Continuing the all-important work of reducing the Department of Justice to nothing but a vehicle for sham prosecutions and petty revenge, federal prosecutors have opened a corruption investigation into Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser over a trip she took with her staff to Qatar, paid for in part by Qatar.
What’s the corruption? Who can say, really? Maybe bribery, maybe campaign finance violations. That part hasn’t quite been worked out yet. There’s the minor sticking point of how there doesn’t seem to be any evidence that Bowser actually did anything for Qatar, which is kind of required for a bribe.
What’s a $400 million gift between friends like President Donald Trump and Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani ?
This nonsense stems from a 2023 trip Bowser took to Dubai with four staffers to attend a United Nations conference. Bowser’s office initially said the D.C. Chamber of Commerce paid, then that the U.S. Conference of Mayors had covered it, but it turned out that Qatar did pay over $61,000 to bring Bowser and her staff to Doha before the conference in Dubai.
Well, that changes things. $61,000! Heavens! Why, that’s literally equivalent to 0.015% of the $400 million plane that Qatar gave to President Donald Trump. How dare she!
While it doesn’t seem like anyone has been able to uncover what impermissible goodies Qatar might have gotten from Bowser in exchange for that $61,000 trip, we’re a little clearer on what Qatar got from Trump for that $400 million “gift.” How about a declaration that the United States “shall regard any armed attack on the territory, sovereignty, or critical infrastructure of the State of Qatar as a threat to the peace and security of the United States”?
Well, maybe that’s just some vague language, right? A nice, no-strings way to say thanks for a new plane, because it would be rude not to show gratitude, right?
“In the event of such an attack, the United States shall take all lawful and appropriate measures — including diplomatic, economic, and, if necessary, military — to defend the interests of the United States and of the State of Qatar and to restore peace and stability.”
Nope, not vague at all. That $400 million seems to have bought the Qataris the same type of commitment to shared defense that we make to NATO countries under Article V, which is honestly pretty much priceless.
Related | The Qatari airplane bribe is paying dividends—for Qataris
Where the DOJ hasn’t quite figured out what sort of corruption they can claim Bowser was engaged in, they’ve figured out very quickly how to say that Trump accepting an enormously expensive luxury plane as a gift wasn’t corruption.
Per Attorney General Pam Bondi, it is totally legal for Trump to take a $400 million gift from a foreign government. She even signed an official memo about it. No, you can’t see the memo.
According to Bondi’s office, it will take 620 days to respond to a FOIA request for a single memo, so the May request from the Freedom of the Press Foundation will be answered by Jan. 25, 2027. But in the meantime, just remember: perfectly legal.
Also perfectly legal? Getting the United States taxpayers to kick in around $1 billion to fix the plane up nice and pretty so that Trump can take it with him when he leaves. God, that thing is going to look worse than the Oval Office does right now, isn’t it? Do you think the administration has assigned a crack team to figure out if you can drape an entire plane in tacky gold leaf without compromising safety?
Just as accepting a free plane can’t possibly be corruption, having Trump’s large adult sons getting big development deals in Qatar thanks to their father having lucked into the presidency is definitely not corruption.
It’s cute to see the administration display such tender concern for big-city mayors who abuse the trust of their positions by taking corruption-fueled boondoggle trips overseas with their staff on another country’s dime. Somehow, though, that concern was not at all evident when the DOJ rushed to drop charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
Adams was alleged to have accepted over $100,000 worth of luxury travel from Turkish nationals, and that’s above and beyond his alleged solicitation of campaign donations from Turkish sources as well.
Maybe the DOJ is just looking into Bowser for the unforgivable sin of not grifting enough? She should have held out for some sort of free aircraft, at the very least. Sucker.
Related | Settlement cash and a Qatari jet: Trump’s library stinks of corruption
