DIGGING INTO DUFFY’S CLIENTS: Per our Chris Marquette, Transportation secretary nominee and former BGR Group lobbyist Sean Duffy did a good deal of lobbying on behalf of Polaris Industries, a company that makes ATVs, motorcycles and boats. — That includes three quarterly filings in 2021 that earned the firm $180,000. What did Duffy do for Polaris, exactly? All of the lobbying descriptions noted that he advised the company on “EV incentives,” among other topics. That’s intriguing considering that Duffy, in a Fox News segment last year, criticized electric trucks as not being suitable for rural driving, quoting a Ford owner who called such vehicles “the biggest scam of modern times.” — One description from the second quarter of 2021 said Duffy was among a group that worked to “Provide strategic counsel, tactical planning, cohesive messaging, and policy analysis on issues impacting the Company including: EV incentives and 301 tariff action.” The group lobbied the White House and Congress on the matter. ANNALS OF DARK MONEY: “A group routing the fortunes of conservative and libertarian donors that progressives have dubbed the Right’s ‘dark money ATM’ issued a record $351 million in grants last year,” Washington Examiner’s Gabe Kaminsky reports. — “The IRS filing for DonorsTrust, obtained by the Washington Examiner, provides the most up-to-date financial accounting for a charity that has established itself as an important vehicle for right-leaning donors.” — The donor-advised fund “reported having more than $1.2 billion in the bank while pulling in $226 million” in 2023. “The charity has received large transfers over the years from the 85 Fund, a group in [conservative activist Leonard Leo’s] network, among other conservative groups, according to financial disclosures. In turn, in 2023, $351 million flowed from the coffers of DonorsTrust to other organizations, compared to the $242 million it disbursed in 2022.” MCKINSEY’S FOSSIL FUEL TIES: While global consulting giant McKinsey & Company publicly touts its work helping clients curb emissions and respond to climate change, the firm has been “quietly advising its clients on boosting fossil fuel production or sales” at the same time, The Guardian’s Ben Stockton and Hajar Meddah report. — One such example is McKinsey’s role advising Saudi Arabia’s Neom project, the futuristic city powered only by renewable energy that the kingdom is building to showcase its commitment to moving beyond fossil fuels. But “behind closed doors, it has also helped the Saudi kingdom find lucrative ways to keep its oil industry afloat,” according to documents obtained by the Guardian and the climate group the Centre for Climate Reporting. — “Though little is publicly known about the vast scale of the US consultancy giant’s work, a cache of US court records filed by McKinsey — as it applied to represent clients in bankruptcy proceedings — offers a glimpse into this secretive world.” — “A dataset compiled with the support of non-profit research group Aria and investigative data analysts Data Desk reveals the identities of thousands of entities connected to the firm and previously unknown details about how lucrative some of them are.” — Entities identified as having “client connections” to the consultancy “include the operator of one of the world’s largest open pit coalmines; companies exploiting Canada’s dirty oil sands; and Koch Industries, the wealth generated from which has been used to thwart action on the climate crisis for decades, critics say, through the creation and support of thinktanks and climate-denial groups.” IT DIDN’T STAY IN VEGAS: The New York Times’ Teddy Schleifer has a peek behind the scenes of last weekend’s Rockbridge Network summit, the first gathering of the shadowy conservative donor group since one of its founders, JD Vance, became vice president-elect. — The Las Vegas summit drew such bold-faced names from the Trump universe as newly named chief of staff Susie Wiles, fellow campaign manager Chris LaCivita, campaign pollster Tony Fabrizio and chief fundraiser Meredith O’Rourke, signaling how powerful the coalition of right-leaning tech executives has become. Others spotted at the gathering included megadonor Rebekah Mercer, crypto investors Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. SPOTTED at Forbes Tate Partners for a welcome reception for incoming House GOP freshmen, per a tipster: Reps-elect Troy Downing of Montana, Brandon Gill and Craig Goldman of Texas, Julie Fedorchak of North Dakota, Derek Schmidt of Kansas, Mike Kennedy of Utah, Abe Hamadeh of Arizona, Pat Harrigan of North Carolina, Sheri Biggs of South Carolina, Jefferson Shreve and Mark Messmer of Indiana, Mike Haridopolos of Florida and Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania; and Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas).
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