Follow us on social

Kash Patel

He took Qatar’s money, now Kash Patel handling their FBI files?

Trump's top cop was working for Doha until the election. He just obtained a waiver to deal with a case that landed on his desk.

Reporting | Washington Politics

FBI Director Kash Patel promised that he wouldn’t touch any work related to the country of Qatar — until very recently, a lucrative client of his. Now, only a few months into the job, he’s had a change of heart and is already handling official FBI business related to the Gulf country.

After his confirmation hearing, Patel revealed that he worked as a consultant for the Embassy of Qatar until November. Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, Acting Vice President of Policy & Government Affairs at Project on Government Oversight, explained to RS that federal regulations stipulate that executive branch employees should recuse themselves on issues related to their former employers for a period of one year.

However, employees can avoid this requirement by simply obtaining a waiver — or, as Hedtler-Gaudette put it, “activating the escape hatch.”

According to the new disclosure filing, Patel received this waiver from his agency’s ethics officer for a particular matter related to Qatar on March 4. The new disclosure does not specify what work or case Patel’s waiver is for — but if official FBI business involving Qatar is landing on the Director’s desk and it’s worth asking for a waiver over, it’s a good sign the work carries some weight.

In his ethics disclosure from before his confirmation hearing, Patel pledged to avoid actual and apparent conflicts of interests; “I will not participate personally and substantially in any particular matter involving specific parties in which I know a former client of mine is a party or represents a party for a period of one year after I last provided service to that client or until the client satisfies any outstanding bill, whichever is later, unless I am first authorized to participate.”

It turns out those last seven words did most of the heavylifting.

“This waiver should never have been granted,” Craig Holman, Government Affairs Lobbyist for Public Citizen, told RS. “There is no reason why Patel has to address whatever specific issue this is relating to Qatar when he can just delegate it to someone else in the FBI.”

Patel’s consulting business, Trishul LLC, earned a neat $2.1 million according to his financial disclosure. The Embassy of Qatar is listed as one of nine clients, though it does not provide a breakdown as to how much Patel received from each client. Other clients include a Kremlin-connected Russian filmmaker and the Chinese e-commerce platform Shein.

Patel first began working for Qatar shortly after leaving the Trump administration, where his last post was as chief of staff to the secretary of defense. A source with familiarity of his work explained to RS that Patel signed a contract to advise Qatar on security issues ahead of the World Cup. When the World Cup ended, Patel pivoted to advising the Qatar Embassy on counterterrorism issues and election monitoring, even identifying potential personnel in a future Trump administration.

Patel himself has not released a statement explaining the nature of his work for the Qatari Embassy, leaving some to wonder if he should have registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. “Based on everything I have seen, it seems like he probably should have registered as a foreign agent,” explained Hedtler-Gaudette. “If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it probably was a foreign agent,” he added.

In February, Attorney General Pam Bondi — herself a former lobbyist for Qatar — released a memo stating that FARA would only be enforced in cases of “traditional espionage.”

The FBI investigates everything from terrorism to public corruption, including a number of probes which involve foreign governments, leaving no shortage of possibilities of what the waiver could be for. Holman explained that if and when Qatar’s name does pop up in the FBI building again, Patel is likely to seek another waiver. “And, it’s likely to be granted.”

The FBI is also responsible for carrying out investigations into foreign influence; in January, Bob Menendez was sentenced to 11 years in prison for bribery and foreign agent charges. As part of that case, Menendez accepted gold and F1 tickets, among other gifts, in exchange for using his influence to help a New Jersey real estate developer obtain millions of dollars from a Qatari investment fund. On the other hand, Qatar has also been a key partner in negotiating the release of hostages and a ceasefire in Gaza in which security agencies were part of many of the sensitive talks they had — without the specifics of what the waiver for it's impossible to say.

But all of this begs the question — what did Patel seek a waiver for exactly?"


Top photo credit: FBI Director Kash Patel (Maxim Elramsisy/Shutterstock)
Reporting | Washington Politics
Trump tariffs
Top image credit: Steve Travelguide via shutterstock.com

Linking tariff 'deals' to US security interests is harder than it looks

Global Crises

In its July 31 Executive Order modifying the reciprocal tariffs originally laid out in early April, the White House repeatedly invokes the close linkages between trade and national security.

The tariff treatment of different countries is linked to broader adhesion to U.S. foreign policy priorities. For example, (relatively) favorable treatment is justified for those countries that have “agreed to, or are on the verge of agreeing to, meaningful trade and security commitments with the United States, thus signaling their sincere intentions to permanently remedy … trade barriers ….and to align with the United States on economic and national security matters.”

keep readingShow less
Kurdistan drone attacks
Top photo credit: A security official stands near site of the Sarsang oilfield operated by HKN Energy, after a drone attack, in Duhok province, Iraq, July 17, 2025. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari

Kurdistan oil is the Bermuda Triangle of international politics

Middle East

In May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared that a strong Kurdistan Region within a federal Iraq is a "fundamental and strategic component" of U.S. policy. Two months later, that policy was set on fire.

A relentless campaign of drone attacks targeting Iraqi Kurdistan’s military, civilian, and energy infrastructure escalated dramatically in July, as a swarm of Iranian-made drones struck oil fields operated by American and Norwegian companies. Previous strikes had focused on targets like Erbil International Airport and the headquarters of the Peshmerga’s 70th Force in Sulaymaniyah.

The attacks slashed regional oil production from a pre-attack level of nearly 280,000 barrels per day to a mere 80,000.

The arrival of Iraqi National Security Advisor Qasim al-Araji in Erbil personified the central paradox of the crisis. His mission was to lead an investigation into an attack that Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) officials had already publicly blamed on armed groups embedded within the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF)—components of his own government.

keep readingShow less
Sudan
Sudanese protester stands in front of a blazing fire during a demonstration against the military coup, on International Women's Day in Khartoum, Sudan March 8, 2022. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig

Sudan civil war takes dark turn as RSF launches 'parallel government'

Africa

In a dramatic move last week, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced the selection of its own prime minister and presidential council to compete with and directly challenge the legitimacy of the Sudanese government.

News of the new parallel government comes days before a new round of peace talks was expected to begin in Washington last week. Although neither of the two civil war belligerents were going to attend, it was to be the latest effort by the United States to broker an end to the war in Sudan — and the first major effort under Trump’s presidency.

keep readingShow less

LATEST

QIOSK

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.