TABLES ARE TRULY TURNED FOR TRUMP ALLY TOM BARRACK

He Was Accused And Acquitted Of Espionage. Now, He Is Pivotal In The Banking Crisis

Tom Barrack at Republican National Convention in 2016. Image used under license from Shutterstock.

It feels like a minute ago I was in the Brooklyn Federal Courthouse, bringing you regular dispatches from the trial of the billionaire financier, and longtime Trump friend, Tom Barrack.

In fact, it was only November. You can read my summation of what happened here. Barrack, 75, and his young aide Matthew Grimes were acquitted of all charges against them, in Barrack’s case alleging unregistered lobbying for the United Arab Emirates.

I wrote how, among other things, it was, in my humble opinion, Barrack’s masterclass on the witness stand that was most critical to his defense. (Alex Murdaugh, perhaps, should have taken notes). Barrack’s life-story, as he told it, softly and self-deprecatingly, was the narrative of his steep upward trajectory from the son of a grocer to a globe-trotting tycoon. It was the epitome of the American Dream. Or what used to be the American Dream, when kids still aspired to live in a home of their own, and drive their own cars. You could see in real time the jury’s growing admiration of him - and increasing boredom with the complexity of the crimes he’d been charged with that involved a foreign state they’d most likely never heard of.

Still, I wondered after his acquittal, what his future held. When you go through something like that, how impossible must it be, to slip back into old routines, old relationships. He had testified that he spent three weeks out of four traveling on his plane, wheeling and dealing. And now?

How challenging it must be, I thought, to move on from the past and live in the present. And even if you can, how challenging for the people around you to move on from the past and live in the present.

Well, fast forward to this week.

Turns out that Barrack is reportedly leading the negotiations to save First Republic Bank, the latest regional bank to face a collapse even after a $30 billion injection from multiple lenders last week.

Of the directors, he’s the one with the rolodex, the relationships, and the negotiating skills to lead a Hail Mary. I’ve scanned through a bunch of the articles. Zero mention of his legal troubles. Exclusive focus on the dire straits of First Republic.