Trump ally Tom Barrack’s criminal case isn’t really about lobbying – it’s about national security

In the fall of 2017, Barrack and Al Malik collaborated to scuttle plans for a future summit at Camp David between American, Emirati, Saudi and Qatari officials, aimed at ending a regional blockade of Qatar. 

The UAE opposed the summit, and prosecutors describe how Barrack sent an email to Trump’s personal assistant, asking to speak to the president. It’s unclear from the indictment whether Barrack ever spoke to Trump. But the summit did not take place.

Barrack’s case hints at the relative ease with which individuals close to Trump could influence his direction on major policy issues. 

“This information flow is going both ways,” said Kappel. “Barrack is surreptitiously providing the U.S. government with information that the UAE wants the government to hear, but he’s also providing back to the UAE confidential information about what he learned was going on within the federal government.”

Kappel added: “And he was providing that information through an individual who was on the payroll of a foreign intelligence service.”

Atkinson, now a partner at Crowell Moring, said the information flow back and forth from Abu Dhabi helps to make Barrack’s arrangement different than traditional lobbying work for foreign principals. 

“I think that’s one of the reasons why they chose 951 is because you have both pieces, trying to influence U.S. foreign and domestic policy, and sharing information back with a foreign government,” he said.

Kappel, who is of counsel at Harmon Curran, said Section 951 draws a bright red line through a sometimes murky world of Washington influence peddling.

“What Section 951 does, really, is divide the world into diplomats and spies: Diplomats present their credentials and they are officially recognized as representatives of a foreign government. And that’s what you’re supposed to do if you are representing a foreign government,” he said.

“The prosecutors may not be able to prove espionage, which has a very high bar,” he said. “But they can prove this person was operating under the direction of a foreign government, and did not inform U.S. authorities that they were in this role.”

Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/27/tom-barrack-lobbying-case-is-national-security-case.html