Tom Barrack

In July 2026, Iraq and Syria signed memorandums with Chevron, UCC Holding and a firm called TI Capital to study reviving a roughly $15 billion pipeline that would carry Iraqi oil across Syria to the Mediterranean. By then Barrack was special envoy to both countries. According to Reuters, Barrack pressed Iraqi and Syrian officials to include TI Capital. Reuters says the push appears to violate federal ethics rules.

According to Reuters' October 2026 report, Barrack has kept financial ties to TI Capital: a right to 20 percent of the profits, once earnings pass a set level, in a California housing venture it manages, and a paid consulting role with that venture in 2024. Reuters found no ethics waiver on file.

On May 29, 2025, at the presidential palace in Damascus, Syria's government signed a $7 billion memorandum with a group led by UCC Holding, the Qatar-based company of the Syrian brothers Moutaz and Ramez Khayyat, to build about 5,000 megawatts of power plants, Al Arabiya reported. Tom Barrack, Trump's ambassador to Turkey and his envoy for Syria, attended.

In August 2025, Barrack was back at the palace when another UCC-led group signed a $4 billion memorandum to rebuild Damascus airport.

In February 2026, Barrack was there when Syria signed an offshore exploration memorandum with Chevron and UCC.

The New York Times counted more than $12 billion in Syrian government contracts for the Khayyat brothers, with Barrack appearing alongside them for each.

CBS News reviewed more than 100 texts and emails between Epstein and Barrack, beginning in September 2009. Epstein appeared to treat Barrack as a possible line into Trump's world, CBS reported, though nothing in the records shows that anything was passed on to Trump. CBS found the communication through Barrack running "only in one direction," with no sign that Epstein's messages reached Trump, and no evidence that Barrack took part in or knew of Epstein's crimes.

In January 2012, Barrack and Epstein arranged for Qatar's prime minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim, to view Epstein's Manhattan mansion; the visit was canceled, and the sheikh later bought a house across the street for $47 million, CBS reported.

Epstein's calendar for Aug. 29, 2016, lists "Lunch w/Ehud Barak, Tom Barrack and Vitaly Churkin," then Russia's ambassador to the UN. About a month later, Epstein bought roughly $1 million of stock in Barrack's firm, Colony Capital, CBS reported.

On Nov. 9, 2016, the day after the US election, a senior Saudi official texted Epstein to ask whether the king should call the new president to congratulate him. "TOM barrack is your point person," Epstein replied, CBS News reported.

In January 2017, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, who ran Dubai's port giant DP World until February 2026, asked Epstein whether he should accept Barrack's invitations to various events, and bin Sulayem attended the Salute to Our Armed Services Ball, one of the inaugural balls, CBS reported, citing the New York Post.

In May 2017, with "legal trouble bearing down on Barrack as a result of the Mueller probe," as CBS put it, Epstein recommended a white-collar lawyer, Reid Weingarten. Barrack replied that Weingarten was "on the bosses list," which CBS read as a reference to Trump.

Barrack later faced charges, CBS noted, that he served as a back channel for the UAE; a jury acquitted him in 2022.

On Nov. 15, 2016, Tom Barrack, an investor close to Trump who had founded the firm Colony Capital, was named to run Trump's inauguration.

Barrack serves as the US ambassador to Türkiye. His title as special envoy to Syria ended May 30, 2026; on May 31, 2026, Trump named him special presidential envoy to Syria and Iraq.