Major Trump, RNC fundraiser Broidy set to plead guilty to acting as unregistered foreign agent

WASHINGTON » Major Trump and Republican Party donor Elliott Broidy is set to plead guilty Tuesday to acting as an unregistered foreign agent for Malaysian and Chinese government interests, accepting millions of dollars to secretly lobby the Trump administration.

A plea hearing for Broidy, who helped raise millions for President Donald Trump’s campaign before serving as the Republican National Committee’s national deputy finance chair, is scheduled for 2 p.m. before U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington.

Broidy, 64, was charged on Oct. 6 on one felony federal count of conspiring to defraud the United States. Prosecutors accuse him of secretly arranging to be paid a bounty of more than $80 million to end a U.S. investigation into a multibillion dollar embezzlement of a Malaysian state investment fund. Broidy also allegedly worked for a senior Chinese security minister to return outspoken Chinese exile Guo Wengui to his home country fromthe United States.

A plea is not official until it is accepted by a judge.

The allegations capped a years-long investigation that ultimately focused on Broidy, according to court records, accusing him of orchestrating with “back- channel, unregistered campaigns” to influence the administration, though their efforts were largely unsuccessful.

According to court filings and people familiar with the matter, Broidy made direct entreaties to high-level Trump officials or others close to the administration, including Trump’s then-chief of staff, Reince Priebus; his former deputy campaign chairman, Rick Gates; and Trump himself.

Broidy, a Los Angelesbased investor, resigned fromhis RNC post in April 2018 in the wake of a report that he had paid a former Playboy model $1.6 million in exchange for her silence about a sexual affair. Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen - another RNC fundraiser - helped arrange the settlement, Broidy acknowledged at the time.

Cohen, who also served as a deputy finance chair of the RNC, also resigned his party position in June 2018 before pleading guilty to bank fraud, tax evasion and campaign finance violations committed on Trump’s behalf. Former casino executive and Trump confidant Steve Wynn, who served as the RNC’s first finance chairman under Trump, resigned in January 2018 after he was accused of sexual harassment and assault, accusations he has denied.

The investigation into Broidy stems from a massive probe of a multibillion dollar embezzlement from a Malaysian government development fund that has come to be known by the shorthand “1MDB.” In previous civil and criminal cases, federal prosecutors have alleged that stolen money that made its way into the United States was used to buy pricey real estate and even fund the award-winning movie “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

At the center of the case is a Malaysian businessman named Low Taek Jho, who was indicted in 2018 and accused of funneling tens of millions of dollars into the United States in part to get the investigation dropped. Low, who is facing multiple federal indictments, is believed to be in China, outside the reach of U.S. authorities. He has denied the allegations and said they are politically motivated.

According to court documents and people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe an ongoing investigation, Low was funding Broidy’s lobbying efforts — both to get the 1MDB investigation dropped and to get Guo sent back to China. Guo is a vocal online critic of that country’s government and is wanted by authorities in Beijing on charges of fraud, blackmail and bribery. He has denied those charges and said they are politically motivated.