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After the sentencing, Barak descended a ballroom-style staircase in the lobby of the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn to thunderous applause and cheers from his family and other supporters. Outside the courthouse, Barak praised the jury and the justice system.
He said that “against all odds” jurors assembled a complex case to clear him and his co-defendant, Matthew Grimes, of all charges.
“God bless America,” Barack said. “The system is working.”
Barak and at least two dozen supporters left the courthouse in downtown Brooklyn to start a celebration nearby. “I’m going to go get a drink,” he said with a big smile after a reporter asked where he was headed.
Barack’s acquittal is a major loss for the Justice Department after several successful prosecutions of defendants accused of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn and Rick Gates, all former Trump advisers, faced similar charges and were convicted.
At the trial, Prosecutors said Barak was motivated to keep the UAE happy because his sovereign wealth fund had invested $374 million in Colony Capital from 2017 to 2018 and had room for more.
In his testimony, Barak suggested that his ties to Trump made him a target of federal investigators. He described admiring Trump but feeling disappointed that he did not take a more moderate approach in office.
Barrack’s lawyer, Randall Jackson, said the government’s case misrepresented Barrack’s relationship with the UAE. He highlighted the lack of evidence of an agreement between Barrack and UAE officials to work on their behalf. Prosecutors suggested a deal was implied.
“Throughout the entire process, you did not hear one word about the transmission of sensitive intelligence,” Jackson said in his summary this week. “This has never happened. It never materialized.”
Jackson told jurors that the absence of a witness who could discuss the alleged agreement between Barrack and the UAE “should be stunning” and that “not a single witness came into this courtroom … who had any personal knowledge for any relevant facts in the case’.
He said FARA required proof of an express agreement between Barrack and the UAE for a violation to occur.
A jury in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn reached the verdict in the trial, which began in late September, after about two days of deliberations. A spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office in Brooklyn declined to comment on the acquittal.
Barak, 75, and his business partner Grimes, 29, were charged with acting as an agent of a foreign government without registering and conspiracy to act as a foreign agent without registering. Barak faced several other charges related to lying to the FBI during an interview about his involvement in the UAE.
Among the witnesses were two members of Trump’s cabinet: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The government’s case relies heavily on numerous text messages and emails involving contacts of Barak, Grimes and the UAE. Jurors also saw a number of clips from television interviews and written materials that described Barak praising the UAE leadership.
The main intermediary for the UAE was Rashid Al Malik, an Emirati who lived in Los Angeles. Al Malik was also charged but fled the country after learning of the investigation.
Prosecutors said during the trial that Barak had succeeded in his efforts to interfere in foreign affairs on behalf of the UAE. Additionally, as an adviser to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, Barak allegedly managed to get praise for “Gulf allies” in one of Trump’s campaign speeches. Prosecutors said that term was code for the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Prosecutors said Barak also provided “insider information on foreign policy developments” to the Trump campaign and his administration in the UAE, and he praised the small oil-rich country’s national security in nationally televised interviews. He even “helped the UAE and its allies with meetings at the White House” in the early days of Trump’s tenure, Assistant US Attorney Ryan Harris said in his summary on Tuesday.
The UAE is “an autocratic and authoritarian government run by a royal family that is rich in oil and gas and controls some of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the entire world,” Harris said.
Barak faced up to 20 years in prison on the highest count that applied to him. Grimes faced up to a decade in prison if convicted of his primary charge.
Grimes, who was mentored by Barak and started working for Colony Capital as a teenager, was accused of helping Barak in his dealings with the UAE. Attorney Abe Lowell, who represented Grimes, said after the verdict that the case was an example of prosecutorial overreach.
“The problem with that is that not everyone has the ability to fight back,” Lowell said.
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