"红通"犯出逃1288天:内外交困身体差 被律师劝服
With Daniel Lippman
GOT YOUR BACK: A pair of powerful First Amendment advocates are imploring a federal court to tread lightly in the foreign agent case against former CIA analyst and Korea policy expert Sue Mi Terry, warning that an overly broad reading of FARA “would sweep in a wide array of constitutionally protected speech and would likely violate the First Amendment.”
— Terry, who has worked for some of Washington’s most venerable foreign policy think tanks and was frequently quoted in the press — including POLITICO — as an expert on the Korean peninsula, was indicted last summer on charges of acting as an unregistered foreign agent of Seoul.
— A broad interpretation of FARA’s language could implicate “any number of innocuous actions” taken by someone in the U.S. who may have little or no actual relationship to a foreign individual or entity, reads an amicus brief filed Wednesday by Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute and the ACLU.
— Terry has pleaded not guilty and last week moved for the dismissal of her case. The strength of the case against her has been the subject of Beltway debate over whether Terry’s interactions with Korean intelligence officials — who allegedly gifted her designer goods, provided funding for programming at one of Terry’s think tanks and paid her $500 for an op-ed she wrote — amounted to an illicit foreign influence campaign or if they are fairly uncommon, if cringey, occurrences in the think tank world.
— In addition to the support this week from the Knight Institute and ACLU, Terry also found an ally in another FARA indictee — former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig, who was acquitted of FARA violations in 2019 and who in August called DOJ’s case against Terry “shockingly weak.”
— The amicus brief makes some of the same arguments as Craig. It laments that FARA “makes no distinction between an ‘agent’ who acts as a mouthpiece of a foreign adversary and one who works with” any organization that happens to be based outside the U.S.
— The filing goes on to highlight portions of Terry’s indictment that it says “illustrate some of the hallmarks of FARA’s speech-suppressive vulnerabilities,” including that she is being prosecuted “for engaging in what appears to be advocacy of her own views.”
— “Reading the statute broadly, an American freelance writer might be required to register under FARA simply for publishing a news article solicited by, say, The Economist (which is owned by a British company),” the filing argues.
— Even with FARA’s various exemptions, the brief says the statute’s extensive disclosure requirements and potential for criminal penalties would chill First Amendment-protected speech — including by media organizations, journalists and nonprofits — and would open FARA up to be further weaponized against political opponents, all without furthering any of the government’s legitimate interest in disclosure of foreign influence efforts.
Happy Thursday and welcome to PI. What’s going on out there? Let me know: [email protected] And be sure to follow me on X: @caitlinoprysko.
FIRST IN PI — BLACKBURN’S CHIEF HEADS DOWNTOWN: Mehlman Consulting has hired a top aide to Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), the chair of two key subcommittees with jurisdiction over tech issues and one of the architects of last year’s kids online safety bill. Jon Adame is joining the firm after spending the past seven years in Blackburn’s office, including serving as her chief of staff since 2023.
— Adame said in an interview that he first met Bruce Mehlman, the firm’s founder, while working on a Blackburn-led tech task force under the Senate Judiciary Committee, adding that there are “a lot of synergies” in the tech policy work he’d been doing on the Hill and the work Mehlman does for its clients.
— The firm represents organizations like Adobe, IBM, Texas Instruments, the Information Technology Industry Council, Netflix, the Semiconductor Technology Leadership Council and the Technology CEO Council. Blackburn is now the chair of Senate Judiciary’s Privacy, Technology and Law Subcommittee as well as the Senate Commerce Consumer Protection, Technology and Data Privacy Subcommittee. In a statement provided by the firm, Blackburn called Adame an “invaluable” adviser and lauded his “deep policy expertise and sharp political acumen.”
— In addition to tech issues, Adame told PI he expects to do some trade lobbying. “Since we’ve come to the Senate, we’ve had a lot to deal with on the tariff space, and it’s uniquely affected a lot of Tennessee businesses,” he said. “So I’ve had a lot of hands-on experience tackling those challenges.” And “with everything going on with tax reform, I think everybody does tax this year,” he quipped.
ANNALS OF DARK MONEY: “After six weeks in office, President Trump has not disclosed the names of the donors who paid for his transition planning, despite a public pledge to do so,” The New York Times’ Ken Bensinger reports.
— After bucking tradition by refusing to accept millions of dollars in federal funding for his transition — and the disclosure requirements that come along with it — “no disclosures about that financing have been made by the Trump transition, and neither it nor administration officials have given indications of a timeline for releasing that information,” leaving the public in the dark about who bankrolled the massive undertaking — and why.
DEMS ASK FOR PROBE OF X PRESSURE CAMPAIGN: “Five Democratic senators have asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Elon Musk is leveraging his influence in the Trump administration to bully advertisers into returning to X,” The Wall Street Journal’s Suzanne Vranica reports.
— “The request, from Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Richard Blumenthal, Adam Schiff and Chris Van Hollen, follows a Wall Street Journal report last month about the social-media platform’s pressuring Interpublic Group to spend more on X.”
— “If Musk uses his government position to harm those who don’t do business with him, ‘he risks running afoul of criminal ethics laws,’ the senators wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi. … The senators wrote that they are concerned X is taking advantage of Musk’s powerful role to ‘extract revenue from advertisers.’”
BACK IN THE GAME: OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman is returning to Democratic political fundraising after helping fund Trump’s inauguration and cozying up to the new president, the Times’ Teddy Schleifer reports.
— Altman is set to headline an artificial intelligence-focused fundraiser in San Francisco later this month for Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), a key player on AI issues in Congress, with tickets starting at $1,000 and going up to $22,000. Altman’s co-hosts for the fundraiser include OpenAI’s chief lobbyist Chris Lehane and Franklin Square Group’s Matt Tanielian and Josh Ackil, per the NYT.
— “Altman had been a longtime Democratic donor, but he had stepped away from large political giving as his profile grew, and especially so since his brief ouster as OpenAI’s chief executive in late 2023. … The event is Altman’s first known hosted political fund-raiser since the 2022 cycle. That was around the time when Mr. Altman was researching if there could be a viable Democratic primary challenge” to former President Joe Biden.
FIRST IN PI — TRUMP ALUM HANGS A SHINGLE: Max Castroparedes has launched Pax American Strategies LLC, an advisory firm that specializes in providing political intelligence and strategic advice to asset managers, merchant banks, political campaigns and sovereign wealth funds.
— Among his first clients are a UAE and London-based capital advisory firm, a super PAC focused on conservative digital media and a strategic intelligence firm. He served in the Department of Homeland Security in the first Trump administration and is also an alum of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
A DOSE OF CRYPTONITE: “Crypto is firmly in its heyday in Washington, with lawsuits evaporating, a wave of industry-backed lawmakers settling into Congress and a digital asset czar reigning in the White House. Now, crypto might be its own worst enemy,” POLITICO’s Victoria Guida writes in her latest Capital Letter column. Factions within the industry are “battling with each other for strategic, commercial and ideological reasons” and potentially imperiling even the least controversial crypto legislation.
SPOTTED on Wednesday at a reception hosted by Stand With Crypto to celebrate the launch of the new Crypto Caucus by Reps. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) and Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), per a tipster: Reps. Brian Steil (R-Wis.), Brian Jack (R-Ga.), Eric Sorensen (D-Ill.), Herb Conaway (D-N.J.), Scott Perry (R-Pa.) and John Joyce (R-Pa.); Juan Suarez of Stand With Crypto, Kara Calvert and Julia Krieger of Coinbase.
— And a transatlantic policy summit hosted by Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and Nemec+Chvatal to discuss the current dynamics of U.S.-EU relations and their effects on the private sector, per a tipster: Ruth Bajada of the EU Delegation to the U.S. and Akin’s Joe Donnelly, Kevin Brady, Brian Pomper, Geoff Verhoff and Jan Walter.
Jobs report
— The Aerospace Industries Association is adding Margaret Boatner as vice president of national security policy, per Morning Defense. She was previously deputy assistant secretary of the Army for strategy and acquisition reform.
— Zev Karlin-Neumann is launching a boutique speechwriting and strategy firm, Just Write Communications. He previously was a senior adviser/speechwriter for Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and is a Susan Rice and Pete Buttigieg alum.
— The Asia Group has added Christopher Johnstone as partner and chair of the Indo-Pacific defense and national security practice and Abraham Denmark as partner. Johnston previously has been senior adviser and Japan chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and is a Biden NSC alum. Denmark previously was senior adviser to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
— Ben Lazarus is joining Patinkin Research Strategies as principal. He’s a Democratic pollster and strategist who previously led the opinion research practice at TargetSmart.
— Ashkhen Kazaryan is now senior legal fellow at The Future of Free Speech at Vanderbilt University. She previously was a senior fellow at Stand Together, and is a Meta alum.
— Paul Friedrichs and Stewart Simonson are now nonresident senior advisers with the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Global Health Policy Center. Friedrichs was previously director of the White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy. Simonson is a senior adviser with Global Health Strategies and served as a WHO representative at the United Nations.
— ROKK Solutions has added Kevin Vernimb as marketing director. He was previously a brand marketing manager for Marriott International.
New Joint Fundraisers
Bilirakis Dunn Victory Fund (Reps. Gus Bilirakis, Neal Dunn)
Justice 2026 (Sens. Mark Warner, Jon Ossoff)
Knott Victory Committee (Rep. Brad Knott, Building A Republic America Deserves, NRCC)
New PACs
Elect Democrats PAC (Super PAC)
Independent National Coalition (Hybrid PAC)
Stronger Nation (Hybrid PAC)
STRONGER SAFER NATION (Super PAC)
New Lobbying REGISTRATIONS
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld: Celldex Therapeutics, Inc.
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld: Chattem, Inc. Dba Opella
Ballard Partners: Cotton Logistics, Inc.
Blank Rome Government Relations: Meals On Wheels America
Bramer Group LLC: Parasanti Inc.
Bramer Group LLC: Patria Group
Cornerstone Government Affairs, Inc.: U.S. Merchant Marine Academy Alumni Association And Foundation
Hogan Lovells US LLP: Southern Ute Indian Tribe
Holland & Knight LLP: City Of Buffalo, Ny
Holland & Knight LLP: National Parks Conservation Association
Holland & Knight LLP: New York Transco LLC
Penn Avenue Partners Formerly Known As Hlp&R Advocacy, LLC: Extreme Networks
Point Of Difference Strategies LLC: Joliet Junior College
Stanton Park Group: 1776 Healthcare
Stanton Park Group: The Max Henry Group LLC Dba Quantum Technology
Tidal Basin Advisors, Inc.: Strategies 360, On Behalf Of The Gas Company, LLC Dba Hawaii Gas
New Lobbying Terminations
Capitol Venture LLC: 11:11 Media Impact
Holland & Knight LLP: Skincure Oncology
Hospice Compassus: Hospice Compassus
Penn Avenue Partners Formerly Known As Hlp&R Advocacy, LLC: Ati, Inc.
Penn Avenue Partners Formerly Known As Hlp&R Advocacy, LLC: Blackrock Funds Services Group LLC
Penn Avenue Partners Formerly Known As Hlp&R Advocacy, LLC: Fleet Portfolio, LLC
Ronald L. Book, P.A.: Tpg Cultural Exchange
S-3 Group: Health Supply US
Tidal Basin Advisors, Inc.: Roku, Inc.