Elliott Broidy was the subject of harmful revelations about his business dealings, government contacts and personal affairs after his emails were hacked last year. | Alex J. Berliner/ABImages via AP Images Politics Ex-Republican fundraiser accuses lobbying firm of leaking hacked emails A lawsuit filed Thursday paints the fullest picture to date of an alleged Qatari government conspiracy to hack the former GOP official’s email.

A former top Republican fundraiser embroiled in charges of influence-peddling has accused an executive at the prominent lobbying firm Mercury Public Affairs of participating in a criminal conspiracy to disseminate his hacked emails to prominent media outlets in a lawsuit filed in Washington on Thursday.

The complaint paints the fullest picture to date of an alleged globe-spanning conspiracy by the government of Qatar to hack the former GOP official’s email and provide damaging information about him to publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Associated Press.


The suit, reported first by POLITICO, could have implications for the future of political warfare at a time when it is increasingly waged through “hack-and-leak” campaigns like the one that targeted Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.

It is part of a campaign by the former Republican National Committee fundraiser — who resigned amid multiple controversies last April — to turn the tables after his reputation was damaged by a raft of embarrassing news reports. It also represents the latest salvo in a proxy war between Arab Gulf states that has played out in Washington in recent years and reportedly has attracted the attention of special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating illicit foreign influence in U.S. politics.

The plaintiff, Elliott Broidy, served as vice chairman of the Trump Victory Committee and enjoyed business ties with the United Arab Emirates while working to undermine the standing of UAE rival Qatar in Washington. Broidy was the subject of harmful revelations about his business dealings, government contacts and personal affairs after his email accounts were hacked last year, an attack that has been widely attributed to Qatar.

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The emails — stolen via sophisticated spear-phishing messages, Broidy has said — revealed that Broidy was working closely with George Nader, an adviser to the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates, to undermine Qatar’s standing in Washington at the same time Broidy was pursuing a lucrative security contract with the Emirati government. Qatar and the UAE are bitter rivals for regional and global influence. Nader is reportedly cooperating with Mueller’s probe.

Now Broidy is expanding a counterattack.

His new lawsuit, filed Thursday, names as a defendant Gregory Howard, a onetime Democratic congressional aide who worked as an agent of Qatar for the Washington communications firm Conover & Gould before taking a job with Mercury, where he now serves as a vice president. Mercury is a prominent Washington lobbying firm whose powerful clients include the conglomerate controlled by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, on behalf of which Mercury lobbied the Trump administration to ease U.S. sanctions. Mercury also came under Mueller’s scrutiny for lobbying work arranged by former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort for a front group linked to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

Two previous suits Broidy filed over the hacking have been dismissed on technical grounds, but not before Broidy used discovery to obtain more information about the alleged scheme.

The new complaint cites phone records to back up its charge that Howard coordinated the dissemination of Broidy’s stolen emails to reporters at outlets including the Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.

“Howard’s phone records show that he orchestrated a sophisticated media and distribution campaign … to place information illegally obtained from the hacking in the hands of journalists, media organizations, and public relations professionals,” Broidy alleges in the complaint.

The Broidy also alleges that Howard was in touch with Florida-based Diogenes Group Research during the course of the scheme. Corporate records show the firm registered to Victor and Tracy Todd of Riverview, Fla.

Victor Todd said Diogenes specializes in open source internet research. He said he knows Howard but that he does not recall any conversations with him about Broidy, though he could not rule it out. "I haven't done any paid work for him for, gosh, years," Todd said of Howard. "But that doesn't mean we didn't talk about something that was in the paper."

Based on the dates of the phone calls, the complaint alleges that Howard carried out much of this work at a time when his Foreign Agents Registration Act filings did not show him registered to act on Qatar’s behalf. It is illegal to lobby for a foreign government without registering those activities with the Justice Department.

Howard declined to comment.

Broidy’s suit relies on the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which extends legal liability to people working on behalf of corrupt enterprises. The Democratic National Committee is suing Russia, Wikileaks, the Trump campaign and others in federal court in New York over the 2016 election hacks under the same RICO law.

If Broidy’s suit proceeds, it could shed new light on the shadowy intersection of nation states, for-hire hackers, private intelligence firms and public relations professionals that increasingly drives political events in the U.S. and around the world.

Broidy previously accused a New York-based cybersecurity firm, Global Risk Advisors, of carrying out the hack on behalf of Qatar. His new complaint adds fresh details to the accusation, alleging that the firm recruited “cyber mercenaries” to assist in the conspiracy.

One of them, the complaint says, was a private U.K. intelligence firm called Omniscope. According to its sparse website , Omniscope “provides discreet advice and conducts investigations to protect client interests.” According to a LinkedIn profile , it is a “business centric data risk management and intelligence firm” that “integrates online and mobile networks with full-access, analytics and automated watchlists and alerts.” The profile says the firm has between two and 10 employees. Omniscope did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Global Risk Advisors asserted in court in California that it was shielded by sovereign immunity and a judge dismissed the firm from that suit, citing a lack of jurisdiction. A lawyer for Global Risk Advisors said Broidy's allegations about the firm were unfounded. “As we’ve said previously in connection with the initial complaint, which was dismissed, the allegations about our involvement in this matter are completely false," said Brendan McGuire of Wilmer Hale. "We have no further comment." Neither Global Risk Advisors, Omniscope nor Diogenes is named as a defendant in the new suit.

The complaint also alleges that Global Risk Advisors recruited an unnamed Israeli with a criminal record and an unnamed “London-based strategic intelligence firm with offices in the United States” to participate in the scheme.

Broidy also alleges in the complaint that the hacking was part of a broader Qatari campaign that has targeted 1,400 people since 2014, including an unnamed “close associate of President Trump in the White House.”

Broidy uncovered the identities of other targets by subpoenaing the link-shortening service used for spear-phishing emails sent to him. Other targets of the hacking campaign include employees of the United Nations, former DNC and Clinton campaign staffers, and former U.S. intelligence officials, as well as targets across the Middle East, according to the complaint.

Other reported targets of the hacks include the politically connected Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, a strident critic of Qatar. Outspoken and pro-Trump Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris was another, according to a person familiar with the evidence.

The other defendants named in Broidy’s complaint are former Qatari agents Joey Allaham, a New York restaurateur turned international political operative, and Nick Muzin, a former adviser to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, and the duo's lobbying firm, Stonington Strategies.

Broidy had already sued Muzin, Allaham, and Stonington in California, but the suit was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds. Qatar was dismissed as a defendant from that suit on the grounds of sovereign immunity, but Broidy is appealing that decision in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The complaint alleges that a chief goal of the campaign against Broidy was to portray him as a target of Mueller. It cites WhatsApp messages between Muzin and Allaham, including messages in which Muzin writes to Allaham, "We got the press going after Broidy" and that stories about Broidy have put him in Mueller's crosshairs.

Muzin did not immediately return a request for comment. A spokesman for Allaham, Craig Engle of Arent Fox, said his client was not involved in any hacking.

“Joey has said a 100 times he didn’t have anything to do with the hacking and everybody knows that," Engle said. "So I’m not sure why we are going through this again.”

Broidy is being represented by Filiberto Agusti, Shannen Coffin, and Michael Baratz of Steptoe & Johnson.