Former Trump campaign adviser admits to violating foreign agents registration act

Republican-aligned lobbyist Barry Bennett — an adviser to former President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign — has admitted to violating a law pertaining to agents of foreign governments in a newly unveiled agreement with the Department of Justice.

According to Politico legal correspondent Kyle Cheney, Bennett and his associate Doug Watts entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the DOJ on Tuesday, agreeing to pay hefty fines and cease activity governed by the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) for 18 months in exchange for avoiding a trial. Bennett will pay $100,000 for making false statements to federal authorities concerning his lobbying activities on behalf of foreign interests, and Watts — who worked on Ben Carson's 2016 presidential campaign — agreed to pay $25,000.

While the charging documents didn't state which country Bennett and Watts were assisting, the context of court documents suggests the violations relate to the lobbyists' work on behalf of the Qatari government in relation to the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

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According to the Wall Street Journal, Bennett's firm, Avenue Strategies LLC — which he co-founded with former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski — was under investigation by the DOJ in 2021 for his work on behalf of Qatar. That work involved setting up an advocacy group dubbed Yemen Crisis Watch, which was aimed at shaming Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for their destabilization of Yemen that led to widespread hunger and poverty in the war-torn nation.

The Qatari embassy reportedly paid Bennett $250,000 for the campaign, and Bennett's failure to report the group as a project paid for by a foreign government was what first alerted federal investigators. The Hill additionally reported that Qatar paid Avenue Strategies Global in excess of $3 million for building inroads between the Middle Eastern nation and the Trump administration between 2017 and 2018. His firm brought in roughly $1 million in 2020, but his work tapered off after Trump lost his reelection bid that year.

Politico reported that in addition to his work with Yemen, Bennett's firm also worked with Ukrainian politician Yulia Tymoshenko, Veneuzuelan-owned oil company Citgo and the government of Zimbabwe. A Maryland judge froze his assets in 2021 after he was sued by Ying Ma — another Republican lobbyist — for refusing to pay finders' fees for new clients she helped bring in.

"Bennett has attempted to defend his illicit activities to federal authorities by, among other things, falsely accusing Ying Ma, a patriotic American citizen, of being an intelligence asset of the Chinese Communist government," read a 2021 filing Ma submitted. She added that his refusal to pay her was part of a "pattern of sleaziness and illegal behavior."

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