Lobbyists working on behalf of foreign entities have contributed well over $7 million to state and federal elections since January 2025, records compiled by the Department of Justice show.
Unsurprisingly, foreign agents working for Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and other influence-hungry countries cut among the largest checks, a Washington Examiner review of DOJ records found. Equally unsurprising is the fact that some of the lawmakers receiving the largest shares of these campaign checks sat on committees considering items of great economic and political importance to the countries bankrolling these foreign agents
Oftentimes, donations from foreign agents to members of Congress went hand in hand with access to their offices and, occasionally, the members themselves.
Andrew King, founder of the lobbying firm Neale Creek, was among the top foreign agent donors in 2025, cutting nearly $60,000 in campaign checks last year. Documents filed with the DOJ, meanwhile, indicate that King’s firm makes roughly $50,000 per month representing the interests of Qatar.
Among the lawmakers receiving large donations from King, either directly or through their leadership committees, were Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH), Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX), Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH), and Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC).
All of these lawmakers granted King’s firm access to their offices. Most offered text messages and phone calls with staffers to discuss Qatari business, per DOJ records, but some — namely Graham, Joyce, and Wilson — communicated personally with Neale Creek on issues related to Qatar.
Text messages and phone calls can, under the reporting requirements of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, range from very brief conversations, including the exchanging of niceties, to deep, substantive discussions about policy.
The Washington Examiner previously reported that Qatar has gone to great lengths in recent years to deepen its economic ties to South Carolina and to ingratiate itself with the state’s GOP leaders. A major pillar of Qatari economic integration in South Carolina is a $96 billion arrangement between Qatar Airways and Boeing for the former to acquire 210 jets manufactured in the Palmetto State.
King is just one of many well-paid Qatari agents donating money to accrue influence on Capitol Hill.
Jim Moran and Austin Durrer, partners at the firm Moran Global Strategies and foreign agents working on behalf of Qatar, each donated roughly $50,000 to political committees in 2025, DOJ records show. Their firm takes home $55,000 per month representing Qatar.
Like King, Moran and Durrer’s firm also secured access to the politicians they had donated to in order to discuss Qatar’s interests.
Among these were Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA), who granted them two in person meetings in 2025 and received $6,500 from the pair of lobbyists; Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), who met with Moran’s lobbyists in person to discuss Qatar’s interests in the defense appropriations bill and received $3,500 from the duo; and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) who received $7,000 from Moran and communicated with his firm in relation to his foreign clients more than 30 times in 2025, including multiple in-person meetings, according to DOJ records.
One senior congressional staffer, speaking to the Washington Examiner anonymously, explained that this is business as usual on the Hill.
“Good legislative staffers want to know the arguments people on every side are making for a given policy, and that means meeting with constituents, interests groups, and sometimes lobbyists who are affected by an issue,” they explained. “Taking a meeting with a lobbyist, especially a foreign registered agent, doesn’t mean the official is going to do anything for that lobbyist, and I’d bet in a lot of these cases the member has turned around and done the exact opposite of what the country wanted to see.”
Brian Ballard, who, due to his long relationship with President Donald Trump, rose to prominence as one of the most in-demand lobbyists in Washington following the 2024 presidential election, also spent considerable cash — close to $50,000 — on political contributions in 2025 while representing foreign governments. Ballard’s foreign clients include Japan, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“Access means that lobbyists can visit politicians to explain their preferences for governmental policy, indicating that campaign contributions help make lobbying efforts more successful,” Center for American Progress senior fellow David Madland wrote. “If contributions can buy access to lobby, then lobbying victories would necessarily increase the incentive to engage in campaign funding.”
Academic research has found that lobbyists strategically make political contributions, increasing them during policy debates and targeting lawmakers who can deliver their preferred outcome. Further research indicates that campaign contributions increase donors’ access to policymakers.
Foreign agents don’t always donate to individual lawmakers to accrue influence. A large donation to a political party’s general Senate election fund, for instance, can go a long way in gaining leverage in political discussions.
Some of the largest recipients of contributions from foreign agents were, in fact, large national committees.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee, two organizations the GOP has tasked with winning the Senate and House, respectively, took in a combined $357,932 from foreign agents in 2025. The equivalent committees on the Democratic side of the aisle, meanwhile, have received $338,500 from foreign agents since January 2025, according to DOJ records.
This isn’t to say, however, that individual lawmakers didn’t receive large sums from foreign agents in 2025.
Warner, for instance, received over $100,000 from foreign agents in 2025, per DOJ records. On the other side of the partisan divide, committees linked to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) took in just over $80,000 over the same period.
Cruz is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, while Warner serves as the vice chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, both of which frequently deal with matters of interest to foreign agents representing practically any country.
Other members of Congress who received large sums of campaign contributions from individuals registered as foreign agents while serving on sensitive committees included Sens. Tim Sheehy (R-MT) and Jim Banks (R-IN), who serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Rep. Darin LaHood (R-IL), who sits on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Coons, who is a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
Donations don’t always correspond to access, however. Sheehy and his staff, for instance, didn’t meet with any of the foreign agents who contributed to his campaign in 2025.
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Many foreign agents also represent domestic clients as part of their work, meaning that not every campaign check they cut is intended to win influence for their lobbying on behalf of foreign principals.
The Washington Examiner reached out to every lawmaker mentioned in this piece for comment.
