In a recent development, Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has been hit with an ethics complaint by a watchdog organization, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT).
The group alleges that Bowser may have unlawfully accepted gifts from the Qatari government.
According to One America News, FACT has lodged the complaint against Bowser, urging the Board of Ethics and Government Accountability to probe into several trips that the D.C. mayor attended, purportedly funded by a foreign government.
The complaint comes in the wake of revelations in April that the Qatari government had footed a bill of at least "$61,930 for Bowser and four of her staffers" to attend the 2023 United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference in Dubai.
The complaint also casts a shadow of doubt over trips to Las Vegas, Nevada; Miami, Florida; and Augusta, Georgia. It questions the purpose of these visits and the source of the funds used to finance them.
Kendra Arnold, the executive director of FACT, expressed her concerns, stating, The basic standard for elected officials is honest transparency, which means following all disclosure laws and willingly answering the publics questions. The mayors unwillingness to provide basic information about numerous high-profile trips is unacceptable.
Arnold further elaborated on the issue, saying, It is not simply the Qatar trip, but a troubling pattern from Mar-A-Lago to Doha to Augusta National the District has no record of who paid for these trips or what public purpose they served, if there was one at all. The ethics rules exist to protect against corruption, and when they are ignored, the publics trust erodes. I urge the Board to investigate and enforce the law without delay.
Initially, Bowsers office reportedly claimed that the D.C. Chamber of Commerce had funded the trip to Qatar, a claim which was later refuted. Subsequently, Bowsers office issued a statement asserting that the trip was actually financed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
The FACT complaint highlighted these inconsistencies, stating, When questioned by the press, initially the mayors office said the trip was paid for by the D.C. Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber said that was not true. Then, the mayors office said the trip was paid for by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. That was also false.
The complaint further revealed that it was only after a reporters Freedom of Information Act request in March 2025 that it was publicly disclosed that Qatar had paid more than $61,930 for the trip. The mayor's office then attempted to retroactively describe this as an 'in-kind donation.' However, as of May 2025, the District still does not have a record of Qatar paying for Bowsers 2023 trip.
The complaint argues that Bowsers trip to Qatar clearly qualifies as a gift, and one that elected officials are personally prohibited from accepting. It also asserts that this gift would not qualify as a donation made to the District because the donation was not recorded and approved before it was used. The District still does not even have a record of it.
The complaint concludes by stating, The mayor and Qatars retroactive description of the gift as an in-kind donation should not carry any weightboth because this is a self-serving claim that was not made until years after the trip and because it does not meet the legal requirements to be categorized as one.
This ongoing saga raises serious questions about the transparency and accountability of elected officials, and the public will be eagerly awaiting the outcome of the investigation.
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