Donald Trump and Thomas Barrack, the chair of his Inaugural Committee (File)
Another front has opened in the investigations of Donald Trump, with his inaugural fund and a political action committee under scrutiny over foreign donations.
Federal prosecutors are focusing on whether people from Middle Eastern nations — including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — used straw donors to disguise money funneled into the inaugural committee and a “Super PAC”, hoping for influence over US policy. Thomas Barrack, a billionaire financier with extensive networks in the Gulf and one of Mr. Trump’s closest friends, raised money for both funds.
Federal law prohibits foreign contributions to federal campaigns, political action committees, and inaugural funds.
Barrack’s spokesman Owen Blicksilver said, “Tom has never talked with any foreign individual or entity for the purposes of raising money for or obtaining donations related to either the campaign, the inauguration or any such political activity.”
The Super PAC, Rebuilding America Now, was formed in summer 2016 when Trump’s presidential campaign was short of cash and struggling to raise funds from major Republican donors. “Several of the people familiar with the investigation” said Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort suggested that Barrack step into the void by creating and raising funds for the PAC.
Committees can collect unlimited donations, as long as they avoided coordination with campaigns. But Barrack told investigators last year that Manafort appeared to Rebuilding America Now as an arm of the campaign, according to “a person familiar with the interview”.
Barrack was questioned in May by the Trump-Russia investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Defying federal election law, which requires a cooling-off period of at least 120 days before campaign staff members join a political committee backing the same candidate, Manafort sent his friends Laurance Gay and Ken McKay from the campaign to the Super PAC.
According to filings with the Federal Election Commission, the committee raised $23 million. Most money came from several big donors, including from Linda McMahon, an executive of World Wrestling Entertainment who donated $6 million and was later appointed to head the Small Business Administration.
Trump’s inaugural fund raised $107 million, twice the amount raised for President Barack Obama’s first inauguration. It was chaired by Barrack and run by Rick Gates, Manafort’s top aide who has now pled guilty to conspiracy against the US and lying to investigators and who is now cooperating with the Trump-Russia inquiry.
