Former federal prosecutor predicts there is more to come from Tom Barrack indictment
Speaking to MSNBC host Brian Williams on Tuesday, former federal prosecutor Barbara McQuade said that after reading the indictment for Tom Barrack, she thinks there is more to come.
Barrack, who was one of Donald Trump’s closest advisers who is alleged to have been working as a foreign agent to the UAE and influencing the president on behalf of the country. MSNBC host Rachel Maddow sounded the alarm about the UAE, even asking Trump’s campaign how they could help in the 2016 election.
She began by explaining that the indictment documents expose a lot of details because Barrack put information in writing.
“It is what I would refer to as a speaking indictment in that the allegations are very detailed, so this is not some big allegation that just parrots the language of the statute,” said McQuade. “It quotes from e-mail messages where it talks about how Tom Barrack was acting under the direction and control of foreign officials in the UAE. As you said he inserted parts of their suggestions into a Trump campaign speech. He took credit for getting UAE excluded from the Trump travel ban in 2017. He wrote an op-ed for a national publication with UAE input, and he agreed to advocate for the appointment of individuals in the Trump administration at their recommendation including a U.S. congressman.”
She went on to say that frequently there are more regulatory offenses that follow statutes and a lot of legal paperwork errors.
“But that is not what this is at all,” she explained. “It is alleging that Tom Barrack acted as a secret agent on behalf of the UAE and that he betrayed the United States and he betrayed President Donald Trump.”
Politico’s Sam Stein noted that it seems that there were so many people in the Trump orbit being paid by foreign governments. He went on to call it the “Wild West of ethics.”
McQuade then explained that she believes there is a lot more to come.
“It names by label and category some additional individuals,” she said. “It talks, for example, about this congressman who was recommended by the UAE for an ambassador position. It talks about executives who were working at the company that was run by Tom Barrack. Sometimes when you have references to others not yet charged. It could mean that additional charges are coming. Of course, there’s always the possibility if I were representing Tom Barrack, my first call would be to the prosecutor to say, is there any way we can work out a deal where my client would cooperate? And so, being a close adviser to Donald Trump and someone in his close orbit is as a prosecutor, I’d be very interested in exploring anything Tom Barrack might have to say about that.”
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