The lobbyist who accompanied state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie on a trip to Brazil has seen his earnings soar into the millions since his friend’s election in 2015, raising fresh questions about who paid for the getaway.
Peter Jenkins, 59, was a relatively minor lobbyist before his former Stony Brook University roommate became speaker in 2015. Since then, his business has grown dramatically.
Jenkins’ lobbying firm brought in $5 million in 2025, nearly 22 times the amount it earned a decade ago, after former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was forced out amid corruption charges and Heastie, a Bronx Democrat, took over the post.
The firm earned just $238,000 from five clients in 2013, when the Joint Commission on Public Ethics first began reporting lobbying revenue. Its earnings later rose modestly to $331,500 from eight clients.
After Jenkins’ friend Heastie became speaker in 2015, however, the firm’s reported earnings more than doubled to $872,830 from 20 clients, according to JCOPE.
Within a year, the firm’s revenue had topped $2 million. It then surpassed $3 million before reaching the $5 million level it reports today.
Jenkins’ rising income and close relationship with Heastie have drawn scrutiny before, but they returned to the spotlight Monday after The Post reported that the pair traveled to Rio de Janeiro in September for a “Boys In Brazil Party” hosted by former Dallas Cowboys player Charles Haley.
New York’s public servants and lobbyists face strict limits on gifts, generally barring exchanges worth more than a “nominal value.” That makes the question of how the Brazil trip was financed potentially significant.
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Neither Heastie nor Jenkins has explained who paid for the trip. Heastie declined to answer questions from The Post on Tuesday.
Heastie had been scheduled to participate in a question-and-answer session following a tour of the Amityville Senior Center. But when reporters raised the Brazil trip, his staff hurried him into a waiting vehicle.
New York’s Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government says exceptions can apply to exchanges between politicians and friends who do business with the state, provided “the relationship is not being used as a pretext to give an otherwise impermissible gift.”
Heastie has not addressed the payment question. Instead, after the Brazil report was published, the prominent public official took to Instagram to complain that he could not travel without attracting press attention.
“Damn I can’t take a birthday trip without getting an article,” Jenkins wrote on Instagram Monday. “This is even low for the Post. Hey Post [Jenkins] came to my house yesterday to watch football, you left that out the story.”
“Because I post a picture on a birthday trip I have to tell a newspaper who paid for my personal trip? I find it comical actually,” he added in the comments. “Because you work for the government you don’t have to answer questions about your personal life.”
Jenkins has previously acknowledged, however, that his friendship with Heastie helped his business.
“I would be naïve if I thought that some people didn’t reach out as a result of knowing my relationship with the speaker,” Jenkins told Newsday in 2019. Heastie’s spokesperson told the outlet at the time, “It’s no secret they have been best friends since college.”
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