With Daniel Lippman

WHO GOT THE UIHLEINS’ CASH AFTER JAN. 6: A nonprofit led by GOP megadonor RichardUihlein contributed millions of dollars in 2021 to conservative groups who played roles in promoting falsehoods of widespread voter fraud following the 2020 election or are linked to efforts to challenge the election results, including more than $2 million within a week of the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

— The donations from the Ed Uihlein Family Foundation include a $1 million gift the day after the insurrection to the Conservative Partnership Institute, the nonprofit home to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Cleta Mitchell, an attorney who helped the Trump campaign challenge the election results in Georgia, according to tax filings for the foundation.

— On Jan. 13, a week after the insurrection, the nonprofit donated $500,000 to the Center for Security Policy, whose founder and executive chairman Frank Gaffney Jr. has downplayed the events of Jan. 6; and $250,000 apiece to the conservative radio show Sons of Liberty and conservative youth group Turning Point USA, the latter of which was listed as a participant for the Jan. 6 rally in front of the White House that preceded the Capitol attack.

— It gave $100,000 the same day to the Federalist Society, the marquee conservative legal society of which Trump attorney John Eastman is a member; $50,000 to the conservative think tank Texas Public Policy Foundation; and $25,000 to the right-wing group Judicial Watch, according to the filings, which were obtained by the liberal watchdog group Accountable.US and shared first with PI.

— Others who benefited from the shipping supply magnates’ gifts in 2021 included right-wing media outlets like the FDRLST Media Foundation ($1.2 million) and American Conservative ($25,000). Conservative media watchdog Media Research Center received $300,000 and the American Cornerstone Institute, a CPI-affiliated think tank focused on “election integrity” and run by former Trump HUD Director Ben Carson, got $1.5 million. The foundation also gave another $50,000 to CPI later in the year and another $165,000 to Sons of Liberty.

— The foundation’s gifts in the weeks following the insurrection weren’t limited to right-wing groups linked to those challenging or disputing the election results. The nonprofit reported nearly 150 separate donations in 2021 totaling more than $18.4 million — of which more than three-quarters came in January. That’s similar to the number of donations it reported in January 2020, that year’s tax filings show.

— The foundation has donated previously to many of the groups, and in many cases gave more to those groups in the lead-up to the 2020 election than in 2021. But its most recent filings show how the Uihleins continued even after the Jan. 6 attacks to fund some of the same entities on the right that promoted falsehoods about the election that drove the events of that day.

— “Billionaires Dick and Liz Uihlein bankrolled groups that brought us the January 6th insurrection and funneled millions towards the effort to overturn the 2020 election,” said Derek Martin, a spokesperson for Accountable.US. “Then they doubled down on their investment, sending millions more to anti-democratic and extremist groups that fueled the election denialism movement just days after the deadly assault on our Capitol.”

— Tax filings show that both years the group was bankrolled entirely by Richard Uihlein, who along with his wife were the Republican Party’s top benefactors in last year’s midterms, according to OpenSecrets. In 2021, Uihlein kicked in $4.5 million for the nonprofit named for his father, about a quarter of what he gave in 2020.

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FIRST IN PI — KATKO TO K STREET: Former Rep. John Katko has joined the lobbying firm HillEast Group as a senior adviser. The New Yorker, who became the first House Republican to support Trump’s impeachment following the insurrection, left office this month after seven years in Congress.

— He climbed the ranks quickly, serving as the top Republican on the powerful House Homeland Security Committee and a member of the Steering Committee and deputy whip team and vice chair of the NRCC. Katko also led the moderate Republican Tuesday Group (now known as the Republican Governance Group), a bloc that could grow in influence in the narrowly divided House similar to moderate Democrats in the last Congress.

— Katko’s move at HillEast Group will serve as a reunion of sorts — the firm was founded in 2017 by the lawmaker’s first chief of staff, Brad Gentile, and employs two of his subsequent chiefs of staff Zach Howell and Erin O’Connor Elliott.

— He alluded to those ties in a statement that expressed excitement “to work alongside a team that I know and trust” while presenting “an exciting opportunity to remain active in the homeland security and cybersecurity space, at a time when this work could not be more important for our national security.” Katko will serve only in an advisory capacity for now, Elliott told PI, but hasn’t ruled out registering to lobby down the road.

— Katko is already the eighth member of the previous Congress to make the jump downtown since leaving office at the beginning of the year. He joins former Democratic Reps. G.K. Butterfield (now at McGuireWoods), Ed Perlmutter (now at Holland & Knight), Peter DeFazio (now in partnership with Summit Strategies) and Cheri Bustos (now at Mercury) and former Republican Reps. Mike Doyle (now at K&L Gates), Rodney Davis (now at Cozen O'Connor) and Jaime Herrera Beutler (now advising the Children's Hospital Association).

NATURE IS HEALING: “There’s good news for Biden appointees eyeing the exits: Unlike your predecessors from Donald Trump’s chaotic administration, you’re in demand in the private sector,” POLITICO Magazine’s Michael Schaffer writes.

— “While the 46th president has presided over comparatively little turnover in his two up-and-down years in office, this month’s announcement that White House chief of staff Ron Klain would depart seemed to sound the starting gun on the period when insiders naturally start contemplating life on the outside. And though the scramble is only just starting, the prospects are much better than most people might have expected in the crisis environment of 2020.”

— “How good? According to Lyles Carr, senior vice president at the McCormick Group, the largest independent executive-search firm based in Washington, the money can dwarf not just federal salaries, but also the sorts of salaries private-sector hirees were making 20 or 30 years ago.”

— “‘If you’re the general counsel of the SEC, and you’re willing to go to a law firm, five million bucks,’ he says by way of hypothetical. ‘Same thing with the general counsel or the deputy secretary of Treasury.’”

PUTTING ON THE MUSK: “Months after endorsing a Republican takeover of Congress, Twitter owner Elon Muskvisited the Capitol this week to huddle with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other top GOP lawmakers — including those actively pressing the social media company and other tech giants over allegations of anti-conservative bias,” The Washington Post’s Tony Romm, Cat Zakrzewski and Adela Suliman report.

— “On Friday, Musk spoke with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the leader of the House Oversight Committee, two of the people familiar with the matter said.” The Tesla CEO “connected separately Friday with top aides to President [Joe] Biden to discuss his economic agenda, including new federal investments in electric vehicle charging stations and broader efforts at electrification, according to a White House spokesperson.”

— “The meetings illustrated Musk’s complicated and conflicting relationship with the nation’s capital, where the mercurial billionaire’s ambitions — private spaceflight, self-driving cars, electric power and, now, social media — place him at the center of some of the country’s fiercest political debates. At times, though, Musk has tried to align himself with conservatives who are newly in power and increasingly eager to put the force of government behind their fierce criticism of the tech industry.”

SPOTTED at Wednesday’s re-launch party for the fundraising network Electing a Democratic Generation, per a tipster: American Academy of Dermatology’s Nick Beek, American Financial Services Association’s Michael Grimes, American Veterinary Medical Association’s Conor Noonan, Capitol Hill Consulting Group’s Chris Davis, Chegg’s Jesse Barba, Federal Hall Policy Advisors’ Katie Phillips, Invariant’s Paul Nemetz, Lane Coberly, Damian Ortega, Channing Foster, Ashley O'Sullivan and Jonny Montano, Lot Sixteen’s Jennifer Storipan, National Air Traffic Controllers’ Annika Olson, National Wooden Pallet & Container Association’s Hallie Fuchs and  Jason Ortega, Plurus Strategies’ Jean Cornell, Salt River Project’s Nick Quinones, Smith Dawson & Andrews’ Brett Garson, Smith-Free Group’s John Christie, The Frost Group’s Audrey Abrell, Troutman Pepper Strategies’ Tom Tilton, UBS’ Colin Craib, UPS’ Andrew Okuyiga and Drew Ricciardone, The Vogel Group’s Nikhil Dhingra and Washington Analysis’ John Sonsalla.

— And at the portrait unveiling last night for Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck’s David Bernhardt, the former Interior secretary, per a tipster: Norm Brownstein and Jon Hrobsky of Brownstein, Cole Rojewski and Todd Willens of RBW Group, Kristina Dunklin of Forbes Tate Partners, Jason Larrabee of Chevron, Tal Eslick of Vista Consulting, Carol Danko, Faith Vander Voort and Ben Cassidy of Safari Club International, Sarah Jorgenson and Taylor Playforth of Rep. Garret Graves’ (R-La.) office, Matt Dermody of the Industrial Minerals Association, Shelby Hagenauer of the American Farm Bureau Federation, Greg Walden of Alpine Advisors, Kristan Nevins of Blackstone, Alex Dunn of Rep. Kay Granger’s (R-Texas) office, Morna Willens of the Recording Industry Association of America and John Tanner of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

— Eric P. Lesser has joined WilmerHale as a senior counsel and will be a member of the firm’s public policy and regulatory affairs group. He most recently was a Massachusetts state senator and is an Obama White House alum.

— PLUS Communications has announced 24 promotions, including Jim Landry to partner, Ryan Dysart to managing director for digital, Caitlin McCoy and Madeline Peterson to senior directors for digital and Hunter Goh and Cody Sanders to senior directors for public affairs.

— Jason Holley is joining Impact Partners as a director to oversee several of the firm's private equity, venture capital, venture debt and tech clients. He previously led PR efforts at Jack Taylor PR and is an alum of Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers’ (R-Wash.) office.

— Stephen Newton has joined the government relations firm Porterfield, Fettig & Sears as a vice president. He previously worked as a senior policy staffer for Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.).

— John Monsif has joined Visa as vice president and head of federal government engagement. He most recently was director for U.S. federal government relations at Carrier and is an alum of former Reps. John Delaney and Louise Slaughter.

— Former Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan is joining the Leadership Council at Natural Allies for a Clean Energy Future, succeeding former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, who is departing to lead the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics.

— Karen Onaran is taking over as president and CEO of the Electricity Consumers Resource Council. She replaces Travis Fisher, who is joining the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment to be a senior research fellow.

— Robin Rooks McQueen is joining the Contraceptive Access Initiative as project director. She is the founder of A-Team Consultants.

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