Tom Barrack, a supporter and advisor of former president Donald Trump, was cleared of a nine-count allegation that claimed he worked as an agent for the United Arab Emirates.
Mr Barrack, charged with conspiracy, obstruction of justice, acting as agent of a foreign government and making false statements to the FBI, was acquitted of all charges on Friday after prosecutors failed to back up the allegations with substantial evidence.
The verdict, which was delivered after seven weeks of legal back-and-forth and two days of jury deliberations, left Mr Barrack’s family members in the courtroom in tears and the acquitted man bowing his head in exasperated victory.
Mr Barrack, 75, a businessman based in Los Angeles, was accused of exploiting his relationship with Mr Trump to advance UAE interests while sidelining the U.S. attorney-general.
Prosecutors presented hundreds of texts messages and emails shared between Mr Barrack and the UAE and claimed he shared confidential information with them.
In his defence, Mr Barrack’s lawyer argued their client was acting as “his own man,” and never presented himself as an agent of foreign authority.
Randall Jackson, one of Mr Barrack’s lawyers, further asserted the correspondence examined bore no proof of classified intelligence.
Mr Barrack of Lebanese descent, stood trial alongside his former assistant, Matthew Grimes, a 29-year-old man, who pleaded not guilty to being a foreign agent. He was also acquitted by the jury.
“This whole prosecution has been an act of misdirection,” Mr Jackson was quoted as saying in his closing argument on Tuesday by The New York Times.
“What exactly did Tom and Matthew influence? What exactly did they say that wasn’t true?”
Standing in the dock, Mr Barrack told the jury his actions aligned with his work as a businessman, building a “cultural sixth sense” from several years of dealings with the Middle East, with whom he hoped to to weave “a web of tolerance.”
Prosecutors had used his words against him, saying he wrote an email to Jared Kushner, seeking millions of dollars in investment with the UAE, while advancing their interests in Washington.
“The defendants unlocked the back door of the American political system — its campaigns, its media, its government — to the U.A.E.,” Ryan Harris, one of the prosecutors, was quoted as saying in his closing argument on Tuesday by the New York Times
Meanwhile, Mr Grimes’ lawyer, Abbe Lowell, argued the correspondence was taken “completely out of context, to play gotcha.” He said the question “is not whether Matthew is guilty of any crime, but why did the prosecutors ever charge him in the first place?”
