(Free Beacon) Murat Güzel is one of Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s closest allies in the United States.
A former board member of the Turkish American National Steering Committee alongside Erdogan’s cousin, Halil Mutlu, the Turkish-born Pennsylvania businessman has lobbied lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in support of the Erdogan regime, reported back to Erdogan family members, and defended the Turkish strongman when his bodyguards roughed up protesters outside the Turkish embassy in Washington, D.C., in 2017, arguing that the protesters “provoked the incident” and have been inaccurately portrayed as “peaceful.”
Güzel’s donations have overwhelmingly gone to Democrats — including New York City mayor Eric Adams, now mired in a foreign influence scandal tracing back to Turkish money, and the Democratic National Committee, to which Güzel has donated upwards of $200,000 and where he has served as co-chair of the Ethnic Coordinating Committee.