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David Bernhardt Sets Up His Own Shop to Lobby (indirectly) For Twin Metals

I missed this June Politico story about David Bernhardt breaking with Brownstein Hyatt and setting up his own lobbying shop at 1455 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, just a block away from the White House. The former Secretary of the Interior, who oversaw Trump’s first assault on the Boundary Waters, will now run the Twin Metals lobbying game.

The most recent Senate lobbying disclosures show Brownstein Hyatt filing a termination report on July 16, after collecting $110,000 for lobbying the Senate, House, and the Department of the Interior on behalf of Twin Metals in the second quarter of this year.

Just one day before that, on July 15, the Bernhardt Group LLC filed a new registration, to lobby — not directly for Twin Metals, but for Brownstein Hyatt “obo” (on behalf of) Twin Metals LLC. The Bernhardt Group has the same arrangement “on behalf of” other Brownstein clients, including Barrick Gold, USA Rare Earth, Bakelite, Denver Water, and the Central Arizona Water Conservation District.

In these cases, the Bernhardt Group LLC will lobby for a lobbying firm on behalf of the lobbying firm’s clients. I suppose “subcontractor” is the charitable term here.

Former Brownstein lobbyists with a Twin Metals track record, including Kate Gonzales, William McGrath, and Luke Johnson, will lead the Bernhardt Group’s lobbying effort for their former lobbying firm on behalf of Twin Metals. Their declared focus will be “mine leasing issues.” The Group billed $40,000 in the second quarter for its work.

In 2023, Bernhardt wrote a self-promoting book all about accountability and the “failing” administrative state. So it’s a little odd to see the former Secretary of the Interior’s new lobbying firm enclosed like a Matryoshka doll within another lobbying firm — an arrangement that should raise serious questions about public accountability and what people like Bernhardt call the DC swamp.

Maybe this is just another small reminder that David Bernhardt and the America First crowd were never talking about public accountability; they are complaining that sometimes the DC bureaucracy cannot be brought readily to heel.

For years, this crowd has worked behind the scenes to discredit the very idea of American government while exerting power within it and influence over it; now they are also dismantling the parts that stand in their way, so that their clients and cronies can strip, hoard, and sell our natural resources, our public lands, and other public goods.

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#administrativeState #corruption #deconstructionOfTheAdministrativeState #governmentCapture #governmentFailure #lobbying #lobbyingDisclosures #publicGoods #resourceHoarding