From left to right, Sean McAllister, Co-Founder and Research Advisor; Jeff Berkowitz, Co-Founder and CEO; Kyle Huwa, Co-Founder and Technical Lead of AI firm Delve.

Photo courtesy of Delve

Meet the man trying to sell artificial intelligence to K Street.

Jeff Berkowitz, who once ran the Republican National Committee’s opposition research division and launched his own firm a decade ago, started experimenting with AI in recent years. It’s resulted in a spinoff company that Wednesday is announcing new seed money from lobbying, communications, and venture capital firms.

BGR Group and Rokk Solutions, along with the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Moxxie Ventures, are among the earliest investors in Berkowitz’s second company, Delve, an AI outfit aimed at lobbyists and public affairs clients that grew out of his Delve Research firm.

“When you’re trying to pull an industry into the future, it requires resources,” Berkowitz said in his first interview about the new investments, though he and others involved declined to disclose the terms of the deal.

Delve’s AI startup grew out of an internal session at Delve Research in late 2023 when Kyle Huwa, who has a data science and policy background, offered some prototypes. Sean McAllister is another co-founder of the AI company.

“We came out of that meeting with a tech company,” Berkowitz said.

AI could be particularly useful in the fast-paced Trump era where businesses and advocacy groups are struggling to keep up with the blizzard of actions coming from the White House.

In a demonstration, Delve’s deep research tool drafted a memo on the state of play around the Trump administration’s steel and aluminum tariffs.

The Delve AI tools have helped BGR write comments to federal agencies about regulations, said that firm’s CEO Bob Wood.

Joseph Hoefer, who leads AI policy at the firm Monument Advocacy, said AI tools like Delve’s offer “enormous potential” in public affairs and lobbying, but noted risks and limits:

“They can’t replicate what matters most in lobbying: political judgment, emotional intelligence, and trusted relationships.” Read More

Welcome to the latest edition of Power Play, Bloomberg Government’s newsletter on the lobbying, money, and people moving Capitol Hill’s agenda from the outside.

Reach out with tips, news, complaints, and most importantly all your exclusives: kackley@bloombergindustry.com.

A group of Washington influencers – political and communications operatives – took part in a recent trip to Israel, sponsored by the American Israel Education Foundation, the charitable arm of the pro-Israel lobby American Israel Public Afairs Committee.

Their trip didn’t go as planned.

The itinerary and departure got thrown into flux, after Israel and Iran missile attacks started last week. With Israeli airspace closed, the group was holed up in Israel, said Doug Heye, a former congressional aide who runs his communications practice.

“Going to bomb shelters at 4 in the morning can be jarring,” he said in a phone interview Monday from Jerusalem.

Heye said the group had security for the whole trip and that the team gave frequent updates.

“We were all supposed to leave on Saturday,” he said.

Heye said security officials awoke him and others on the trip at 3:45 a.m. Friday. Since then, the group has moved around and has been able to take photos and video.

Iranian missiles and Israeli interceptors light up the sky over Beirut, Lebanon, on June 14.

(Photo by Nael Chahine / Middle East Images via AFP)

Grocery stores and pharmacies have been open, but most restaurants and other shops are closed, Heye said.

He said the group had to go into shelters twice overnight Sunday.

“Our crew who’s taking care of us have kept us at ease, kept us scheduled with things so we’re not going stir crazy,” Heye said. They’ve met with Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel and other officials.

Democratic pollster Anna Greenberg, who is with the firm GQR and was on the trip, said Tuesday that even as the itinerary changed “dramatically,” she felt reassured and lucky as a plan to depart took shape.

Marshall Wittmann, a spokesperson for AIPAC, said the trips like the one Heye and Greenberg went on aim to “educate American political and opinion leaders about the importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship through firsthand experiences in Israel, briefings by experts on Middle East affairs, and meetings with Israeli leaders.”

Early Wednesday morning, the group was headed by bus for Jordan to begin the return trip home.

“In theory, I’m going to see Springsteen in a couple nights in Frankfurt,” Heye said in the interview.

A mysterious 60-second ad highlights an emerging strategy, seeking to turn consumers against the plaintiffs’ bar and litigation finance—a niche industry in which investors fund lawsuits and receive a portion of awards and settlements, reports Bloomberg Law’s Emily R. Siegel.

It comes as Republicans on Capitol Hill are pushing to include a measure in their tax and policy bill to lob a 41% tax on litigation finance profits.

“Shadowy overseas funders are paying to sue American companies in our courts,” a voice said in the spot, “and they don’t pay a dime in US taxes if there is an award or settlement.”

The US Chamber of Commerce said it wasn’t behind the ad but welcomes the additional firepower, said Stephen Waguespack, president of its Institute for Legal Reform.

“We’ve noticed, we’ve talked to those groups and, quite frankly, we’re appreciative,” Waguespack said. “You’ve got a predatory plaintiff bar group that is exploiting our legal system.”

Litigation funders are trying to counter the narrative. The International Legal Finance Association last week hired GOP lobbyist Pete Kirkham, according to a disclosure. Kirkham previously led the National Republican Congressional Committee and was chief of staff for Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), the House’s top appropriator. Read More

Also Read: Litigation Funders Fight 41% Tax in Senate Bill, Warn of Harm

TSG Advocates, the federal arm of The Southern Group, a firm with multiple offices in Florida and other states, added more clients to its roster:

• American Airlines
• Axon Enterprise
• The Family Network on Disabiliites
• Cigent

Since launching earlier this year, TSG Advocates has more than 30 clients. Chase Kroll, founding partner, called it “rapid and strategic growth” and said “momentum is only accelerating.”

Michele Blackwell, a former senior public policy manager for Uber Technologies Inc., joined Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck’s Washington office as a partner in the state government relations and state attorneys general practices. She also previously was deputy director of policy at the Democratic Attorneys General Association.