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With Daniel Lippman

LOBBYING CONTINUES ON LIBYA CONFLICT: Brad Gerstman, a New York lobbyist who once represented Donald Trump and helped orchestrate his presidential campaign announcement in 2015, has a message for his former client: Please ask a Libyan militia leader to stop attacking the countrys United Nations-backed government. Gerstman, who signed a deal in September to lobby for Libyas government worth $1.5 million through his firm, Gotham Government Relations & Communications, sent a letter to Trump on Monday, which was obtained by PI.

The militia leader, Khalifa Haftar, has besieged Libyas capital, Tripoli, with the backing of Russian fighters. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan threatened last week to intervene on behalf of the Libyan government. In the letter, Gerstman urged Trump to save Libya without firing a single shot. Publicly call on Haftar and his Russian allies to halt all hostilities against Tripoli and to finally sit down and negotiate with Libyas government, Gerstman wrote. Complicating Gerstmans request: Trump unexpectedly endorsed Haftar in April, throwing American policy toward Libya into question.

The letter is the latest manifestation of the Libyan conflict in Washington, where both sides have hired lobbyists. Haftars forces hired Linden Government Solutions on a contract worth $2 million in May, while the Libyan government brought on Mercury on a one-year contract worth $1.8 million, plus $200,000 for expenses. Former Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) and other Mercury lobbyists have met with congressional aides and spoken with reporters on the governments behalf, according to Justice Department filings. (Prime Policy Group has also lobbied for the government on a pro bono basis.)

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Good afternoon, and welcome to PI. This is it for 2019. This newsletter will be off until Jan. 6, 2020. Thanks for reading, and happy non-denominational holidays! Send me your best tips so I can run them down next year: tmeyer@politico.com. You can also follow me on Twitter: @theodoricmeyer.

FORMER WARNER AIDE WILL LOBBY FOR JUUL: Juul Labs has hired its first new lobbyist since the vaping companys chief executive, Kevin Burns, stepped down in September following Trumps announcement that his administration would ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes. (Trump has since softened his criticism of vaping.) Milan Dalal, a former Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck lobbyist who recently started his own firm, Tiger Hill Partners, with James Maloney, will lobby for Juul on legislation related to e-cigarettes and congressional investigations, according to a disclosure filing.

Dalal, who still lobbies for some Brownstein Hyatt clients as an outside consultant, is a former aide to Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.). He started working for Juul on Nov. 6. Juul has spent more than $3.1 million on Washington lobbying so far this year, according to disclosure filings, and also retains Empire Consulting Group, Fulcrum Public Affairs, Kountoupes Denham Carr & Reid, the Nickles Group, Oldaker & Willison, the S-3 Group, Sims Strategies, Squire Patton Boggs and W Strategies.

JANKOWSKY WILL RETIRE FROM AKIN GUMP: Joel Jankowsky will retire from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld at the end of the year, Roll Calls Kate Ackley reports. Mike House, a longtime lobbyist at Hogan Lovells whom Jankowsky lobbied while House was chief of staff to former Sen. Howell Heflin (D-Ala.), compared Jankowsky to the legendary lobbyists Tommy Boggs (whose firm is now known as Squire Patton Boggs) and J.D. Williams of Williams & Jensen. Those were the three lions, House said. Not only were they the upper-level strategists and good day-to-day lobbyists, but most of all they were all good mentors. Joels been a mentor to so many of us, including myself.

BROADCASTERS WIN A LONG-RUNNING LOBBYING BATTLE: Congress is handing traditional broadcasters such as CBS and ABC a surprise victory in a contentious, multimillion-dollar TV lobbying fight by letting key parts of a 31-year-old satellite TV law die, POLITICOs John Hendel reports. The battle, pitting legacy broadcasters against AT&T and some consumer groups, centered on the recurring satellite TV law known as STELAR, which first passed in 1988 and provides hundreds of thousands of rural satellite TV households with access to broadcast programming. AT&T, which owns the satellite provider DirecTV, and the National Association of Broadcasters both spent heavily on the fight.

The law is typically reauthorized every five years, but this time, Congress will let significant aspects of the statute expire as part of the fiscal 2020 spending bill, potentially leaving thousands of satellite subscribers cut off from local broadcasting smack in the middle of the 2020 election cycle.

MAYBE HE SHOULDVE CALLED IT NEED TO ACQUIT: Chris Christie is launching a big-money effort aimed at giving Senate Republicans air cover on impeachment and positioning the former New Jersey governor as a counterweight to liberal billionaire Tom Steyer, POLITICOs Alex Isenstadt reports. The newly formed issue advocacy organization, Right Direction America, is set to begin a seven-figure TV and digital advertising offensive Monday. The nonprofit group will be focused on a half-dozen states where key 2020 Senate races are taking place: Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Maine and North Carolina.

IF YOU MISSED IT ON WEDNESDAY: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) doesnt share K Streets enthusiasm for the hard-won provisions tucked into the spending bills the Senate passed on Thursday. Christmas came early in Washington for lobbyists, Cruz said in a video posted to his Twitter account on Wednesday evening as he lit a cigar. Lobbyists who are bankrupting this country. While you were with your family, while you were shopping for Christmas, the lobbyists were spending and spending.

Cruz goes on to decry the legislation as put together in the dark of the night with Republican leadership and Chuck Schumer while smoking his cigar. He criticizes the bills reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, the raising of the tobacco purchasing age to 21, the funding of gun-violence research and tax breaks for renewable energy all of which were backed by interests on K Street. This is an example of government of the lobbyists, by the lobbyists and for the lobbyists, he says before extinguishing his cigar into the towering bill on his desk.

A message from REALTORS:

30-year fixed-rate mortgages have helped millions of Americans own their homes. Thats why REALTORS are working with lawmakers to make sure they remain available to everyone. Click here to learn more.

Andrew Overton is moving to Milwaukee to work as associate director of media logistics for the Democratic National Convention. He was previously the Chesapeake Bay Foundations senior director of communications.

Transamerica has hired Sean Cassidy as vice president and senior director of government relations. He was previously vice president of federal government affairs at Voya Financial. He plans to register to lobby.

Trump has appointed Eli Miller, a managing director of government relations at Blackstone who was previously chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, to be a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, according to the White House.

"FTI Consulting hired Shannon Maher Baaga as managing director in strategic communications in the energy and natural resources sector," per Morning Energy. "Baaga previously was director of federal affairs at TECO Energy since 2014."

"Alexander Botting, the former director for global regulatory cooperation at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, has joined the law firm Venable to be senior director of international cybersecurity services," per Morning Cybersecurity.

2020 Utah Victory Fund (Rep. Ben McAdams, Utah State Democratic Committee)AL MI MN Victory 2020 (Sens. Doug Jones, Tina Smith and Gary Peters)American Leaders Fund (Reps. Anthony Brindisi, Abigail Spanberger, Max Rose, Josh Gottheimer and Susie Lee, No Labels Problem Solvers Political Action Committee (No Labels Problem Solvers PAC))American Patriots Fund (Reps. Don Bacon, Brian Fitzpatrick, Tom Reed, Pete Stauber and Fred Upton, No Labels Problem Solvers Political Action Committee (No Labels Problem Solvers PAC))New Congress Fund (Reps. Colin Allred, Anthony Brindisi, Sharice Davids, Lizzie Fletcher, Jared Golden, Andy Kim, Elaine Luria, Lucy McBath, Max Rose, Elissa Slotkin, Xochitl Torres Small, Abigail Spanberger, Haley Stevens and Lauren Underwood)

Embracing Utahs Future (Super PAC0Independent Political Network Super PAC (Super PAC)Richie Greenberg Media Action Committee (PAC)Texas Forward (Super PAC)

Avenue Strategies Global, LLC: PV Group LimitedBurson Cohn & Wolfe: SurescriptsCapitol Advocacy Partners: Boys and Girls Clubs of Puerto RicoHutton-Transcon Joint Venture: Magellan Investment HoldingsMayer Brown LLP: Rocket Pharmaceuticals Inc.S-3 Group: Global Holdings, LLCTiger Hill Partners LLC: JUUL Labs, Inc.

Interel US: American Ambulance AssociationInterel US: Emergency Department Practice Management AssociationInterel US: IEEE Standards Associaiton [sic]Interel US: ISACAInterel US: Worldwide ERCNational Association of Government Employees: National Association Of Government EmployeesPublic Interests Research And Communications Inc: U.S. Television CoalitionSubject Matter (fka Elmendorf Ryan): H&R Block

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Lobbying continues on the Libya conflict - Politico