Tom Barrack Freed on $250 Million Bond

Politics|Tom Barrack, Trump’s friend and fund-raiser, is freed on $250 million bond.

• July 23, 2021, 4:35 p.m. ET

Tom Barrack, a longtime Trump fund-raiser 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 the U.S. government on behalf of leaders in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

The agreement, announced on Friday, requires Mr. Barrack — a wealthy investor who served as chairman of Mr. Trump’s inaugural committee — to wear a G.P.S. location monitoring bracelet at all times, according to a spokesman 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, citing his wealth and access to private jets, claimed he was a flight risk and pushed for the high bond.

Mr. Barrack, 74, is required to appear in federal court in Brooklyn on Monday, where he will be arraigned on charges that he acted as an unregistered agent of a foreign power, obstructed justice and lied to the F.B.I.

His fellow defendant and business 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.

Mr. Grimes is not allowed to speak with Mr. Barrack, except in the presence of lawyers, according to the Justice Department.

Rashid al-Malik Alshahhi, an Emirati businessman who is close to the Emirates’ rulers, was also charged, but he left the country after being interviewed by federal agents three years ago. His lawyer said in a statement on Friday: “His efforts were the subject of inquiry by the Special Counsel’s office, with whom he fully cooperated. He never considered himself an ‘agent’ for any country. He is devastated that anyone would even think he would engage anything illegal.”

The seven-count indictment unveiled this week accused Mr. Barrack of using his access to former President Donald J. Trump to advance the foreign policy goals of the United Arab Emirates, and then 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, feedback and talking points 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, fund-raisers 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.