The legal issues surrounding the Trump team continue to expand. Now, ProPublica has revealed that Trump associate and former Republican National Committee finance official Elliot Broidy faced an apparent raid from federal authorities last year at his office in Los Angeles.
According to a search warrant, agents were after a wide variety of material, including anything connected to foreign countries like Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Saudi Arabia, and prominent international figures like alleged massive fraudster Jho Low, Gulf state government associate George Nader, and Chinese businessman Guo Wengui.
Broidy is suspected of pursuing a plan to leverage his influence to get Wengui out of the United States, where China’s Communist government could hold him accountable for dissidence. Similarly, he’s suspected to have used and/or sought to use his domestic political connections for the benefit of the Malaysian fraud orchestrator Low and Nader, trying to get the Trump administration in line with Saudi and UAE interests. He allegedly was paid off with millions in laundered money to lobby for Low in the United States, where he’s facing criminal charges. Altogether, the summer 2018 warrant Broidy faced outlined that authorities suspected he was involved in conspiracy, money laundering, and violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which demands lobbyists for foreign governments register with federal authorities.
Each one of the major issues in Broidy’s case mirrors one from that of another Trump associate. For instance, Trump’s first national security adviser Michael Flynn was found to have failed to properly register under FARA, and has been revealed to have explored a plan to use his influence in the U.S. to get dissident Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen extradited to his home country, where he faces allegations of orchestrating a coup against the current rulers.
Meanwhile, former Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen also faced a raid from federal authorities last year. Agents were investigating issues hinging on the illegal hush money scheme he participated in meant to silence women with whom Donald Trump had affairs –which circles back to mirror Broidy’s case. He sought to buy the silence of former Playboy model Shera Bechard, with whom he’d had an affair and gotten pregnant, subsequently demanding an abortion. Ironically, Cohen helped him with that arrangement.
He’s connected to the Trump team through his former role as the RNC’s deputy finance chair and thanks to his reported key participation in the process of filling administration vacancies, besides long working in Republican fundraising. He’s already raked in large sums of cash through the behavior that’s under federal scrutiny, including via his security firm Circinus, which garnered hundreds of millions of dollars in direct contracts under Trump — exponentially more than it had previously.
The alleged corruption fits into a larger pattern in the Trump camp, although in this case, it hasn’t yet culminated in any apparent criminal charges for Broidy. Michael Cohen, for instance, has also been revealed to have sold his access to the White House, earning millions from major companies for consulting work involving him connecting them with the administration.
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