GOP fundraiser subpoenas AP over source of leaked emails: report

A top GOP fundraiser has subpoenaed The Associated Press over leaked emails reportedly revealing his efforts to lobby the Trump administration against the nation of Qatar, according to Politico. 

Former RNC deputy finance chair Elliott Broidy has served the AP with a subpoena over emails that allegedly reveal he and a business associate sought million-dollar contracts with the governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. According to the AP, the two Gulf countries were hoping to use Broidy’s leverage with President Trump in order to turn his administration’s policies against Qatar, another Gulf country the two nations have blockaded.

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Broidy resigned from the Republican National Committee (RNC) in April after it was reported that he paid a Playboy model $1.6 million after she got pregnant from an affair with him.

Several outlets published articles on the stolen emails, and provided Broidy with original PDF documents the outlets received containing the hacked messages, according to Politico. The AP, however, reportedly only provided scans of the hacked emails themselves, which lack valuable metadata that can be used to identify the source of the documents.

The AP’s director of media relations, Lauren Easton, told Politico the news service plans to resist the subpoena.

The AP reported on Monday that Broidy and businessman George Nader angled for millions of dollars in lobbying contracts from the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia while simultaneously pushing Trump on the two countries’ interests, as well as urging him to take a hard-line stance on Qatar.

Trump accused the Qatari government of being a “funder of terrorism” in a press conference last year, hours after then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged the two nations to end the blockade of Qatar.

Trump’s longtime personal attorney lobbied the other side of the conflict, according to The Washington Post. The newspaper reported last week that Michael Cohen, who represented Broidy in his arrangement to pay the Playboy model, offered Qatari government officials access to Trump in exchange for at least $1 million.