Tom Barrack, who chaired former President Donald Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee, was arrested Tuesday on charges that he unlawfully influenced the foreign policy positions of the campaign and administration to advance the interests of the United Arab Emirates, the Department of Justice said.
In a seven-count grand jury indictment, unsealed in a New York federal court, Barrack, 74, and two others are accused of “acting and conspiring to act as agents” of the UAE between April 2016 and April 2018, but without registering as foreign agents. Barrack was also charged with obstruction of justice and making multiple false statements to federal law enforcement agents.
The trio acted “to advance the interests of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the United States at the direction of senior UAE officials by influencing the foreign policy positions of the campaign of a candidate in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and, subsequently, the foreign policy positions of the U.S. government in the incoming administration, as well as seeking to influence public opinion in favor of UAE interests,” the Justice Department said.
Barrack, a longtime Trump friend, used that friendship to get language inserted into the then-candidate’s energy speech in 2016 about the importance of working with “our Gulf allies” at the behest of Emirati officials, the indictment said. After the election, and while he was chair of Trump’s inaugural committee, Barrack was asked by the officials for information on Trump’s picks to lead the Department of State, the CIA and the Department of Defense, the filing said.
Barrack was arrested in the Los Angeles area Tuesday morning, according to law enforcement officials familiar with the matter. A spokesperson for Barrack said he “has made himself voluntarily available to investigators from the outset. He is not guilty and will be pleading not guilty.”
More prosecutions of Trump supporters in order to discourage anyone from working for Trump.
Not going to work.