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The subpoenas, issued in recent weeks as part of a civil suit
filed by Broidy in a Los Angeles federal court in March, come as
Qatar and its rivals wage a multi-million dollar battle for
influence in Washington over the Trump administration's policies
toward the Gulf region.
The lawsuit accuses Qatar of orchestrating the theft and leaking
of Broidy's emails as retribution for his support of the United
Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, which along with Egypt and
Bahrain levied economic sanctions against Qatar last June.
The emails were distributed to various media outlets, leading to
weeks of damaging stories about Broidy.
Nicolas Muzin and his lobbying firm Stonington Strategies LLC
are also named as defendants in the case. Both Qatar and Muzin
have denied involvement in any hacking.
Broidy is scheduled to file an amended complaint on Thursday to
the Los Angeles federal court. His lawyers will expand the list
of defendants, adding people suspected of carrying out the hack
or disseminating material, a third person with knowledge of the
matter said.
One subpoena seen by Reuters asked the recipient to hand over
documentation of any communications related to Broidy with more
than a dozen lobbying and public relation firms, some of which
are registered as foreign agents for Qatar.
Another recipient of a subpoena was Avenue Strategies Global
LLC, a lobbying firm founded by former Trump campaign manager
Corey Lewandowski and Barry Bennett, according to two sources
with knowledge of the subpoena.
Lewandowski had left Avenue Strategies by the time it was hired
by the Qatari embassy as a client. Bennett, who was an adviser
to the Trump campaign, did not respond to a request for comment.
It was not clear whether the subpoenas would prove effective.
One source said he believed most of the lobbying firms would at
least initially decline to provide information and contest the
matter in court.
(Reporting by Nathan Layne and Karen Freifeld in NEW YORK;
Editing by Paul Tait)
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