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In May, a man named Ismail Terlemez was arrested in Belgium as the result of a corruption probe run by agents from the FBI and the U.S. Defense Department’s investigative arm. The indictment alleged that Terlemez, who worked in NATO’s procurement office in Brussels, had received bribes from a co-conspirator in 2019 and 2020 as part of a scheme to rig the bidding for NATO contracts. The investigators were sure that they had Terlemez, a Turkish citizen, dead to rights.

But then, in July, the U.S. Justice Department announced that it was dropping all charges against Terlemez—who had left NATO to found a well-connected Turkish defense company—and he was freed. We don’t have any direct evidence that the decision was politically motivated, but the timing struck observers as suspicious. The Justice Department action came just two weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a NATO summit in The Hague.

In May, a man named Ismail Terlemez was arrested in Belgium as the result of a corruption probe run by agents from the FBI and the U.S. Defense Department’s investigative arm. The indictment alleged that Terlemez, who worked in NATO’s procurement office in Brussels, had received bribes from a co-conspirator in 2019 and 2020 as part of a scheme to rig the bidding for NATO contracts. The investigators were sure that they had Terlemez, a Turkish citizen, dead to rights.

But then, in July, the U.S. Justice Department announced that it was dropping all charges against Terlemez—who had left NATO to found a well-connected Turkish defense company—and he was freed. We don’t have any direct evidence that the decision was politically motivated, but the timing struck observers as suspicious. The Justice Department action came just two weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a NATO summit in The Hague.

It’s not hard to imagine Trump deciding that he ought to do a favor for his friend Erdogan. True, Washington and Ankara have had their differences in recent years, sometimes involving contentious trade issues. But the two leaders actually have plenty in common. Both like to combine business with politics, often cutting in members of their own families. Trump has his son-in-law Jared Kushner; Erdogan’s son-in-law Berat Albayrak, just like Kushner, is a walking conflict of interest who actually served for a time in government. Trump wants to build a new ballroom for the White House using donations from his political supporters; Erdogan built himself a monumental presidential palace that also attracted controversy for its financing.

Like Trump, Erdogan scourges his enemies with lawsuits,

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