Heather Podesta + Partners suppressed audience for documentary critical of client Herbalife Presented by American Academy of Dermatology Association

With help from Taylor Gee, Kaitlyn Burton and Mary Lee

DEPARTMENT OF DIRTY TRICKS: Friday's D.C. screening of a documentary scrutinizing controversial multilevel marketing company Herbalife had 173 empty seats — because Herbalife's lobbying firm bought them out.


The documentary, Ted Braun's "Betting on Zero," focuses on activist investor Bill Ackman's quest to portray Herbalife as a pyramid scheme and profit from shorting its stock. Ackman and his hedge fund didn't fund the film but did provide access and interviews.

Ten staffers of Heather Podesta + Partners, which lobbies for Herbalife, bought half the tickets and never picked them up, according to organizers of the film festival, "Double Exposure." At $15 a seat, the ruse cost more than $2,500. The company paid the firm $70,000 last quarter, lobbying disclosures show.

"Such actions are particularly questionable and disappointing for a publicly traded company operating in an open democracy," Braun said in a statement. He said Herbalife didn't respond to an invitation to participate in a panel discussion and was trying to avoid "serious questions raised by the film and the recent FTC settlement."

"I think it's an embarrassment to" the firm, Ackman said at the panel after the screening. "Think about the enablers here. ... Money can buy enormous influence in this town."

Heather Podesta didn't answer a request for comment.

NEW BUSINESS:

— Former Rep. and Army Secretary John McHugh, now with K&L Gates, registered to lobby for Halo Neuroscience, a San Francisco neurotechnology company, on military use of "non-invasive neurostimulation to accelerate injury and stress recovery, manage pain and enhance strength, skill and endurance." The filing also names Anne LeMay, a longtime McHugh aide, and Steven McCain.

— Chevron hired Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas to lobby on the Clean Air Act and proposed rules affecting the oil and gas sector, energy development on public lands, fuel standards, economic sanctions and tax reform affecting the oil and gas industry. (Chevron, which has an oil field and chemical plants in Saudi Arabia, has been among the major companies opposing the bill to let 9/11 victims' families sue the kingdom.)

— Airbnb retained Oscar Ramirez, Claudia James and Paul Brathwaite of the Podesta Group. The room-sharing company is locked in a battle with the American Hotel & Lodging Association.

— The Catfish Farmers of America, through Noble Strategies, hired the Russell Group's Randy Russell, Tyson Redpath (a former legislative assistant to John Boehner), Fitzhugh Elder IV (a former clerk for the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee) and Andrew Harker. The domestic industry, fearing Asian competition, is trying to stop a Senate-approved measure to transfer inspections from the USDA to the FDA.

I DON'T WANT TO get into what happened last night because it's only gonna make me mad.

STAY TUNED to POLITICO for news from the 5 p.m. Republican National Committee meeting as the party wrestles with its fate.

— Speaker Paul Ryan told House Republicans this morning he's done defending Trump and will focus on protecting their majority, POLITICO's Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan reported. But he stopped short of revoking his endorsement.

— NBC's Katy Tur and Benjy Sarlin reported RNC chairman Reince Priebus is telling staff to do "what's best" for them. The next part, which he didn't say, is to send jobs news (and other tips) to PI.

LIKE THIS: Brandon Key will join Prince George's County, Maryland as a budget/management analyst after five years with Simon & Co.

SAFE ZONES: Help Me Go Home, Ambassador Paul Russo's group advocating for Syrian refugees, hired Wise Public Affairs to run its U.S. campaign. The organization plans to spend $5-7 million in the U.S. and EU.

LEVERAGED BAYH OUT: Evan Bayh had more than four dozen meetings and phone calls with headhunters and prospective employers in his last year in the Senate, according to his schedule obtained by the AP's Erica Werner. Bayh's actions appear to be legal under the Senate's watered-down ethics rules, but the details are striking. Two days after announcing his surprise retirement, Bayh had a phone call with Jim Citrin, a headhunter with the firm Spencer Stuart. In 2010, Bayh helped kill a tax increase on carried interest that was opposed by private equity giant Apollo Global Management, then stayed overnight three times at an Apollo executive's Central Park South residence and met twice with CEO Leon Black. Weeks after leaving the Senate, Bayh became a senior adviser to Apollo. Bayh also had lunch with a board member of Marathon Oil shortly before opposing an amendment to eliminate tax deductions for oil and gas companies. In 2011 Bayh joined the board of Marathon Petroleum, a spin-off company.

— A debate-night news dump revealed Bayh earned nearly $6.3 million since January 2015 as an adviser to the private equity firm Apollo Global Management, a partner at McGuireWoods, and a Fox News analyst, POLITICO’s Seung Min Kim and Maggie Severns reported. Maggie and I previously wrote about how Bayh's work toed the line of lobbying.

NEW JOINT FUNDRAISERS:

Copyright Clearance Center: Non-Qualified Non-Party, Joint Fundraiser

NEW PACs:

Kasey Lapan: Independent Expenditure - Person Or Group Not A Committee, Unauthorized

Mormons Oppose.Org: Non-Qualified Non-Party, Unauthorized

One Vote At A Time: Independent Expenditure-Only Committee, Unauthorized

Practical Solutions For America: Non-Qualified Non-Party, Leadership Pac

Team Taylor Pac: Non-Qualified Non-Party, Leadership Pac

NEW LOBBYING REGISTRATIONS:

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP: The GEO Group, Inc.

Hunton & Williams LLP: Capstone DEA Detroit, LLC

K&L GATES LLP: HaloNeuroscience

Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas, Inc.: Chevron U.S.A., Inc.

Podesta Group, Inc.: Airbnb, Inc.

Strategic Health Care: MetroHealth System

The Russell Group, Inc.: Noble Strategies (on behalf of Catfish Farmers of America)

NEW LOBBYING TERMINATIONS:

Chatman, LLC: The Livingston Group for PacWest/ Coaliton for Healthy Oregon

John Duncan and Associates, LLC: Livingston Group (On behalf of the Mortgage Electronic Registration System.)

Skipper Group: DESE Research, Incorporated

Cardinal Point PartnersL: Middlesex Community College Foundation

Evertz Group LLC: Mylan Inc.

K&L GATES LLP: Northwest Community Centers

Mr. Gerard D'Amico: Clark University

Parry, Romani, Deconcini & Symms: NC9 Group Trust

Squire Patton Boggs: City of Lakewood

Squire Patton Boggs: Urban Publics (UP) Coalition

Strategic Marketing Innovations: Team Inc

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