As this story and headline further shows, Donald J. Trump will probably go down in history as our most-corrupt, crooked, evil, nasty, and meanest president ever … hands down the worst.
The
story is here and still developing and it’s a biggie:
“Tom Barrack’s
indictment suggests Trump's White House was even more vulnerable than we
thought”
Like moths to a
corrupt flame, Trump seems to have attracted crooked individuals.
According to prosecutors, an American close to the president was also working for a foreign dictatorship and had been trying to influence policy.
The indictment was filed in the Eastern District of NY (EDNY).
It alleges that Tom Barrack was an unregistered foreign agent who spent years liaising with
the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and then subtly attempting to maneuver former Trump
toward UAE goals.
More highlights from this startling story:
Barrack, a former foreign policy and economic adviser to
Trump, is perhaps best known as one of Trump’s top fundraisers in 2016. From
there, he became chairman of Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee. A billionaire,
Barrack spent years swimming in similar waters to Trump, eventually becoming a
“close friend” of the former president (re: The New York Times).
Through a spokesperson, Barrack has denied the charges, who said: “Mr. Barrack has
made himself voluntarily available to investigators from the outset. He is not
guilty and will be pleading not guilty.”
Barrack now faces what are called Section 951 charges, which
was the same charge levied against convicted Russian agent Maria Butina.
While the charges are technically different from
broader Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) violations, both
statutes center on those who covertly work in the U.S. on behalf of foreign
governments — and who fail to inform the DOJ about their relationships with
those foreign governments.
According to EDNY prosecutors, Barrack’s efforts on behalf
of the UAE ran the gamut. Key examples
in the indictment are:
1. He
allegedly changed Trump’s speeches in order to praise the Emirati dictatorship,
and lobbied for more pro-UAE policy and staffing decisions.
2. He
secretly passed internal White House discussions to the UAE government.
3. He
solicited and gathered a so-called wish list of policy decisions from UAE
officials that they wanted the Trump administration to implement.
4. He
lobbied in more public ways, such as writing pro-UAE op-eds.
Barrack never bothered to disclose that he might have
ulterior motives for taking such a pro-UAE tack.
It’s unclear exactly how much money Barrack made directly
from such work, though it took place while Barrack’s private equity firm
received some $1.5 billion from the UAE and its close ally Saudi Arabia (re: The
New York Times).
However, it appears clear who he was working directly with:
Among those helping steer Barrack’s efforts seemed to be Crown Prince Mohammed
bin Zayed, the de facto head of the UAE’s dictatorial claque, appears to be identified in the indictment as Emirati Official
1.
Prosecutors wrote: “The defendant Barrack is charged
with extremely serious offenses based on conduct that strikes at the very heart
of our democracy.”
In any other administration, these revelations might have
sent shock waves rippling through Washington. This was, after all, a foreign
dictatorship allegedly steering a figure directly in the American president’s
orbit, successfully influencing policy along the way.
But for Trump, the allegations are almost unsurprising. This is a president, after all, whose campaign chairman (Paul Manafort) and deputy chairman (Rick Gates) were both sentenced to jail time for secretly working on behalf of a foreign government.
This president's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, is currently under investigation over whether he failed to register his work on behalf of corrupt foreign clientele and whose former acting Director of National Intelligence, Richard Grenell, helped launder the reputation of a now-sanctioned oligarch without disclosing any of his work to American officials. (Both have denied any wrongdoing).
Barrack isn’t even the first prominent Trump fundraiser to
be accused of secretly working at the behest of corrupt foreign actors — that
honor belongs to Elliott Broidy, who recently pleaded guilty to a similar charge.
My 2 Cents: Continue the story at the link above.
The B/L as they say is simple: With all that is still coming forth
about the crimes and allegations against Trump and those close to him. the question is when
will he be indicted, tried, and then sent to prison? He surely deserves 20 years
in my view.
Stay tuned because “It ain’t over till
it’s over” just like the great Yogi Berra used to say.
On this same topic is this related story: “Eleven Trump Associates Charged with Serious Crimes.”
Hard to keep score, isn’t it?
Also, my earlier post same topic is here.
Thanks for stopping by.
No comments:
Post a Comment