TOP GOP POLLSTER OUSTED: Chris Wilson, the founder and CEO of top Republican polling firm WPA Intelligence, was fired after company audits found he likely used firm money to pay for personal expenses, two people directly familiar with the matter tell Daniel. — It comes after his firm’s CFO was fired and charged with embezzlement earlier this year, a charge that she denies. That led people on WPAi’s leadership team to start looking into how Wilson had spent company money, according to the people. Wilson, who has worked on behalf of presidential efforts for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), was fired on Dec. 5, according to the people, and is no longer listed on the company’s website. — The audits of the company’s finances found that over the past several years Wilson used firm money to pay for items that were likely for personal expenses, such as vacations, health charges and the use of a nanny, according to five people with direct knowledge of the situation. — Ryan Leonard, a lawyer representing Wilson, called the allegations behind Wilson’s firing “defamatory and false.” “Chris’s former business partners at WPAi at all times had complete transparency into all aspects of the business, including every single business transaction,” he said in a statement. “The timing of these allegations is particularly surprising given that, following completion of a recent audit, Chris was actually given a raise. While Chris recently left the company following the election, he wishes his former team members at WPAi all the best.” WHAT AJIT PAI IS UP TO: Former FCC Chair Ajit Pai “is back shaping Federal Communications Commission policy, but this time he’s doing it from” Trump’s transition team, per John Hendel and Daniel. Several people familiar with the transition planning described Pai as the transition team lead for the commission. — “Pai’s perch could be a boon for the cellular industry,” which Pai previously worked in as a lawyer for Verizon and “which is likely to face competition from rival newcomers like Elon Musk’s satellite broadband service Starlink.” — In addition to the transition work, Pai is also in talks with top telecom trade group CTIA about its CEO position, four people told John and Daniel, after the association’s longtime CEO Meredith Attwell Baker announced last week that she’ll step down in 2025. FIRST IN PI — WOLFE JUMPS TO SMI: Steve Wolfe is heading to defense lobbying firm SMI, where he’ll be a vice president. Wolfe is the founder of Cardinal Point Strategies, and is the former executive director of the Alliance for Artificial Intelligence in Health Care. Before that he served as senior policy adviser to the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), handling Kennedy’s defense appropriations and authorizations portfolio. He’ll bring several clients with him to SMI, including Scientific Systems Company, Tonix Pharmaceuticals and Colibrium Additive, a GE Aerospace company. MUSK DIGEST: The Washington Post’s Cat Zakrzewski, Jacqueline Alemany, Marianne LeVine, Liz Goodwin and Colby Itkowitz have a recap of Musk’s week: “critics of the world’s richest man say he attained a new title: ‘shadow president’ of the United States.” — Musk’s flood of social media posts castigating the CR “ricocheted through Washington, where some lawmakers reported their phone lines were ringing all day with calls from constituents who saw Musk’s posts.” — “Musk’s outsize role in sending the federal government careening toward a potential shutdown before Christmas has alarmed Democrats, academics and watchdog groups, while some Republicans said his intervention was uninformed.”
— Meanwhile, our Meridith McGraw and Holly Otterbein dug into where Trump and Musk’s relationship stands after the whole debacle, and Anthony Adragna has more on Musk’s new threat to throw his gobs of cash at funding “moderate” primary challengers to run against certain congressional Democrats. STATE OF AFFAIRS: “Statehouses across the US are wrestling with how to contain an explosion of frauds costing elderly Americans an estimated $28 billion a year. With consumer education failing to reach many would-be victims, lawmakers are exploring how to turn banks into a more formidable line of defense,” Bloomberg’s Tom Schoenberg reports. — “Lenders already have robust systems to thwart credit-card fraud, in which they’re held liable. Why not use that technology to trip alarms when customers get tricked by con men? The question is part of a broader debate over how to balance personal responsibility and the duty of banks to help customers safeguard their savings.” — “It has taken on more urgency in recent years with retirees controlling a record stockpile of wealth. So far, banks are defusing efforts to boost their liability.”
HEADS UP: The law firm Wiley issued a gentle reminder on Thursday for companies, trade groups and advocacy groups looking to sway the confirmation prospects of Trump’s nominees, warning that “if a nomination ultimately is subject to confirmation by the Senate, then efforts to influence the nomination and confirmation may be subject” to federal lobbying regulations and tax laws governing nonprofits.
— “Managing and tracking such lobbying activity is very important for the Fourth Quarter LDA report due on January 20, 2025, the 2025 First Quarter LDA report, and thereafter, for tax returns due for nonprofits, for tax calculations for for-profits, for trade association dues notices, and for the continued charity status of 501(c)(3)s,” Wiley partners Mark Renaud and Thomas Antonucci write in their refresher on the relevant laws.
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