This afternoon, the trial of Trump crony Tom Barrack drew to a dramatic close. You could hear a pin drop as prosecutor Sam Nitze—who, as I’ve written about before, has a flair for the dramatic—effectively scaled back his tone and his strident demeanor to tell the jury sotto voce that essentially it doesn’t matter how much they admire 75-year-old tycoon Barrack or agree with his opinions on the Middle East or how much sympathy they feel for 29-year-old Matthew Grimes for making the mistake of choosing the wrong mentor in Barrack. The law is the law, Nitze said—and Barrack and Grimes went “way, way over a line” by working as unregistered foreign agents for the UAE, according to the evidence, which is composed, at least partially, of dozens of damning text messages and emails.
Nitze also said repeatedly that Barrack lied in the courtroom, leaving me to wonder if that ultimately could leave the defendant open for additional perjury charges.
There was one moment that I found especially fascinating: when Nitze talked of how complicated it is when private citizens get muddled up in national security issues. He pointed out that yes, the UAE is a U.S. ally, but look at the recent photograph showing UAE President MBZ with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In other words: Allegiances shift, which is why we have protocols and a State Department. (Finally, I understood why the government had Rex Tillerson testify at this trial!)
At the mention of MBZ with Putin, Barrack put his head in his hands.