Accused Trump ally, adviser released on $250 million bond
WASHINGTON — Tom Barrack, a longtime Trump fundraiser and friend, has reached an agreement with federal prosecutors to be released on $250 million bond while awaiting trial on charges that he illegally lobbied on behalf of leaders in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
The agreement, announced Friday, requires Mr. Barrack — a wealthy investor who served as chair of former President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee — to wear a GPS location-monitoring bracelet at all times, according to a spokesperson for the Justice Department.
The deal restricts his movements to Southern California, where he lives and works, and New York, where he has been charged. It also prohibits Mr. Barrack, who was arrested and detained in Los Angeles on Tuesday, from transferring money from his domestic accounts overseas.
Prosecutors claimed he was a flight risk and pushed for the high bond.
Mr. Barrack, 74, is required to appear Monday in federal court in Brooklyn, where he will be arraigned on charges that he acted as an unregistered agent of a foreign power, obstructed justice and lied to the FBI.
His fellow defendant and associate, Matthew Grimes, 27, was freed on $5 million bond. Mr. Grimes is also required to wear an electronic monitoring device and is subject to a curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
The seven-count indictment unveiled this week accused Mr. Barrack of using his access to Mr. Trump to advance the foreign policy goals of the United Arab Emirates and repeatedly misleading federal agents.
Federal prosecutors said Mr. Barrack had used his position as an outside adviser to Mr. Trump’s campaign to publicly promote the Emirates’ agenda while soliciting direction and feedback from senior Emirati officials.
Once Mr. Trump was elected, they said, Mr. Barrack invited senior Emirati officials to give him a “wish list” of foreign policy actions they wanted Washington to take within the first 100 days, first six months and first year of Mr. Trump’s term, and by the end of it, prosecutors said.
Mr. Barrack is the latest in a long string of former Trump aides, fundraisers and associates to face criminal charges. The former president’s company, the Trump Organization, and its chief financial officer were indicted this month on state fraud and tax charges.