski quits lobbying firm The activities of Trump’s former campaign manager and his associates had drawn scrutiny.

Donald Trump’s first campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, on Thursday resigned from his lobbying firm amid scrutiny of its efforts to capitalize on his relationship with the president, said Barry Bennett, the firm’s other co-founder.

Lewandowski and Bennett, also an ex-Trump campaign aide, started the firm, Avenue Strategies, soon after the election, boasting that they could use their understanding of the new administration to benefit clients.


But Lewandowski had not formally registered to lobby for the firm, even though he pitched prospective clients and boasted often about his access to the White House.

Bennett on Thursday suggested Lewandowski’s reputation and questions about his adherence to lobbying disclosure requirements might have hurt the firm.

“He’s such a huge target in town, and to own a chunk of a lobbying shop and not do any lobbying — it’s just always going to create questions,” Bennett said. “Everything the firm did was him and why he didn’t register.”

On Wednesday, the government-ethics watchdog group Public Citizen sent a letter to the Department of Justice and congressional lobbying oversight offices requesting investigations into whether Lewandowski was violating lobbying laws by not registering.

Lewandowski didn’t respond to requests for comment, but a person close to him said he decided to leave in part because he feared that negative stories about Avenue would cause problems for Trump.

"He doesn’t want to bring bad stories that reflect poorly on the president or anyone who he’s friends with in the administration," the person said, explaining that Lewandowski is heading back to New Hampshire now. “I think he’s trying to figure out, what are my next steps?”

Lewandowski told Bloomberg, which broke the news about his departure from Avenue, that he was leaving the firm because Bennett and others were using his name without his permission.

That was apparently in reference to a newer company created by Avenue Strategies that POLITICO reported was circulating materials to prospective clients in Eastern Europe offering meetings with Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

On Wednesday, Lewandowski said in a statement to POLITICO that he had “no affiliation or involvement” with the newer firm, Washington East West Political Strategies.

Bennett said Avenue Strategies "owned the equity — and that is me and Corey — but he didn’t have any role.” Bennett said Avenue Strategies was dissolving Washington East West Political Strategies but was retaining similar firms seeking business in Central America, the Middle East and Canada.

As for Avenue Strategies, Bennett said he was not sure whether he and the firm’s other remaining partners — former Trump campaign hands Ed Brookover and Jason Osborne — would buy back Lewandowski’s equity.

Brookover wrote in an email Thursday: “Still with the firm. Full steam ahead!!”

Also on Thursday, another Avenue employee, C.J. Gimenez, announced he was parting ways with the firm and would join Lewandowski in a yet-to-be-announced new venture.

“Corey and I are breaking away to focus on domestic clients,” said the South Florida-based Gimenez, a son of Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez. “While we respect everyone at Avenue, when the visions don’t align, the best thing to do is move on.”

Gimenez, who had joined Avenue only last month, said the reason he was leaving was that the firm had entered into a $25,000-a-month contract to represent the Venezuelan government-owned oil company Citgo — a contract POLITICO revealed on Wednesday.

"I will personally never represent the interests of the Maduro regime, which reflects the worst there is of all humanity," Gimenez told the Miami Herald, which broke the news of his departure.

Bennett said he wasn’t sure whether any other firm personnel would leave with Lewandowski. But Bennett predicted that “we will be fine and [Lewandowski] will be fine.”

“We continue on without hopefully all the press attention on Corey,” he said. "We remain close friends.”

Through the first few months of the year, Avenue Strategies inked at least six contracts worth about $290,000 with clients ranging from a biomedical company to the government of Puerto Rico, according to government records and interviews.

Breaking News Alerts Get breaking news when it happens — in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

The firm's personnel listed on legally required lobbying filings for those clients and others included Bennett, Osborne and former Trump campaign field official Mike Rubino.

Bennett said Lewandowski didn’t register as a lobbyist because he wasn’t engaged in any outreach to government officials on behalf of clients.

“He was taking calls is what he was doing,” Bennett said. “People would call him, and he would go meet them and pitch them. That was it.”

Bennett said many outsiders didn't realize how much the firm had grown since he and Lewandowski launched it.

"More people mean more activity. But to many, the firm and Corey were one in the same," he said.