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A former senior House staffer convicted of federal tax crimes and failing to report those crimes in security-clearance paperwork has started a new lobbying firm.
Isaac Lanier Avant, the former chief of staff for Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), registered late last month to lobby on behalf of the political arm of the Seafarers International Union, which steered substantial funding to Thompson’s re-election campaign last cycle.
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A federal court in Virginia sentenced Avant to four months in prison in early 2017 after convicting him on charges stemming from his failure to file tax returns from 2009 to 2013, a period when he was serving as Thompson’s top aide.
Later that year, a federal court in D.C. filed additional charges, accusing Avant of falsifying his security-clearance form by failing to disclose that he hadn’t paid those taxes. He pleaded guilty to one charge of making false statements and was sentenced to an additional six months of probation, which he served concurrently to his supervised release from his prior conviction.
With both of those sentences behind him, Avant has now landed on K Street. In January, he incorporated Avant Bishop Washington & Black LLC in D.C. The firm’s website is not yet set up, and Avant didn’t respond to questions about it or who else it counts as partners or clients.
His criminal history was disclosed pursuant to a new federal law requiring that registered lobbyists note past convictions on a number of white-collar offenses.
According to Avant’s lobbyist registration filing, he will work on a number of maritime policy issues on the Seafarers union’s behalf, including congressional debate over the Jones Act, a law that bars maritime shipping between U.S. ports by foreign-flagged vessels. The U.S. shipping industry, including the Seafarers union, is fighting efforts to repeal or limit the law.
Thompson chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, which oversees maritime commercial and security matters. He has long criticized efforts to weaken the Jones Act, even in cases where the law’s critics argue doing so would assist in disaster recovery efforts, as its current detractors claim with respect to hurricane relief in Puerto Rico.
In 2017, Thompson reaffirmed his commitment to preserving the Jones Act in remarks at a maritime industry conference. And the Seafarers union reciprocated his longtime support: It donated the $10,000 maximum to his re-election campaign.
