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Barak is accused of using his access to the former president to act undercover on behalf of the UAE.
Former President Donald Trump’s businessman ally Tom Barrack acquitted illegal lobbying Representing the United Arab Emirates.
Barack is a longtime Trump friend and former chairman of the inaugural committee. defendant Acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government, obstructing justice and making false statements.
The charges stem from allegations that Barack, 75, used his personal contacts with Trump to secretly advance UAE interests.
The acquittal announced Friday comes after three days of jury deliberations, ending a six-week trial.
In closing arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Harris told jurors that Barak planned to be the “eyes, ears and voice” of the UAE, as criminal conspiracy Manipulate Trump’s foreign policy.
At the same time, he alleges that Barack used his back-channel connections to get the UAE to inject tens of millions of dollars into an office building he was developing and one of his investment funds.
Prosecutors argued that text messages and other forms of communication showed Barrack was acting at the direction of Rashid al-Malik, a businessman who was a conduit for the UAE ruler.
Barack marketed himself as an “insider” in the UAE, while Malik asked Barack to “do things for the UAE time and time again,” Harris said.
Barack’s defense attorney insists he wasn’t trying to hide his relationship with Malik and that he was involved in Trump’s campaign “because he was loyal to his friend — perhaps a mistake,” attorney Randall Jackson said.
In testimony last week, Barak, who is of Lebanese descent and speaks Arabic, said he had tried to arrange a meeting between Trump and UAE national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Alena Hayan and other officials met to persuade Trump to adjust his attitude. Put down his anti-Muslim rhetoric.
“I’m trying to come to a consensus, trying to get him to step back from something he doesn’t believe in,” he said.
Before the indictment, Barack raised eyebrows by raising $107 million for the former president’s inauguration after the 2016 election.
The event has come under scrutiny, both for its extravagant spending and for its attraction to foreign officials and businessmen looking to lobby the new government.
During his testimony, Barack also said he never sought a pardon from Trump. However, he added that “dozens of people” had approached him for help in obtaining the former president’s pardon.
Several Trump associates and allies were found guilty in recent criminal trials, while others have pleaded guilty. Trump pardoned some of them before leaving office.
The Trump campaign and White House strategist Steve Bannon escaped a federal trial on fraud charges after Trump was pardoned in the final hours of his presidency.Bannon now faces state charges for money laundering and conspiracy tied to the same scheme – which he has been charged with defrauding donors They donated money to help build Trump’s promised wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. In July, Bannon was convicted of contempt of Congress for ignoring a subpoena from a congressional committee investigating the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters. Sentenced He was jailed for four months last month.
Roger Stone, Trump’s longtime adviser, Convicted in 2019 Pardon was sworn in to U.S. lawmakers investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Paul Manafort, Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman, was also pardoned after being convicted of financial wrongdoing in 2018 and sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison.
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