With Sarah Cammarata and Daniel Lippman

FORMER CRUZ AIDES WILL WORK FOR CAMEROON: Two former aides to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) have signed on to represent Cameroon’s government in Washington despite recent allegations of serious human rights abuses by the government. David Polyansky, Cruz’s former chief of staff; Catherine Frazier, another former Cruz aide; and Jimmy Soni, a former Huffington Post managing editor who later worked for former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, will advise Cameroon’s government on public relations. They’ll promote a “positive and favorable image” of Cameroon’s government through digital ads and “by placing targeted op eds in conservative-oriented outlets in order to foster a robust and growing partnership narrative into the future,” according to a contract filed with the Justice Department.

— Cameroon has found itself saddled with a less-than-positive-and-favorable image in recent months. The Trump administration has stopped providing as much military aid to Cameroon’s government because of what Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, the head of United States Africa Command, described in congressional testimony in February as the “alleged atrocities” it had committed. Mausi Segun, Human Rights Watch’s executive director for Africa, wrote last month that Cameroon’s government had responded to separatist threats by “burning hundreds of homes, killing civilians, and detaining and torturing alleged separatists in a gendarme-run prison in the capital, Yaoundé.”

— There’s a long history, of course, of Washington lobbyists and public relations hands representing governments accused of committing atrocities, dating back to Paul Manafort’s work for Ferdinand Marcos, the infamous Filipino dictator. Polyansky, Frazier and Soni are representing Cameroon through Clout Public Affairs, a division of Axiom Strategies, a consulting firm run by Jeff Roe, who managed Cruz’s presidential campaign. Cameroon also retains Squire Patton Boggs to lobby on its behalf.

— Asked about the Cameroonian government’s human rights record, Clout defended its work. “Clout is pleased to be working with Cameroon to highlight the strong and developing relationship between our two countries,” the firm said in a statement. The firm noted that Cameroon had “been a longtime partner to U.S. military operations in Africa, and serves as a key ally in the United States’ effort to combat the radical Islamist group Boko Haram, which has for far too long victimized and ravaged innocent civilians in the region.” The contract is worth $55,000 a month.

Good afternoon, and welcome to PI. It’s a summer Friday, which is why I’m writing this newsletter poolside with a piña colada in hand. (I wish.) Send me your best tips to distract me from my piña colada daydreams: [email protected]. You can also follow me on Twitter: @theodoricmeyer.

PAM BONDI WILL LOBBY FOR QATAR: Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general who landed at Ballard Partners earlier this year, has registered to lobby for Qatar’s government, according to a disclosure filing. Bondi was an early supporter of President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and later worked on his transition team. She also reported lobbying for more than a dozen domestic clients in the second quarter, including General Motors and Major League Baseball. Qatar has raised the monthly fee it pays Ballard from $50,000 to $115,000, according to disclosure filings.

TRUMP: NO TARIFF WAIVERS FOR APPLE: Trump lashed out at Apple on Friday over its plans to assemble its new Mac Pro computers in China. “Apple will not be given Tariff wavers, or relief, for Mac Pro parts that are made in China,” Trump tweeted. “Make them in the USA, no Tariffs!” Apple ran into problems when it decided in 2012 to make an earlier version of the Mac Pro in Texas, as The New York Times’ Jack Nicas reported earlier this year.

— Apple spent more than $3.7 million on Washington lobbying in the first half of the year, according to disclosure filings, and retains half a dozen lobbying firms. Three of them lobbied on trade issues in the second quarter of the year: Fierce Government Relations, the Franklin Square Group and the Glover Park Group. Five of Apple’s in-house lobbyists also lobbied on trade matters.

HOW A SCAM PAC RAISED MILLIONS BUT GAVE LITTLE TO CANDIDATES: “After recruiting thousands of donors for the American Conservative Union — the powerful organization behind the annual CPAC conference — a Republican political operative pushed the same contributors to give millions to a PAC that promised to go after then-President Barack Obama, but then steered much of their donations to himself and his partners,” POLITICO’s Maggie Severns and ProPublica’s Derek Willis report.

— “The PAC, called the Conservative Majority Fund, has raised nearly $10 million since mid-2012 and continues to solicit funds to this day, primarily from thousands of steadfast contributors to conservative causes, many of them senior citizens. But it has made just $48,400 in political contributions to candidates and committees.”

HOW LAWMAKERS TURNED LOBBYISTS USE THEIR LEFTOVER CAMPAIGN FUNDS: Former Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) of McDermott Will & Emery is one of at least nine former members of Congress who have donated leftover campaign funds to lawmakers they’re lobbying on behalf of foreign governments, The Daily Beast’s Lachlan Markay reports. One of the lawmakers Moran lobbied while working for Qatar’s government last year was Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.). “On June 15, 2018, Moran’s assistant emailed Crist’s chief of staff with a draft letter they hoped the congressman would send under his name. Moran’s staff even followed up with suggested edits.”

— “Crist obliged. On June 20, he sent a letter to the Saudi ambassador that lifted huge portions verbatim from Moran’s suggested language. A month later, Moran wrote a $1,000 check to Crist’s reelection campaign,” using leftover funds from his own campaign account.

T-MOBILE, SPRINT MERGER APPROVED AFTER LONG LOBBYING CAMPAIGN: The Justice Department has signed off on T-Mobile‘s mammoth merger with Sprint — an effort that drove a huge amount of lobbying. T-Mobile spent nearly $4.4 million on Washington lobbying in the first half of the year, with many of the more than two dozen outside lobbying firms it retained working on the merger. Sprint spent $2.1 million, and SoftBank, the Japanese conglomerate that owns a controlling stake in the company, shelled out another $315,000. The Glover Park Group, meanwhile, lobbied against the merger on behalf of the 4Competition Coalition.

A NEW PODCAST: Ivan Zapien of Hogan Lovells has a new podcast, “Ivan’s DC Update.” He’s the latest lobbyist to leap into part-time podcasting, following John Feehery of EFB Advocacy, who hosts “The Feehery Theory,” and C.R. Wooters of Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas, who hosts “14th and G.” The first episode examines the growing influence of Hispanics in American politics.

IF YOU MISSED IT ON THURSDAY: The Washington Post’s Elizabeth Dwoskin and Tony Romm have some new details on the campaign being waged by Chris Hughes, the Facebook co-founder who “has been making the rounds in the nation’s capital, visiting a dozen lawmakers and regulators at the Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission and other agencies interested in examining whether Facebook has amassed too much power.” “In some of those meetings, he and his collaborators have presented a 39-page slide deck that makes a point-by-point legal case for breaking up the social network, drawing on decades of antitrust law precedent.”

JOBS REPORT

— Running Start, which trains young women to run for office, has added seven new board members, including several with K Street ties: Karen Goldmeier Green of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, Natalie Farr of Subject Matter and Sohini Gupta of WellCare Health Plans.

— The Bank Policy Institute has promoted Angelena Bradfield and Cara Camacho to senior vice president. They were previously vice presidents.

SPOTTED: At The Source on Thursday evening celebrating the Visa lobbyist Amanda Slater’s move to Rich Feuer Anderson, according to a PI tipster: Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.); Reps. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.), Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), Dan Kildee (D-Mich.), Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.), John Larson (D-Conn.), Filemón Vela (D-Texas) and Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas); Mitchell Feuer of Rich Feuer Anderson; Brandon Casey of the House Ways and Means Committee; Jed Bhuta of Tower 19; Bobby Thomson of Visa; Stacey Alexander of Subject Matter; Chris DeBosier of Verizon; Nick Pearson of Google; Michael LaRosa of Rep. David Cicilline’s office; Meg Joseph of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s office; Alisa La of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office; and Emily Spain of Sen. Tom Carper’s office.

New Joint Fundraisers

New Wave Women (Reps. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, Jahana Hayes, Lucy McBath, Lauren Underwood, Sharice Davids and Xochitl Torres Small)
Stevens Brindisi Fund (Reps. Haley Stevens and Anthony Brindisi)

New PACs

Green Plains Inc. PAC (PAC)
Ohio Environmental Council Action Fund PAC (PAC)

New Lobbying REGISTRATIONS

Cornerstone Government Affairs, Inc.: Tennessee Technological University
Hogan Lovells US LLP: 5G Everywhere in America, LLC on behalf of C-Band Alliance
Lincoln Park Group L.L.C.: Tower 19 on behalf of General Motors Company
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP: Professional Certification Coalition
Skladany Consulting LLC: With You With Me
Sorini, Samet & Associates, LLC: International Wood Products Association

Chartwell Strategy Group LLC: Card & Associates on behalf of ClearEdge Partners
Howard Consulting Group, Inc: Paratek Pharmaceuticals
Kent Caperton Consulting: Texas Central Partners
Perry Bayliss Government Relations, LLC: Google

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