Rep. Josh Gottheimer's new legislative director was paid $60,000 to lobby for Qatar and once worked for Ron DeSantis's House office
- Gottheimer, a moderate in the middle of Democratic infighting over spending, hired a new legislative director.
- Jordan Colvin is a former Republican who worked for Rep. Ron DeSantis until July 2016.
Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey - the de-factor leader of the "Unbreakable Nine" group of moderate Democrats that have been at the center of party infighting over over President Joe Biden's domestic agenda - has hired a former Qatar lobbyist who once worked for Ron DeSantis to help the congressman write laws.
Gottheimer announced Jordan Colvin's hiring as his new legislative director on Friday, noting that she was a former Republican who went on to help run her husband's Democratic campaign before working to elect President Biden.
Colvin worked in the office of then-Rep. Ron DeSantis office from May 2015 until July 2016, according to The Intercept, during which time DeSantis put forward a bill with Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas to suspend refugee admissions from Syria, Iraq, and other Muslim-majority countries.
More recently, Colvin worked for the Embassy of Qatar in the United States, where she lobbied members of congress on behalf of the authoritarian Gulf state. Disclosures filed from the Department of Justice's Foreign Agents Registration Act database indicate that Colvin received a total of $60,000 for her work from December 2020 to August 2021, accumulated via monthly $10,000 retention payments.
The documents state that Colvin "advised client on US-Qatar relations and the business and political climate in the US. Registrant also lobbied on behalf of the principal and engaged various stakeholders in the US, including federal and state public officials."
Included in Colvin's FARA disclosures are details of her communications with members of Congress, including Democratic Reps. Eric Swalwell of California and Ruben Gallego of Arizona.
Colvin communicated with Gallego through his congressional office, and direct messages on the social media app Instagram, while she sent text messages to Swalwell. She then had an in-person meeting with both congressmen in early March of 2021, before COVID-19 vaccines were widely available to the public.
Insider previously reported that Reps. Gallego and Swalwell were photographed riding camels while shirtless in Qatar, which took place during a trip in late March. It is unclear if Corvin's communications were related to the trip, which cost $84,000 and was paid for by the US Qatar Business Council.
In August, Corvin sent congressional staffers briefings on Afghanistan via email. Qatar, which otherwise has a well-documented record of human rights abuses, emerged as a key US partner during the Afghanistan withdrawal, housing more than 58,000 Afghans during the evacuation effort.
"Qatar's support for Operation Allies Refuge was indispensable to the safe transit of Americans and U.S. personnel, allies, partners and Afghans at special risk,'' Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told Qatari leaders during a trip to the country last month with Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Colvin's prior work for Qatar could be awkward for the congressman; in 2018, he joined with DeSantis and several other Republican lawmakers in calling Al-Jazeera a "state-controlled propaganda arm" of Qatar and demanding the network be investigated and listed as a foreign agent.
"My record - and criticism - about the Qatari government is clear," Rep. Gottheimer said when reached for comment. "This attack on a staff member is out of bounds and speaks to the rapid erosion of decency in our politics."