A Qatari foreign agent contributed about $30,000 to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) campaign committees between 2020 and 2025. In order to support Qatar’s interests, Graham’s office gave his lobbying business a lot of access during that time. This included more than 131 exchanges between the office and the agent, in-person meetings, and phone conversations with the senator.
In recent years, this dynamic has been well demonstrated. According to a Washington Examiner analysis of hundreds of public records, Qatar’s active foreign agents have given close to $700,000 to Congressmen and other government officials since 2020 while also having open channels of communication and face time with powerful lawmakers, frequently the same individuals they send checks to.
According to a 2018 scholarly study, when problems that are important to lobbyists are at the center of the political process, they boost their donations to certain committees and MPs. These lobbying payments may be driven by a desire to influence policy, as evidenced by another 2015 study that found that giving to a member of Congress improves access to their office.
Andrew King, a Qatari foreign agent who made large donations to Graham’s political action organizations, has more than just financial connections to the senator from South Carolina. King spent almost 20 years as a senior worker in Graham’s office, where he oversaw the office’s Middle Eastern affairs among other things, before starting Neale Creek, his government relations and political consulting business. In addition to his own political donations, King is the treasurer and co-founder of 150 PAC, which has given thousands of dollars to Graham and other members of Congress.
According to materials submitted to the Department of Justice, King and Neale Creek engaged in “the promotion of business with the State of Qatar” by using the access that congressional offices provided them. Graham’s native state of South Carolina has significant investments from Qatar. However, the DOJ’s Foreign Agents Registration Act database does not contain the particular papers that were exchanged between Neale Creek and congressional representatives.
The impact of Neale Creek goes beyond Graham’s workplace. The company has met with congressional sources in person, over the phone, over email, and through text messages, and has contributed close to $180,000 to members of Congress and related PACs since 2020. With almost $225,000 in donations made since 2020, Qatari foreign agents employed by Rubin Turnbull & Associates jointly made the largest contributions to political groups.
Communications from other companies representing Qatar provide some information, even if it may not be quite apparent what Neale Creek and King are saying to Congressmen.
For example, documents disseminated by Qatari foreign agents employed by Venable minimize the Gulf state’s ties to terrorist groups while highlighting what Qatar considers to be the benefits of investments made by its sovereign wealth fund.
For example, one of these documents presented to policymakers notes that Qatar is “a founding member of the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS,” but it fails to mention that the founder of Al Qaeda, the forerunner of ISIS, found refuge in Iraq thanks to a member of Qatar’s royal family. Additionally, the Qatari monarch offered Qatari passports and $1 million in assistance to Iraqi Al Qaeda militants. Another important source of funding for Hamas has been Qatar.
Similar to Neale Creek, Venable likewise contributes a sizable sum to the congressional representatives whose offices they subsequently influence. Campaign finance documents reveal that since 2020, the firm’s PAC has contributed tens of thousands of dollars to entities associated with congressional leadership from both parties.
