Trump Fundraiser Elliott Broidy Charged In Alleged Foreign Lobbying Plot – By Josh Kovensky (Talking Points Memo) / Oct 8 2020
D.C. federal prosecutors charged high-flying GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy on Thursday over a wide-ranging foreign lobbying scheme, alleging that the 2016 Trump campaign fundraiser conspired to illegally lobby the U.S. government on behalf of a staggering array of foreign interests.
Broidy allegedly lobbied the Justice Department to drop its investigation of a massive Malaysian corruption scheme that involved bankers at Goldman Sachs, and also pushed the Trump administration to extradite an exiled Chinese billionaire living in Manhattan who had become bothersome to Beijing.
Prosecutors typically charge people via a criminal information when the defendant is expected to plead guilty. The Washington Post reported last month that Broidy was in plea talks. Though the case was brought in D.C., it is being prosecuted by the Public Integrity Section at the DOJ’s main office.
The charging document says that Broidy had direct access to President Trump, alleging that he used his high-level contacts “to orchestrate back-channel, unregistered campaigns to lobby the Administration and DOJ.”
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