NEW YORK — An ally and onetime top campaign adviser to Donald Trump sought to trade on his longtime friendship with the former president by covertly providing officials from the United Arab Emirates access to the highest levels of the U.S. government, federal prosecutors alleged on Wednesday.

That ally, real estate investor Tom Barrack, was accused by prosecutors of a “corrupt pursuit of money and power,” on the opening day of what could be a far-reaching trial related to foreign influence peddling in U.S. government affairs.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Hiral Mehta argued that Barrack and his aide, Matthew Grimes, used Barrack’s “unique access” to Trump to act as the “eyes and ears and voice” of the wealthy Gulf nation during Trump’s 2016 run for president and through the beginning of his administration. They did so, Mehta said, in exchange for tens of millions of dollars’ worth of investments from Emirati sovereign wealth funds.

The trial kicked off on Wednesday in New York, in a federal court in Brooklyn. While it was overshadowed by other legal matters involving Trump, it will be the latest major legal test for the Justice Department’s aggressive new posture in cracking down on illicit foreign influence operations in the U.S. in the wake of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

Barrack is the latest ally of the former president to face legal peril related to illegal foreign lobbying or trading access to Trump, a list that includes his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and GOP megadonors Steve Wynn and Elliott Broidy.

Barrack and Grimes are accused of acting as agents of a foreign government without notifying the Department of Justice. Barrack, who chaired Trump’s inaugural committee in 2017, is also facing charges of lying to investigators in the probe and of obstruction of justice.

A third defendant, Emirati businessman Rashid al-Malik, has also been charged in the alleged scheme but remains at large.

But the government faces a steep burden in convincing jurors that Barrack’s and Grimes’ actions were taken at the direction or control of the Emirati government, experts in the laws regulating foreign agents have said. That is especially true in the absence of any formal agreement or contract.

Prosecutors plan to argue that from 2016 to 2018, Barrack and Grimes sought to influence public opinion by suggesting Trump’s campaign singled out the UAE for praise in a campaign speech on energy issues. Barrack, meanwhile, would talk the UAE up as an important ally in media interviews, incorporating feedback and talking points from UAE officials and at times providing real-time updates.

They also allege the defendants shared nonpublic information about the Trump transition — and, once Trump became president, internal White House deliberations regarding issues important to the UAE — with their connections in the Emirati government, which went as high as Mohamed bin Zayed, who at that time was crown prince of Abu Dhabi and is now the UAE president and ruler of Abu Dhabi.

Barrack and Grimes have both pleaded …read more

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/21/trump-tom-barrack-foreign-agent-claims-trial-00058168