Tom Barrack was senior advisor to Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and served as the chairman of his Inaugural Committee.
38 Facts About Tom Barrack
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In December 2024, Tom Barrack was nominated by then President-elect Donald Trump to serve as the United States ambassador to Turkey.
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Tom Barrack's grandparents were Lebanese Christians who immigrated in 1900 to the United States from Zahle, Lebanon.
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Tom Barrack was raised in Culver City, California, where his father was a grocer and his mother was a secretary.
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In 1969, Tom Barrack earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Southern California, where he participated on their varsity rugby team.
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Tom Barrack then attended the USC Gould School of Law, where he was an editor of the Southern California Law Review, before receiving a Juris Doctor from the University of San Diego School of Law in 1972.
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Tom Barrack then worked in the kingdom for the Fluor Corporation, and worked for Saudi princes.
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In 1982, Barrack served as deputy undersecretary of the United States Department of the Interior under James G Watt in the Reagan administration.
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Tom Barrack says he became disillusioned with government service after he was required to testify before a congressional committee due to a gift Tom Barrack had paid to the purchaser of then-Attorney General Edwin Meese's house.
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In 1987, Barrack was later a principal with the Robert M Bass Group.
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In 1985, Tom Barrack first dealt with Donald Trump when he sold Trump a one-fifth stake in the Alexander's department stores.
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In 1990, Tom Barrack founded Colony Capital, with initial investments by Bass and GE Capital, and later Eli Broad, Merrill Lynch, and Koo Chen-fu.
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Tom Barrack owns Neverland Ranch which was once the home of mega superstar Michael Jackson.
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Tom Barrack has previously negotiated drilling rights with Mana Al Otaiba.
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Kushner later avoided bankruptcy when Tom Barrack agreed to reduce his obligations after a request by Trump.
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In 2012, Tom Barrack sold the Paris Saint-Germain FC to the Qatar Investment Authority.
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In 2016, Tom Barrack sold Miramax to the Qatari beIN Media Group at a fourfold profit.
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Tom Barrack used Cayman Islands entities to invest pension fund money in distressed real estate and send money towards the Colony parent company, according to an organization chart that surfaced in the Paradise Papers documents leaked from the Appleby law firm.
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Tom Barrack is a trustee at the University of Southern California.
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Tom Barrack endorsed Donald Trump during the 2016 United States presidential election.
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Tom Barrack recommended that Trump hire Paul Manafort as his campaign manager.
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Tom Barrack first met Manafort in the 1970s when they were both working for the Saudis and living in Beirut.
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On July 21, Tom Barrack spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention.
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In September 2016, Tom Barrack helped set up a meeting between Trump and the Emir of Qatar in Trump Tower, although, as Kilpatrick noted, none of the investments brought in from the gulf by Tom Barrack's firm in the two years following that meeting came from Qatar.
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Tom Barrack hired Rick Gates, first to help run the inauguration and, following that, as a consultant for his company.
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Tom Barrack denies a quote attributed to him in the 2018 book Fire and Fury, that Trump was "not only crazy" but "stupid".
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Tom Barrack was interviewed during the Special Counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, in particular regarding Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Konstantin Kilimnik, the Trump campaign, the Trump transition team, and the financing of the Trump inauguration.
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Malik, as per the emails, "circulated the draft among Emirati and Saudi officials" to seek further approval, followed by Tom Barrack incorporating the language suggested by Malik in the draft sent to Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign chairman at the time.
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In 2021, Tom Barrack denied involvement in Trump's pardon of Robert Zangrillo, a developer and investor who was charged in the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal for his alleged role in getting his daughter accepted into USC.
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Tom Barrack was allegedly directed by the UAE officials to meet former congressman Steve Stockman.
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Between February and March 15,2017, the Emirates asked Tom Barrack to endorse the appointment of Stockman as the US Ambassador to the UAE.
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In December 2024, Tom Barrack was selected by Trump as the new US Ambassador to Turkey.
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Tom Barrack will assume the role in the upcoming administration pending Senate confirmation.
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The indictment was broadened in May 2022 to include alleging Tom Barrack sought hundreds of millions of dollars in investments from the United Arab Emirates while illegally lobbying the Trump administration on its behalf.
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In October 2022, in an interview with a State Department investigator, which was conducted to determine if or not Tom Barrack would be a threat to the national security as an ambassador, he failed to provide names of the four Emiratis, who on behalf of the UAE government assigned Tom Barrack to influence the Trump campaign.
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Tom Barrack only mentioned the names of Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud, Nacho Figueras and Roberto Hernandez Ramirez.
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In 2014, Tom Barrack married Rachelle Roxborough until they divorced in 2016.
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Tom Barrack owns a 1,200-acre mountain ranch near Santa Barbara, California, as well as Happy Canyon Vineyards in the Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara AVA, and a tasting room in downtown Santa Barbara.