...after arrest of inaugural fund chairman Tom Barrack, 74, for 'acting as an
agent of the UAE'
more at
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9807631/Trumps-friend-Tom-Barrack-ARRESTED-acting-agent-UAE.html
*Thomas Barrack was arrested Tuesday on federal charges in Los Angeles for
illegally lobbying on behalf of the United Arab Emirates
*Former adviser and close friend to Melania Trump, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff
told DailyMail.com: 'This could be the beginning of the end for all of them'
*'Tom is so integral to everything in Trump’s universe that it could affect the
Trump family in a very significant way,' she said
*Barrack was hit with a seven-count indictment related to trying to push the
UAE's agenda in the US
*He had served as chair of former President Donald Trump's inaugural committee
in 2017
*The DOJ said Barrack and two associates conducted nothing 'short of a betrayal
of those officials in the United States, including the former President'
Melania Trump's former advisor and once best friend has told DailyMail.com 'this
could be the beginning of the end' of the Trumps after Donald's former 2017
inaugural committee was arrested on Tuesday
Thomas Barrack, 74, is facing federal charges in Los Angeles for illegally
lobbying on behalf of the United Arab Emirates during the 2016 campaign and
later while Trump was in the White House.
He was hit with a seven-count indictment relating to trying to push the UAE's
agenda in the US and shape the foreign policy of the previous administration.
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former adviser to ex-first lady Melania, told
DailyMail.com, 'This is big news, I need time to process it.'
'This could be the beginning of the end for all of them,' she said. 'Tom is so
integral to everything in Trump’s universe that it could affect the Trump family
in a very significant way.'
Winston Wolkoff was Barrack’s Senior Advisor on the Presidential Inaugural
Committee and as she wrote in her #1 New York Times bestseller ‘Melania & Me:
The Rise & Fall Of My Friendship With The First Lady’, she repeatedly raised
concerns and red flags about the inconsistencies in the numbers.
Barrack is the founder of the private equity firm Colony Capital, though stepped
down as the company's chief executive in 2020, and in April resigned as
executive chairman.
He is a close friend of Trump, a relationship that dates back to the 1980s.
'He is the only person I know who the president speaks to as a peer,' Trump's
longtime political adviser Roger Stone said of Barrack in a 2018 New York Times
report.
A spokesperson for Trump did not respond to a request for comment from
DailyMail.com.
Barrack's attorney, Matthew Herrington, did not immediately return an email from
the Associated Press seeking comment.
Barrack was due to appear at an initial appearance in federal court in Southern
California.
Barrack was charged with acting as an unregistered foreign agent, conspiracy,
obstruction of justice and making multiple false statements during a June 20,
2019 interview with federal law enforcement agents.
The charges were brought in Brooklyn.
Additionally, Matthew Grimes, 27, of Aspen, Colorado, and Rashid Sultan Rashid
Al Malik Alshahhi, aka Rashid Al Malik, 43, a UAE national, are accused of
acting and conspiring to act as agents of the UAE between April 2016 and April
2018, the Department of Justice said in a release.
'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,' Acting Assistant
Attorney General Mark Lesko said in a release.
Lesko characterized the alleged conduct as '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,' the
statement said.
In a letter to the LA-based judge, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of
New York called Barrack a 'serious flight risk' since he has access to private
aircrafts, and asked for steep bail conditions.
In 2013, Forbes estimated that Barrack's net worth was $1 billion.
In 2010, Barrack had helped Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law who became a Trump
White House aide, unload $70 million of the debt he owed on the troubled 666
Fifth Avenue skyscraper in Manhattan.
Barrack was called by Trump, who requested that he help Kushner avoid bankruptcy
on the $1.8 billion purchase of the tower, according to The New York Times.
In November, Barrack was deposed as part of a lawsuit out of the D.C. attorney
general's office that accused the Presidential Inaugural Committee and the Trump
Organization of abusing non-profit funds to enrich the Trump family.
As chairman of the Presidential Inaugural Committee Barrack had hired Rick Gates
- Paul Manafort's No. 2 who was sentenced to jailtime for his Ukraine lobbying -
to help run the inauguration.
D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine's office said in a January 2020 statement
announcing the lawsuit that an investigation found that Gates allowed the PIC, a
non-profit, to enter contracts with the Trump hotel that was 'at least twice the
market rate.'
Former first lady Melania Trump's former aide Stephanie Winston Wolkoff - who
later wrote a tell-all about the first lady - warned Trump associates and family
members that the pricing could be a problem.
'Despite this warning, Gates allowed the PIC to enter into a contract with the
Trump Hotel for four days of event space at a total cost of $1.03 million, an
amount far above even the Hotel’s own internal pricing guidelines,' the release
from Racine's office said.
Barrack had previously encouraged Trump to hire Manafort as his campaign
chairman.
Barrack was credited in a 2018 story by The New York Times with rehabilitating
Trump's image among 'Arab princes' whose feathers were ruffled when Trump, as a
candidate in December 2015, announced a 'Muslim ban.'
The story describes Barrack as a 'fellow tycoon and a flattering courtier, a
confidant and a power broker.'
In April 2016 emails, Barrack calms down UAE's Amb. Yousef al-Otaiba by pointing
out Trump has 'joint ventures in the UAE' - a Trump International Golf Club in
Dubai - after al-Otaiba expressed that 'Confusion about your friend Donald
Trump is VERY high.'
Barrack later introduced by email Otaiba and Kushner.
'You will love him and he agrees with our agenda!' he told the Emirati about the
GOP candidate's son-in-law.
In the same story, Barrack tells the paper that he rebuffed offers to become
Trump's Treasury secretary or ambassador to Mexico.
Barrack also sought a White House role as special envoy for Middle Eastern
economic development, but the job never materialized during Trump's one term in
office.
A spokesperson for Barrack told The Times at the time that Barrack 'sees his
business in the Middle East as a way to help political dialogue and
understanding, not the other way around, and he does so through relationships
that span as far back as the reign of even some of the grandfathers of the
current regional rulers.'
*