Gary Silversmith

Silversmith is a newcomer to the foreign influence game — the Kenya and Qatar engagements are his only Foreign Agents Registration Act filings. Silversmith’s law practice previously focused on torts and debt collection. In 2013, he added personal injury cases to his portfolio. Silversmith is best known in Washington for his ownership of the USS Sequoia, which served as a presidential yacht from the Hoover administration until 1977. He bought the yacht in 2000 and restored it, earning a citation from the secretary of the Navy along the way. A decade later, the Russian conglomerate Gazprom reportedly expressed interest in buying the yacht, precipitating a high-profile legal fight that resulted in the ship’s ownership being transferred to a Washington investment group, FE Partners, for zero dollars in November 2016. Silversmith — who attended a reception in New York with members of the Qatari royal family in September 2018, during the United Nations general assembly — said he did not know why Qatar awarded him a contract.