ABU DHABI (Middle East Eye) – Tom Barrack, a key Trump ally arrested earlier this year for illegal lobbying on behalf of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), met with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ) and other top Emirati officials just weeks after former president Donald Trump’s election, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
People familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that in December 2016, Barrack met with MBZ, his brother - UAE national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed al-Nahyan, and director of the Emirati spy agency Ali Mohammed Hammad al-Shamsi.
According to the seven-count indictment brought against the longtime Trump ally, the officials who hosted Barrack during the reception were referred to as Emirati Officials 1, 2 and 3.
US prosecutors say the meeting was part of a secret back-channel campaign to influence the incoming Trump administration’s foreign policy, the newspaper reported.
The three officials along with a fourth - named by people familiar with the issue as Abdullah Khalifa al-Ghafli - were tasked with pushing Abu Dhabi’s interests in the U.S., according to Bloomberg.
The fifth official in the indictment, Emirati Official 5, was identified as Yousef al-Otaiba, the UAE’s ambassador to the U.S., according to Bloomberg, which cited sources who asked not to be identified.
Middle East Eye previously reported that two of the previously unidentified officials appeared to be MBZ and Otaiba.
The July indictment refers to a phone call between an official identified as “Emirati Official 1” and Trump on 29 January 2017, a date when MBZ is reported to have spoken to Trump.
Barrack was arrested on 20 July on charges that he and two associates were part of a secret effort to shape Trump’s foreign policy to the benefit of the UAE. He has since been released on bail set at $250m and pleaded not guilty.
The indictment against Barrack says he helped the Emiratis on several fronts, including helping to arrange a White House meeting with Trump and pushing the Middle Eastern country’s preferred candidates for positions in the new U.S. administration.
It also accused Barrack of having provided inside information on how Trump administration officials regarded the blockade of Qatar by its Arab neighbors.
Prosecutors allege that the Trump ally lied to the FBI in June 2019 about his work on behalf of the UAE.
Ben Freeman, director of the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative at the Center for International Policy, said the naming of the Emirati officials shows that Abu Dhabi is not the U.S. ally it appears to be.
“The UAE officials being named means this was a conspiracy to interfere in U.S. politics coordinated by the very top of the UAE government. After this revelation, anyone that thinks the UAE is a ‘friend’ of the U.S. should think twice. Friends don’t illegally interfere in each other’s democracies,” he told the Middle East Eye (MEE) news portal.