In Trump’s Washington, he has come close to real power. Barrack spoke at the 2016 Republican convention in support of Trump’s candidacy, and helped raise a record $107 million as chairman of the president’s inauguration committee. He introduced Trump to campaign chief Paul Manafort, who is serving a prison sentence for financial fraud, and hired Richard Gates, Manafort’s former deputy on the campaign, to cultivate business opportunities in Washington. He participated in an effort to sell nuclear reactors to Saudi Arabia, according to a report issued by a congressional committee, and his firm provided office space for a December 2016 meeting between an associate of Vladimir Putin and Jared Kushner, the future U.S. president’s son-in-law, according to the report by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.