DAYS AFTER KASH Patel fielded questions about his nomination as the director of the FBI, an ethics disclosure showed that he had earned at least $5,000 consulting for the government of Qatar.

That document highlighted the host of potential conflicts of interest Patel brings to the job through his past clients, ranging from Qatar to a Russian filmmaker with ties to the Kremlin to the Chinese clothes retailer Shein.

Another Trump nominee, former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin, disclosed his work for a venture capital firm founded by a Qatari royal, but only during the confirmation process to become administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Critics say the law, called the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, is shot through with loopholes that allow foreign powers to evade disclosing the full extent of their spending in Washington.