Trump ally Tom Barak appears in court on UAE lobbying case

Tom Barack’s lawyer-a close friend of the former president and private equity investor Donald Trump -Urged federal prosecutors to quickly hand over evidence on Thursday In their criminal charges, Barak illegally lobbied the Trump administration for the United Arab Emirates.

Considering the facts, Barack’s defense attorney Matthew Herrington questioned why he has not obtained all or most of the materials. Federal authorities have collected evidence related to 74-year-old Barak in the past four years.

Herrington raised the issue at the first state of the case meeting in the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. Barack and his business partner Matthew Grimes pleaded not guilty to the prosecution. They accused them of secretly working to advance the interests of the UAE during Trump’s 2016 campaign and his presidency.

Barracks The $250 million bond is free, And Grimes can get $5 million in bonds for free.The third defendant, 43-year-old UAE national Rashid Sultan Rashid Al Malik Alshahhi, is still at large

Barak’s lawyer pointed out that the documents submitted by the prosecutor in the past month did not even include the cited materials. In the indictment against Barack and the 27-year-old Grimes.

Herrington told Judge Brian Cogan that, as a result, he was “suffering from severe information asymmetry.”

In criminal cases, prosecutors need to share evidence with defense lawyers, and this evidence constitutes the basis for their claim that the defendant violated the law.

They are specifically asked to share any information they possess, which can be used to prove that the defendant did not violate the alleged law.

After a court case that established the defendant’s rights to the information, this potentially innocent evidence was called “Brady material.”

Herrington told Cogan at the hearing on Thursday that the prosecutors “take the position that they have not determined Brady’s material at the moment, which surprised me.”

Herrington said that some of the statements in the indictment cited evidence that he believed to be Brady’s material.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Harris told the judge that since the arrests of Barack and Grimes on July 20, the prosecution has transferred more than 100,000 pages of documents to defense lawyers and will continue to “roll” more evidence.

“We have produced 10 works [of set of documents] In about 30 days,” Harris said.

The prosecutor said that although Barack’s lawyers made the opposite claim, the government did not believe that any evidence used in the indictment was Brady’s material.

When Cogan asked what percentage of the total amount of evidence represented by the 100,000 pages, Harris said, “It’s a bit hard to tell.”

But Harris also said that the government expects to make “substantial progress” before the next state meeting tentatively scheduled for November 2.

“Do your best,” Cogan said, noting that prosecutors should be able to provide defense lawyers with any documents for prosecution within the next 30 days.

The hearing on Thursday lasted only 15 minutes and was conducted via video conference.

When it started, Grimes’ lawyer Matthew Schwartz pointed out that Grimes’ location could be seen in the video source, calling it the “Bobby Brady Box.”

Grimes dryly mentioned the opening credits of the iconic TV show “The Brady Bunch” of the 1970s. In the bottom right corner of the show’s nine squares, you can see the role played by the child actor Mike Lookinland (Mike Lookinland) Bobby.

Apart from the discussion of evidence and Brady’s materials-legal materials, not TV shows-and the schedule for the next hearing, the only other issues mentioned were about The possibility of sharing confidential information between parties and the procedures to be used.

Herrington said: “We agree to have [classified] Materials from both sides. “

Barack, who served as Trump’s first fund chairman in 2017, steps down As the CEO of Colonial Capital In April 2020, he resigned from the position of executive chairman of the company.