Against charges of illegal lobbying at his trial on Tuesday Former President Donald Trump’s longtime friend Tom Barrack continued to defend himself, with United Arab Emirates officials as he tried to help Trump better understand Middle East issues telling jurors that he briefed then-candidate Trump on his interactions.
By illegally lobbying the Trump campaign and subsequent administration on behalf of the UAE Barrack, a billionaire California real estate investor, testified for the second day in his own defense as a foreign agent against charges that he acted.
Barrack about a meeting he had with a UAE official in the spring of 2016 Barrack’s defense attorney questioned, on the UAE’s behalf where prosecutors have alleged he agreed to become a foreign agent. Including Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort, Emails later showed Barrack telling Trump officials about the meeting.
“With Sheikh Tahnoun bin Mohammed Al Nahyan if the purpose of your meeting was to agree with him”, to secretly influence the Trump campaign, would you have told Paul Manafort or Jared Kushner about the meeting, Michael Schachter, Barrack’s attorney, asked Barrack.
To operate as a foreign agent for the UAE he was not asked during the meeting and in his business dealings any such arrangement would have been “impossible” because it would “chill” his other investors, Barack said on Monday during his earlier testimony.
To influence U.S. foreign policy while Trump was a candidate and in the early days of the administration prosecutors have said Barrack used his position as chair of Trump’s 2016 inaugural fund.
Matthew Grimes, arranging meetings with senior UAE government officials to discuss policy initiatives over the course of several months, as the bulk of their case, prosecutors earlier displayed hundreds of Barrack’s emails and text messages showing Barrack and his aide.
Alongside Barrack Grimes, who is charged, has also pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
Barrack, whose family is from Lebanon, on Tuesday testified that his interactions with UAE officials were well-known, and he did not think that on his ability there would have been any restrictions to discuss the campaign’s positions with UAE officials.
“Actually I thought that was a great thing”, Barrack said. ” In both confusing arenas that could create some web of understanding and tolerance is what I know we all needed the idea of having somebody that had knowledge”.
He said “I was so lit up”. “In that process I was so excited that I could perhaps be some minor prod”.
When asked by his attorney about the government’s allegation he laughed, he was working to “manipulate the public” and “spread UAE propaganda”.
Instead, Barrack told the jury that issues pertaining to the Middle East are “part of my life.”
“Confusion and these kinds of issues are rampant. Barrack said the biggest problem in business we have is understanding each other, and communicating with each other”. “To have an emotional connection I happen to this because I’ve seen what happened firsthand.”
Barrack testified that he tried to bring then-campaign manager Paul Manafort to a second meeting with the same UAE official, in a further effort to show that his UAE communications were no secret, but that Trump said it was a “terrible idea” because “things in the campaign were hot and heavy” and he wanted Manafort to remain in place.
“At the time with Cory Lewandowski for territorial claim Manafort was also in a food fight in the campaign,” Barrack told the jury. “If he left his desk he decided it might not be there when he got back.”
Barrack said Manafort did not attend the trip, but on Barrack’s efforts Trump signed off. “I talked to President Trump about it, and he said, ‘You do the right thing”, Barrack testified.
Between Trump and UAE officials he ultimately was left “begging” in his efforts to broker meetings, because of Trump’s so-called “Muslim Ban” proposal and because “they just didn’t take him serious”, Barrack, whose business ties to the UAE stretch back decades, told the jury.
The UAE’s ambassador to the U.S. said he refused to meet with Trump, in one email displayed at the trial.
Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba wrote to Barack “Greetings from sunny Abu Dhabi where the confusion about your friend Donald trump is VERY high”. “Because of his statements- particularly the Muslim ban confusion no one seems to know him and obviously”.
“He is the king of hyperbole”, Barrack wrote back. “We can turn him to prudence he is not anti Islam or anti racist, he needs a few really smart Arab minds”.
His defence attorney said in court Barrack is scheduled to be back on the witness stand on Wednesday.
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