Retired Marine General John Allen was placed on leave as president of the Brookings Institution think-tank on Wednesday as federal investigators probe his alleged participation in an illegal lobbying campaign on behalf of Qatar.
The prestigious Washington-based public policy foundation’s decision followed the inadvertent publication of an affidavit this week indicating that the FBI was looking into whether Allen tried to help Qatar navigate a 2017 diplomatic crisis and covered up his involvement in the lobbying effort.
It is the latest twist in a broad US federal effort to investigate influence campaigns by wealthy Gulf states including Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Allen has not been charged with any crime and has denied wrongdoing. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The affidavit included new details about a wide-ranging federal probe into the wealthy Gulf country’s efforts to influence Donald Trump’s administration and its response to a years-long feud with its neighbours.
According to the court filing, which was briefly made public late on Tuesday before being sealed, Allen travelled to Qatar to meet senior officials and then reported on those meetings to senior Trump administration officials. It said he did so in a personal capacity while hiding that he was being paid by Qatar.
The affidavit said he advised the Qataris on specific steps to gain US support during the feud and asked Trump administration officials to take action on Qatar’s behalf without properly disclosing the nature of his work.
He did not appear to be registered in a US federal database of people lobbying on behalf of foreign countries, as required by the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The Department of Justice has stepped up its efforts to investigate FARA violations in recent years, particularly those tied to Gulf states.
Richard Olson, a former US ambassador to Pakistan and US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, last week pleaded guilty to federal charges in connection with the probe. He is co-operating with prosecutors’ investigation into Allen.
Allen, a retired four-star general, took the helm of Brookings in November 2017 after previously leading US and Nato forces in Afghanistan.
In an email to staff, co-chairs of the Brookings board of trustees Glenn Hutchins and Suzanne Nora Johnson said Allen took the “personal trip to Qatar in 2017, before he was appointed president at Brookings.”
Hutchins and Johnson added that Brookings “is not a subject of this investigation” and “has strong policies in place to prohibit donors from directing research activities”.
Brookings had previously received funds from Qatar but ended its financial ties to the country in 2019. It decided that year to close several foreign centres, including one in Doha, according to a spokesperson.
