Yet another indictment shows: Trump made America not great, but vulnerable
The news that Donald Trump’s old friend, fundraiser and head of his 2016 inaugural committee, Thomas J. Barrack, has been indicted on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent and lying to the FBI may not figure large in the vast universe of post-Trump-administration corruption inquiries. But the case has interested me for a specific reason.
If you read the indictment (or material previously revealed by the House Oversight Committee), you see Barrack’s first big test as a conduit for the United Arab Emirates concerned the Trump campaign speechwriting process in May 2016. According to the indictment, Barrack sent a draft copy of a Trump energy policy speech, through a co-defendant, to a UAE official asking for feedback. Barrack received a text message with proposed language from the UAE praising the de facto ruler of the nation, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed. Later that day, according to the indictment, Barrack sent back his revised draft of the speech, including the UAE input. Barrack heard from his associate: “They loved it so much! This is great!”
Barrack sent along his UAE-approved text to the Trump campaign. Zayed’s name was eventually removed, but the speech ended with a pledge “to work with our Gulf allies.” (Material from the Oversight Committee added the detail that Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, sent an email to Barrack confirming that the speech “has the language you want.”) Barrack received an email from a UAE official after the speech was delivered: “Congrats on the great job today.”
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This pat on the back, this attaboy, from a foreign government on a major campaign speech — as with so many things in the history of Trump-era corruption — is not normal. Not within the same Zip code, the same hemisphere, as normal.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/08/05/barrack-indictment-shows-trump-made-america-vulnerable/
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