LegiStorm

Amid a "renaissance" for the government news network, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has hired a new advocate from the office of Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio).

Jon McKinley is now a government-relations manager for RFE/RL, which is congressional funded. RFE/LR broadcasts mainly in countries that lack free press and has seen renewed significance since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

McKinley was most recently Kaptur's legislative assistant for foreign affairs. He's also worked for Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and served as a commissioned officer in the Army Reserve.

CTIA - The Wireless Association has hired a government-affairs manager from one of its favorite representatives.

Chloë Rodriguez joined the trade group from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where she was deputy chief clerk Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.). CTIA spent nearly $14 million on its federal lobbying program last year, making it one of Washington's top lobbying spenders.

As top Democrat on the E&C Committee, Pallone has long worked with CTIA and helped to pass industry friendly legislation. The trade group's PAC gave $10,000 to Pallone's campaign last cycle, per Federal Election Commission filings.

"I'll never get a job anywhere else," Ashley Bianco once lamented to Megyn Kelly in an interview. But the former network-television producer has since landed on her feet, now working as a key member of Rep. Ryan Zinke's (R-Mont.) team.

Bianco, now Zinke's scheduler, found herself entrenched in controversy in 2019. ABC had accused the former Good Morning America producer of leaking a hot-mic tape to Project Veritas. The tape featured an ABC anchor saying that the network had years before killed her story about the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. Bianco was subsequently fired from CBS, where she had just begun a new producing job.

Bianco has maintained her innocence, telling Megyn Kelly through tears that she had "never" leaked the video and had merely accessed the tape as a part of her regular production responsibilities.

Senior House Natural Resources Committee member Pete Stauber (R-Minn.) has hired a lobbyist from the oil and gas industry.

Shawn Rusterholz joined Stauber's office from the American Petroleum Institute, where he was an associate director for federal relations and lobbied on a host of issues. API is the oil-and-gas industry's top lobbying group. Rusterholz is also an alum of Chevron's government-affairs shop.

He's now a legislative assistant with Stauber. Stauber, an outspoken critic of the Biden administration's oil policies, is expected to chair the Natural Resources Committee's Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee this session.

Rep. George Santos's (R-N.Y.) name has become so synonymous with misinformation that a LegiStorm error published for mere minutes has caused pandemonium in the congressman's office.

LegiStorm briefly listed Carl Paladino as a Santos staffer on Monday, thanks to the New York Post's poor comma placement in a post announcing another Santos hire:

"The hiring spree includes bringing on Viswanag "Vish" Burra, a MAGA world political operative tied to ex-White House strategist Steve Bannon, and businessman Carl Paladino, who attracted fire on the 2022 congressional campaign trail after speaking favorably about Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler."

LegiStorm deleted the incorrect record minutes later upon realizing its error. But the short-lived mistake led scads of reporters to call the congressman's office for more information - only to assume the office's response was a lie.

It wouldn't have been the first incorrect staff information coming from the office. Santos's office last week reported to LegiStorm that Gabby Lipsky was serving as their press secretary. But Politico had already reported in late December, before Santos had even taken office, that Lipsky had quit as campaign press secretary and would not be coming on board with the congressional office.