NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors on Thursday hacked into a wealth of emails and other communications during a federal trial that they say shows how the former chairman of Donald Trump’s inaugural commission in 2016 worked behind the scenes to try and denounce the future president. United States to embrace Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Some of the email traffic was between Tom Barrack — accused of working toward the UAE as a covert foreign agent — and Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign manager at the time. The exchanges centered in part on a speech on Trump’s energy policy in 2016.
In an email read to the jury by an FBI agent, Barrack complained to Manafort that an original version of the speech made no mention of the UAE or Saudi Arabia, or the importance of their role in the Middle East. .
“Wow. I’m just stunned by how bad this is,” the billionaire private equity manager wrote of the concept.
Manafort replied, “Send me an attachment that works for our friends.”
Trump’s speech ultimately referred to the need to work with “our supportive Gulf allies” as part of a broader strategy to fight terrorism in the region. Afterwards, Barrack received an email from a UAE official congratulating him on his “great job”.
In other emails, Manafort assured those in the back-channel network that he would get Trump to tone down his anti-Muslim rhetoric and that he would organize face-to-face meetings between Trump and UAE and Saudi leaders.
Another email from de Barak indicated that he had lobbied Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner on behalf of Manafort to get Manafort the position of campaign manager. Manafort was eventually convicted in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation and later pardoned by Donald Trump.
Prosecutors say the communications demonstrate Barrack’s efforts to manipulate the Trump campaign and later his administration to advance UAE interests. At the same time, they say the energy-rich Gulf state has poured millions of dollars into Barrack’s business ventures.
Barrack, 75, pleaded not guilty to charges of acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government, obstruction of justice and making false statements.
In his opening statements this week, attorney Steven Schachter insisted there was no evidence that Barrack ever took orders from the UAE or betrayed his country by becoming an undercover agent.
“Tom Barrack is his own man,” the lawyer said.
