Barrack Testifies He Was Worried About GOP’s ‘Racist Tone’ in 2016
(Bloomberg) -- Tom Barrack testified that he was concerned about the Republican Party’s “racist tone” ahead of the 2016 convention where his longtime friend Donald Trump was officially named its presidential nominee.
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The Colony Capital LLC founder resumed testimony Wednesday at his trial on charges that he sought to influence the Trump campaign and administration as an unregistered agent of the United Arab Emirates.
In his third day on the stand, Barrack denied the government’s claim that he engineered, at the UAE’s behest, the removal of language from the convention platform seen as critical of the Saudi royal family. He instead said he had suggested its removal to then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort because he felt the language was racially charged.
“The Republican Party had taken on the racist tone that came with the Muslim ban, Mexico,” Barrack said Wednesday in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, adding, “So to have the Republican Party not viewed as racist was important.”
Declassification Demand
The removed language called for the release of 28 pages of sensitive documents gathered by the 9/11 Commission which some Republicans claimed then-President Barack Obama had classified to protect the Saudi royal family.
Prosecutors allege Barrack used his inroads with the Trump campaign and administration to try to influence US policy on behalf of the UAE, which poured $374 million in sovereign investment funds into Colony. Barrack argues there was no connection between that money and informal advice he gave, which he says was based purely on his long experience doing business around the world.
Barrack, who spoke at the convention and later served as Trump’s inaugural committee chair, has sought to distance himself from his friend during the trial. Defense lawyers have previously expressed concern that Barrack’s ties to Trump could hurt him with the Brooklyn jury.
On Monday, Barrack testified that the Trump presidency was “disastrous” for his business. He described on Tuesday how he sought to smooth over candidate Trump’s “outrageous” 2016 campaign trail statements with diplomats, world leaders and Hollywood celebrities.
Defending Obama
On Wednesday, Barrack testified that he pushed back on language in a proposed Trump energy speech that suggested Obama was corrupt. In an earlier 2016 email to Manafort shown to the jury, Barrack described the draft as “imbecilic” and “bombastic with no support of underlying thought or facts.” He was “stunned at how bad this is,” Barrack wrote.
Barrack said on the stand of Obama, “Nobody would really accept that he was crooked or funneling millions to his cronies.”
Prosecutors claim Barrack subsequently worked to ensure that the energy speech Trump ultimately delivered in May 2016 reflected UAE policy goals, including the candidate’s pledge to “work with our Gulf allies.”
The case is US v. Al Malik Alshahhi, 21-cr-00371, US District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).
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