
Tom Barrack, the private equity executive and onetime fundraiser for former President Donald Trump, and his former assistant acted as a foreign government's illegal back channel to the Trump administration, a U.S. prosecutor said on Wednesday in opening statements at their criminal trial.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Hiral Mehta said Barrack, the 75-year-old former chairman of the investment firm now known as DigitalBridge Group Inc, and his former assistant Matthew Grimes acted as unregistered agents for the United Arab Emirates between 2016 and 2018.