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Last October he’d stated that he hadn’t been contacted by Mueller. This now appears to have changed-assuming he wasn’t lying then and, really, with Manafort why would you assume that?-as the Associated Press has now reported he has been interviewed by Mueller.
The focus of the questioning was reportedly totally about Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and Manafort’s deputy-Rich Gates.
Tom Barrack, a real estate investor and longtime friend and confidant of President Donald Trump, has been interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller’s team of investigators, according to a report from the Associated Press. It’s part of Mueller’s ongoing probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
One person told the AP the questioning focused entirely on Trump’s former campaign chair, Paul Manafort, and his longtime deputy, Rick Gates, both of whom were indicted by Mueller in February on a combined 32 counts, including tax, financial, and bank fraud crimes. Mueller issued a prior indictment of the pair in October 2017, including conspiracy against the US. Gates has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with Mueller; Manafort has not.”
FN: Per Chapter A we now know Manafort had urged Gates not to cooperate-that #TeamTreasonTrump would take care of them.
Mueller’s interest in speaking to Barracks seems to be about Mueller’s interest in the money flow of the Trump campaign.
“Investigators have for months been inquiring about the Trump campaign’s finances and compliance with federal election law, according to four people familiar with the matter.”
“Prosecutors’ questions have been wide-ranging, these people said, touching on the campaign’s data operations, its relationship with data-mining company Cambridge Analytica, payments to Gates and whether there were arrangements that weren’t disclosed in filings to the Federal Election Commission, they said.”
Trump is not a guy with a lot of friends but Barracks is one of the few.
“Barrack is the executive chair of real estate investment firm Colony NorthStar. He founded and was executive chair of the company’s predecessor, Colony Capital, which he created in 1991.”
“A hotel deal he had with Trump in 1988 solidified their life long friendship.”
“He met Trump in 1988 when he negotiated the sale of the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan to Trump. (Trump sold the hotel seven years later in 1995.) Per the AP, Barrack’s publicist in 2016 said after the deal Barrack and Trump “solidified a lifelong friendship between themselves and their families.”
“To be sure, Barracks role-with Gates-on the Inauguration Committee likely interests Mueller as there have been many questions raised about the Trump team’s fundraising tactics for the Inauguration; for one thing, 15 months later, we still don’t know where the funds went.
Back to Vox:
“Barrack was a vocal supporter of Trump during the 2016 campaign. He spoke at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. “His motto is that a lion wakes up every morning and knows one thing — that it has to run faster than the fastest gazelle, and a gazelle wakes up and she knows that she needs to run faster than the fastest lion, but whether you’re a gazelle or a lion, you get up in the morning and you get the hell going, and that is Donald,” he said. He also formed a pro-Trump Super PAC.
After the election, Barrack chaired the presidential inaugural committee, which raised a record $107 million. Gates served on the inaugural committee under him.
Early in Trump’s so-called term, Barracks attempted to put a happy face on things at the Russia House White House.
Barrack predicted that the American people would see a “softer, kinder” Trump after he won the presidency. In a June 2017 interview with Bloomberg, he said the White House was still “learning on the job how to govern” and that it was something that just takes time. “He’s changing his points of view on things. They’re softening on some things. He’s very focused on some of the ardent things,” he said. He acknowledged the president’s tweeting “makes everybody crazy.”
During the same interview, he said National Economic Council director Gary Cohn was an unparalleled “adult in the sandbox,” chief of staff Reince Priebus “knows the hardware and the plumbing of Washington,” and strategist Steve Bannon was a “vicar of a philosophy, whether we agree with it or not” and compared him to a “Buddhist monk.” All three men have since departed the White House.
“There have been indications that Barrack is aware this whole thing hasn’t played out as well as his earlier optimism suggested. He told the Washington Post in October of last year that he had been “shocked” and “stunned” by some of the president’s rhetoric — and, of course, the tweets. He said he disagreed with Trump’s travel ban aimed primarily at people from majority-Muslim countries and his insistence on the wall with Mexico.”
“He thinks he has to be loyal to his base,” he said. “I keep on saying, ‘But who is your base? You don’t have a natural base. Your base now is the world and America, so you have all these constituencies; show them who you really are.’ In my opinion, he’s better than this.
After Manafort was fired, Barracks invited him to his yacht off the coast of Greece.
No doubt these four or five days of figuring out what Manafort wants to next are also of interest to Mueller.
UPDATE: Per the Mueller Report Barrack-along with Roger Stone-recommended Manafort to Trump.
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It’s become pretty clear in the 14 months since I wrote this chapter that Manafort is a major key regarding Russian collusion-see Chapter A for more-so whatever light Barrack offered on Manafort was pretty important.
But the connection of Barrack to George Nader and Saudi Arabian collusion isn’t discussed in the MR.
More recently Barrack went out on a limb to defend the Saudis’ assassination of Khashoggi
So his relation to Manafort while crucial is only one side of the coin.