Welcome to Pay Dirt—exclusive reporting and research from The Daily Beast’s Lachlan Markay on corruption, campaign finance, and influence-peddling in the nation’s capital. For Beast Inside members only.

As Jack Burkman has tried and failed, often in ham-fisted fashion, to drum up false sexual-misconduct allegations against perceived political opponents, he’s maintained a robust federal lobbying practice. And though Burkman is better known than he’s ever been, few have heard of his partner in that business, whose firms have won millions of dollars in military security contracts.

According to lobbying-disclosure filings, Ralph Palmieri has been lobbying for J.M. Burkman & Associates since at least 2008, working on well over a hundred of the firm’s accounts in that time. He’s also helped out Burkman with some of his political endeavors, lending his name to an invitation to a 2016 Trump presidential campaign fundraiser at Burkman’s home.