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The lobbyist who joined state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie on a trip in Brazil has raked in millions since his Democrat’s 2015 election — as questions swirl about who picked up the tab for their romp.
Patrick Jenkins, 59, was a low-level lobbyist before his roommate from their Stony Brook University days became speaker in 2015, apparently leading to a gravy train he’s ridden to this day.
Jenkins’ lobbying firm netted $5 million in 2025 — a nearly 22-fold increase in the decade since former Speaker Sheldon Silver was ousted by corruption charges and Heastie (D-Bronx) landed the speaker slot.
The firm netted a paltry $238,000 from five clients in 2013 when the Joint Commission on Public Ethics first started reporting its earnings. His income later eked up to just eight clients worth $331,500.
But when Jenkins’ buddy Heastie became speaker in 2015 his firm earnings more than doubled to $872,830 from 20 clients, according to JCOPE.
Within a year the firm’s cashflow had surpassed $2 million, then $3 million until finally reaching the $5 million heights enjoyed today.
Jenkins’ inclined earnings and his closeness to Heastie have been scrutinized in the past, but were cast into the spotlight again on Monday after The Post reported the pair jaunted off to Rio de Janeiro in September for a “Boys In Brazil Party” party hosted by Dallas Cowboy Charles Haley.
As New York public servants and lobbyists have strict rules governing the monetary value of gifts between them — nothing over a “nominal value” can be exchanged — exactly how the trip to Brazil was paid for could be an important question.
Both Heastie and Jenkins have avoided answering it — with Heastie dodging them Tuesday when confronted by The Post.
Heastie was supposed to have a Q&A session after a tour of the Amityville Senior Center, but once questions were asked about the Brazil trip his staff rushed him to a waiting car.
There are exceptions for exchanges between politicians and friends that “do business with the state” so long as “the relationship is not being used as a pretext to give an otherwise impermissible gift,” according to the New York State Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government State.
But so far, mum’s the word from Heastie — with the high-profile public servant merely taking to Instagram after the Brazil story broke to lament that he couldn’t go anywhere without the press asking questions.
“Damn I can’t take a birthday trip without getting an article,” Heastie 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.”
But Jenkins himself previously admitted his friendship with Heastie was a boon for 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, while Heastie’s spokesperson told the outlet “It’s no secret they have been best friends since college.”
