Say hello to Elliott Broidy, the new centerpiece of Donald Trump’s scandals
Until April 2018, most people had not spoken or heard the name Elliott Broidy. A Deputy Finance Chairman of the RNC, his name was not a household name. Since disclosures in April that he was one of three legal clients of Michael Cohen, his name is always in the news.
Broidy graduated from the University of Southern California and started his career at Arthur Andersen, then after serving as managing director at Bell Enterprises then founding an investment firm and chairing an events management firm, in 2002 Broidy started Markstone Capital. The New York State Common Pension Fund was the main client. In 2009, Broidy entered a guilty plea on a felony count of excess gratuities (later reduced to a misdemeanor). Broidy also paid $18 million in restitution for his crime.
Broidy currently runs Circinus, a security firm with major UAE contracts. In April, Broidy’s name was disclosed in connection with reports that Donald J. Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, had made a $1.6 million deal with a former Playboy model who allegedly had an affair with Broidy that resulted in the model’s pregnancy. There are questions about whether Broidy is responsible for it or if he paid Essential Consultants for access to deals.
Whatever turns out to be the truth behind that payout, Broidy has benefitted handsomely from ingratiating himself with Trump. As the Associated Press has indicated, the past year has been very lucrative for Broidy. He and his partner, George Nader, heavily lobbied on behalf of Saudi Arabia and the UAE to have the Trump administration sanction Qatar. Neither is registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Post-lobbying efforts, Broidy and Nader secured almost $1 billion in contracts with the Saudis and Emiratis as a “thank you” for their anti-Qatar efforts. But that’s not all – Broidy’s security firm also received a windfall from the Defense Department. Prior to 2017, according to reports, Circinus had only received $7,501 for work on various defense contracts. But in August and September 2017, he scored more than $4 million. The company’s website, www.circinus-llc.com, is conveniently down for “maintenance.”
In the press release announcing Broidy’s guilty plea, then-New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo stated: “Broidy paid nearly a million dollars in bribes to get a quarter billion-dollar investment. For Broidy, this was a small price to pay.”
The press release, available here, may be of interest to the present prosecutors looking into this administration. In the plea announcement, it includes a note that “Broidy paid over $90,000 to the girlfriend of a high-ranking OSC official…. Broidy also covered the girlfriend’s hospital bills.” Time will tell how much more we hear about Elliott Broidy.
Daniel is a lawyer writing and teaching about SCOTUS, and is the author of the book “The Chief Justices” about the SCOTUS as seen through the center seat.