“I’m here because Donald Trump is one of my closest friends for 40 years,” Barrack told the crowd in Cleveland, beaming about the “amazing” things he had to say about Trump.
The founder of real estate and investment firm Colony Capital, Barrack played a significant role at several key points of Trump’s campaign, helping to recommend Paul Manafort — later convicted in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation — for a key role in Trump’s campaign. Barrack later served as chairman of Trump’s inaugural committee.
But while Trump has come to the aid of many of his associates in trouble with the law, it’s unclear if he’ll do the same for Barrack.
Barrack now joins a list of Trump officials charged by federal prosecutors that includes Manafort, Trump’s longtime friend and adviser Roger Stone, former attorney Michael Cohen, first national security adviser Michael Flynn and former senior aide Steve Bannon.
Before he left the White House, Trump pardoned Manafort, Stone and Flynn — who had been wrapped up in the Mueller investigation — as well as Bannon, who was accused of defrauding donors and was pardoned before going to trial.
When the charges were unsealed against the Trump Organization and Weisselberg earlier this month, Trump issued a statement attacking the probe as a “political Witch Hunt by the Radical Left Democrats, with New York now taking over the assignment.”
But the former President, who has been issuing numerous statements each day on an array of topics, has been silent on Barrack’s charges.
‘I do consider him a close friend’
There’s a paper trail of FBI interviews during the Mueller investigation, depositions, court documents and congressional reports that offer a window into Trump and Barrack’s relationship as Trump went from real estate magnate to presidential candidate to commander in chief.
Barrack has also faced scrutiny connected to investigations into Trump’s inaugural committee, though the indictment is unrelated to that probe. But he sat for a deposition with the District of Columbia attorney general in November, after the presidential election, as part of the investigation into alleged misuse of funds by Trump’s Presidential inaugural committee.
Barrack testified that he wasn’t interested in participating in Trump’s administration, but he became involved in the inaugural committee to help Trump with the “go-forward process of what was on his agenda.”
Barrack testified he’s known the Trump family since 1985 and had relationship with Trump, his wife Melania and Trump’s four adult children.
“Donald Trump is President of the United States, so an active friendship has become some, somewhat more complex,” Barrack testified in November. “But yes, I do consider him a close friend, yes.”
Barrack recommended Manafort to Trump
Barrack lobbied Trump “for some time” to hire Manafort as a campaign adviser in 2016, and arranged for Manafort to meet with Trump and senior campaign staffers at Mar-a-Lago, according to testimony from Manafort’s deputy Rick Gates, who later worked with Barrack on Trump’s inauguration committee and also worked for Barrack’s investment firm.
According to the FBI memos, Barrack told Mueller’s team that Manafort sent him an early draft of a speech Trump planned to give about US energy policy in May 2016. He said he sent back some edits and suggestions, but his ideas were discarded. He also said he perceived the Trump campaign to have a negative view of the Persian Gulf countries, which included the UAE.
The FBI memos also reveal what Barrack thought of some of Trump’s controversial moves as president.
‘Something very important to share’
The Democratic report zeroed in on Barrack’s alleged advocacy within the Trump administration for a Saudi Arabian nuclear technology deal. The House Democratic report included a text — referenced in the Justice Department indictment– of Barrack claiming that Trump had offered him a foreign policy role in the Middle East.
In the indictment unsealed last week, prosecutors allege that Barrack and Grimes helped UAE officials gain access to the Trump administration, and that Barrack was in touch directly and indirectly with senior Emirati officials.
Barrack and Grimes helped set up a phone call between Trump and an unnamed Emirati official in the first month of Trump’s presidency, according to the indictment, and then advocated for appointing officials to the Trump administration favored by the UAE, including Barrack himself.
Barrack wrote in a text message that his appointment as either ambassador to the UAE or Middle East envoy “would give ABU DHABI more power!”
Prosecutors wrote that after the UAE and other Gulf countries severed ties with Qatar in 2017, Barrack’s assistant requested to speak with Trump because he had “something very important to share…about the Middle East.”
Democrats, who have accused Trump and former Attorney General William Barr of using the Justice Department to protect Trump and his allies, are now calling for an inspector general investigation into whether Barrack and others were given “special treatment by the Department of Justice during the last Administration, and whether his case was inappropriately suppressed.”
CNN’s Sonia Moghe, Emma Tucker, Erica Orden, Paula Reid, Gloria Borger and Tierney Sneed contributed to this report.
Source : Nbcnewyork