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.
Disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Burkman has signed his first new lobbying clients since his plot to fabricate sexual assault allegations against a Democratic presidential candidate blew up in his face.
Among the tasks Burkman has undertaken: securing an ambassadorship on behalf of a Colorado agriculture executive.
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Burkman’s newest client is Steve Warnecke, the chief executive of agricultural genomic research company Evolutionary Genomics. Warnecke hired Burkman in his personal capacity late last month, and though Warnecke declined to go into detail about the work Burkman is doing for him, lobbying disclosure forms say he plans “to assist [Warnecke] with the process of seeking an ambassadorship.”
Burkman retains dozens of clients through his eponymous lobbying firm. But Warnecke is just the second one he’s signed since May, when Burkman teamed up with right-wing troll Jacob Wohl to attempt to recruit young gay men to falsely accuse South Bend mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg of sexual assault.
The scheme fell apart after The Daily Beast reported on their overtures to two would-be “victims.” One of the men they approached avoided any role in the scheme. The other, a 19 year-old college student, initially went along with the plan before recanting the allegations and accusing Burman and Wohl of duping him into complicity.
Reached by phone on Wednesday, Warnecke told PAY DIRT that he was “aware of those things,” but that he feels that Burkman “is an effective lobbyist and is relatively well connected. That’s why, despite all the things I’ve read, some good some bad, I’ve decided to go with him.”
Warnecke said he was introduced to Burkman by a mutual friend years ago, but didn’t remember exactly when. He didn’t want to go into too much detail, he said, because Burkman’s work had only just begun and he didn’t want to disrupt the process. “He’s working on something pretty important for me,” Warnecke said.
Burkman also declined to say exactly what post Warnecke is seeking. “He’s loking [sic] at a range of possibilities. My first task will be to put him on the WH radar screen,” he wrote in an email. “Steve is a tremendous guy... He came to us and asked him to help navigate the waters of becoming an ambassador--strategic help, advice, etc. Of course, there is also the business of Senate confirmation.”
Burkman’s only other new post-Buttigieg-smear client is a Fort Collins, CO, financial planner named Greg Anderson, and Burkman disclosed that he will lobby on a number of general matters on Anderson’s behalf, including “SEC issues; House & Senate; House Financial Services; Senate Banking Committee.”
Reached by phone, Anderson asked, “Is this some sort of puff piece that you’re doing for him?” Assured that it was not, Anderson nonetheless declined to comment.
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