

Mother Jones reports on the strange story of Elliott Broidy, a GOP fundraiser enmeshed in a scandal over foreign influenced peddling with some unsavory characters, who last week field a lawsuit against the government of Qatar for allegedly hacking his email.

A new court filing by Broidy’s lawyers on Monday throws Mike Huckabee‘s name into the saga, with an allegation that a lobbyist paid $50,000 to an unnamed individual to influence Huckabee’s views on Qatar.

Broidy, a defense contractor, was a top fundraiser for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Like many in the Trump orbit, he had a checkered past — he pleaded guilty in 2009 in a $1 million bribery case involving a pension fund. Once Trump was elected, the New York Times and others reported, Broidy sold access to the president to benefit his business interests and nab new customers and clients — including those with checkered pasts of their own:

Mr. Broidy offered tickets to V.I.P. inauguration events, including a candlelight dinner attended by Mr. Trump, to a Congolese strongman accused of funding a lavish lifestyle with public resources. He helped arrange a meeting with Republican senators and offered a trip to Mar-a-Lago, the president’s private Florida resort, for an Angolan politician. And he arranged an invitation to a party at Mr. Trump’s Washington hotel for a Romanian parliamentarian facing corruption charges, who posted a photograph with the president on Facebook.

Other reports suggest that Broidy may have been involved in nabbing patronage gigs for other GOP movers and shakers.


The reporting on Broidy was aided by an anonymous group that provided hundreds of pages of his emails and other documents to media outlets. Broidy alleges that the documents were stolen by hackers working for Qatar. The Qataris deny the allegation.

Broidy, an extreme neoconservative hawk with a great fondness for Saudi Arabia, has been active in lobbying against Qatar. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, along with a few regional allies, initiated a blockade against Qatar, an ongoing diplomatic crisis that apparently has the support of the Trump administration. As the New York Times reports, Broidy might have a few hundred million reasons to push Trump to back the Saudis and the UAE in the dispute with Qatar:


Mr. Broidy also owns a defense contractor, Circinus L.L.C., that in the past year signed a contract worth more than $200 million with the United Arab Emirates and is pursuing another large contract with Saudi Arabia. Both countries are engaged in a bitter dispute with Qatar, the home to a major American military base and vast natural gas deposits. … Mr. Broidy openly promoted Circinus’s work in meetings with Mr. Trump and other Republican officials, according to documents and interviews.

Special counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly investigating Broidy, the Times reports:

One of his business partners, George Nader, is cooperating with the special counsel, whose investigators have asked about Mr. Nader’s contacts with top Trump administration officials as well as his possible role in funneling money from the U.A.E. to Mr. Trump’s political efforts, according to people familiar with the inquiry.

Ah, the Donald Trump administration. It wouldn’t be a story about grift, graft, and Trump if we couldn’t shoehorn in the Huckster.

Broidy’s lawsuit alleges that his rival, Nicolas Muzin, a lobbyist for Qatar and a former aide to Sen. Ted Cruz, conspired with Qatar to hack his emails and damage his reputation.

Yesterday Broidy’s lawyers filed a declaration by Joel Mowbray, a hawkish D.C. consultant who worked with Broidy on anti-Qatar lobbying and a former associate of Muzin. Mowbray alleges that in a series of meetings with him, Muzin implied that Qatar was going to hack Broidy. And here’s where Mike Huckabee’s name pops up. From the Mother Jones report:


Mowbray’s declaration also includes a striking claim that Muzin told him in February that he had paid an unnamed individual $50,000 partly for help influencing how former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, whose daughter Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the White House press secretary, viewed Qatar. Mowbray also says Muzin suggested he could help Mowbray make money if he changed his views on Qatar. Muzin implied they were in a unique position to capitalize on high-level ties. “This is Trump administration,” Muzin said, according to Mowbray. “We have three more years.”

Three more years. But who’s counting?