Page 50 - 072817

Groton Daily Independent
Friday, July 28, 2017 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 028 ~ 50 of 54
Isolated Qatar hires rm founded by Trump aides amid crisis By JON GAMBRELL, Associated Press
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Qatar has hired a Washington in uence rm founded by former top campaign aides to President Donald Trump and another specialized in digging up dirt on U.S. politi- cians, signaling it wants to challenge Saudi Arabia’s massive lobbying efforts in America’s capital amid a diplomatic dispute among Arab nations.
Hiring a rm once associated with former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who left it in May over a dispute with his partners, shows Qatar wants access to a White House with close ties to Saudi Arabia. The rm retains Barry Bennett, a Trump campaign adviser, as well as others with ties to the president.
But matching Saudi Arabia, which scored a diplomatic coup by hosting Trump’s rst overseas trip, could be a tough battle for Qatar, even if it does boast the world’s highest per-capita income due to its natural gas deposits.
“The Qataris are belatedly working up to the scale of the challenge they face,” said Kristian Coates Ul- richsen, a research fellow at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University who lives in Seattle. “This whole crisis, now that it’s kind of settled down into a prolonged confrontation or standoff, it’s become almost a struggle to win the hearts and minds in D.C.”
The Gulf rift already has seen slogan-plastered taxicabs in London, television attack ads in the United States and competing messages ooding the internet and state-linked media on both sides since the crisis began on June 5.
Qatar, in the midst of building stadiums for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, isn’t afraid to spend its money. Since the crisis began, Qatar paid $2.5 million to the law rm of former U.S. Attorney General John Ash- croft to audit its efforts at stopping terrorism funding — one of the allegations levied by the Saudi-led quartet of nations.
According to documents newly led to the U.S. Justice Department, Qatar has hired Avenue Strategies Global for $150,000 a month to “provide research, government relations and strategic consulting services.” The contract also says that activity “may include communications with members of Congress and Congres- sional staff, executive branch of cials, the media and other individuals.”
Lewandowski founded Avenue Strategies just after the November election that put Trump in the White House. Lewandowski resigned from the rm only months later, saying he was troubled by a rm-related project he hadn’t sanctioned. Others tied to Avenue Strategies had started a rm of their own, pitching Eastern European clients with promises of access to Trump and high-ranking White House of cials.
The rm, which includes a former chief of staff to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu , did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.
Qatar also signed a three-month, $1.1 million renewable contract with the opposition research rm In- formation Management Services, according to a Justice Department ling .
The rm, run by Jeff Klueter, a former researcher for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Commit- tee, did not respond to requests for comment. It advertises itself as doing so-called “oppo,” which includes digging into political opponents’ past and comments for incriminating or simply embarrassing material.
Qatar did not respond to a request for comment about the lobbying contracts. But it may serve as recognition that while Qatar has had success in speaking with the State Department and the Pentagon, it needs to make inroads to the Trump White House, Ulrichsen said.
Despite hosting a major U.S. military base, Qatar has been a target of Trump over its alleged funding of extremists, something Doha denies. Saudi Arabia enjoys close relations to Trump, as well as his son- in-law Jared Kushner.
In Washington, Saudi Arabia spends millions of dollars on lobbying, including a most-recent push to op- pose a law allowing Sept. 11 victims’ families to sue the ultraconservative Muslim nation in U.S. courts . Its lobbying rms have been putting out memos on Qatar.
Meanwhile, an organization called the Saudi American Public Relation Affairs Committee launched an