Former Qatar Lobbyist Pam Bondi Approves Jet Deal

Attorney General Pam Bondi, a former lobbyist for Qatar and principal at a lobbying firm for L3Harris, has given the go-ahead for President Trump to accept Qatar’s gift of a $400 million luxury jet, a deal that will benefit both the foreign nation and the defense contractor.

Last week, Bondi issued a legal memo arguing that the jet gift is legally permissible because ownership will be transferred to Trump’s Presidential LIbrary Foundation before the end of his term, according to ABC News. The jet will be used by Trump as a new Air Force One.

The U.S. Constitution’s emoluments clause generally forbids officials like Trump from accepting gifts from foreign nationals, making Bondi’s approval suspect. “Trump’s plan to accept a luxury plane from Qatar is blatantly unconstitutional, a textbook violation of the emoluments clause,” said Public CItizen’s Robert Weissman. “The concern with foreign gifts is that they can sway a president’s policy and predilections — and there’s little doubt that Qatar wants to gift Trump a ‘palace in the sky’ for exactly that reason.”

Bondi, a former partner at the lobbying firm Ballard Partners, first registered to lobby for Qatar in July 2019, according to Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filings. Disclosures indicate that her lobbying for the country focused on human trafficking issues. After taking a leave in November 2019 to defend Trump during his first impeachment trial, she resumed lobbying for Qatar in 2020, a period during which human rights organizations like Amnesty International were accusing the country of labor abuses of migrant workers involving its preparations for hosting the 2022 World Cup. Bondi was named as key personnel on Ballard Partners’ Qatar contract, meaning she was personally and substantially engaged in the lobbying, for which the firm was paid $115,000 per month.