Tag: Trump

Tom Barrack: Just a Friend of Trump or a Friend with Benefits.

Recently, the trial of one of former President Trump’s closest friends started in Brooklyn. Lebanese-American Tom Barrack, a real estate mogul like Trump, has been charged with acting as an unregistered foreign agent. Barrack was the head of Trump’s inaugural committee and is close to other Trump allies, including Paul Manafort, a well-known lobbyist. According to The Guardian, Barrack speaks fluent Arabic and views himself as someone who can operate and deal with Middle Eastern leaders and power brokers. He was the head of Miramax films from 2013 until 2016, when it was sold to Qatar-based Bein Group; he also runs Los Angeles-based Colony Capital, a private equity real estate firm.

This is not the first time Barrack has been linked to Middle Eastern countries. When he was younger, he worked in the oil industry in Saudi Arabia and made connections with the royal family. Prosecutors allege that Barrack tried to influence former President Trump to pursue a foreign policy favorable to the United Arab Emirates. In return, the UAE would allow Barrack to invest in the lucrative real estate market in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. According to Bloomberg, there was also hope from the UAE government that Trump would make Barrack Secretary of State so that UAE could have a direct line to the government to influence foreign policy further. Barrack’s fate hangs in the balance, as the trial is not over, but if he is found guilty, his usefulness to Trump will end.

Bannon Indicted for Defrauding Contributors

One of former President Donald Trump’s chief advisors, Steve Bannon, is facing charges brought by the Manhattan district attorney’s office in New York State for money laundering and conspiracy to defraud contributors. According to Politico’s Julian Shen-Berro, Bannon is alleged, through a fundraising initiative called We Build the Wall, to have collected money in 2019 from donors to support building a wall along the U.S/Mexico border. Trump made a campaign promise to build such a wall and to make Mexico pay for it, but Trump never achieved that goal. We Build the Wall collected15 million dollars towards that end. 

However, it appears that Bannon used some of the donated money to pay a salary to the president of We Build The Wall, Brian Kolfage, a former Air Force veteran, even though Kolfage publicly insisted that he would receive no compensation for his role in developing the fund. The charge is that Bannon used the rest of the money for personal use. Ironically, Trump pardoned Bannon before leaving office in January of 2021 over these exact charges, at the federal level, brought by the Department of Justice. But that doesn’t pardon Bannon from charges made by New York state, where it appears that Bannon or one of his co-defendants were living at the time. The pardon demonstrates that both Trump and Bannon believed that the federal charges were accurate and could jeopardize Bannon. Bannon could face up to 15 years in jail and heavy financial penalties if convicted. Of course, like many corruption cases, the donors who contributed to the effort will probably never see their money again…or a completed wall.