Trump inauguration chair pleads not guilty to illegal lobbying

Tom Barrack, a former outside campaign adviser to former President Trump, has pleaded not guilty to illegal lobbying charges, ABC News reported. 

In a Brooklyn, N.Y., court hearing Monday, the federal magistrate judge ordered for Barrack to be released on a $250 million bond, along with $5 million in cash. 

In a statement, Barrack said that he’s innocent of all of the charges against him, adding that he “will prove it in court,” ABC News noted. 

“Three miles from here, standing in the middle of New York Harbor, is the Statue of Liberty, with a torch in her hand signifying enlightenment,” Barrack said. “That statue is made of steel with a patina of copper. We’re in the middle of a very heated moment and I can only tell you that the hardest steel is forged from the hottest fire.”

The judge said Barrack may only take commercial flights, prohibited him from taking private flights and said he can not make foreign or domestic transactions of more than $50,000, according to ABC News. 

The judge added that he’s only allowed to travel to three states — California, New York and Colorado — due to his pending trial.

Barrack, who is a close friend of the former president, was arrested Tuesday on charges that he has worked on behalf of the United Arab Emirates as an undisclosed foreign lobbyist. 

According to a Justice Department statement, federal prosecutors alleged that Barrack and others acted as UAE agents from 2016 to 2018, trying to influence “the foreign policy positions of the campaign of a candidate in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and, subsequently, the foreign policy positions of the U.S. government in the incoming administration, as well as seeking to influence public opinion in favor of UAE interests.”