Indicted Trump campaign adviser puts up $250M bond

(CN) — Charged with obstructing justice and lying to the FBI, the billionaire former campaign adviser to President Donald Trump was ordered to pay a $250 million bond, wear a GPS ankle bracelet and surrender his passport ahead of an appearance next week in Brooklyn federal court. 

Thomas Joseph Barrack, 74, was an informal adviser during Trump’s first run for president and later chaired his inaugural committee. He is accused of conspiring to act as an unregistered foreign agent for the United Arab Emirates, both during and after the 2016 election. 

Prosecutors said earlier this week in a seven-count indictment that Barrack met with senior UAE government officials and advised them to create a “wish list” of U.S. foreign-policy items they’d like to see accomplished in various increments of the Trump administration: the first 100 days, six months, one year and four years. 

Barrack voluntarily met with FBI special agents in June of 2019. There, he denied that his co-defendant, Rashid Sultan Rashid Al Malik Alshahhi, had asked him to act on behalf of the UAE — one of what prosecutors say was several false statements by Barrack. 

For example, text messages from March 2017 included in the indictment show Alshahhi arranging a meeting with an unnamed Emirati official. 

“No need to brief u. Then the big guy. ... They have high expectations from us. They love you,” Alshahhi told Barrack. 

In addition to Barrack and Alshahhi, a citizen of the UAE, prosecutors indicted Matthew Grimes, an employee of the Los Angeles-based global investment management firm where Barrack served as executive chairman.

Grimes, arrested the same day as Barrack, was also released on Friday, putting up a $5 million bond. Alshahhi, also known as “Rashid Al Malik” and “Rashid Al‑Malik,” remains at large.

Both Grimes and Barrack will be subject to a curfew and travel restrictions that will be monitored by GPS ankle devices. 

In Los Angeles this afternoon, U.S. Magistrate Judge Patricia Donahue ordered Barrack to surrender his passport and to “remain and travel” in the company of his attorney, Matt Herrington of the Washington firm Paul Hastings. 

The men are ordered to remain within the Central District of California before reporting to their arraignment on Monday in the Eastern District of New York, after which they must remain in those two districts or in the Southern District of New York. The hub of New York's Eastern District is Brooklyn, and the Southern covers Manhattan,  

Barrack’s colossal bond is being secured in part by three homes: those of his ex-wife, Rachelle Barrack; son, T.J. Barrack; and Jonathan Grunzweig, chief investment officer of Colony Capital, where Barrack was previously CEO and executive chair. 

Barrack, whose net worth is estimated to be around $1 billion, also placed $5 million in cash in a trust account at Paul Hastings, pending further direction from the court. 

“Those funds are in the trust account as we speak,” Herrington told Donahue on Friday. 

Mark J. Lesko, acting assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, called the alleged conduct “nothing short of a betrayal” of U.S. officials, including Trump himself. 

“Through this indictment, we are putting everyone — regardless of their wealth or perceived political power — on notice that the Department of Justice will enforce the prohibition of this sort of undisclosed foreign influence,” Lesko said in a statement earlier this week. 

Barrack’s arrest follows recent prosecutorial activity closing in on Trump’s inner circle, including the recent federal indictment of Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg in Manhattan and an ongoing criminal investigation into Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani. 

Follow Nina Pullano on Twitter.

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