LegiStorm

Retired Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) is lobbying on behalf of the wife of a Bulgarian banking tycoon.

Royce is part of a small Brownstein Hyatt team working on Bulgarian "anti-corruption reform" issues for Bulgarian eonomist Antoaneta Vassileva, according to a disclosure filed on Friday.

In 2017, Bulgaria accused Vassileva's husband, Tsvetan Vasilev, of embezzling the equivalent of 1.3 billion USD from one of the country's largest banks, Corporate Commercial Bank. The bank failed in 2014, during Vasilev's time as chair and majority shareholder. The family has maintained Vasilev's innocence and claims that Bulgaria's charges against him and other other family members were retaliatory. Others, including former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, have also spoken out about Vasilev's alleged innocence.

This isn't the first time that Tsvetan's family has turned to U.S. lobbyists for its cause. From two years beginning in 2017, Vassilev hired two firms, Schmitz Global Partners and Jefferson Waterman International, to help bring Magnitsky Act sanctions against certain Bulgarian officials. The U.S. reportedly decided against the sanctions in 2019.

The Brownstein disclosure does not specify the nature of the "anti-corruption reform" it is working toward or mention whether it will involve the Magnitsky Act.

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill's daughter Maggie is trading in country for House music.

Maggie McGraw, the country-music superstars' middle daughter, is now Rep. Jim Cooper's (D-Tenn.) staff assistant and legislative correspondent. She recently finished a master's degree in sustainability from Stanford University.

Maggie seems to be following in the political footsteps of her Nashville-resident parents, who have long defied the country-music standard with their vocal support of the Democratic Party.

Rep. Ronny Jackson's (R-Texas) newest hire is a dethroned pageant queen.

Kathy Zhu was crowned Miss Michigan in 2019 but was stripped of her title over allegedly racist tweets she posted in the years preceding the pageant. She again made headlines days later at a Trump campaign event for her claim that "coming out as conservative is honestly harder than coming out as gay."

Zhu, now Jackson's scheduler, graduated from the University of Michigan in 2020 and most recently worked for campaign consultancy Targeted Victory.

One of Rep. Mike Thompson's (D-Calif.) staffers has moved to K Street.

Nick Ornstein left Thompson's office for TwinLogic Strategies, where he's now legislative director. The boutique lobbying firm focuses on technology and counts Twitter and T-Mobile among its clients.

Ornstein was most recently a legislative assistant to Thompson, who chairs the Ways and Means Committee's Select Revenue Measures Subcommittee. Ornstein previously worked for Akin Gump's public-policy team but did not register as a lobbyist there.

Penn Hill Group has continued its slow but steady growth with the addition of a longtime aide to Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.).

Elyse Wasch is now a vice president at the lobbying firm, which has seen consistent growth in its lobbying revenue for three years running. The firm brought in just over $3 million from federal lobbying last year, according to OpenSecrets.

Wasch had worked for Reed's office since 1996, when Reed was a representative. She was most recently the senator's deputy chief of staff and legislative director.