Doha appears to have found friends in two top South Carolina lawmakers whose home state houses a prominent Boeing plant about to produce a record-breaking order of passenger planes for the flag carrier of Qatar.
Over the past five years, Qatar has favored reaching out to the offices of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), a Washington Examiner review of federal lobbying records found. Graham and Wilson have both been on the receiving end of a quiet Qatari lobbying campaign that has long set its sights on South Carolina, home to Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner assembly mill in coastal Charleston.
For years, South Carolina has been a fertile breeding ground for Qatari foreign influence efforts, as the affluent Persian Gulf petrostate continues to flaunt its wealth on Capitol Hill and beyond as a means of finding allies in fruitful places.
As part of a $96 billion arrangement, Qatar Airways just struck a deal with Boeing to acquire up to 210 American-made jumbo jets, including at least 130 of its Dreamliners built by Boeing’s Charleston facility, the White House announced last week during President Donald Trump’s trip to Qatar.
Once the order is fulfilled, Qatar Airways, the country’s state-owned airline, will become the biggest 787 operator in the Middle East. As for Boeing, this sale marks the aerospace company’s largest-ever Dreamliner order and greatest commission of widebody jet production to date.
Graham and Wilson both applauded the agreement between Boeing and Qatar Airways, with Wilson hailing the aircraft order as a win for American manufacturing and Graham dubbing the deal “a gamechanger.” In separate press statements, Graham said, “I appreciate our allies in Qatar for making this investment in Boeing aircraft,” while Wilson stressed that the Qatari purchase will bring billions of dollars to South Carolina.
Graham’s and Wilson’s public praise for the multibillion-dollar deal mutually benefiting Qatar has raised eyebrows among observers scrutinizing whether certain Qatar-friendly politicians are swayed by Doha’s spending power.
According to U.S. Justice Department records dating back to 2020, foreign agents working for Qatar have contacted Graham through his senior staff well over 100 times, far outnumbering the volume of Qatari-commissioned communications with his congressional colleagues.
The purpose of the correspondence with Graham was primarily categorized as “Regarding US-Qatari relations.” Other times, such as in January 2022, Qatari operatives registered via the lobbying powerhouse Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP, the largest law firm in South Carolina, emailed Graham’s scheduling staff to coordinate a dinner at the residence of the Qatari ambassador, an invite which Wilson received too. Around this time, the Qatari government was paying Nelson Mullins a monthly retainer fee of $110,000, per financial filings.
QATAR HAS A HISTORY OF BUYING INFLUENCE IN THE US
Disclosure documents filed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) show that the lobbying group Neale Creek LLC, founded by Graham’s former deputy chief of staff, Andrew King, helped organize at least 18 meetings with Graham on behalf of the Qatari embassy. Much of the consulting company’s other outreach efforts involved texts, emails, and phone calls to Graham’s top aides. Nineteen of these contact attempts occurred in 2025 alone.
Wilson’s office, meanwhile, was contacted nearly 60 times by Qatari lobbyists, according to the DOJ database, though numerous other instances weren’t entered into the digital system. These exchanges with Wilson’s camp mostly consisted of voicemail messages, emails, text exchanges, and telephone calls. The reasons for contact, however, varied greatly, ranging from “Military Cooperation” to flagging newspaper articles on Qatar.
“In my role as the former Chairman of the Middle East Subcommittee, I have worked extensively with all of America’s allies in the Gulf. This includes not only Qatar, but also Kuwait, Bahrain, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” Wilson said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “My interactions with these nations have been positive, and I have visited each of them on multiple occasions.”
“I am grateful that, thanks to President Trump’s leadership, Qatar is purchasing 210 Boeing widebody jets—manufactured in my home state of South Carolina—in a deal valued at $96 billion,” Wilson added. “I will always promote our South Carolina businesses and positive investment. President Trump has proven himself in his visit as a great friend of Qatar.”
The 12-term Republican said his interactions with Qatari officials have been “consistently positive.”
“At the same time, through friendships, I have consistently encouraged partner nations to make improvements in areas of human rights, anti-extremism, and counterterrorism efforts,” he said. “For example, it would be a significant step forward for Qatar to end the anti-American rhetoric broadcast by Al Jazeera.”
Other discussion topics listed by Qatari lobbyists included the congressman “Continuing as a Co-Chair of the Qatar Caucus” and “follow up” on “language” concerning the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which authorizes U.S. military spending, for fiscal 2021, when Wilson was appointed to serve another year on the NDAA Conference Committee.
Nelson Mullins, whose federal political committee donated $5,000 to Wilson’s 2022 reelection campaign, again facilitated a majority of these communications for the state of Qatar.
Wilson has credited himself with bringing the Qatari ambassador to South Carolina and recently touted his “strong relationship” with Qatar. In April 2018, he met with the Qatari minister of economy and commerce to discuss further cooperation between Qatar and the United States, especially in the financial sector, during the Qatari delegation’s Economic Roadshow stop in Charleston. According to a translated press release issued by the country’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the two talked about ways “to attract U.S companies to Qatar,” among other joint ventures.
Qatar has found a firm foothold in South Carolina ever since Charleston signed a sister cities pact with Doha in 2018 to establish “a spirit of cooperation,” promoting economic relations, according to a white paper the Qatari ambassador said he would provide to Wilson.
Barzan Holdings, the strategic investment arm of Qatar’s Ministry of Defense aimed at acting as “a commercial gateway for the defense industry in Qatar,” set up a subsidiary Barzan Aeronautical office in Charleston to jointly develop defense technologies for Qatar, specifically surveillance aircraft and airborne ISR [Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance] systems. Barzan Holdings has contacted Graham’s staffers about the Charleston airport (JZI), which the defense firm worked with the city to develop near Barzan Aeronautical’s campus.
In February 2018, the head of the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the Gulf state’s sovereign wealth fund, visited South Carolina to shop for investment opportunities. At that time, Graham and other local leaders reportedly met with the QIA chief to discuss pouring some of the finance group’s assets into the Palmetto State.
QIA’s top officials also ate lunch at Boeing’s 787 site to discuss business prospects. “This is our first visit to South Carolina, and I hope it’s not going to be the last,” Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Thani, then-chief executive officer of the QIA, said. I hope our presence here will develop further.”
Graham, a vocal pro-Qatar voice in Washington, has publicly defended Doha in the past, including Qatar’s hosting of Hamas leaders.
In an address to the state-sponsored Doha Forum in 2023, Graham said Qatar is “more the solution than the problem” in international affairs and he claimed that Hamas was in the terror-linked country “so they can be talked to.”
ISRAEL WAR: QATAR IS VITAL SUPPORTER OF HAMAS TERRORISM
“I want to thank you [Qatar] for what you have done for my country,” Graham said. “You get some criticism, and Hamas is here — but I know why they’re here. They’re here so they can be talked to. And you do things for the world that sometimes are not so popular, but I just want to let you know that I appreciate what you do. I love coming here, and you’re more the solution than the problem.”
Graham was a featured, returning speaker on several panels at the annual forum in Doha, emphasizing “the need for global action and international cooperation.” According to Qatari media, Graham met multiple times with the emir of Qatar during the Doha Forum to assess ways to strengthen relations between their countries.
Graham did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.
The Washington Examiner previously reported on how Doha seems to have shifted toward targeting conservative media, further fueling concerns that Qatar is trying to curry favor with the party now in charge of Washington.
Qatar’s gift of a luxury Boeing jet to Trump for use as Air Force One ignited a political firestorm over whether there are any strings attached to a present worth $400 million. Despite bipartisan protests, the U.S. Department of Defense has since accepted the Qatari-owned aircraft.
Trump, while touring the Middle East, also brokered the Boeing deal with Qatar Airways and oversaw the signing ceremony.