Prosecutors say ex-MP’s arrest ends UAE’s push to name U.S. envoy

NEW YORK, Aug 26 (Reuters) – The United Arab Emirates, with the help of a wealthy real estate investor, persuaded the United States to appoint former congressman Stephen Stockman as U.S. ambassador to the country under Donald Trump’s presidency. Prosecutors who struggled with lawmakers said they were arrested on fraud charges in 2017.

U.S. prosecutors made the statement late Thursday in a Brooklyn federal court filing, ahead of a trial next month against billionaire real estate investor and Trump 2016 presidential campaign fundraiser Tom Barnes. Lack for a criminal trial. Barack has pleaded not guilty to charges of acting as an Emirati agent without notifying the U.S. attorney general as required. read more

The document, partly redacted, said the UAE in early 2017 asked Barack, who served as chairman of Trump’s inaugural committee and described the former president as a close friend, to advocate for Stockman to be the U.S. ambassador to the Middle Eastern country. A revised version of the filing on Friday changed Stockman’s name.

Stockman, a Republican who represented Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1990s and from 2013 to 2015, was arrested in March 2017 and convicted the following year of using charitable donations for campaign and personal expenses , and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Trump, who took office in January 2017, commuted Stockman’s sentence in the final weeks of his presidency in December 2020.

Prosecutors said in Thursday’s filing that they want evidence about Stockman’s arrest at Barack’s trial to explain why Barack “was unable to meet that request despite agreeing to do so.”

The UAE embassy in Washington, Barak’s lawyers, Stockman and his lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Stockman was arrested at the Houston airport on fraud charges as he prepared to board a plane to the United Arab Emirates, the Houston Chronicle reported. report then.

In a January motion to dismiss the charges against Barack, a defense attorney said prosecutors at the time did not adequately make Barack’s formal claim to appoint Stockman as ambassador. read more

Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Will Dunham

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