Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Friday, Aug 08, 2025

US trial begins for Trump ally accused of illicit UAE lobbying

US trial begins for Trump ally accused of illicit UAE lobbying

Prosecutors say Tom Barrack was involved in a scheme to garner ‘power and money’; the defence denies he acted as a foreign agent.

United States prosecutors have accused Tom Barrack, an ally of Donald Trump, of using his access to the former president to influence Washington’s foreign policy in favour of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Barrack’s trial began this week in New York, with prosecutors on Wednesday accusing the 75-year-old of acting as an undisclosed agent of the UAE in a scheme to garner “power and money”.

Barrack, who chaired Trump’s inaugural committee in early 2017, pleaded not guilty to the charges last year.

Matthew Grimes, an employee of Barrack’s investment company, is standing trial with him on similar charges. A third co-defendant, Emirati businessman Rashid Al Malik Alshahhi, is at large.

“When Donald Trump ran for president, the defendants saw an opportunity – an opportunity to use Barrack’s unique access to gain power and money for themselves,” Assistant US Attorney Hiral Mehta told jurors on Wednesday.




But defence lawyer Michael Schachter stressed that there was no evidence that Barrack agreed to act as an agent of the UAE, arguing that he was pursuing his own financial and political interests.

“Tom Barrack is his own man,” he said. “Everything that Tom did, you’re going to see that he did as his own man, making his own decisions.”

The US Department of Justice filed charges against Barrack last year, detailing various incidents in which it says the businessman was acting “at the direction” of Emirati officials to sway the foreign policy positions of the Trump campaign and subsequent administration.

For example, in 2017 Barrack agreed to “promote the candidacy” of an official favoured by the UAE to serve as ambassador to Abu Dhabi, according to prosecutors.

In another example cited by the Justice Department in a statement last year, the government accused Barrack of communicating with his co-accused Alshahhi in September 2017 “about the opposition of the UAE to a proposed summit at Camp David”.

That summit aimed “to address an ongoing dispute between the State of Qatar, the UAE and other Middle Eastern governments, after which Barrack sought to advise the President of the United States against holding the Camp David summit”, the department said.

“The summit never happened,” its statement said.




US law makes it illegal to lobby on behalf of a foreign government or entity without declaring such activities under the Justice Department’s Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) database.

Barrack’s trial, which is expected to last a few weeks, comes at a time when Trump is facing a slew of legal issues, including a civil lawsuit by New York prosecutors over allegedly fraudulent business practices and a Justice Department investigation into his possible mishandling of classified documents.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Armenia and Azerbaijan to Sign US-Brokered Framework Agreement for Nakhchivan Corridor
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
Tariffs, AI, and the Shifting U.S. Macro Landscape: Navigating a New Economic Regime
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
BP’s Largest Oil and Gas Find in 25 Years Uncovered Offshore Brazil
JPMorgan and Coinbase Unveil Partnership to Let Chase Cardholders Buy Crypto Directly
British Tourist Dies Following Hair Transplant in Turkey, Police Investigate
WhatsApp Users Targeted in New Scam Involving Account Takeovers
Trump Deploys Nuclear Submarines After Threats from Former Russian President Medvedev
Germany’s Economic Breakdown and the Return of Militarization: From Industrial Collapse to a New Offensive Strategy
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
President Trump Diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency After Leg Swelling
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
Kurdistan Workers Party Takes Symbolic Step Towards Peace in Northern Iraq
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
AI Raises Alarms Over Long-Term Job Security
Saudi Arabia Maintains Ties with Iran Despite Israel Conflict
Russia Formally Recognizes Taliban Government in Afghanistan
Mediators Edge Closer to Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Agreement
Emirates Airline Expands Market Share with New $20 Million Campaign
House Oversight Committee Subpoenas Former Jill Biden Aide Amid Investigation into Alleged Concealment of President Biden's Cognitive Health
Amazon Reaches Major Automation Milestone with Over One Million Robots
Meta Announces Formation of Ambitious AI Unit, Meta Superintelligence Labs
China Unveils Miniature Insect-Like Surveillance Drone
Marc Marquez Claims Victory at Dutch Grand Prix Amidst Family Misfortune
Iran Executes Alleged Israeli Spies and Arrests Hundreds Amid Post-War Crackdown
Trump Asserts Readiness for Further Strikes on Iran Amid Nuclear Tensions
Iran's Parliament Votes to Suspend Cooperation with Nuclear Watchdog
Trump Announces Upcoming US-Iran Meeting Amid Controversial Airstrikes
Trump Moves to Reshape Middle East Following Israel-Iran Conflict
NATO Leaders Endorse Plan for Increased Defence Spending
U.S. Crude Oil Prices Drop Below $65 Amid Market Volatility
Explosions Rock Doha as Iranian Missiles Target Qatar
“You Have 12 Hours to Flee”: Israeli Threat Campaign Targets Surviving Iranian Officials
Oman Set to Introduce Personal Income Tax, First in Gulf
×