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Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
Struggled after numerous high-profile scandals. [52]Political Ties and Lobbying Riot, along with Bitcoin industry groups, has used its political muscle to secure and protect policies and subsidies favorable to miners’ bottom line. Riot has engaged in federal and state lobbying, and hired staff, often with ties to government agencies and conservative groups, to promote the companies’ interests. Publicly available data shows that Riot began spending on state and federal lobbying in 2022. In 2022, Riot (then named Riot Blockchain) reported spending $280,000 on federal lobbying through a contract with Holland and Knight, a Florida-based law firm that has a large federal lobbying operation. [53] As of August 2023, Riot has spent $220,000 on federal lobbying, which included paying $160,000 for lobbying services to Holland and Knight while the rest was done in-house by Riot staff. [54] Agencies that the company lobbied include the Commodity Futures Trading Commissions (CFTC) that oversees Bitcoin futures trading, the Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). As of September 2023, Riot has spent between $70,000-$151,000 on hiring lobbyists in Texas for the 2024 election cycle. [55] There is also a revolving door between former government officials and Riot’s staff and board, especially people with ties to right-wing politicians. In 2023 Riot hired a head of public policy, Brian Morgenstern, who is a former Trump Whitehouse official. Morgenstern served as deputy communications director and deputy press secretary for Trump starting in July 2020, and before that was a deputy assistant secretary for external affairs at the Department of the Treasury where he served as a senior aide and chief speechwriter to Trump-appointed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. [56] Morgenstern was named in an investigation by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel as one of the officials who violated the Hatch Act by promoting Trump’s reelection campaign during official interviews and media appearances. [57] After working for Trump, Morgenstern was a Senior Advisor at the America First Policy Institute – a group founded by ex-Trump administration officials to continue promoting Trump’s conservative policy agenda. [58] Morgenstern has a long career in Republican politics including working on Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign in 2008. [59] The company also hired Samuel Lyman as Director of Public Policy who also has ties to conservative politicians and powerful corporate interests who worked at the Orrin G. Hatch Foundation after being a speechwriter for Republican Senator Hatch, and was a speechwriter for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – the wealthy corporate lobby group that has opposed action on climate change and environmental regulations. [60] In May 2023, Riot announced that Brad Jones, the former Interim President and CEO of the Energy Reliability Council of Texas (“ERCOT”), was appointed to its advisory board. [61] Riot makes millions of dollars through various ERCOT programs and lobbies for those policies to continue in order to protect a key source of revenue. When Riot’s valuable ERCOT incentives were threatened by proposed state legislation, the company and allied industry groups pushed hard to block
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