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Within about six weeks of President Donald Trump’s hiring of Rudy Giuliani as his personal attorney last year, two firms staffed by people with deep ties to the former New York City mayor had signed on to lobby for the government of Qatar. And according to foreign-agent filings, they’ve been collaborating with each other ever since.
Blueprint Advisors, run by former senior Giuliani aides Tony Carbonetti and Chris Henick, represents the Qatari embassy in Washington. Debevoise & Plimpton, meanwhile, works on behalf of the Qatari attorney general’s office with a team that includes Giuliani’s longtime friend and one-time colleague Michael Mukasey, a former U.S. attorney general.
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Blueprint and Debevoise both inked their Qatari lobbying deals in May 2018, the month after Trump tapped Giuliani to lead his personal legal team. In the year-plus since, representatives for the two firms have attended at least 10 of the same meetings and conference calls on Qatar’s behalf, despite representing two different arms of the country’s government.
According to Justice Department filings, those included meetings with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Advisor John Bolton, Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), and Tim Lenderking, a senior State Department official with authority over the Gulf region.
Blueprint and Debevoise have even used similar language in reporting those meetings, which largely focused on a Saudi blockade preventing imports into Qatar. Blueprint’s meetings, the firm said, focused on “U.S.-Qatar relations with respect to blockade.” Debevoise reported discussing “Qatar’s legal and equitable position with respect to blockade.”
The overlap in their activities on Qatar’s behalf indicate an effort to coordinate their work. And Giuliani is a common thread between the two firms. He and Mukasey are so close that the former attorney general pledged to recuse himself from matters involving his former law partner while he ran the Justice Department. Mukasey’s son Marc also represents President Trump, and this month Giuliani disclosed that the younger Mukasey recently lent him $100,000, reportedly to help Giuliani cover his tax liabilities.
Henick declined to comment on Blueprint’s work. A Debevoise spokesperson did not respond to inquiries.
Asked whether he’d discussed Qatar with Mukasey, Henick, or Carbonetti, Giuliani did not respond, but simply “liked” the inquiring text message.
After publication, he followed up to say simply, “No.”
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