GOP fundraiser claims foreign government helped hack his emails

A top fundraiser for President Trump alleged in court filings on Thursday that Qatar worked with a former CIA agent to hack his email and expose efforts to get Trump to back adversarial policies toward Doha.

In an amended complaint filed in federal court in Los Angeles, lawyers for Elliott Broidy accused Mohammed bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the brother of the emir of Qatar, of directing the U.K. consulting firm Global Risk Advisers to obtain Broidy’s emails. 

The court filing alleges that the former CIA operative, Kevin Chalker, and his partner at GRA David Mark Powell opened an office in Doha “just weeks prior to the commencement of the” hacks. 

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“On information and belief, the Qatari Defendants retained and used the GRA Defendants to coordinate and implement the hack, and the GRA Defendants also personally supervised aspects of the information operation against Plaintiffs,” the complaint reads.

Jassim Al Thani, Qatar’s media attache in D.C., said Broidy’s allegations are false.

“Mr. Broidy’s latest false allegation is yet another desperate attempt to divert attention from his own illegal activities. His claims are completely fabricated and without merit. He attempts to portray Qatar as the aggressor, when he knows full well Qatar does not operate in this matter.

“The facts show it was Mr. Broidy who conspired in the shadows against Qatar — not the other way around,” Thani said.

The Associated Press obtained a trove of Broidy’s emails that detail how he was promised hundreds of million dollars in consulting contracts from the United Arab Emirates as he sought to push anti-Qatar policies with the White House.

The UAE and other Gulf states have engaged in a bitter feud with Doha over the past year over after Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia imposed a land and sea blockade on Qatar.

Broidy and Lebanese-American businessman George Nader also lobbied Trump to fire former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who had advocated for resolving the Gulf dispute. Trump fired Tillerson in March. 

“This is a case about a civil and criminal conspiracy undertaken by a foreign nation on the territory of the United States against a successful, influential United States citizen and his California corporation,” Broidy’s court filing says.

– Updated at 11:47 a.m.