A former business partner is accusing MAGA media guru Alex Bruesewitz of receiving lavish gifts from foreign individuals in Qatar and Syria while also pursuing lucrative deals with other entities looking to unlock access to U.S. government officials.
The allegations were made in a court filing Monday by Derek Utley, who co-founded the digital firm X Strategies in 2017 with Bruesewitz. Bruesewitz is a top outside adviser to President Donald Trump, having helped shape his 2024 campaign’s digital strategy, and X Strategies maintains the Trump War Room and Team Trump accounts on X.
The company sued Utley in September, alleging he embezzled and gambled away millions of dollars from the firm.
In the Monday filing responding to that lawsuit, Utley calls it a “marketing ploy masquerading as a federal lawsuit” and denies allegations he embezzled the company’s money or used its funds to gamble. The filing includes a countersuit against X Strategies that claims Utley was fired from the company without cause over a requested medical leave. (The firm’s original lawsuit had claimed Utley submitted “fake medical records” to “fraudulently” get six months paid leave, and was then fired.)
Utley doesn’t explicitly accuse Bruesewitz of offering foreign officials political access in exchange for payments, but charges that Bruesewitz “pursued substantial business and financial relationships with foreign individuals, investors, and governmental representatives, including persons associated with Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Syria” while concealing those relationships. The filing does not include documentation to support its allegations.
“The relationships and access Bruesewitz cultivated through X Strategies were valuable commercial assets, particularly to foreign interests seeking introductions to American political figures, access to governmental institutions, or assistance advancing their commercial and political objectives,” the filing says. “Upon information and belief, Bruesewitz received approximately $500,000 from individuals associated with Qatar in connection with an undisclosed business or consulting arrangement.”
Bruesewitz’s lawyer Bradford Cohen denied all the allegations.
“These are things that would be defamatory if made outside the four corners of the complaint,” Cohen said Monday evening, vowing to “vigorously” defend against the allegations.
“We’re asserting that everything in his factual allegations is either untrue, exaggerated, or completely fabricated,” he said. “Desperate men resort to desperate things, and this screams of desperation.”
Bruesewitz continues to advise conservative figures in Trump’s orbit. He also leveraged his relationships with foreign officials when the war with Iran broke out to help charter a flight back to the U.S. for himself and other Americans who were stranded in Qatar, according to his social media posts at the time.
Utley did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did the White House.
In another example, Utley claims Bruesewitz sought to charge an annual advisory fee of $1 million to a “Copenhagen-based investment firm with holdings in the United States and Europe.” The proposed deal, the filing said, included services like “providing access to American governmental officials, federal agencies, and financial institutions.”
“These circumstances raise questions concerning potential registration and disclosure obligations under FARA,” the court filing says, referencing the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires public disclosures from those involved in lobbying or other activities representing foreign interests.
Additionally, the filing alleges that Bruesewitz told Utley that his honeymoon hotel stay in the Maldives was paid for by “two Syrian billionaires” who provided access to a suite that ordinarily costs $15,000 a night.
Bruesewitz has previously advocated for conservative influencers to disclose their relationships with foreign governments seeking to sway the Trump administration. He also said during a June interview with Tucker Carlson that he does not take any foreign payments.
“Getting foreign influence out of the political ecosystem, specifically online, is a very — it’s a passion project of mine,” Bruesewitz said in the interview. “You can only imagine the type of money that these countries and other companies have tried to throw at me. I do not take any foreign money. I don’t take any money from the Gulf countries. I don’t take any money from India. I don’t take any money from Russia, China. No foreign countries.”
