Thomas Barrack: screen image
In July 2021, the feds arrested billionaire real estate investor Thomas Barrack, 75, and charged him with acting as an unregistered foreign agent for the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Thomas Barrack was chairman of Trump’s 2017 inaugural fund.
The feds had been investigating and harassing Thomas Barrack for a couple years before he was arrested.
According to the feds, then-candidate Trump’s May 2016 speech on energy policy caught their attention. The 7-count indictment alleges Barrack “inserted language praising the UAE” into Trump’s speech, and “emailed an advance draft of the speech to Alshahhi for delivery to senior UAE officials.”
Barrack was also charged with obstruction of justice and making false statements during a June 2019 interview with the feds.
“The defendants repeatedly capitalized on Barrack’s friendships and access to a candidate who was eventually elected President, high-ranking campaign and government officials, and the American media to advance the policy goals of a foreign government without disclosing their true allegiances,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Mark Lesko of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “The conduct alleged in the indictment is nothing short of a betrayal of those officials in the United States, including the former President. Through this indictment, we are putting everyone — regardless of their wealth or perceived political power — on notice that the Department of Justice will enforce the prohibition of this sort of undisclosed foreign influence.”
Mr. Barrack was found not guilty on Friday and acquitted on all charges.
“God bless America. The system works,” Barrack said outside the courthouse. “I am humbled. The system is amazing, the people are amazing, I have no hostility.”
WATCH:
Tom Barrack leaving the federal courthouse in Brooklyn after being acquitted of charges he illegally acted as a foreign agent by pushing UAE interests to Trump’s campaign and administration. pic.twitter.com/nVfca8xJR3
— Luc Cohen (@cohenluc) November 4, 2022
ABC News reported:
Tom Barrack, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump and his one-time inaugural committee chairman, was found not guilty on Friday of illegal foreign lobbying charges, a defeat for federal prosecutors in Brooklyn who accused the billionaire businessman of improperly acting as a foreign agent on behalf of the United Arab Emirates.
After a trial that stretched nearly two months and saw testimony from two former Trump administration officials, a jury of five men and seven women reached the verdict after deliberating over three days.
Barrack was acquitted on all charges, which included conspiracy, obstruction, and lying to the FBI.
