Another week, another one of Donald Trump's longtime friends revealed as the subject of a federal probe into influence peddling with foreign governments. This time it's Tom Barrack Jr., a longtime Trump and Paul Manafort buddy who was also the chairman of Trump's inaugural committee, and the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia as the foreign governments.
In May 2016, The New York Times reports, as Trump was preparing to deliver a speech on his energy policy, Manafort emailed Barrack to ask, "Are you running this by our friends?" In fact, yes, Barrack was "coordinating the language in a draft of the speech" with his contacts in the Middle East, where he has extensive real estate and investment firm business. One of those contacts is Rashid al-Malik, an Emirati businessman "who is well connected in the court of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, the de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates widely known by his initials, M.B.Z., and is close to the prince's brother, Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed, who oversees the United Arab Emirates' intelligence services." That's one part of the investigation into Barrack and whether he violated federal laws around foreign influence peddling.
As of yet, Barrack has not been charged and is cooperating with federal prosecutors in the public integrity unit of the United States attorney’s office in Brooklyn. The investigation seeks to "determine whether Mr. Barrack and others tried to sway the Trump campaign or the new administration on behalf of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia," according to the Times. At the time Barrack was consulting on that energy speech, an effort in which he was not entirely successful, his company was actively working in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, and he made about $1.5 billion from the time Trump was nominated until the end of June. The investigators are also looking into whether Barrack was involved in a proposal from an American group to give access to nuclear power technology to Saudi Arabia. Barrack was apparently the one to recommend Manafort to Trump as his campaign chairman. He also promoted Manafort to the UAE's ambassador to the U.S. as "someone who was 'totally programmed' on the alliance between the Saudis and Emiratis," and in turn Manafort told foreign officials that Barrack could "speak for the campaign on all subjects."
Barrack, who not only headed up the inaugural committee but also helped run Trump’s transition team, hoped to become a special envoy to the Middle East, according to the Times, or to have a "role as a kind of superambassador to Central and South America." Trump's son-in-law and consigliere Jared Kushner apparently blocked both of those suggestions. Barrack also failed in trying to build bridges to a Muslim world disturbed by the proposed Muslim ban. Not only did the language he suggested for that energy speech not get included, but an effort by Barrack to have language in the Republican platform calling for full disclosure of information on Saudi Arabia's role in the 9/11 attacks removed failed.
Putin won the RNC platform sweepstakes round, getting that pesky language about Russia's war on Ukraine watered down, but Trump's been making up for it since with the Saudis. That might help explain Barrack's willingness to cooperate in the investigation, including volunteering to be interviewed by prosecutors.