To call this “unseemly" would be an understatement. Rather, something about it is just stomach-turning and unpleasant.
A group of families of Sept. 11 victims is asking the Justice Department to investigate an “unprecedented foreign influence campaign” by Saudi Arabia — including “all-expenses paid” trips to Washington, D.C., with stays at the new Trump International Hotel for veterans willing to lobby to weaken a new law permitting the Saudi government to be sued for complicity in the 2001 terror attacks.
It’s long been suspected that certain elements in the Saudi government provided financial support to the 9/11 terrorists, most of whom were Saudi nationals, although the Saudi Kingdom was never taken to task for it by either the Bush or Obama Administrations. Their oil was just too damn important to risk offending them, even if it meant classifying their purported involvement in the attacks for well over a decade. Never mind the fact that the connections that were made pointed to potential involvement of Saudi intelligence and (potentially) at least indirect financial support from members of the Saudi Royal family. Rather, instead of investigating the Saudi connection we went to war with Iraq, which had nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11, and Afghanistan, which harbored the Al-Quada terrorists who perpetrated the attacks.
In September of 2016 the House of Representatives unanimously passed JASTA, the Justice Against Sponsors Of Terrorism Act. It had passed the Senate earlier without opposition. President Obama’s veto of the legislation was promptly overridden. Whether you agree with it or not, JASTA is now the law of the land, and victims and relatives of victims of the worst terror attack in this nation’s history can now sue the Saudi government for civil damages in American courts.
It amends the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act in regards to civil claims against a foreign state for injuries, death, or damages from an act of international terrorism.
Previously, U.S. nationals were permitted to sue a foreign state if such state was designated as a state sponsor of terrorism by the United States Department of State and if they were harmed by that state's aid for international terrorism. JASTA authorizes federal courts to exercise personal jurisdiction over any foreign state's support for acts of international terrorism against a U.S. national or property regardless if such state is designated as a state sponsor of terrorism or not.
About a month before the election, an official at Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the state-run Saudi Press Agency that the U.S. Congress must “correct" the law to avoid “serious unintended consequences,” and that the law was of "great concern" to the Kingdom.
We now know how great a concern it was:
Lawyers for the families charge that Saudi operatives “duped” hundreds of veterans into lobbying on the issue – warning them that under the new law they could be subjected to retaliatory lawsuits in foreign countries — without disclosing the effort was being bankrolled by the Saudi government.
Lawyers for the 9/11 families say the Saudis have hired an army of 100 lobbyists and are spending $1.3 million per month in an effort to curry favor with the new Trump Administration and members of Congress. The focus of their efforts has centered, thus far, on “incidentally” channeling business to Trump’s International Hotel:
“The Trump International Hotel lobby and restaurant area has become a very known place for politicos and others to gather,” Jason Johns, a registered lobbyist for Saudi Arabia who lives in Wisconsin, wrote in a memo to a group of veterans who were flown to Washington and booked rooms at the hotel for a three-day trip starting on Jan. 23, three days after President Trump’s inauguration.
The Saudi lobbyists are telling these veterans to buttonhole Senators, Congressmen and Federal Agency officials at the hotel and give them an earful about why the law should be changed so that the poor Saudis can escape the judgment of the Americans whose lives they may have destroyed by financing the attacks:
“This is a very unsavory combination of foreign government cash in a Trump business along with foreign influence buying,” said Norm Eisen, a former White House ethics advisor under President Obama, who in January helped file a lawsuit against the president over foreign payments to the Trump Organization, which owns the Trump Hotel.
According to Eisen, if Saudi government funds were being used to book these hotel stays, that is a facial (i.e., “on its face”) violation of the Emoluments clause. That is the clause in the Constitution that bars government officials from receiving payments or gifts “of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”
It’s a transparent attempt by a foreign government to curry favor and alter our laws and policies through financial support that, not coincidentally, directly benefits Trump and the Trump brand, except in this circumstance it’s even more than that. It’s an attempt by a government that includes some suspected terrorist financiers of wriggling their way out of liability under U.S. law for the consequences of their actions, by exploiting the fears of American combat veterans.
The "strategic communications firm” of Qorlis MSL Group, which has led this effort, says they booked these veterans at the hotel because they got a cheap rate: $300 per night, apparently unheard of in downtown DC. That, of course, begs the question why they were given such a rate in the first place.
Another “Saudi Lobbyist” wrote out the invitations to these veterans:
“You don’t have to know anything about JASTA,” wrote Lewark to a group of veterans she was trying to recruit for the effort. “It is all expenses paid (flight, dinner, hotel, transportation). They will be putting you in the Trump hotel, which is incredibly nice. … It’s an awesome trip and basically like a 5 star vacation.”
Meanwhile, Trump, who still owns the hotel, can pocket the proceeds of these bookings, and curry favor for his “brand.” His hotel has thus far hosted least seven separate visits by groups of between 20 and 50 veterans who booked at the Trump hotel beginning on November 14, 2016, a week after the election. All of these trips were arranged and paid for by the Saudis, but the veterans who they “recruited” were not told this.
One such veteran is David Casler, a U.S. Marine who spent two nights at the Trump Hotel, who said he was provided talking points by Saudi lobbyists, in an effort spearheaded by the Qorvis MSL Group. But he was not told that the Saudis were actually paying the bill, until he arrived at the hotel and began asking questions:
“I definitely believe we were all used,” Casler said. “We were definitely misled.” The lobbyists who recruited him for the effort were agents “for a foreign government trying to implement their will — which goes against the 9/11 victims and justice. It’s almost like treason.”
This is why it matters that a President discharge himself from the inherent conflicts of interest created by maintaining a business empire while simultaneously holding the highest office in the land. By turning the Trump International Hotel into a nexus for lobbyists intent on impacting American domestic and foreign policy, he has essentially thumbed his nose at the Constitution. This is also why Trump can’t ever be an effective or legitimate President, as none of his actions can be trusted to be free from the taint of corruption.