Anthropic taps Ballard Partners amid ongoing dispute with War Department

Anthropic, one of the nation’s top artificial intelligence firms, has hired Ballard Partners as a federal lobbyist.

A disclosure filed on March 9 shows the tech firm is now working with Brian Ballard, the Florida-based lobbying firm’s founder, as well as Sylvester Lukis, a senior partner, and Micah Ketchel, a former Chief of Staff to ex-U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz, now the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

Disclosures also show Ketchel last year worked as a senior advisor to the State Department, as a Special Assistant to President Donald Trump and as a senior advisor to the National Security Agency.

Anthropic hired the firm for general government relations and for advocacy services.

Ballard Partners has a reputation in Washington as one of the lobbyists with the strongest connections to the Trump administration. Previously, the firm included Susie Wiles, now White House Chief of Staff, in its roster of lobbyists.

For much of the year, Anthropic has been engaged in a public dispute with the Department of War, including being designated as a supply chain risk to national security. The tech firm has pushed back on this designation and said it was not legally sound.

War Secretary Pete Hegseth has prohibited the Pentagon’s use of Anthropic’s Mythos system amid the controversy.

That included issuing a lengthy statement days before hiring Ballard Partners as a lobbyist.

The argument has to do with the use of the Claude AI system as part of defense contracts.

“I would like to reiterate that we had been having productive conversations with the Department of War over the last several days, both about ways we could serve the Department that adhere to our two narrow exceptions, and ways for us to ensure a smooth transition if that is not possible,” said Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei in the statement.

Ballard is expected to focus on defense procurement matters for Anthropic.