NEW YORK — Trump friend Tom Barrack told a federal jury Tuesday that he was the architect of the former president’s 2016 climate change meeting with actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
Barrack, who is accused in Brooklyn Federal Court of scheming to influence former President Donald Trump’s foreign policy as an unregistered agent of the United Arab Emirates, described the meeting as one of several he tried to set up with world leaders and luminaries who were nervous about Trump’s extreme campaign rhetoric.
The 75-year-old businessman tried to portray himself as a bridge-builder between Trump and powerful people who disagreed with his platforms, like the former president’s vow to pull out of the Paris climate agreement and eliminate environmental protection regulations.
“So Leo DiCaprio, who was a friend, was outraged,” Barrack told the jury. “And I suggested to Leo, the same way I’d suggested to some of these world leaders, ‘Why don’t you sit down and have a conversation with him?’ ”
When his lawyer Michael Schachter asked if the meeting was successful, Barrack said, “It was not successful, and it did happen.”
“Were you setting up that meeting acting as an illegal agent of Leonardo DiCaprio?” Schachter asked, and Barrack chuckled, “I wish I could have, but that wasn’t the case.”
The meeting between the mogul and the movie star happened at Trump Tower in Manhattan on Dec. 7, 2016, but six months later, Trump still announced he would pull out of the Paris agreement.
Barrack’s reference to DiCaprio came on his second day on the stand. The megarich private-equity executive described his Lebanese family roots and middle-class California upbringing, and his rise in the business world, portraying himself as a champion of “cultural success and building relationships,” particularly with Middle Eastern leaders.
Federal prosecutors allege that Barrack worked as an agent of the United Arab Emirates, using his access to Trump to push pro-UAE policies in exchange for massive investments in his company.
Barrack painted a different picture in court, saying he wanted to get Trump in the room with Arab leaders nervous about his promise to ban travel to the U.S. from Muslim nations. He hoped to portray Trump as someone who “throws a hand grenade in the middle of things that people are confused about to create a dialogue,” he said.
Barrack’s beliefs and opinions about U.S. foreign policy were his own, he testified. His defense lawyers have repeatedly pointed to his advocacy for Qatar, and his opposition to the United Arab Emirates’ blockade of the Persian Gulf nation in 2017, as proof that he wasn’t an agent of the UAE or doing its bidding.
Barrack’s testimony continues Wednesday, followed by his cross-examination by prosecutors later in the week.
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