Ex-top GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy pleaded guilty on Tuesday to one charge of conspiracy relating to secret foreign lobbying campaign to influence the Trump administration on behalf of a foreign billionaire in a lucrative exchange.
Broidy, who was involved in President Trump’s 2016 inaugural committee, was charged this month of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The law requires anyone lobbying on behalf of a foreign interest to disclose it to the Justice Department, and the 64-year-old was accused of failing to disclose his role in a lobbying effort to stop a criminal investigation into massive fraud at a Malaysian investment fund and advocating for the removal of a Chinese billionaire, believed to be Guo Wengui, who was residing in the United States.
Broidy will forfeit $6.6 million as a result of his pleading guilty in a cooperation deal reached with prosecutors, according to CNN. He faces a statutory maximum of five years in prison but will likely face a lower term of imprisonment when he’s sentenced on Feb. 12.
Washington, D.C.-based U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said prosecutors intend to raise Brady’s push “to obtain business from a Middle Eastern country and your client’s efforts to influence US policy towards a second Middle Eastern country in its alleged support of terrorist activities” at the sentencing, according to portions of the plea agreement she read during a virtual hearing.
Reports over the years have said Broidy was being investigated by federal law enforcement for pursuing business ventures in countries such as the United Arab Emirates.
Broidy, who served as RNC deputy finance chairman beginning in 2017, resigned from his key position in 2018 after it was revealed that he had arranged to pay $1.6 million to a former Playboy model, Shera Bechard, whom he had reportedly impregnated during an affair. The alleged hush money arrangement was assisted by former Trump lawyer and convicted felon Michael Cohen.
