Barrack defense looks to poke holes in government tranche of texts and emails

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Oct 04, 2022 View in browser   By Caitlin Oprysko Presented by Philip Morris International With help from Zach Montellaro and Daniel Lippman BARRACK JURORS SHOWN CORRESPONDENCE LEADING UP TO INAUGURATION: Jurors in the foreign lobbying trial of Tom Barrack continued to hear testimony today from Liz Sidaros , an FBI special agent who has been on the stand since last week. Sidaros walked through a tranche of emails, texts, social media posts and more between Barrack, his former assistant and co-defendant Matthew Grimes, and other major players in the case, while Barrack's defense team emphasized what the messages did not show. — Prosecutors interrupted Sidaros' questioning on Monday to seat former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. But as they resumed with Sidaros this morning, jurors were shown a policy "wish list" obtained from the phone of Rashid Al-Malik, the Emirati national who's charged alongside Barrack and Grimes as acting as unregistered foreign agents of the United Arab Emirates. — The wish list included items such as "never interfere with Saudi/[Gulf Cooperation Council] internal issues" and ratcheting down U.S. rhetoric about Muslims. Jurors saw a note from Grimes' phone that contained similar language and suggested partnering with the UAE, which "need[s] better military contracts." — The government also showed discussions relating to the 2017 inauguration for Trump, which Barrack ran. Al-Malik and Abdullah Khalifa Al Ghafli , an Emirati official, were in attendance at several of the festivities. — During cross-examination, Barrack's lawyer sought to underscore that the government had yet to present any correspondence that explicitly showed Barrack had agreed to act at the control or direction of the UAE, and that his ties to Emirati officials had hardly been concealed. — Referring to Instagram photos of Barrack and Al-Malik, defense attorney Michael Schachter noted the FBI didn't find such evidence "on some search of some secret hard drive." He then went through paperwork Barrack submitted when he was considered for a position in the Trump administration in which he voluntarily disclosed scores of meetings with foreign government officials dating back decades, including some referenced by prosecutors, which Barrack described as business meetings. — Ahead of a May 2016 meeting with Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed , the UAE's national security adviser and brother to the then-crown prince, Sidaros was asked whether there were any communications in which Barrack said his excitement to meet Tahnoon stemmed from plans to "offer his services as an illegal foreign agent." — Schachter also poked holes in a government exhibit showing Barrack passed along what the real estate investor described as "very confidential" information about changes to the GOP platform favored by UAE ally Saudi Arabia to Al-Malik and the Emirati ambassador to the U.S. — Schachter noted that there had been no evidence presented to indicate that Barrack had "anything to do" with the removal. He then showed jurors video of Republican Party officials debating and ultimately voting to make the change, which Schachter said aired on C-SPAN prior to Barrack's emails. — Sidaros testified that she was unaware of any FBI agent searching the internet to see whether Barrack's intel, which had been relayed by former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort , was already public information. Good evening and welcome to PI. Send K Street gossip and other musings: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko.   A message from Philip Morris International: Philip Morris International is fully committed to leaving cigarettes behind. We've invested over $9 billion developing smoke-free innovations that are scientifically substantiated to be better than continued smoking. We have the ability to end smoking in America, but a new approach is needed. Learn how.   CARBON CAPTURE TAX BREAK SPURS LOBBYING RUSH: "Democrats' blockbuster clean energy and infrastructure laws are proving a gold mine for at least one industry — lobbyists who work for the companies building carbon dioxide pipelines," per POLITICO's Ben Lefebvre. — "Companies in the industry not only have the government's seal of approval and financing — they also want to help shape the federal rules that are still under development and head off efforts by some of the same opponents who have succeeded in blocking natural gas and oil projects." — "The Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act made $12.1 billion available to build out the nascent carbon capture industry, a controversial sector that will require influence with regulators as it needs raw materials to build new carbon dioxide pipelines. Lawmakers also increased the amount of money available via tax credits for the actual carbon companies captured. — "And now an industry that barely existed several years ago is pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into their lobbyist budgets. They are also staffing up with well-connected political insiders, including the son of a sitting Cabinet member and the head of the South Dakota Republican party." COVINGTON LANDS WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL: Dana Remus , who left her post as the White House's top lawyer earlier this summer, is joining Covington & Burling as a partner in the law and lobbying firm's congressional investigations, white collar defense and investigations, public policy and election and political law practices. — Remus had served as the administration's top legal mind since its outset, and steered President Joe Biden 's successful nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court this spring. Prior to serving in the administration, Remus was general counsel for Biden's presidential campaign and the office of former President Barack Obama. — "It is a rare and unique opportunity to bring a senior and highly respected government lawyer to the firm, and we could not do better than Dana," Covington Chair Doug Gibson said in a statement. Remus is the latest Biden administration lawyer to head through the revolving door between the White House and a Big Law firm. — Stacey Grigsby, who joined the White House as a deputy counsel this summer, was previously a partner at Covington, where her clients included the UFC, Meta, Uber, Amazon, McKinsey & Company, Johnson & Johnson and American Airlines , according to a copy of her financial disclosure obtained by Reuters. — And on Monday, Latham & Watkins announced that two Remus deputies, Danielle Conley and Jonathan Su , are joining and rejoining the firm, respectively, as partners in the white collar defense and investigations practice.   LISTEN TO POLITICO'S ENERGY PODCAST: Check out our daily five-minute brief on the latest energy and environmental politics and policy news. Don't miss out on the must-know stories, candid insights, and analysis from POLITICO's energy team. Listen today.     FORMER ROMNEY FUNDRAISER BACKS WASHINGTON DEM: "David Nierenberg has funded a lot of Republican candidates over the years. But when GOP Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler lost her primary in August, he switched sides to fund Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez over the Trump-backed Republican who advanced to the general election," POLITICO's Natalie Fertig writes. — "'I immediately went to work,' Nierenberg said. 'And I think I've now transformed myself from Jaime's largest bundler to Marie's.' Gluesenkamp Perez's campaign team confirmed Nierenberg has raised over $100,000 for her campaign from his network of moderate Republican donors since the August primary," when Herrera Beutler lost to Republican Joe Kent. ANNALS OF CAMPAIGN FINANCE: A company is asking the FEC for permission to let campaigns sell NFTs on its platform, per Zach. DataVault asked the nation's chief campaign finance watchdog to weigh in on its plans to let campaigns sell the digital tokens to supporters for fundraising. — The first proposal from DataVault is fairly straightforward: DataVault "will market NFTs to political committees as souvenirs in a manner akin to a campaign hat or souvenirs." They could contain artwork or other digital content, or be used as VIP access for in-person events. — This would likely build off a 2019 advisory opinion from the FEC , which allowed a campaign to distribute NFTs to volunteers "as an incentive" but not outright sell them to contributors. DataVault's secondary proposal is also that, but with the additional wrinkle of asking to allow supporters to try to sell their NFTs to other people to try to raise even more money for the campaign. That would likely face longer odds in front of the commission. Jobs Report — Colin Allen is now executive director of the American Property Owners Alliance. He was previously director of government advocacy and policy strategy at the National Association of Realtors. — Brittany Walker Hausle is now government affairs attorney at Geico. She most recently was director of policy and government affairs at the Nevada Health Care Association and is an Ex-Im Bank and HUD alum. — Jessica Bernton is now director of congressional affairs for the American Jewish Committee. She previously was deputy chief of staff for Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.). — Stevens Martinez is joining the New York State Executive Chamber as Nassau County regional representative for Gov. Kathy Hochul . He previously was on the government affairs team at NBCUniversal.  — NEC Corporation of America has promoted Brent Bombach to vice president and head of government relations and public policy. He was previously senior director of government relations and public policy. — Kara Zupkus is now communications director for Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas). She previously was national spokesperson for the Young America's Foundation. — Patrick Delaney is joining Walmart as director of federal government affairs. He previously was director of external affairs for the Senate Agriculture Committee. — James Marrow is USTelecom's new communications manager. He was previously the creative director working as the official photographer, videographer and branding strategist in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office.   A message from Philip Morris International:   New Joint Fundraisers Adkins-LaTurner Victory Fund (Rep. Jake LaTurner, Amanda Adkins for Congress, Kansans for Laturner, NRCC) Fetterman/Gillibrand Victory Fund (Sen. 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