Cocktails & Popcorn: George Nader Busted On Child Porn - Mueller Has A Window Into Israel

There is much, much more to come because it seems Mueller used Nader as guide to get inside Israel.

GRAPHIC CONTENT: MUELLER WITNESS ALLEGEDLY POSSESSED VILE CHILD PORN INVOLVING GOATS

Key Mueller probe witness George Nader arrested on child porn charge

KEY POINTS

• George Nader, a Middle East power broker who cooperated with former special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election, was arrested Monday on federal charges related to transporting child pornography.
• Nader was taken into custody at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, a year and a half after his phones were searched by federal authorities
• Nader helped arrange a meeting between Blackwater founder Erik Prince and Russian money manager Kirill Dmitriev in the Seychelles in January 2017.

George Nader

This 1998 frame from video provided by C-SPAN shows George Nader, president and editor of Middle East Insight. As an adviser to Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Nader worked throughout 2017 with Elliott Broidy, a fundraiser for President Donald Trump, in a secretive lobbying effort to alter U.S. policy in the Middle East.

George Nader, a Middle East power broker who cooperated with former special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, was arrested Monday on a federal charge of transporting child pornography.

Nader, who after the election of President Donald Trump was asked by a leading Russian money manager to introduce him to officials in Trump’s transition team, was taken into custody at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, according to federal prosecutors in Virginia, who are handling the case.

A 60-year-old citizen of Lebanon and the United States, Nader appeared later Monday in federal court in Brooklyn at a bail hearing, where prosecutor Miriam Glazer urged Judge Cheryl Pollak to detain him on the grounds that he is a danger to the community and a flight risk.

Pollak ordered Nader detained overnight as she asked for additional medical information about Nader and a person who would secure his release bond if granted. The bail hearing is due to resume Tuesday afternoon

The complaint against him was unsealed in Virginia federal court on Monday after his arrest. But that complaint was actually filed in April 2018, three months after he was interviewed by FBI agents in January 2018 at Washington Dulles International Airport about a matter “unrelated to child pornography,” according to the complaint.

It was during that encounter that Nader was first asked to cooperate with the special counsel.

Three of Nader’s iPhones were seized at the time. And at least one of them was later found to contain videos of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, according to the complaint unsealed Monday.

It is not the first time Nader has faced legal jeopardy in the United States for child porn.

He was convicted of the same charge in Virginia in 1991 and sentenced to six months in prison.

He faced another similar charge in 1985 that was dismissed on the basis of an invalid search warrant.

An attorney for Nader did not respond to a request for comment.

Nader helped arrange a January 2017 meeting in the Seychelles between Erik Prince and Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, who reported directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Mueller’s report on his investigation.

Prince, founder of the private security company Academi — formerly Blackwater — is the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

That meeting was set up after Dmitriev asked Nader “to request a meeting with the ‘key people’ in the incoming [Trump] administration as soon as possible in light of the [g]reat results” of Trump’s election victory, according to Mueller’s report.

Nader has played a role in the diplomatic efforts of some U.S. presidents.

He worked on President George H.W. Bush’s efforts to release hostages held in Lebanon, and later was involved in President Bill Clinton’s attempt at reaching a peace deal between Israel and Syria, according to CNN.

Nader faces a minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum of 40 years if convicted, the Justice Department said.

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DOJ: California CEO and Seven Others Charged in Multi-Million Dollar Conduit Campaign Contribution Case - Featuring George Nader

If you see George Nader, you know there is more coming because it is a network.

Just ask Erik the Prince, brother-in-law to Dick DeVos.

No one likes to mention Dick, or trafficking tiny humans, so I did in the same sentence.

Earlier today, an indictment was unsealed against the CEO of an online payment processing company, and seven others, charging them with conspiring to make and conceal conduit and excessive campaign contributions, and related offenses, during the U.S. presidential election in 2016 and thereafter.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Assistant Director in Charge Timothy R. Slater of the FBI’s Washington Field Office made the announcement.

A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia indicted Ahmad “Andy” Khawaja, 48, of Los Angeles, California, on Nov. 7, 2019, along with George Nader, Roy Boulos, Rudy Dekermenjian, Mohammad “Moe” Diab, Rani El-Saadi, Stevan Hill and Thayne Whipple. The 53 count indictment charges Khawaja with two counts of conspiracy, three counts of making conduit contributions, three counts of causing excessive contributions, 13 counts of making false statements, 13 counts of causing false records to be filed, and one count of obstruction of a federal grand jury investigation. Nader is charged with conspiring with Khawaja to make conduit campaign contributions, and related offenses. Boulos, Dekermenjian, Diab, El-Saadi, Hill, and Whipple are charged with conspiring with Khawaja and each other to make conduit campaign contributions and conceal excessive contributions, and related offenses.

According to the indictment, from March 2016 through January 2017, Khawaja conspired with Nader to conceal the source of more than $3.5 million in campaign contributions, directed to political committees associated with a candidate for President of the United States in the 2016 election. By design, these contributions appeared to be in the names of Khawaja, his wife, and his company. In reality, they allegedly were funded by Nader. Khawaja and Nader allegedly made these contributions in an effort to gain influence with high-level political figures, including the candidate. As Khawaja and Nader arranged these payments, Nader allegedly reported to an official from a foreign government about his efforts to gain influence.

The indictment also alleges that, from March 2016 through 2018, Khawaja conspired with Boulos, Dekermenjian, Diab, El-Saadi, Hill, and Whipple to conceal Khawaja’s excessive contributions, which totaled more than $1.8 million, to various political committees. Among other things, these contributions allegedly allowed Khawaja to host a private fundraiser for a presidential candidate in 2016 and a private fundraising dinner for an elected official in 2018.

The indictment further alleges that, from June 2019 through July 2019, Khawaja obstructed a grand jury investigation of this matter in the District of Columbia. Knowing that a witness had been called to testify before the grand jury, Khawaja allegedly provided that witness with false information about Nader and his connection to Khawaja’s company. Boulos, Diab, Hill, and Whipple also are charged with obstructing the grand jury’s investigation by lying to the FBI.

Currently, Nader is in federal custody on other charges.

An indictment is not a finding of guilt. It merely alleges that crimes have been committed. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

The FBI’s Washington Field Office is investigating the case and Deputy Chief John D. Keller and Trial Attorneys James C. Mann and Michael J. Romano of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section are prosecuting the case.

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DOJ: George Nader Indicted On Campaign Fraud In Child Welfare

Here is the background on George Nader and his network of The Nasty Ones.

Cocktails & Popcorn: George Nader Busted On Child Porn - Mueller Has A Window Into Israel

Welcome to the world of child welfare.

It is dark.

Very dark.

And to think, no one cared, because everyone was making money.

Psy Group Speed Read: 6 WTF Bits From The New Yorker Exposé on Mueller Probe’s Ex-Mossad Spy Group

Even for the world of covert intel operations, this one crosses boundaries in both fake-personae espionage and epic influence failure.

In 2017, the notorious Israeli spy-for-hire outfit known as Psy Group, known for its alleged role in social-media manipulation ahead of Donald Trump’s election and its spot on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s radar, got entangled in a local election in an obscure part of central California, after a Bernie Sanders die-hard convinced his immigrant mother to try to unseat one of the town’s hospital-board members.

But apparently it wasn’t the only time the Mossad-linked intelligence group tried to expand its practice in the U.S. On Monday morning, The New Yorker published “Private Mossad for Hire” by reporters Adam Entous and Ronan Farrow, which unravels additional disturbing details about the Psy Group’s other work in America, including a proposition to sabotage campus opponents of Israel and that out-of-proportion attack on the candidate in Rep. Devin Nunes’ home district.

Here, a look at the six most WTF bits in the report about this shadowy group.

Psy Started on Small Targets—Including U.S. Campus BDS Activists

Before it set its sights on the U.S. election market, Psy Group first practiced sowing false information in elsewhere, according to The New Yorker report. In recent years, it wrote a fictitious report about an Amsterdam-based religious sect called Brunstad Christian Church that stated that its Norwegian leader claimed to have written “a more important book than the New Testament.” It also spread disinformation about a rival of Gabon President Ali Bongo Ondimba under the code name “Operation Bentley” to ensure he retained power.

In New York, it reportedly developed “Project Butterfly” at the bequest of wealthy Jewish-American university donors in an effort to “embarrass and intimidate activists” who demanded U.S. entities put economic pressure on Israel because of its harsh treatment of Palestinians. In 2017, Psy operatives scouted the internet for supporters of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, known as BDS. “If a student claimed to be a pious Muslim, for example, Psy Group operatives would look for photographs of him engaging in behavior unacceptable to many pious Muslims, such as drinking alcohol or having an affair,” The New Yorker reports. “Psy Group would then release the information online using avatars and websites that couldn’t be traced back to the company or its donors.” Eventually, Psy Group was able to recruit Yaakov Amidror, a former national-security adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to work as an adviser on Butterfly.                                                                                                     

Psy’s Owner Asked Newt Gingrich to Offer Services to Jared Kushner

The New Yorker reports the group’s owner Joel Zamel asked Trump ally and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich to get Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner to sign on for the services that included “online deception.” In one draft strategy from early 2016, it promised to exploit their powers of sowing deceit to more than 50 political groups including the Republican National Committee, the Democratic National Committee, and major super PACs that were deemed influential among voters. By controlling the messages these groups were sending to potential voters, they promised to easily sway first the Republican primary and then the general election.

Entous and Farrow report Kushner checked around with the team, including Brad Parscale, who was in charge of the Trump campaign’s web-based strategies, but concluded that they didn’t need Psy Group’s expertise.

Psy Advertised ‘Honey Traps’ and Low, Low Prices

The company’s glossy publicity campaign included printed brochures with a price list for services like “honey traps,” which they depicted with a cartoon cat casting the shadow of a lion to refer to using a sexy spy to get information from various targets, according to the report. It also used a goldfish with a shark fin attached to its back to back up its motto: “Reality is a matter of perception.” The cost of these services? An average package price of $350,000, or just $275 an hour.

Prison Exec Pursues Federal Cash, Spends at Trump Hotel

It Also Used Fake Avatars to Infiltrate Think Tanks

In a project proposal called “Project Mockingjay” (after the fictional bird in The Hunger Games) designed to influence the local Tulare hospital board election, Psy Group created identities meant to represent consultants. These fake avatars were then used to “uncover and deliver actionable intelligence” against those trying to unseat the embedded hospital board members who had drawn attention with outsize contracts with the struggling small-town facility. It launched later-deleted websites—Tulareleaks.com, and Draintulareswamp.com—to mount negative campaigns against rival candidates, promising that to the outside eye, the efforts would appear to be “grassroots” in nature.

Mueller Witness’ Team Gamed Out Russian Meddling … in 2015

It also used these avatars to hack systems and hire local analysts for think tanks, and in at least one separate case in Europe, it even created sham think tanks that would disseminate reports meant to undermine the reputations of campaign rivals. The New Yorker piece says Psy even created an avatar who was designed to win regulatory approval in Europe for one of its clients. “Over time, the avatar became so well established in the industry that he was quoted in mainstream press reports and even by European parliamentarians,” the reporters state, quoting a former Psy Group operative as saying, “It’s got to look legit.”

Other Firms Tricked Jihadis With Fake Online Personae

Gadi Aviran, owner of Terrogence, was one of the first to capitalize on Israeli intelligence and set the pace for agencies like Psy Group. “There was this huge pipeline of talent coming out of the military every year,” Aviran told The New Yorker. “All a company like mine had to do was stand at the gate and say, ‘You look interesting.’” Terrogence was the first major Israeli company to use these fake identities in counterintelligence work by engaging with jihadi groups in online communities. Terrogence even gave its avatars histories or “backstories–often as Arab students at European universities.” But the scheme soon got out of hand and chat rooms were suddenly completely filled with fake avatars who were collecting false information on each other.

Psy Group disabled a virtual Christian female Chicago teen named Madison —“Finally! I’m a Muslim,” Entous and Farrow report Madison wrote on Facebook. “I feel at home.” She added a smiley-face emoticon—who converted to Islam and was asked to consider becoming an ISIS bride. It pitched a similar idea to the State Department for a project “modeled on the successful ‘Madison’ engagement,” intended to “interrupt the radicalization and recruitment chain.” The New Yorker says the State Department apparently never acted on the proposal.         

However, Psy’s Candidate Couldn’t Even Win the Hospital Election

Back in Tulane, the home of Alex Gutiérrez, the Bernie Sanders fan who convinced his immigrant mother to run to unseat the powerful hospital board chairman, was burned to the ground shortly before election. Psy Group denied involvement in the fire, and Gutiérrez’s mother won with 75 percent of the vote. The unseated board member was later investigated for fraud—and refused to answer any questions about Psy Group’s involvement. “It was like they organized a concert and nobody showed up,” a computer-security expert who reviewed local data from Psy Group’s campaign told The New Yorker.

In February 2018, Psy Group shuttered its doors, but many of its operatives are thought to have been picked up by other spy-for-hire services with Israeli ties.

California CEO and Seven Others Charged in Multi-Million Dollar Conduit Campaign Contribution Case

Earlier today, an indictment was unsealed against the CEO of an online payment processing company, and seven others, charging them with conspiring to make and conceal conduit and excessive campaign contributions, and related offenses, during the U.S. presidential election in 2016 and thereafter.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Assistant Director in Charge Timothy R. Slater of the FBI’s Washington Field Office made the announcement.

A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia indicted Ahmad “Andy” Khawaja, 48, of Los Angeles, California, on Nov. 7, 2019, along with George Nader, Roy Boulos, Rudy Dekermenjian, Mohammad “Moe” Diab, Rani El-Saadi, Stevan Hill and Thayne Whipple. The 53 count indictment charges Khawaja with two counts of conspiracy, three counts of making conduit contributions, three counts of causing excessive contributions, 13 counts of making false statements, 13 counts of causing false records to be filed, and one count of obstruction of a federal grand jury investigation. Nader is charged with conspiring with Khawaja to make conduit campaign contributions, and related offenses. Boulos, Dekermenjian, Diab, El-Saadi, Hill, and Whipple are charged with conspiring with Khawaja and each other to make conduit campaign contributions and conceal excessive contributions, and related offenses.

According to the indictment, from March 2016 through January 2017, Khawaja conspired with Nader to conceal the source of more than $3.5 million in campaign contributions, directed to political committees associated with a candidate for President of the United States in the 2016 election. By design, these contributions appeared to be in the names of Khawaja, his wife, and his company. In reality, they allegedly were funded by Nader. Khawaja and Nader allegedly made these contributions in an effort to gain influence with high-level political figures, including the candidate. As Khawaja and Nader arranged these payments, Nader allegedly reported to an official from a foreign government about his efforts to gain influence.

The indictment also alleges that, from March 2016 through 2018, Khawaja conspired with Boulos, Dekermenjian, Diab, El-Saadi, Hill, and Whipple to conceal Khawaja’s excessive contributions, which totaled more than $1.8 million, to various political committees. Among other things, these contributions allegedly allowed Khawaja to host a private fundraiser for a presidential candidate in 2016 and a private fundraising dinner for an elected official in 2018.

The indictment further alleges that, from June 2019 through July 2019, Khawaja obstructed a grand jury investigation of this matter in the District of Columbia. Knowing that a witness had been called to testify before the grand jury, Khawaja allegedly provided that witness with false information about Nader and his connection to Khawaja’s company. Boulos, Diab, Hill, and Whipple also are charged with obstructing the grand jury’s investigation by lying to the FBI.

Currently, Nader is in federal custody on other charges.

An indictment is not a finding of guilt. It merely alleges that crimes have been committed. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

The FBI’s Washington Field Office is investigating the case and Deputy Chief John D. Keller and Trial Attorneys James C. Mann and Michael J. Romano of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section are prosecuting the case.

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Cocktails & Popcorn: What Do Rick Snyder & George Nader Have In Common? - George Nader & Eric Prince

George Nader's phones were also seized.

I am pretty darn sure Eric 'the' Prince was talking with a few of the 65 other individuals, too.

I am also pretty darn sure "The Girls" want to find out if their names are mentioned on those devices.

Such a shame people do not understand how the U.S. intelligence community operates.

It is public information, you know.

#sayhisname

Snyder’s phone seized in Flint water probe

Lansing – Authorities investigating Flint’s water crisis have used search warrants to seize from storage the state-owned mobile devices of former Gov. Rick Snyder and 65 other current or former officials, the Associated Press has learned.

The warrants were sought two weeks ago by the attorney general’s office and signed by a Flint judge, according to documents the AP obtained through public-records requests.

Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, who is helping with the probe, confirmed they executed a series of search warrants related to the criminal investigation of Flint’s lead-contaminated water in 2014-15 and an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease. They declined further comment.

One warrant, signed May 19, lists all content from Snyder’s cellphone, iPad and computer hard drive. Similar information was sought from the devices of 33 employees who worked in his office, 11 in the Department of Environmental Quality and 22 in the Department of Health and Human Services.

The evidence was apparently initially obtained by former special prosecutor Todd Flood with investigative subpoenas. Because it has been kept in a division of the attorney general’s office, Hammoud took the unusual step of securing a warrant to search another part of the office. She has been managing the probe since January.

“We’re doing everything we can to comply,” said Dan Olsen, a spokesman for Attorney General Dana Nessel, who is not involved in the criminal investigation and is instead handling lawsuits against the state by Flint residents.

A similar warrant was also issued to the Department of Technology, Management and Budget.

“The department is complying with the warrant. We cannot discuss the details further because it is part of pending litigation,” spokesman Caleb Buhs said.

The warrants seek data from the devices of individuals who have been charged in the probe but also uncharged officials such as Snyder, former Environmental Quality director Dan Wyant and various people who worked in Snyder’s office including Lt. Gov. Brian Calley, top aide Richard Baird and chief of staff Dick Posthumus.

Lawyers who have represented Snyder and his office could not immediately be reached for comment Monday.

The warrants came after Hammoud this year reported that boxes of records were discovered in the basement of a state building, including phone extractions and a “trove” of other materials stored on hard drives that allegedly had not been turned over in response to the subpoenas. She sought long breaks in the criminal cases to look at the boxes and any other evidence, but judges declined to suspend the cases for six months.

Flood was ousted as special prosecutor in April after leading the three-year investigation that led to charges against current or former government officials, including two members of Snyder’s Cabinet. Nobody in Snyder’s office has been charged.

Hammoud accused Flood of mishandling the production of records and other evidence collected from state agencies. He has defended his work, saying he acted professionally.

Separately, another lawyer from the attorney general’s office appeared in court to speak up for attorneys in the department who had assisted Flood in collecting and cataloging mounds of records. Christina Grossi said there was no wrongdoing by staff.

Under Michigan law, the affidavit that Hammoud submitted to get the warrants signed by Judge Nathaniel Perry III will not become public for 56 days, though prosecutors can seek to suppress it longer.

The AP filed Freedom of Information Act requests with the attorney general’s office and the budget department to see the warrants they received.

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DEFANGO: George Nader Indicted by Feds on CP Charges : Hydra Psy-Group Trump Takendown

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Cocktails & Popcorn: Mueller Report Is Coming In For A Detroit Landing

We are now in the landing pattern for Detroit.

"French fries are easier to eat on a plane."

Please place your seats in the upright position, fasten your seat belts, and break out with the cocktails & popcorn.

#perkinscoiesucks

#sayhisname

Michigan mentions in Mueller report point to Russian election plot

A Michigan reference in the long-anticipated Mueller report might shed some light on the targeting of the state by Russian entities seeking to influence the 2016 presidential election in favor of then-candidate Donald Trump.

Special counsel Robert Mueller's 400-plus-pages report revealed new details about outside interference in the 2016 election, but found no evidence of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Mueller also said he could not conclusively determine whether Trump had obstructed the investigation but documented the Republican president’s attempts to seize control of the probe and even have Mueller dismissed in June 2017.

More: Read the redacted Mueller report

Paul Manafort

In the report released Thursday, Mueller wrote that Paul Manafort had shared polling data from the Trump campaign with Konstantin Kilimnik, a business associate with ties to Russian intelligence.

At the time in August 2016, Manafort was still in charge of Trump's campaign.

"Manfort briefed Kilimnik on the state of the Trump campaign and Manafort’s plan to win the election," including the campaign's messaging and internal polling data, Mueller wrote. 

"It also included discussion of 'battleground' states, which Manafort identified as Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Minnesota."

Manafort reportedly didn't refer explicitly to "battleground" states in his recounting of the Aug. 2 meeting; rather Mueller's source for that information was former campaign aide Rick Gates.

Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania were competitive swing states in 2016 that Trump narrowly won. They were also where Russia’s Internet Research Agency concentrated its efforts on social media and digital ads.

The content from the IRA and other Russian entities, some containing anti-Muslim messages, were intended to sow discord and disproportionately targeted Michigan and Wisconsin in 2016, among other states.

Manafort has not been charged with crimes related to his work for Trump. He pleaded guilty to witness tampering and was convicted of lobbying-related financial crimes and was recently sentenced to 7.5 years in prison.

While Mueller's team did not find evidence of collusion to support criminal charges, the investigation “identified numerous links between individuals with ties to the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump campaign,” the special counsel said in the report.

Trump campaign members and surrogates promoted dozens of tweets, posts and other content created by the Internet Research Agency — one of the three Russian entities named in a 2018 indictment that included charges against 13 Russian nationals, according to the report.

On Nov. 7, one day before the 2016 election, Donald Trump Jr. retweeted a Detroit-related message from an IRA-controlled Twitter account.

His dad capped his winning 2016 campaign later that night with a massive rally in Grand Rapids.

“Detroit residents speak out against the failed policies of Obama, Hillary & democrats #ImGoingToMissObamaBecause,” said the tweet from the Pamela_Moore13 account.

The message, retweeted by Trump Jr., included a link that is no longer active but appears to have been a video, according to a version posted to a Trump section on Reddit, a popular social sharing website.

The Washington Post first reported on the Detroit tweet after reviewing interactions between people close to Trump and Russian Twitter “troll” accounts publicly identified in 2018 by U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat who now chairs the House Intelligence Committee.

Pamela_Moore13 claimed to be a Texas-based Trump supporter, but the account was actually controlled by the IRA, according to Mueller, who said the group “engaged in an ‘active measures’ social media campaign to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.”

It’s not clear Trump Jr. had any idea he was amplifying a fake account, and he was not alone in doing so. U.S. media outlets “also quoted tweets from IRA-controlled accounts and attributed them to the reactions of real U.S . persons,” according to Mueller.

His report cited a Columbia Journalism Review article by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The researchers found at least one tweet from an IRA account embedded in coverage on 32 major media outlets, “like The Washington Post, NPR, and the Detroit Free Press, as well as in more recent, digitally native outlets such as BuzzFeed, Salon, and Mic."

The Mueller report also features several referenced to Erik Prince, a businessman and Michigan native who is brother to U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.

While he was not part of the campaign, Prince had relationships with several Trump officials, including strategist Steve Bannon.

Prince met with transition team leaders after the election and in January 2017 traveled to the Seychelles, an archipelago country in the Indian Ocean, to meet with Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund who reported directly to President Vladimir Putin, according to the report. 

George Nadar, an adviser to the United Arab Emirates's crown prince, helped set up the meeting and told Prince “the Russians were looking to build a link with the incoming Trump Administration.”

Dmitriev was not convinced Prince was a legitimate intermediary, but Nader told him Price was “very very well connected and trusted by the New Team” and noted “his sister is now a Minister of Education.”

Erik Prince, brother of Betsy DeVos

Prince later told investigators he briefed Bannon on the meeting. But Bannon told the special counsel’s office he never talked to Prince about anything involving Dmitriev or meetings with anyone associated with Putin.

Bannon told Mueller’s team he would have objected to such a meeting if he’d known about it.

Their “conflicting accounts” could not be “independently verified by reviewing their communications” because messages from that time period no longer existed on Prince or Bannon’s electronic devices, according to Mueller. Phone records show they had messaged several times.

Regardless, Prince told investigators Bannon instructed him not to follow up with Dmitriev and said he felt Bannon was “uninterested” in the matter.

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