WASHINGTON — After a year spent carefully cultivating two princes from theArabian Peninsula, Elliott Broidy, a top fundraiser for President DonaldTrump, thought he was finally close to nailing more than $1 billion inbusiness.

He had ingratiated himself with crown princes from Saudi Arabia and theUnited Arab Emirates, who were seeking to alter U.S. foreign policy andpunish Qatar, an archrival in the Gulf that he dubbed “the snake.”

To do that, the California businessman had helped spearhead a secretcampaign to influence the White House and Congress, flooding Washingtonwith political donations.

Broidy and his business partner, Lebanese-American George Nader, pitchedthemselves to the crown princes as a backchannel to the White House,passing the princes’ praise — and messaging — straight to the president’sears.

Now, in December 2017, Broidy was ready to be rewarded for all his hardwork.

It was time to cash in.

In return for pushing anti-Qatar policies at the highest levels ofAmerica’s government, Broidy and Nader expected huge consulting contractsfrom Saudi Arabia and the UAE, according to an Associated Pressinvestigation based on interviews with more than two dozen people andhundreds of pages of leaked emails between the two men. The emails reviewedby the AP included work summaries and contracting documents and proposals.

The AP has previously reportedlink>thatBroidy and Nader sought to get an anti-Qatar bill through Congress whileobscuring the source of the money behind their influence campaign. A newcache of emails obtained by the AP reveals an ambitious, secretive lobbyingeffort to isolate Qatar and undermine the Pentagon’s longstandingrelationship with the Gulf country.

A lawyer for Broidy, Chris Clark, contended the AP’s reporting “is based onfraudulent and fabricated documents obtained from entities with a knownagenda to harm Mr. Broidy.”

“To be clear, Mr. Nader is a U.S. citizen, and there is no evidencesuggesting that he directed Mr. Broidy’s actions, let alone that he did soon behalf of a foreign entity,” Clark said.

The AP conducted an exhaustive review of the emails and documents, checkingtheir content with dozens of sources, and determined that they trackedclosely with real events, including efforts to cultivate the princes andlobby Congress and the White House.

The cache also reveals a previously unreported meeting with the presidentand provides the most detailed account yet of the work of two Washingtoninsiders who have been entangled in the turmoil surrounding the twocriminal investigations closest to Trump.

Lobbying in pursuit of personal gain is nothing new in Washington — Trumphimself, in fact, turned the incestuous culture into a rallying cry when hepromised to “drain the swamp.”

“I will Make Our Government Honest Again — believe me,” Trump tweetedbefore the election. “But first, I’m going to have to #DrainTheSwamp in DC.”

Broidy’s campaign to alter U.S. policy in the Middle East and reap afortune for himself shows that one of the president’s top money men foundthe swamp as navigable as ever with Trump in office.

Nader’s lawyer, Kathryn Ruemmler, declined comment. A senior Saudi officialconfirmed that the government had discussions with Nader but said it hadsigned no contracts with either Nader or Broidy.

Neither Broidy nor Nader registered with the U.S. government under theForeign Agents Registration Act, a law intended to make lobbyists workingfor foreign governments disclose their ties and certain politicalactivities. The law requires people to register even if they are not paidbut merely directed by foreign interests with political tasks in mind.

Violating the federal law carries a maximum $10,000 fine or up to fiveyears in prison.

Broidy has maintained he was not required to register because hisanti-Qatar campaign was not directed by a foreign client and came entirelyat his own initiative. But documents show the lobbying was intertwined withthe pursuit of contracts from the very start, and involved specificpolitical tasks carried out for the crown princes — whose countries arelisted as the “clientslink>”for the lobbying campaign in a spreadsheet from Broidy’s company, CircinusLLC.

“I have represented Mr. Broidy for many years. He has complied with allrelevant laws, including FARA,” Clark, Broidy’s attorney, said in astatement to the AP.

Summaries written by Broidy of two meetings he had with Trump — one ofwhich has not been disclosed before — report that he was passing messagesto the president from the two princes and that he told Trump he was seekingbusiness with them.

By December of last year, the partners were riding a wave of success intheir campaign to create an anti-Qatar drumbeat in Washington.

Saudi Arabia was finding a new ascendancy following Trump’s election.Broidy sought to claim credit for it, emails show, and was keen to collectthe first installment of $36 million for an intelligence-gathering contractwith the UAE.

It all might have proceeded smoothly save for one factor: the appointmentof Robert Mueller as special counsel to look into allegations of Russianinterference in the 2016 election.

‘BELTWAY BANDITS’

In many ways, the partnership between Broidy, 60, and Nader, 59, embodiesthe insider influence that has given contractors in D.C. the nickname”beltway bandits.”

Both of their careers were marked by high-rolling success and spectacularfalls from grace — and criminal convictions. The onset of the Trumpadministration presented an opportunity: a return to glory.

Broidy, who made a fortune in investments, was finance chairman of theRepublican National Committee from 2006 to 2008. But when a New York statepension fund decided to invest $250 million with him, investigators foundthat he had plied state officials with nearly $1 million in illegal giftswhile collecting $18 million in management fees.

In 2009, Broidy pleaded guiltylink>toa felony charge of rewarding official misconduct.

“In seeking investments from the New York State Common Retirement Fund, Imade payments for the benefit of high-ranking officials at the Office ofthe New York State Comptroller, who had influence and decision-makingauthority over investment decisions,” Broidy said in his plea andcooperation agreement.

Andrew Cuomo, then-New York attorney general, called it “an old-fashionedpayoff.”

“This is effectively bribery of state officials, and not just one,” saidCuomo, who is now New York’s governor.

Three years later, Broidy’s conviction was knocked down to a misdemeanorafter he agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and pay back the $18 millionto the state.

Nader’s problem was pedophilia.

As a young Lebanese immigrant to the U.S. in the 1980s, he quicklyestablished himself as a forceful independent operator, founding a policymagazine called Middle East Insight. By the ’90s, he had risen as abehind-the-scenes player, setting up dinners for Israeli and Arabdignitaries with Washington power brokers and U.S. lawmakers.

But in May 2003, Nader was convicted in the Czech Republic of 10 counts ofsexually abusing minors and sentenced to a one-year prison term, the APrevealed in March.

He served his time in Prague, according to Czech authorities, then wasexpelled from the country.

That sordid past was no obstacle as Nader cultivated a formidable list ofhigh-powered contacts.

After the 2003 Iraq war ended, he re-emerged there, as contractors weremaking a fortune helping the U.S. coalition and the post-Saddam Husseingovernment rebuild the country and arm its military.

Nader worked with a private military contractor from the U.S., Erik Prince,whose former company, Blackwater, became infamous after a shootout inBaghdad in 2007 left 14 civilians dead.

Nader has been living in the UAE, working as an adviser to Sheikh Mohammedbin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Abu Dhabi crown prince known as MBZ.

It was Nader’s connection to MBZ and Erik Prince that eventually caught theattention of U.S. investigators in the Russia probe.

Mueller’s team was interested in two meetings that took place before DonaldTrump’s inauguration.

One was in the Seychelles, a tropical archipelago in the Indian Ocean,which drew scrutiny because it included Prince, an informal adviser toTrump, and Russian investor Kirill Dmitriev, who has close ties to RussianPresident Vladimir Putin. The meeting has prompted questions about whetherit was an attempt to establish a backchannel between Russia and theincoming Trump administration.

The other meeting was at Trump Tower in New York.

Nader and MBZ were at both.

‘A TERRIFIC, MAGNIFICENT MEETING’

Just weeks after those meetings, Broidy and Nader met for the first time,during Trump’s inauguration.

The two men were soon working out their budding partnership. Nader sentBroidy his private email address on the encrypted ProtonMail service.

From the start, the men had a two-track mission: to carry out a campaignagainst Qatar that would curry favor with the princes, and to then turnthat success into millions of dollars in defense deals, documents show.

The two men barely knew each other. But Broidy had the ear of thepresident. Nader claimed he had the crown princes’.

On Feb. 7, 2017, Broidy wrote to a staffer for the chairman of the HouseForeign Affairs Committee about a bill aimed at sanctioning Qatar foralleged support of terrorist groups— part of what Nader called “hammeringQatar,” emails show.

The next day, Broidy forwarded Nader questions about a potential contractwith Saudi Arabia to train Arab troops to fight in the escalating war inYemen.

The three-year civil war there has left thousands of civilians dead,millions displaced from their homes, and put the entire country on the cuspof famine in what is now the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. Thewar has drawn in myriad combatants, including a coalition led by SaudiArabia and the UAE, and backed by the U.S.

Broidy and Nader proposed multiple plans to the princes for more than $1billion of work. One pitch was to help create an all-Muslim fighting forceof 5,000 troops. A second was aimed at helping the UAE gather intelligence.A third would strengthen Saudi maritime and border security. Still anotherwas related to setting up counterterrorism centers in Saudi Arabia.

In a note to Broidy, Nader said the princes were very happy with theproposed contracts, particularly the crown prince of Abu Dhabi.

But first, emails show, they had to focus on the lobbying campaign. Theyproposed a budget upward of $12 million to “expose and penalize” Qatar andget the U.S. to pressure it to “aid in coercive action against Iran,”according to a March 2017 document.

The gist of their plan was to show evidence that Qatar was too close toIran and supported Islamist groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood. Iranis Saudi’s main regional rival and on the other side of the war in Yemen.

Ideally, Broidy and Nader would work to persuade the U.S. government tosanction Qatar and move a key military base from Qatar to another locationin the Gulf. Broidy said he had a direct line to Treasury Secretary StevenMnuchin.

“Mnuchin is a close friend of mine (my wife and I are attending Sec.Mnuchin’s wedding in Washington D.C. on June 24th),” Broidy wrote to Nader.”I can help in educating Mnuchin on the importance of the TreasuryDepartment putting many Qatari individuals and organizations on theapplicable sanctions lists.”

The al-Udeid Air Base outside Doha is an important U.S. military asset inthe Middle East. It’s the forward operating base for U.S. Central Commandand hosts some 10,000 U.S. troops — a geopolitical arrangement that Qatar’sGulf rivals would like to change. Amid the fissures in the Gulf, the baseis key leverage for Qatar to maintain influence in Washington. Unlike othercountries, Qatar imposes few restrictions on base operations and is evenbuilding new facilities for U.S. troops.

Getting the U.S. government to move its critical base in the Gulf wasunlikely. And polishing up the image of the Saudis and Emiratis was a hardsell.

Saudi Arabia has a history of torture and human rights abuses. ManyAmericans still associate the country with the Sept. 11 attacks. Of the 19attackers, 15 were from Saudi Arabia, and two were from the UAE.

The UAE’s track record is no better. Last year, the AP revealed that theUAE was operating “black sites” in Yemen, where its soldiers have torturedprisoners – including, in some cases, tying them to a spit and roastingthem over open fires.

Qatar has a troubled record as well. International human rights groups havedinged the country for its treatment of migrant workers preparing thecountry for the 2022 World Cup. Amnesty International, in a 2013 report,stated that migrants from southeast Asia worked in a state akin to slavery,”forced labour,” and lived in “squalid” housing.

Despite the challenges of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, the partners’timing was good. Trump and many other Republicans in Washington viewedSaudi Arabia as a counterweight against Iran.

Broidy reported he was making progress, and Nader kept the “principals”briefed on their adventures, emails show. Broidy boasted that he had gotthe chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, California RepublicanRep. Ed Royce, to back an anti-Qatar bill.

“This is extremely positive,” Broidy wrote. He claimed he had “shifted”Royce from being critical of Saudi Arabia to “being critical of Qatar.” TheAP reported in Marchlink>thatBroidy gave nearly $600,000 to GOP candidates and causes since thebeginning of 2017. Royce got the maximum allowed.

Cory Fritz, a spokesman for Royce, noted the congressman’s record: Roycehas long been critical of both countries. He said Royce has not changed hisstance.

Broidy also bragged that he had “caused” Royce to praise a senior Saudigeneral, Ahmed Hassan Mohammad Assiri, in words that were then memorializedin the Congressional Record. Nader was thrilled: A U.S. congressmanpublicly flattered a Saudi official, who documents show was helpingevaluate Broidy and Nader’s contract proposals.

At the end of March, Nader wrote that he’d had “a terrific, magnificentmeeting” with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. Prospects forthe billion-dollar contracts were good.

“He was very positive overall,” Nader wrote. The prince even asked them todiscuss their contracts with “General Ahmed.”

The money for the lobbying was another matter.

At Nader’s request, $2.5 millionlink>waschanneled in two installments from his company in the UAE through aCanadian company called Xiemen Investments Limited, which someone familiarwith the transaction said was run by one of Broidy’s friends. The money wasthen routed to a Broidy account in Los Angeles.

The transaction had the effect of obfuscating that the money for thepolitical work in Washington had come from Nader in the UAE. Some of therecipients of Broidy’s spending in Washington said they had no idea thatNader was involved. Broidy previously told the AP that he did not think toquestion why the money was routed through a foreign entity.

At that point, Broidy might have realized the dangers of not registering asa foreign agent — it was all over the news.

Three Trump advisers registered retroactively as foreign agents: MichaelFlynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, who had done business forTurkey, and Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his longtime deputy,Rick Gates, who did business for Ukraine.

Broidy was undeterred. Nader cheered on his anti-Qatar exploits and toldhim to “keep hammering the bastards.”

AN ‘EXTRAORDINARY’ CAMPAIGN’

Armed with fresh cash, Broidy pitched Nader a media blitz that would putthe fire to Qatar.

He’d persuaded an American think tank, Foundation for Defense ofDemocracies, to stage an anti-Qatar conference. Broidy wrote Nader that hisplan included the commission of 200 articles assigned to the foundation andother think tanks. Mark Dubowitz, the foundation’s CEO, later said thatBroidy assured him the funding was not coming from a foreign government andthat he had no contracts in the Gulf.

On April 21, 2017, Broidy sent Nader the draft of an Op-Ed to show theimpact of his campaign. It was marked “Confidential.”

Three days later, “The Two Faces of Qatar, a Dubious Mideast Ally” waspublished in The Wall Street Journal. The opinion piece, co-written byretired Air Force Gen. Charles Wald, who had been the deputy head of U.S.European Command, called for moving U.S. military assets from the al-UdeidAir Base in Qatar. “The United Arab Emirates would be a logicaldestination,” wrote Wald.

What readers did not know was that Wald was listed in company documents asa member of Broidy’s Circinus team that was pitching contracts in SaudiArabia.

Asked why he had not made his conflict clear in the Op-Ed piece, Walddenied he had ever worked for Broidy.

“I was not part of the team, period,” Wald wrote. “I can’t speak for hisdocumentation.”

A person familiar with the arrangement, who spoke on condition of anonymitybecause he was not authorized to speak on the record, said that Waldconsulted with Broidy, but could not join a trip to pitch the contract inSaudi Arabia because of a scheduling conflict. Broidy’s leaked emails referto Wald’s involvement almost four dozen times.

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies conference was set for May 23 atthe Fairmont Hotel in Washington. In a Circinus progress report from Broidyto Nader, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are listed as the clients, Maj. Gen.Assiri as a consultant, and Broidy and Nader are “leader/liaison” — raisingquestions about Broidy’s contention to the AP that he was not working for aforeign government.

The conference also set off a flurry of more anti-Qatar stories inmainstream media, which Broidy catalogued for the crown princes.

The partners were jubilant when Trump made his first foreign trip not tohis allies in Europe, but to Saudi Arabia.

Two weeks later, in a major escalation of tensions, the UAE, Saudi Arabiaand regional allies launched a travel and trade embargo against Qatar.

It was hard to tell whose side the U.S. government was on.

One day after the UAE and Saudi Arabia began their blockade, Trump sent aseries of tweets signaling support for the two countries’ actions andembracing an anti-Qatar stance. He said his recent visit to Saudi Arabiawas “already paying off. They said they would take a hard line on fundingextremism and all reference was pointing to Qatar. Perhaps this will be thebeginning of the end to horror of terrorism!”

U.S. officials quickly tried to walk back Trump’s comments, saying the U.S.was not taking sides in the dispute among its Gulf allies.

A week later, on June 16, the Trump administration completed a $12 billionsale of F-15 fighter jets to Qatar that had been approved earlier byCongress. The move was at odds with the president’s rhetoric on Qatar, butit paled in comparison with the $110 billion in arms deals with SaudiArabia that Trump had previously announced. – Agencies