Trump adviser in 2016 gave draft of energy speech to UAE for edits

Thomas Barrack.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

In 2016, two weeks before then-candidate Donald Trump was scheduled to give a speech on energy, one of his closest advisers sent a copy of his planned remarks to an associate in the United Arab Emirates for their review, per documents obtained by House Oversight Committee investigators.

A report released on Monday says that investor Thomas Barrack, who went on to chair Trump's inaugural committee, sent the speech to a former business associate from the UAE, who later told Barrack he passed the remarks along to UAE and Saudi government officials. Barrack then asked Trump's campaign manager, Paul Manafort, to add language requested by the UAE officials to the speech. In an email to Barrack, Manafort confirmed that the speech "has the language you want."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.