By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Tom Barrack, a onetime fundraiser for former U.S. President Donald Trump, took the witness stand in his own defense on Monday in his trial on charges of being an illegal foreign agent for the United Arab Emirates.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said Barrack used his influence with Trump’s election campaign and administration to push the UAE’s interests without notifying the U.S. attorney general, as required by law.
Barrack, 75, has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers argued his interactions with Emirati officials were part of his job running Colony Capital, a private equity firm now known as DigitalBridge Group Inc.
For defendants, testifying is potentially risky because it opens them up to probing cross-examination by prosecutors.
During the monthlong trial, prosecutors have showed jurors text messages and emails indicating that Emirati officials provided feedback to Barrack on what he should say in television interviews and an opinion article about U.S. policy toward the Middle East in 2016 and 2017, and gave input about what Trump should say about energy policy in a 2016 presidential campaign speech.
In a post on his Truth Social platform on Sunday night, Trump said he did not believe Barrack was a UAE agent, and that Barrack never spoke to him about speeches or “what to say on this subject.”
“Tom Barrack is a highly respected businessman whose DREAM was to see PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST, a very good and noble thing,” Trump wrote. “He is being unfairly persecuted only because he is a supporter of ‘Trump.'”
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
