Barrack, who served as an adviser to Trump and chaired his inaugural committee, faces charges of acting as an unregistered foreign agent. The Department of Justice alleged that he used his close ties to the former president to help advance the interests of the United Arab Emirates. Barrack, however, has pleaded not guilty and maintained his innocence. Jury selection for his trial began Monday.
Rossi, who served as a federal prosecutor for 27 years, told Newsweek on Monday that Barrack, along with his former assistant Matthew Grimes, is taking a risk by going to trial rather than agreeing to cooperate with federal prosecutors.
“They are taking a huge gamble,” he said.
Barrack changing his mind to cooperate with prosecutors this close to the trial would be uncommon, Rossi said. He said that throughout his career, such an occurrence happened only once.
However, if he were to have an “epiphany,” his cooperation would be the “gold standard” for prosecutors and could be key to understanding the alleged ties between the Trump administration and other foreign agents.
“If they do cooperate, one or both of them, they could provide a window into the relationship between foreign money and election processes in the United States of America,” Rossi said. “In other words, if they cooperate, one or more of them could show that there may or may not have been a symbiotic relationship between foreign entities and the Trump Organization.”
Neama Rahmani, another former federal prosecutor, said Barrack may not turn on Trump because he could be banking on a pardon if he runs in and wins the 2024 presidential election. Rahmani told Newsweek that Barrack has “probably seen that Trump has pardoned other individuals accused of similar crimes.”
Trump, for instance, pardoned his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia, as well as Elliot Broidy, a GOP fundraiser who pleaded guilty to violating foreign lobbying laws on behalf of China and Malaysia.
Rossi backed up the idea that Barrack could be hoping for a presidential pardon.
“In a normal world, I would say for Mr. Barrack and for Mr. Grimes to go to trial and get convicted and possibly go to prison, there’s no motivation. But in the world of Donald Trump, they could be hoping that he will be president again and that they will get the benefit of a pardon or commutation,” he said.
Prosecutors May Have No Interest in Probing Trump in Barrack Case, Rahmani Says
Federal prosecutors may not be interested in going after Trump on foreign agent violations because other investigations into the former president’s conduct may prove to be more fruitful, Rahmani told Newsweek.
“I think the Department of Justice used Barrack as the key figure, or the head of the snake, for this particular case, and not Donald Trump,” he said. “If there were something—some sort of of smoking gun against the president, maybe the DOJ would consider it.”
While there may be enough evidence to probe Trump on the issue, Rahmani said the Department of Justice may be better off focusing on other investigations, including its probe into whether Trump improperly stored classified documents at Mar-a-Lago or the January 6 investigation.
“If you’re Garland, if you really want to prosecute the former president in what would be the most political prosecution, you have to make sure it’s ironclad,” said Rahmani.
