On Tuesday, January 6th, 2024, the Justice Department unsealed some court records whose contents were previously classified. These records accused two well-connected political consultants of providing false information about lobbying work on behalf of a wealthy Persian Gulf country during the Trump administration.
The Justice Department filed these charges in the Washington federal court. Per the documents, it alleges that Barry P. Bennett spearheaded a covert and lucrative lobbying campaign to advance a foreign country’s interests, including by denigrating a rival nation.
Bennett was an adviser to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and one of his most trusted confidants. Therefore, the federal prosecutors filed two criminal counts against Bennett in a charging document known as an information.
Typically, they only file this type of charge with a defendant’s consent, which generally shows that they have reached a resolution. The prosecutors said they would dismiss the case after Bennett complies with the terms of a deferred prosecution agreement. This also includes the payment of a $100,000 fine.
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Surprisingly, the document did not name the country Bennett did the work for. However, the description matches Qatar according to several sources. In 2017, Qatar paid Bennett’s company $2.1 million for lobbying work, but it was not public knowledge yet.
Later in 2020, a Justice Department subpoena discovered this and sought records related to Bennett’s foreign lobbying. The second political consultant on the hot seat is Douglas Watts. He is a New Jersey consultant who worked with Bennett, according to the prosecutors.
Both Bennett and Watts failed to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. This law requires people to disclose to the Justice Department when they advocate, lobby, or perform public relations work in the U.S. on behalf of a foreign government or political entity.
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The government approved this bill in 1938 to unmask Nazi propaganda in the US and to prevent future occurrences. Since Bennett and Watts violated this rule, the Justice Department came for them with full force.
Investigations by the Justice Department also revealed some other violations by Bennett. In 2017, he signed a contract in 2017 for his company, Avenue Strategies, to perform lobbying work on behalf of the Qatari embassy. That year, he also registered with the Justice Department to lobby for the embassy.
However, he covertly operated another company called Yemen Crisis Watch as part of his strategy. This company ran a public relations campaign to diminish one of Qatar’s unnamed rivals and improve its standing with the U.S. government.
These rivals could either be Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates, who were engaged in military operations in Yemen. In a bid to improve Qatar’s standing with the U.S., they used lobbying to further their course with Congress and Trump.
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According to prosecutors, they also had a social media campaign, publishing opinion articles in newspapers and producing a television documentary.
Prosecutors also said that the social media campaign by Yemen Crisis Watch urged the public to contact their lawmakers and encourage them to “cease supporting” the intervention in Yemen by Qatar’s unnamed rival.
Therefore, all fingers point to Qatar, but neither the Justice Department, Bennett, nor Watts have confirmed it to be true. They also haven’t responded to requests for a formal comment on the case.
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