Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson took the stand Monday as a witness within the New York trial of Thomas Barrack, a billionaire pal of former President Donald Trump accused of unlawfully lobbying on behalf of the United Arab Emirates.
Tillerson is the primary member of the Trump administration to testify within the trial of Barrack, an adviser to the 2016 Trump marketing campaign and chair of the presidential inaugural committee. Barrack is charged with appearing as an unregistered international agent for the UAE, obstruction of justice and making false statements to the FBI about his dealings. Federal prosecutors say that from 2016 to 2018, Barrack sought to advance a UAE "want checklist" of international coverage positions. Tillerson served as secretary of state from February 2017 by March 2018.
Barrack was charged in July 2021 and has pleaded not responsible. On the time, he was government chairman of funding agency Colony Capital, which is now referred to as DigitalBridge. Additionally charged was a Colony Capital worker named Matthew Grimes, and Rashid Al Malik, an Emirati citizen then residing in California.
Grimes entered not responsible pleas to costs of appearing as an unregistered international agent. Al Malik, who was additionally charged with appearing as an unregistered international agent, has not been positioned by legislation enforcement. Prosecutors allege Al Malik was a intermediary by whom Barrack and Grimes communicated with UAE officers, in search of their enter on Barrack's efforts to sway American international coverage.
Through the first two weeks of Barrack's trial, jurors heard from members of legislation enforcement and an skilled on Gulf area monarchies. The federal government's presentation has to this point revolved round textual content messages and emails between Barrack and his co-defendants. Jurors have additionally been proven messages despatched by Barrack in 2016 to Trump's daughter, Ivanka, and her husband Jared Kushner pushing for the Trump marketing campaign to rent Paul Manafort, who later served as chair of the marketing campaign for about two months.
Jurors have been additionally proven messages despatched by Barrack to Manafort a couple of speech then-candidate Trump was getting ready to ship on power coverage.