President Trump's former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, is reportedly flaunting the fact that his firm can get clients sit-down meetings with "well-established figures" like Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, Politico reports. An Eastern European politician revealed documents from Washington East West Political Strategies, which Lewandowski co-founded, boasting that the partners could "leverage [their] trusted relations with the U.S. administration" on a client's behalf.
"Whether Corey Lewandowski is just engaging in business as usual or actually going further, it definitely has a pervading swampiness to it that has become the new normal in Trump's Washington," said Lisa Gilbert, vice president of the watchdog group Public Citizen. Trump, notably, has vowed a crackdown on lobbyists.
Barry Bennett, a Republican strategist and co-founder of the firm, argued "90 percent of our business has nothing to do with access. Ninety percent of our business has to do with being a sherpa — who to call, what to do. We don't take people in to see the president or the vice president." Lewandowski is not actually registered as a lobbyist because "he hasn't lobbied," Bennett added.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Politico notes that nevertheless "White House officials worry that Lewandowski's efforts to market his access — which are brazen even by K Street's unbashful standards — are an influence-peddling scandal waiting to happen for a president who pledged to end the dominance of lobbyists and special interests in Washington." Read the full report at Politico.
-
5 hilariously pointed cartoons about the government shutdown blame gameCartoons Artists take on finger guns, pants on fire, and more
-
October 11 editorial cartoonsCartoons Saturday's political cartoons include exercising voting rights, weight-loss drugs for the military, and ICE at a job fair
-
Remaking the military: the war on diversity and ‘fat generals’Talking Point The US Secretary of War addressed military members on ‘warrior ethos’
-
Gold tops $4K per ounce, signaling financial uneaseSpeed Read Investors are worried about President Donald Trump’s trade war
-
Electronic Arts to go private in record $55B dealspeed read The video game giant is behind ‘The Sims’ and ‘Madden NFL’
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fineSpeed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in IntelSpeed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to ChinaSpeed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with DisneySpeed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B dealSpeed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance mergerSpeed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
