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LobbyMatic claims on its website that its AI-powered software can do everything — like automatically monitor congressional hearings or “supercharge research” into legislative and regulatory issues.
Jumping on the AI hypewagon is a perfectly respectable career move. The problem is that sources have told Politico that Wohl and Burkman are running the firm under the pseudonyms “Jay Klein” and “Bill Sanders.”
LobbyMatic has no leadership listed on its official website. A company by the name of LobbyMatic that is registered in Delaware lists its registered agent as “A Registered Agent, Inc.” When reached for comment, LobbyMatic emailed The Verge with a link to a video featuring a man who looks like Jacob Wohl. In the video, he admits that “years ago I was involved in partisan politics.” Later in the video, he adds, “I don’t want my past in partisan politics half a decade ago to distract from a phenomenal product.”
The man does not explicitly identify himself as Wohl at any point or address the claims that he is running the company under a false name.
Politico’s report is based mostly on four former employees they are keeping anonymous. Its case can be summarized as follows:
- An employee once accompanied “Bill Sanders” to a house in Arlington, VA, that they later learned was the same house where Burkman and Wohl had held press conferences in the past.
- Some of the former employees heard “Jay Klein” referred to as “Jacob.”
- The former employees looked at videos of Wohl and Burkman online (such as Burkman’s appearance in the Netflix show Web of Make Believe) and told Politico they were a match for “Jay Klein” and “Bill Sanders.”
- One surreptitiously took a photo of their boss and did a reverse Google image search that matched the man as Jacob Wohl.
- Politico called a phone number listed for Jack Burkman on lobbying forms and asked for “Bill Sanders.” The man at the other end responded, “How can I help you?” When the reporter identified himself, Burkman hung up.
In years past, Wohl and Burkman have fruitlessly attempted to pin various scandals and assault allegations on figures such as Robert Mueller, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, Anthony Fauci, Ilhan Omar, and more. In 2020, the pair were charged in Michigan and Ohio for running a fraudulent robocalling scheme that made about 85,000 calls, discouraging voters from going to the polls. Wohl and Burkman pleaded guilty to telecommunications fraud in Ohio and were sentenced in 2022.
When The Verge emailed LobbyMatic, we received an email with nothing but a hyperlink to a post on X by an account called @TheLobbyistGuy. The post reads, “Explaining the situation” and features a four-minute and forty-one-second video of a man who looks like Jacob Wohl. “There’s a news story out today I’d like a chance to respond to,” says the man. “It’s no secret that years ago I was involved in partisan politics. It’s certainly no secret in Washington, D.C. It was about half a decade ago, I was a young man, and since then, I have taken my energy in a new direction.”
He then proceeds to give a sales pitch for his software.