Ex-Trump fundraiser pleads guilty

WASHINGTON: A former top fundraiser for President Donald Trump pleaded guilty on Tuesday to illegally lobbying the US government to drop its probe into the Malaysia 1MDB corruption scandal and to deport an exiled Chinese billionaire.

Elliott Broidy, 63, was charged in early October with one count of conspiracy to act as an unregistered foreign agent after allegedly agreeing to take millions of dollars to lobby the Trump administration.

The indictment said Broidy was recruited in 2017 by an unnamed foreign national, understood to be Malaysian Low Taek Jho, to pressure US officials to end their investigation of a scandal engulfing then Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak.

The scandal involved the theft of over $4.5 billion from state investment fund 1MDB, and Low was allegedly central to moving and hiding some of the stolen funds.