Trump ally Tom Barrack used access to White House to help foreign government, prosecutor says
Tom Barrack used his longtime friendship with Donald Trump to "illegally provide" government officials from the United Arab Emirates with access to the then-pre
Tom Barrack used his longtime friendship with Donald Trump to "illegally provide" government officials from the United Arab Emirates with access to the then-president and senior administration officials, and he did so for "money and power," prosecutors said Wednesday.
Barrack, a California billionaire, and his former assistant Matthew Grimes "met with and took directions from" the UAE during a two-year period starting in 2016, Assistant U.S. Attorney Hiral Mehta told jurors in Brooklyn federal court.
The pair are standing trial for acting as unregistered foreign agents. “They did so in the corrupt pursuit of money and power,” Mehta alleged in his opening statement at their criminal trial.
Barrack's lawyer, Michael Schachter, said that his client was never under anyone's control, dismissing charges that Barrack was acting as a foreign agent as "nothing short of ridiculous."
"He did things because he wanted to" and not because he was being urged to do so by a foreign government, Schachter said. He "is an innocent man."
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