with giuliani and those efforts in ukraine. fruman pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations. in court earlier today fruman entered a guilty plea to one count of soliciting donations from a foreign national. and what prosecutors allege what he and others did is raise a million dollars from a russian and use most of that money to donate to local campaigns where they hoped to get a cannabis business off the ground. now, fruman said in court today that he deeply regretted his actions. he faces as much as five years in prison when he is sentenced in january. but a key thing here, jake, is that fruman is not cooperating with the government. he will not be helping them in their investigation into giuliani s activities in ukraine where fruman had a fron the- front row seats. scrutinizing whether he violated foreign lobbying laws when he was involved in those efforts. now, giuliani has vigorously denied any wrongdoing. he said that he was working for
whether there was any political influence that was used to prevent these charges from being brought last year. we reported that the then u.s. attorney rich donahue didn t like the case. the lawyers ended upbringing the case now, just now. and we knew that bill barr, the attorney general at the time, just didn t like these cases under the foreign lobbying laws, and he didn t think very much of the law itself. so, we don t know exactly what the motivations were, but the members of congress are asking for an investigation to determine whether there was any politics involved. i m sure they are for good reason. right, there s connections. tom barrack and donald trump go back decades. they need to get to the bottom of that. all right, evan perez, thank you very much for that. let s get the insights of criminal defense attorney joey jackson. joey, $250 million bail deal. i mean, i m trying to figure out, is this the biggest bail posting of all time? it s got to be up there. it s up th
eugene and jonathan, we have been up together since 6:00 this morning. thank you both so much for making some time for us. now to a new development in the story we brought you earlier this week, a federal judge is allowing 2017 trump inaugural committee chairman tom barrack out on bail. the top trump ally was arrested on tuesday on charges of violating lobbying laws and lying to the fbi. prosecutors have accused barrack of acting as a foreign agent to influence foreign policy during the trump administration. all to benefit the united arab emirates providing officials with sensitive information. now he ll be released on a $250 million bond ahead after hearing on monday a. spokesperson for barrack said he had plead not guilty to the charges. up next, a stunning jailhouse interview with one january 6 defendant who says only one person was responsible for sending him to attack the capitol. an invitation directly from the president. t.
when the story is a big deal. the arrest and indictment of the man who led the trump inaugural committee. longtime trump friend and pfizer, and fund-raiser, tom barrack who has now been indicted on seven felony accounts. he s in jail tonight as we speak in california, awaiting a bail hearing on friday. he has been charged as, for acting, as a foreign secret agent in this country. cnn is reporting tonight prosecutors that brought evidence, somehow they sat on those charges for a long time before yesterday s indictment. even though the indictment was apparently ready to go. who cnn sleep tonight, quote, federal prosecutors in brooklyn investigating tom barrack, a prominent ally to former president donald, trump for allegedly violating foreign lobbying laws had enough evidence to bring charges last, year but held off doing so
not actually technically right. and i think it s technically incorrect in a way that it might be important to understand the significance of this case. a cnn put, a former prosecutors in brooklyn investigating tom barrack for allegedly violating foreign lobbying laws. it wasn t really a lobbying case. this case was brought against tom barrack specifically under the federal statute that as an alleged agent of a foreign power. it s closer to calling someone a spy then it is to calling them a lobbyist. this is the same section of the penal code under which maria kenow was charged. she was charged for acting as a secret foreign agent in our country. france barrack is charged for not only being a unregistered lobbyist, he is charged for acting in this country secretly under the direction of senior foreign officials for a foreign government. working as their agent as the direction of their government. secretly in a way designed to