The regime retained the firms in the wake of a congressional report exposing pressure Qatar applied to American universities with Doha campuses
Qatar has retained two Washington, D.C.-based crisis management firms to “address public misconceptions” about its funding of U.S. universities in the wake of high-profile scrutiny from Congress, federal disclosures reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show.
The Qatar Foundation, a state-run nonprofit Doha uses to peddle influence in American higher education, hired Washington Media Group at a rate of $40,000 per month to provide “strategic communications support” that “enhance public understanding of its longstanding academic partnerships with U.S. universities located in Education City, Qatar,” according to the firm’s March 30 federal disclosure registering it as a foreign agent.
“These efforts are intended to promote transparency, address public misconceptions, and support informed dialogue regarding the structure, history, and impact of these partnerships,” the disclosure states.
Washington Media Group describes itself as a “female and minority owned company” that “crafts solutions to high-profile crises” and “protects and repairs reputations.” Its CEO and president—and the agent listed on the contract with the Qatar Foundation—is Crystal Patterson, who has a long history of running digital strategy and communications for Democrats, such as Hillary Clinton, former Sen. Edward Kennedy, and former Rep. Tim Ryan, and worked for the left-wing Center for American Progress focusing on “Immigration and Diversity Policy,” according to her bio.
She’s also a graduate of Northwestern University, which boasts a Doha campus (NU-Q) that holds a contract with Qatar forbidding its students and faculty from criticizing the Qatari regime.
The Qatar Foundation also retained the law firm Venable at a monthly rate of $25,000 for government relations services “pertaining to the public profile of the Foundation,” according to a March 31 foreign agent filing. Venable will “help ensure that members of Congress and the administration have an accurate understanding of Qatar Foundation’s support for education and its work with U.S. universities.”
Representing the foundation is Ronald Jacob, a Venable partner who “leads clients through crises involving government investigations, litigation, and media exposure,” according to his bio. “He combines legal strategy with public communications insight to help clients manage high-stakes, high-visibility situations” and has experience responding to congressional investigations.
Neither firm responded to a request for comment.
Qatar’s move to retain the two firms came as the House Committee on Education and Workforce released emails the Qatar Foundation sent in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack demanding that American universities operating campuses in Doha “be aligned and in touch” when it came to their official communications. The messages were included in a report titled “How Campuses Became Hotbeds: The Rise of Radical Antisemitism on College Campuses,” and show that on Oct. 17, 2023, a Qatar Foundation official, President of Higher Education Francisco Marmolejo, requested “information sharing and no surprises” during a call with university representatives.
Hours after the call, NU-Q dean Marwan Michael Kraidy refused to sign on to a statement Northwestern issued criticizing Khaled Al-Hroub, an NU-Q professor who said he had not seen “any kind of credible media reporting” that Hamas terrorists had killed Israeli civilians in their beds or raped Israeli women. The campus also “intentionally chose not to circulate” an Oct. 13, 2023, Northwestern statement to students condemning the attack as “abhorrent and horrific,” according to the House report.
Qatar became the largest foreign funder of U.S. higher education in 2022 and has only increased its giving since then, providing $396 million to American colleges and universities in 2024 and $1.2 billion in 2025, according to Department of Education disclosures. The sharp increase appears to have been driven by Qatar’s contracts with American universities that operate satellite campuses in Doha. In addition to Northwestern, others including Georgetown University, Cornell University, and Carnegie Mellon University, have branches in Doha’s Education City.
The Gulf monarchy, over which the ruling Al Thani family exercises absolute control, has also increasingly expanded influence operations to U.S. media outlets, with CNN emerging as Qatar’s most willing partner.
The liberal network announced an expansion to Qatar in February 2025, establishing an office in Media City Qatar, where the regime has provided millions of dollars to incentivize media companies to establish operations. Qatar is footing the bill for CNN’s “facilities and technical support,” which includes a “purpose-built studio with custom workspaces, designed to enable dynamic content creation and collaborative, spontaneous work among the team.”
The Qatar Foundation in December 2023 also retained Monika Plocienniczak, a veteran CNN producer who spent five years with the network before moving to the public relations industry and eventually registered as a foreign agent, the Free Beacon reported. The foundation has paid her employer, RF Binder, at least $460,000 since then.