US senator’s aide also lobbies for Qatar

the private sector and lobby their former colleagues or bosses.

It’s legal for Soliman to hold the campaign and lobbying roles simultaneously, but some ethics experts say the arrangement poses possible conflicts of interest or the appearance of a conflict.

“There is a blurring of lines between responsibility to the candidate and responsibility to their client,” said Meredith McGehee of the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit watchdog in Washington. “Very little of that is a responsibility to the public.”

In a statement, Soliman said he had “always been fully transparent, aboveboard and properly disclosed; this is all part of the public record.” But he said that “out of an overabundance of caution,” he would not “directly or indirectly lobby the senator or his staff on behalf of any client for the duration of the campaign.” Menendez

Menendez is seeking a third six-year term after a federal corruption indictment led to a hung jury last year. His campaign has paid Soliman’s consulting firm $105,000 since 2015.

Qatar, the tiny, naturalgas-rich Persian Gulf nation, has been engaged in a fierce regional conflict with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The Saudis and Emirates broke off diplomatic relations ties with Qatar last year and executed a blockade of the country, accusing it of funding terrorism.

Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE spent a combined $47 million on lawyers and lobbyists in the U.S. last year, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington nonprofit that tracks such spending.

A spokesman for Menendez said no lobbyist had “influenced how the senator speaks to representatives of any government in advocating for the foreign policy and national security interests of both the United States and our allies.”