Tom Barrack

Thomas Joseph Barrack is an American real estate investor, the founder of Colony Capital, and a longtime friend of Donald Trump, whose 2016 campaign he advised and whose 2017 Presidential Inaugural Committee he chaired. In July 2021 he was indicted in the Eastern District of New York on charges of acting as an unregistered agent of the United Arab Emirates; a jury acquitted him of all counts in November 2022. Records released by the Justice Department in 2026 show regular contact with Jeffrey Epstein from September 2009, an August 2016 lunch at Epstein's house with Ehud Barak and the Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, and Epstein's instruction to move their communications to Signal. The Senate confirmed him as ambassador to Turkey in April 2025.¹²³⁴

Contact With Epstein

In September 2009, months after Epstein's release from custody in Palm Beach, Barrack wrote to him: "Thinking about u, hope u r good and life is calm again." A CBS News analysis of more than 100 texts and emails in the released files described regular contact over the following years, in which Epstein arranged introductions between Barrack and Peter Thiel, Barak and Churkin. In April 2016, while Barrack was working on the Trump campaign, Epstein forwarded him an email about a civil suit filed under the pseudonym "Katie Johnson" alleging that Epstein and Trump had raped her in 1994, with the comment "nuts but i thought you guys should know." The suit was withdrawn, and Trump has denied wrongdoing. CBS News stated that it found no evidence that Barrack took part in or knew of any criminal conduct by Epstein.¹

An iMessage thread with the contact "Tom Barrack Private" runs from August 28 to 30, 2016. At 9:28 a.m. on August 28 Barrack wrote: "Met ur Saudi friend! He loves u!! How r u." Epstein replied: "Great. Download signal app if you have not already. When are you in New York? Tonite? Dinner with Woody?" Barrack answered: "I am in turkey. There Monday. I will call u. Will download now." On August 30 Barrack sent a contact card. The Signal messages were not among the records the government released.¹³

The Churkin Lunch

On August 28, 2016 Epstein wrote to Churkin: "Don't know if you have any interest . Ehud Barak and TOM Barrack at house tomorw . You are always welcome." Churkin asked the time and accepted 1 p.m.⁵ That afternoon Epstein's assistant Lesley Groff circulated the notice "Churkin to join lunch tomorrow as well," listing the party as "JE, [redacted], Tom Barrack and Churkin. 4 total," and the calendar for August 29 read "12:30pm LUNCH w/Ehud Barak, Tom Barrack and Vitaly Chrukin."⁴ The next day, according to CBS News, Epstein bought about 1 million dollars of stock in Colony Capital.¹ Eight days after the lunch Epstein offered Churkin a meeting with Tom Pritzker and told him that Thorbjørn Jagland "will be staying with me."⁵

On the day after Trump's election in November 2016, a senior Saudi official texted Epstein to ask about the protocol for King Salman to telephone the president-elect with congratulations. Epstein replied: "TOM barrack is your point person."¹

The Foreign Agent Case

A seven-count indictment unsealed on July 20, 2021 charged Barrack, then 74, of Santa Monica; Matthew Grimes, 27, an employee of his firm; and Rashid Sultan Rashid Al Malik Alshahhi, 43, a UAE national, with acting and conspiring to act as agents of the UAE between April 2016 and April 2018, and charged Barrack with obstruction of justice and with false statements in a June 20, 2019 interview with federal agents. The indictment stated that Barrack was an informal adviser to the campaign from April to November 2016, chaired the inaugural committee from November 2016 to January 2017, then informally advised senior officials on Middle East policy and sought appointment as Special Envoy to the Middle East. It alleged that he inserted language praising the UAE into a May 2016 campaign speech on energy policy and sent a draft to Alshahhi for senior UAE officials, took talking points from UAE officials before national press appearances, and after one such appearance emailed Alshahhi, "I nailed it. . . for the home team." Barrack referred to Alshahhi as the UAE's "secret weapon." Acting Assistant Attorney General Mark Lesko of the National Security Division said the defendants "repeatedly capitalized on Barrack's friendships and access to a candidate who was eventually elected President," and called the conduct "nothing short of a betrayal of those officials in the United States, including the former President."²

At trial in Brooklyn the prosecutor Ryan Harris told jurors that Barrack schemed to become the "eyes, ears and the voice" of the UAE and used his access to draw tens of millions of dollars from the Emirates into an office building he was developing and one of his investment funds. The former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin testified for the defense that Barrack was one of hundreds of business people who offered him advice. The defense said Barrack had made no attempt to hide his relationship with Al Malik. On November 4, 2022, after three days of deliberation, the jury acquitted Barrack and Grimes on all counts. "I'm so thankful for this system," Barrack said.⁶

Ambassador to Turkey

Trump nominated Barrack as ambassador to Turkey after the 2024 election, and the Senate confirmed him by a vote of 60 to 36 in April 2025. He presented his credentials to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on May 14, 2025 and was then named special envoy for Syria. CBS News said it had sought comment from Barrack, Trump, Thiel, Barak and Nicole Junkermann on the Epstein records and received no replies; the U.S. embassy in Ankara did not respond.¹