Lawsuit targets DOJ memo over Qatari plane deal

WASHINGTON (CN) — The Justice Department has refused to release a legal memorandum penned by Attorney General Pam Bondi justifying the acceptance of a $400 million Qatari luxury jet as “legally permissible,” according to a lawsuit filed Monday.

The Trump administration announced in May it had accepted a Boeing 747-8 from Qatar to serve as Air Force One, with plans to eventually transfer it to Donald Trump’s presidential library.

First reported by the Washington Post, Qatar will send the plane to the Department of Defense as an unconditional “donation,” though the deal itself has yet to be finalized.

The Freedom of the Press Foundation requested Bondi’s memo under the Freedom of Information Act on May 15 but was told it wouldn’t be available until Jan. 25, 2027, based on the Justice Department’s average processing time of 620 days.

Lauren Harper, the Daniel Ellsberg chair on government secrecy at the foundation, criticized the delay as unreasonable for a single, time-sensitive document in a statement.

“How many flights could Trump have taken on his new plane in the same amount of time it would have taken Justice to release this one document?” Harper said. “The government’s inability to administer FOIA makes it too easy for agencies to keep secrets, and nonexistent disclosure rules around donations to presidential libraries provide easy cover for bad actors and potential corruption.”

A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit but attributed the delay to a “historic increase” in FOIA requests, saying the agency is working “as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

The Foundation stated that the deal raises legal and ethical concerns, citing the comments of Washington University ethics expert and law professor Kathleen Clark from a May 12 PBS NewsHour interview, which described it as an “illegal, unconstitutional payoff from a foreign government.”

Several members of Congress have also warned that the deal may violate the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause, which bars presidents from accepting gifts from foreign governments without congressional approval.

In a May 14 letter, Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois demanded Bondi turn over the legal memo, casting doubt on her legal finding and Bondi’s impartiality in any dealings with Qatar.

Before taking the top position at the Justice Department, Bondi worked as a lobbyist on behalf of the Qatari government — she was listed as a foreign lobbyist under the Foreign Agents Registration Act in 2019 and 2020. While she disclosed that work to the Senate Judiciary Committee during her confirmation process, she did list her connection to Qatar as a potential conflict of interest following her nomination.

During her January confirmation hearing, the then-nominee defended her lobbying work for Qatar, citing her involvement in “anti-human trafficking” efforts ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

“I’m very proud of the work I did,” Bondi said at the time. “It was a short time, and I wish it had been longer.”

Courthouse News reported in May that career ethics officials determined there was no conflict with Bondi’s participation in the memo approving the Qatari jet deal.

The foundation noted the Justice Department has come under fire for several other ethics concerns, such as the mass terminations of career employees and prosecutors tied to investigations into Trump, as well as the recent handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.

“Particularly against this backdrop, Attorney General Bondi’s memorandum which cleared the way for the Trump administration to accept an unprecedented gift from a foreign government — should be made public to answer lingering questions about the administration’s justifications for entering into this legally and ethically questionable arrangement,” the foundation said.

Once the Trump administration receives the jet, the Defense Department must retrofit it for use as Air Force One, a process expected to take several years and cost $400 million to over $1 billion.

Chioma Chukwu, executive director of American Oversight, which is representing the foundation in the suit, said in a statement that the Qatari deal was the sort of “corrupt arrangement” public records laws are meant to address.

“President Trump’s deal to take a $400 million luxury jet from a foreign government deserves full public scrutiny — not a stiff-arm from the Department of Justice,” Chukwu said. “The DOJ cannot sit on its hands and expect the American people to wait years for the truth while serious questions about corruption, self-dealing and foreign influence go unanswered.”

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