Trump urged Tillerson in an Oval Office meeting to try to craft a diplomatic “deal’’ to stop the US case against Reza Zarrab on corruption charges, in exchange for concessions from Turkey. The request shocked the then-secretary of state, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations involving the president.

WASHINGTON — President Trump sought to enlist then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in fall 2017 to work with Rudy Giuliani to help stop the prosecution of a Turkish Iranian gold trader represented by the former New York mayor, according to people with knowledge of the request.


At the time, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was personally lobbying Trump to get the charges dropped.

Trump, in turn, repeatedly raised the topic with Tillerson — including directly in the Oval Office meeting, according to people with knowledge of the episode.

The president was joined in the Oval Office by two of Zarrab’s attorneys, Giuliani and Michael Mukasey, a former attorney general under President George W. Bush, who proposed swapping the trader for an American pastor in Turkish custody, according to two people familiar with the meeting.

‘‘The president says, ‘Guys, give Rex your pitch,’” according to one of the people.

Tillerson was so unsettled by the extraordinary request to intervene in an ongoing criminal investigation that he complained to then-Chief of Staff John Kelly that he believed it was inappropriate, according to a former administration official. Kelly told him to disregard it, the official said.

Bloomberg News first reported Trump’s request to Tillerson. The Washington Post obtained new details about the extent of the lobbying effort to kill the case — including the presence of Zarrab’s attorneys in the Oval Office and a visit Giuliani made to the Justice Department around the same time to ask for the case to be dropped.


The revelation of the 2017 episode comes as Trump is facing an impeachment inquiry into allegations that he used his office to seek ammunition against a political rival.

In both cases, Trump bypassed standard government procedures and turned to Giuliani — a private lawyer with separate interests — to take part in discussions about US policy. At the time of the Tillerson meeting, Giuliani was one of the president’s staunchest political allies, someone who Trump later tapped in 2018 to personally represent him.

In an interview, Giuliani confirmed he sought a prisoner exchange but declined to comment on any private discussions on the topic.

‘‘There was no such meeting where Tillerson got angry,” he said. ‘‘There was no such meeting as the one you described.”

Asked about his meetings with Trump and other officials about Zarrab, he declined to answer. “You’re not my prosecutor,’’ he said.

Kelly, Tillerson, and Mukasey declined to comment. The White House did not respond to requests for comment.

In rare cases, US criminal prosecutions have been halted or altered to achieve to an overriding diplomatic goal, but such decisions are usually rigorously studied by the State and Justice departments, with extensive consultation with the prosecuting US attorney’s office.

Preet Bharara, the former US attorney in New York whose office launched the investigation of Zarrab, said Trump’s efforts to intervene did not appear to follow that protocol.

‘‘It’s just another example of the president trying to meddle in specific law enforcement actions, whether to help an ally or harm a rival,” Bharara, a Trump critic, said. ‘‘This incident, like the incidents involving Ukraine and China and others, should be looked at very carefully.’’


Erdogan had repeatedly lobbied Trump to release Zarrab, both in personal meetings and calls in the spring and summer of 2017, according to multiple administration officials and Erdogan himself. The Turkish president claimed publicly that Zarrab, charged in a conspiracy to violate US sanctions against Iran, was a political ‘‘hostage’’ of American law enforcement.

Erdogan met with Trump in a formal visit at the White House on May 16, 2017. Trump told associates that Erdogan raised several issues with him, including Erdogan’s request that he release Zarrab to Turkey, according to two former administration officials.

The trader held embarrassing and politically damaging information about Erdogan and other top Turkish officials in his government, it was later revealed in federal court.