Trump Envoy Job Came With $200 Million Benefit, Barrack Says

(Bloomberg) -- Tom Barrack testified that he likely would’ve “made or saved” more than $200 million if he’d had to divest his financial holdings to join his longtime friend Donald Trump’s administration as an ambassador or special envoy.

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The Colony Capital LLC founder, who’s on trial for allegedly trying to influence US policy as an unregistered agent for the United Arab Emirates, made the estimate Wednesday when asked by his lawyer about capital gains taxes he could defer if he joined the government. Officials can defer such taxes when selling assets to avoid conflicts of interest.

“It sounds ridiculous and arrogant, but if you took the market value of the stock over the lifetime of the company, at any of those dates, it would have been over $200 million,” Barrack said on the witness stand in federal court in Brooklyn, New York.

Barrack said he went through the interview process to be Trump’s ambassador to the UAE, Argentina or Mexico. He was also considered for a post as special envoy to either Latin America or the Middle East. Barrack testified he ultimately withdrew from consideration to join the administration, noting Colony was engaged in a merger at the time.

“I still had this overwhelming day job and I just decided that I had gotten caught up in this kind of Potomac fever,” Barrack said of his brief pursuit of a diplomatic post. He instead remained an outside adviser and “adult in the room” for Trump, Barrack said.

On Monday, Barrack testified that his association with Trump proved “disastrous” for his business, with the president’s divisiveness leading to a “death march” of investor exits from Colony.

Prosecutors allege Barrack used his inroads with the Trump campaign and administration to seek advantages for the UAE, which poured $374 million in sovereign investment funds into Colony. Barrack argues there was no connection between that money and informal advice he gave, which he says was based purely on his long experience doing business around the world.

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