Qatar is intensifying the already exhaustive efforts it has undertaken to promote its national interests in its dealings with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. Shomrim revealed that, earlier this month, the Qatari embassy in the United States hired the services of Bernard Kerik – who has close ties to the Trump White House – as a lobbyist in Washington.

Kerik also has close ties with Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s former lawyer and longtime confidant. Kerik began his career as Giuliani’s driver and bodyguard before Giuliani was elected New York mayor and slowly climbed the ranks – eventually serving as Commissioner of the New York Police Department from 2000 to 2001. Kerik’s connection to Trump came some two decades later, when – in February 2020, the last months of Trump’s first term in the Oval Office – he granted Kerik a presidential pardon, after he was convicted of tax fraud in 2009. “There are no words to express my appreciation and gratitude to President Trump,” Kerik tweeted at the time.

Kerik is the first new lobbyist Qatar has hired in the United States in the months following the Qatargate affair - in which allegations of ties between Qatar and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bureau in Jerusalem were raised. Qatar has retained Kerik’s services through the Kerik Group and paid an initial sum of $240,000 for two and half months. Thereafter, as long as the contract remains in effect, Kerik will be paid $80,000 a month. According to the contract, during the first year of the contract, Kerik is barred from working for any other Middle Eastern government.

During the short period of time since signing the contract with Qatar, Kerik has posted to social media articles praising Qatari efforts to broker a cease-fire in Gaza, as well as other articles criticizing Israel. Even before this, shortly after Trump’s second election victory, Kerik visited Qatar and published an article on the Newsmax website in which he warmly praised the country. “Going forward,” he wrote, “there should be no doubt that Qatar will be an indispensable ally for President-elect Donald J. Trump as he pursues an ambitious peace agenda in the first hundred days of the new administration”.

Newsmax itself – as Shomrim revealed last year – has its own links with Qatar. The channel, which is popular with the conservative right in the United States, and especially among Trump supporters, received a $50 million investment from Sheikh Sultan bin Jassim Al Thani, a member of the Qatari royal family and a former government official. The information came to light as part of the Genesis Trust leaks from a Cayman Islands-based financial services provider, which were obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and reviewed by The Washington Post.

In addition to Kerik, another close associate of Trump has also signed the contract with Qatar: Mark Serrano, a former Trump advisor and one of the president’s most stalwart defenders on television.

From Scandal to Selfies

Qatari efforts to influence public opinion and the administration in the United States – as well as in Israel – have hit the headlines in the past few months due to the Qatargate scandal. As part of the investigation, it became evident that another American lobbyist – Jay Footlik, whose contract with Doha was also revealed recently by Shomrim – paid money to Eli Feldstein, who served as a spokesperson in the Prime Minister's Office (despite not officially being employed there).

Footlik, however, who has been employed by the Qataris since 2018, is known to identify as a Democrat and even served under President Bill Clinton. Given the hiring of both Kerik and Serrano, however, it appears that Qatar is now turning its attention to lobbyists with connections and access to Trump. Kerik, for example, posts frequently in support of the president and has also posted a photograph of himself with newly appointed FBI director Kash Patel.

Karik did not respond to Shomrim’s request for a response.