Trump ally wants details of wealth excluded from foreign agent trial
By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Tom Barrack, a former personal fairness government and fundraiser for Donald Trump, desires proof of his wealth, spending and way of life excluded from his upcoming trial on prices he acted as an unlawful international agent, his legal professionals stated on Tuesday.
Prosecutors have charged Barrack, 75, with utilizing his affect between 2016 and 2018 to advance United Arab Emirates international coverage targets with out notifying the U.S. legal professional common of his involvement as required by regulation.
Barrack, who supported Trump’s profitable 2016 White Home run and directed his inaugural committee, has pleaded not responsible and faces a Sept. 19 trial in Brooklyn federal courtroom.
In a courtroom submitting, Barrack’s legal professionals accused prosecutors of searching for to introduce proof that might improperly enchantment to jurors’ “class bias” in opposition to rich individuals.
Whereas the precise disputed proof regarding Barrack was redacted, Barrack’s legal professionals stated “images of his private property” and different particulars have been “unduly prejudicial” and “haven’t any place on this trial.”
“Proof of too many summer season properties can be extremely related if Mr. Barrack have been on trial for his success, however he’s not,” they wrote.
Barrack’s legal professionals cited a 2007 Forbes report https://www.forbes.com/2007/09/18/richlist07_Investments_slide/?sh=493939bd7e5c itemizing his web price at $2.3 billion as proof he was rich lengthy earlier than he allegedly labored on behalf of the UAE.
“If something, the extent of success Mr. Barrack attained by means of a lifetime of laborious efforts cuts in opposition to the federal government’s rivalry that he would abruptly threat all of it, at seventy years outdated, to turn into an agent of a international energy,” they added.
A spokesman for the U.S. Legal professional’s workplace in Brooklyn declined to remark.
Barrack was arrested in 2021 and launched on $250 million bond.
He has stepped down from being chief government and government chairman of digital infrastructure-focused personal fairness agency DigitalBridge Group Inc, previously referred to as Colony Capital.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Enhancing by Matthew Lewis)
