Report: Ex-Trump Campaign Manager's Lobbying Firm Selling Access to Trump

By Max Greenwood, The Hill

28 April 17

lobbying firm started by President Trump's former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski appears to have used promises of meetings with Trump, Vice President Pence and other top administration officials to win over clients, Politico reported Friday.

The firm, Washington East West Political Strategies, is different than the one co-founded by Lewandowski in December, shortly after Trump's electoral victory. A document given to an Eastern European politician by the firm earlier this year promised "meetings with well-established figures," including Trump and Pence.

Washington East West Political Strategies co-founder Barry Bennett, a former Trump campaign adviser, said he was unfamiliar with the document provided to Politico. Bennett started Avenue Strategies — Lewandowski's other lobbying firm — alongside the former campaign manager.

Neither firm has yet signed any international clients, Bennett said, and lobbying and access to administration officials is a "relatively small portion" of their work. For that reason, he said, Lewandowski, who has not registered as a lobbyist and has no intention of doing so.

"90 percent of our business has nothing to do with access," Bennett told Politico. "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 has maintained relatively consistent access to the president, visiting the West Wing several times since Trump took office and calling him directly.