Days before Democrats won control of the Senate, the wife of the strategist running Chuck Schumer’s super PAC registered as a foreign agent for the United Arab Emirates. The registration comes as Schumer and other Democrats challenge the Trump administration’s AI chip deals with the Emirates, seek to block U.S. arms sales to the UAE over its reported backing of a Sudanese paramilitary group accused of genocide, and investigate UAE-linked investments in the Trump family’s crypto business.
Jennifer Poersch, a partner at the bipartisan Washington lobbying firm Guidepost Strategies, registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) to represent the UAE Embassy on Oct. 30. The agreement provides for an initial $100,000 payment to Guidepost plus $100,000 a month beginning on Nov. 1. The firm was retained through Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, which was already representing the embassy.
Her husband, J.B. Poersch, is the president of Senate Majority PAC, the Schumer-aligned super PAC that raises and spends hundreds of millions each cycle to elect Senate Democrats. J.B. Poersch and Schumer have worked together for more than two decades: Poersch ran the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from 2004-11, including while Schumer was the group’s chair, and then in 2017 Schumer handpicked him to lead the super PAC, according to the Albany Times Union. After his election-night remarks this week, Schumer bear-hugged Poersch as they celebrated the party’s victory, the Wall Street Journal reported.
