Washington, D.C., mayor Muriel Bowser (D.) lied about a $61,000 trip she took to Qatar, which she said was funded by two different U.S. organizations. The Hamas-harboring Middle Eastern nation actually funded the trip, according to a new report.
Bowser’s office initially claimed her December 2023 trip to the Qatari capital city of Doha was funded by the D.C. Chamber of Commerce before changing its story and saying the U.S. Conference of Mayors paid for the trip. Both claims are false, local station WJLA/ABC7 reported Monday. In reality, Qatar covered $61,930 in travel expenses for Bowser and four staff members, according to a letter from Qatar to the mayor’s office that WJLA obtained through a FOIA request.
The mayor failed to record the trip with the District of Columbia or sign a donation agreement, both of which are required by law, even though Qatar referred to the trip as an “in-kind donation,” according to WJLA. Now, two years after Bowser visited Qatar, her office plans to file a donation agreement, reaching out to Qatari officials in February for “a breakdown of the expenses the Qatari Government paid for.”
Qatar has long faced scrutiny for funding Hamas and harboring senior leaders of the terrorist group in Doha, particularly after the group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. After Hamas killed more than 1,000 Israelis and abducted hundreds more in the attack, the Qatari government blamed the Jewish state, saying it “holds Israel solely responsible for the ongoing escalation.”
This is not the only trip that Bowser failed to report. WJLA found that the District of Columbia has no expense records for several of the mayor’s other trips, including to the Masters Golf Tournament, Las Vegas, Miami, and Mar-a-Lago.
Lindsey Parker, Bowser’s chief of staff and one of the four staffers who traveled with her to Qatar, did submit one receipt: a taxpayer-funded $3,500 bill for a three-night stay at the luxury Atlantis-Palm Hotel in Dubai, where the mayor went following the Doha visit, according to WJLA.
Bowser dodged WJLA’s previous questions about her missing travel records. Qatar declined to comment.
Read the full article here
