Welcome to Pay Dirt—exclusive reporting and research from The Daily Beast’s Lachlan Markay on corruption, campaign finance, and influence-peddling in the nation’s capital. For Beast Inside members only.
Within about six weeks of President Donald Trump’s hiring of Rudy Giuliani as his personal attorney last year, two firms staffed by people with deep ties to the former New York City mayor had signed on to lobby for the government of Qatar. And according to foreign-agent filings, they’ve been collaborating with each other ever since.
Blueprint Advisors, run by former senior Giuliani aides Tony Carbonetti and Chris Henick, represents the Qatari embassy in Washington. Debevoise & Plimpton, meanwhile, works on behalf of the Qatari attorney general’s office with a team that includes Giuliani’s longtime friend and one-time colleague Michael Mukasey, a former U.S. attorney general.