Trump buddy *Tom Barrack* seems to have had a hand in pivotal events re: Manafort & Gates

[Leghorn21]

1. He hooked Manafort up with Trump:

“I really need to get to” Trump, Manafort said, according to Barrack. He told Barrack he wanted to work as Trump’s convention manager, helping him navigate what they expected would be a contentious affair.

Barrack, who had long been friendly with Kushner, as well as Trump’s daughter Ivanka, said he wrote them an email urging Trump to hire Manafort.

....”This must have seemed like a great idea to Barrack, as he could make two good friends happy at the same time. What he almost definitely didn’t then realize is that Manafort had an ulterior motive and was a desperate man.”

2. He kept Rick Gates around after Manafort resigned:

October 31, 2017:

(A) ..........Most of the media focus so far has been on the arrest of Paul Manafort and George Papadopoulos, with Rick Gates’s arrest getting much less attention. Within the administration, however, things are a bit different.

Some White House advisers are unhappy with Thomas J. Barrack Jr., Trump’s longtime friend and chair of his inauguration, whom they hold responsible for keeping Gates in the Trump orbit long after Manafort resigned as campaign chairman in August 2016, according to people familiar with the situation. Barrack has been Gates’s patron of late, steering political work to him and, until Monday, employing him as director of the Washington office of his real estate investment company.

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2017/10/31/what-did-thomas-barrack-know-and-when-did-he-know-it/

November 29, 2016:

(B) .........The business partner, Rick Gates, was not mentioned in the Trump transition team’s Nov. 15 public announcement naming the members of the inaugural committee. But behind the scenes Gates is serving as the chief deputy to Thomas Barrack, the private equity investor and close friend of Trump who is inaugural chairman, the sources said. One described him as in effect the “shadow” chair of the event, involved in everything from raising the $50 million to $75 million the Inaugural committee is seeking to the selection of entertainers.

Another source, a top Republican fundraiser, said he recently met with Gates about planning for inaugural events and it was clear he was playing a critical role in overseeing the operation. “Gates is Barrack’s guy” in helping to run the inaugural, said the source.

https://www.yahoo.com/amphtml/news/associate-of-paul-manafort-trumps-ousted-campaign-manager-now-planning-the-inauguration-173000661.html?__twitter_impression=true

3. Barrack is on the Board of Directors at First Republic Bank:





...and, FWIW, Cohen’s Essential Consultants LLC was set up through First Republic Bank:




Tom Barrack




4. Barrack and Elliot Broidy slipped major $$$ to Rick Gates in 2017:

Former Trump campaign official Rick Gates was paid tens of thousands of dollars in 2017 by a company headed by a leading Republican fundraiser and a firm headed by Donald Trump's inaugural committee chairman for help navigating the new administration, even as Gates was under criminal investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, a new report says.

The New York Times article raises questions of why the two men, Elliott Broidy and Thomas Barrack, each of whom had close ties to the Republican Party and, in Barrack's case, to the president himself, were paying a lobbyist like Gates for guidance on how to deal with the new administration.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/24/broidy-barrack-paid-gates-for-advice-on-trump-administration-report.html

Also, fyi, Barrack was interviewed by Robert Mueller & Co., apparently late last year:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/05/05/mueller-team-questions-trump-friend-tom-barrack/583741002/

As usual, “we shall see”

[GusBob]

1. They are all so swampy, lock them all up

[Grasswire2]

2. yes, lock him up nt

Make room at Leavenworth for all these crooked guys.

[triron]

3. Another excellent post well documented.

[UTUSN]

4. Tons of excellent info

[pnwmom]

5. It sure does!