After being accused of hacking Republican officials connected to President Trump, it now appears that the rogue state of Qatar has taken to blackmailing top associates of the commander-in-chief through the media.

On Monday, NBC News reported that the regime that rules Qatar claims to have damaging information about associates of President Trump and their connections Doha’s rival state, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The report adds that the Qataris have long contemplated delivering dirt on Trump associates — such as Jared Kushner — to special counsel Robert Mueller. NBC’s sources, unspecified Qatari associates, told NBC that they have not sent the information to the Mueller team. However, the story raised the possibility that Qatar is instead seeking to chip away at the president’s legitimacy through the media. The report claims it’s “unknown” whether Qatar is the source of media leaks to the New York Times and CNN — which appear calculated to damage the president and empower the Mueller team.

The NBC report claims that Qatar has information that President Trump’s position on Qatar was influenced by Kushner’s previous business dealings with its rivals. The piece overlooks the fact that conservatives have united behind the president’s requests of Qatar. As many of its Gulf neighbors are taking an active role in countering jihadist terrorism, while continuing efforts to reform and modernize, Qatar remains intent upon allying with state sponsors of terror and terrorist groups.

Qatar has decided against cooperating with Mueller “for now,” the report adds, which makes it seem like Doha is hanging the information over Trump officials’ heads as a means of potential future blackmail.

Shadowy operatives seemingly connected to Qatar continue to put forward allegations in media reports that implicate Trump associates on a variety of unproven charges.

Last week, the New York Times revealed that special counsel Mueller was investigating a controversial lobbyist for the UAE, along with his ties to the Trump administration. At the same time, the paper admitted that it got its research from “someone critical of the Emirati (UAE) influence in Washington.” There is a high likelihood that the “critical” person may be a lobbyist for the regime in Qatar, given the fact that Qatar is the UAE’s chief rival in the Gulf.

We also learned earlier this month that Elliot Brody, a top Trump fundraiser who is also the national deputy finance chairman for the Republican National Committee, believes his emails were hacked by Qatar. Brody’s allegedly stolen emails were dispersed to reporters in multiple news organizations, which leveraged the emails to highlight his ties to the UAE. He wrote a public letter about the fiasco, claiming that the Qataris are carrying out “hostile intelligence operations against United States citizens.”

Qatar claims to be a stalwart U.S. ally, but it is often aligned with Islamic supremacist states groups and individuals who seek to target the United States. Qatar continues to provide safe haven for the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, who has called for suicide bombings against American soldiers. The rogue nation also provides political offices in Doha for terrorist groups such as Hamas and the Taliban. Qatar’s leaders continue to work with the terrorist regime in Iran while supporting Al Qaeda-linked groups in Syria.

The oil-rich nation spends over $20 million per year to lobby for its foreign policy priorities. Qatar pays off policymakers, think tanks, academics, and members of the media on a regular basis. Between 2011 and 2014, Qatar pledged $21.6 million to the Brookings Institution, a prominent liberal think tank. In 2014, Qatar agreed to deliver another $14.8 million over four years to Brookings. Brookings employees cannot take “positions critical of the Qatari government in papers,” a whistleblower told The New York Times. Often shameless in its pursuits, Qatar is currently paying lobbyists to stop a bill in Congress that would shut down terrorist financing networks connected to the country. (For more from the author of “U.S. ‘Ally’ Qatar Appears to Be Dangling Information About Trump Associates” please click HERE)

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On Monday, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., threatened to choke off arms sales to U.S. Gulf allies because they are pressuring Qatar on terror financing. In a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Corker promised to shut down all arms sales to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) if it does not immediately “resolve the current dispute” with Qatar.

I will withhold consent on future arms sales to GCC until a path to resolve the dispute is established. My letter: https://t.co/PTOlC5Wcmk.

— Senator Bob Corker (@SenBobCorker) June 26, 2017

Corker has a long history of supporting initiatives for Qatar. His latest action on behalf of the oil-rich nation follows a disturbing pattern of carrying water for Doha.

Several Middle Eastern nations have decided to boycott the nation of Qatar, highlighting its worrisome support for terrorist organizations. They have released 13 mandates for Qatar, which call for the country to stop its close relationships with the Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaida, among other jihadi outfits. The Arab nations are also demanding that Turkish and Iranian influences be removed from the region and that Qatar shut down its Al Jazeera media network. The demands are very much in line with protecting American interests and putting pressure on U.S. adversaries.

And President Trump appears to support the initiative, as he recently labeled Qatar “a funder of terrorism at a very high level.”

When in a series of tweets, the president accurately described Qatar as a state funder of terror, Corker seemingly mocked Trump to reporters, shaking his head and asking: “The president?”

It appears that Corker is not acting out of concern for more advanced armaments entering the Middle East (he recently approved a $100 billion-plus arms deal with Saudi Arabia), but seemingly as an activist for Qatari interests. The Tennessee senator has in the past lobbied Obama officials for arms sales to the Gulf state.

Last year, Corker personally lobbied Obama national security adviser Susan Rice on the merits of selling 72 F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft to Qatar.

Al-Monitor reports that Corker “urged her” to let a proposed arms sale through and dismissed concerns that the massive fighter jet deal could upset Israel’s regional Qualitative Military Edge (QME).

“I want the administration to bring forth the Qatar sales, and I’ve met with the White House toward that end,” Corker told Al-Monitor in March, 2016. “I support it and hope that they’re going to be forthcoming.”

In January 2016, he publicly pushed for Qatar’s fighter jets, asking the White House to accelerate sales to Doha.

In early June, Corker told Al Jazeera (the Qatar-controlled media network) that the U.S. should not encourage the embargo of Qatar. “We have got to deal with all of the people in the region,” Corker said. “We have got some assets in Qatar that I visited not too long ago that are very important to us.”

Corker is infamously known in Republican circles as being the man who delivered a mechanism for President Obama to approve the Iran nuclear deal without the consent of Congress. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Corker authored the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015. His bill torched the treaty provision in the Constitution, allowing for President Obama to forge an agreement with the world’s foremost terror sponsor. The Treaty Clause, found in Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the Constitution, requires that two-thirds of Senate support for any treaties made by the president with foreign nations. (For more from the author of “Corker Threatens Gulf Allies on Behalf of Terror-Friendly Qatar” please click HERE)

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