Former U.S President Donald Trump and his circle of friends are facing multiple legal investigations on several counts. One of his longtime friends, along with his accomplice, faced charges of serving as an “unregistered foreign agent,” according to an NBC News report dating back to September 2022.
What Happened: Californian billionaire Tom Barrack and his former assistant Matthew Grimes “met with and took directions from” the United Arab Emirates for a two-year period, beginning in 2016, Assistant U.S. Attorney Hiral Mehta told jurors in Brooklyn federal court, according to the report.
Barrack used his closeness with the former U.S President to help UAE gain access to Trump and the then senior administration officials, Mehta reportedly told. At UAE’s behest, Barrack got Trump to speak about the importance of working with “our gulf allies” in a campaign speech about energy in 2016, he added.
Barrack was never under anyone’s control and the charge that he was acting as a foreign agent is “nothing short of ridiculous,” his lawyer Michael Schachter reportedly argued.
“The idea that Tom Barrack was controlled by anybody is nonsense,” he said.
“He did things because he wanted to,” Schachter said, adding he “is an innocent man.”
U.S. law dictates that anybody operating under the control of foreign governments or foreign officials, other than diplomats, register with the U.S. attorney general, The New York Times said.
This story was originally published on Sept. 22, 2022.
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