By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Tom Barrack, a onetime private equity executive and fundraiser for former President Donald Trump, was found not guilty by a jury on Friday of unlawfully acting as an agent of the United Arab Emirates, dealing a setback to the U.S. Justice Department.
Barrack was also acquitted of obstruction of justice and making false statements to FBI agents in 2019 about his interactions with Emirati officials and their representatives.
The verdict followed a six-week trial in federal court in Brooklyn.
Barrack hugged his lawyers after the verdict was read. He had faced a total of nine criminal counts, in a case brought by the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn.
Prosecutors last year charged Barrack with using his influence with Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and administration to push UAE policy interests, without notifying the U.S. attorney general as required by law that he was acting as an agent for the Middle Eastern country.
Barrack, 75, testified during the trial, describing his interactions with Middle Eastern officials as part of his role running Colony Capital, now known as DigitalBridge Group Inc.
The OPEC member nation repaid Barrack in 2017 and 2018 by investing $374 million with Colony from its sovereign wealth funds, prosecutors said.
Barrack raised money for Trump during the 2016 campaign and chaired Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee.
Several Trump associates and allies have been convicted in recent criminal trials, while others pleaded guilty. Trump pardoned some of them before leaving office.
Steve Bannon, a Trump campaign and White House strategist, was convicted in July of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from a Congressional committee probing the 2021 attack by Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol, and was sentenced last month to four months in prison.
Roger Stone, a longtime Trump adviser, received a pardon after being convicted in 2019 of lying under oath to U.S. lawmakers investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and sentenced to more than three years in prison.
Also receiving a pardon was Paul Manafort, Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman, who had been found guilty in 2018 of financial wrongdoing and sentenced to 7-1/2 years in prison.
During his testimony, Barrack told jurors he never agreed to be a UAE agent or asked Trump for a pardon.
The defense said that while Barrack, who is of Lebanese descent, wanted better relations between the United States and countries in the Middle East, he never agreed to act under UAE “direction or control,” as U.S. law defines the role of agents for foreign governments.
“I never did anything wrong,” Barrack testified.
During the trial, prosecutors showed jurors hundreds of text messages and emails that they said showed that Barrack received input from Emirati officials and intermediaries on what to say about the Middle East in TV interviews, and passed along sensitive details about U.S. foreign policy and personnel appointments.
Prosecutors told jurors that Emirati officials were pleased with Barrack’s televised comments about the UAE and its leaders, and said U.S. law was designed to make sure the government knows when someone acts as a foreign government’s “mouthpiece.”
Barrack’s lawyers acknowledged that he sometimes sought feedback from Emirati officials, but that any impact on U.S. policy or public opinion was insignificant. They also said Emirati investments amounted to less than 1% of Colony’s balance sheet.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen; Editing by Will Dunham and Alistair Bell)
