Qatari lobbying machine finds friends in South Carolina

Doha appears to have found friends in two top South Carolina lawmakers whose home state houses a prominent Boeing plant about to produce a record-breaking order of passenger planes for the flag carrier of Qatar.

Over the past five years, Qatar has favored reaching out to the offices of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), a Washington Examiner review of federal lobbying records found. Graham and Wilson have both been on the receiving end of a quiet Qatari lobbying campaign that has long set its sights on South Carolina, home to Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner assembly mill in coastal Charleston.