SHADY BUSINESS

Lewandowski’s Firm Seems to Offer Trump Meetings

Despite ex-campaign chief’s failure to register as lobbyist.

An international consulting firm co-founded by Corey Lewandowski, President Trump’s controversial first campaign manager, appears to have been offering clients the ability to meet with the president, Vice President Mike Pence, and other Trump White House officials. According to documents provided to an Eastern European politician and obtained by Politico, the previously unreported firm, Washington East West Political Strategies—created by Lewandowski and fellow Trump insider Barry Bennett—promised to arrange “meetings with well-established figures,” including the president and vice president, along with “key members of the U.S. Administration” and other White House allies. These documents, combined with Lewandowski’s failure to register as a lobbyist thus far, have irked ethics watchdogs, Politico reported. Reached for comment by the D.C.-based outlet, Bennett “stressed that the firms have yet to sign any international clients, and predicted that most of the firm’s work domestically and internationally would be political or policy consulting—not lobbying or arranging meetings or calls with elected officials.”