Thread by @dfriedman33

Former top Trump fundraiser Elliott Broidy is now pleading guilty to participating in a conspiracy to violate FARA by concealing from the US gov his lobbying on behalf of Jho Low, the alleged architect of the looting of a Malaysian state fund, 1MDB. motherjones.com/politics/2020/…

Broidy is also admitting that at least in part in exchange for payments from Jho Low, he also lobbied the Trump administration and Trump personally, to extradite Guo Wengui, a wealthy critic of the Chinese government, to China, where he faces charges. motherjones.com/politics/2020/…

Broidy admits that in May 2017, he traveled to Hong Kong and then Shenzhen, China, where he met with Low and a Chinese official (Sun Lijun, then China’s vice minister of public security) regarding Guo's extradition.

Judge Kollar-Kotelly asked Broidy to spell Shenzhen, which seems mean. He failed to do so correctly. As someone who spells Shenzhen by copy pasting it, I feel for Broidy here. I would not spell it right in most circumstances, certainly not while pleading guilty to a felony.

Judge: "Do you agree that you acted as an agent of foreign principal, or a representative of them?"
Broidy: "Yes your honor."

Broidy agreed to pay $6.6 million forfeiture, the money he received from Low, minus finders' fee he paid. But prosecutor says they are "unlikely" to seek any restitution beyond that at sentencing: "There's probably no victim ... that had an identifiable financial loss."

Legally, the notion of no victim that suffered a financial loss due to what Broidy pleaded guilty to makes sense. On the other hand, this crime resulted from the theft of $4.5 billion from Malaysian citizens. They're victims. Broidy was allegedly paid with proceeds of that theft.

Broidy pleads "guilty" and agrees to a criminal forfeiture.

Defense asks that Broidy not have to give up his passport, as is standard, to allow him to travel internationally due to "business interests" outside the country. The government says they agree to this. Court would have to approve any international travel.

The judge agrees to let Broidy keep his passport. That means that Broidy can go to the United Arab Emirates, for instance, where his open source intelligence company has a contract, as long as the judge approves it in advance.

Key part of Broidy's deal, which the judge outlined late in arraignment. Prosecutors will present info relating to Broidy's "efforts to obtain business from a Middle Eastern country" and to influence US policy towards another Middle Eastern country" as part of his sentencing.

Meaning: Prosecutors can ask the judge at Broidy's sentencing to consider Broidy's effort to get a lucrative contract for his open source intelligence firm from the UAE while lobbying Trump for UAE interests, including pushing him to support the UAE/KSA led blockade of Qatar.

However, the US government has agreed not to separately prosecute Broidy for any of his conduct involving the UAE and Qatar: apnews.com/article/a35218…, nytimes.com/2018/03/21/us/…

At a 10/6/17 meeting, Broidy reportedly pushed Trump to fire Rex Tillerson as head of state, after exchanging emails with MBZ adviser George Nader about the UAE's unhappiness with Tillerson on matters like Tillerson's opposition to the blockade of Qatar. bbc.com/news/world-us-…

Broidy aggressively advanced UAE's interests in DC, notably by arguing Qatar supports terrorism, while seeking contract $ from the UAE. Feds investigated whether Broidy violated FARA through those efforts, and apparently decided it's a tough case to make. Now they won't try.

People are speculating that Broidy's plea deal means he is rolling on someone big. Probably not. There is really no little Indication that is the case. If the plea had much to do with Trump, Broidy wouldn't have been arraigned two weeks before the election.