Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating a shady meeting between a Trump associate and a Russian banker linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In January 2017, less than two weeks before newly elected President Donald Trump would take his oath of office, a meeting took place in the Seychelles, allegedly to establish a back-channel between Trump's associates and the Russian government.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller has zeroed in on a clandestine meeting in the Seychelles between a Trump supporter a… https://t.co/wgXHja0Eat— HuffPost Politics (@HuffPost Politics)1520541366.0
The man who purportedly arranged the meeting was United Arab Emirates adviser George Nader, who is now cooperating with Mueller's investigation. Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater USA and brother of Betsy DeVos, whom Trump would name Secretary of Education, secretly met with Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian-linked banker, hoping to establish secret communications between the Trump team and Russian officials.
Can you find the Seychelles on a map? Robert Mueller and his team certainly seem to be putting this archipelago in… https://t.co/sLZJbIW6eT— Dan Rather (@Dan Rather)1520533486.0
Yeah, this Russia thing is seemingly endless.
#Mueller’s Russia Probe Just GOT a LOT WEIRDER A mysterious Middle East fixer, the founder of Blackwater, an Emira… https://t.co/y7lwG1tDeJ— Michael O'Grady (@Michael O'Grady)1520526555.0
According to the Huffington Post, "the meeting was set up by the UAE and the country's de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan. Nader served as a representative for the Middle Eastern nation and had met Prince before, serving as a consultant for Blackwater."
Here's our segment yesterday on that Seychelles meeting and Nader... https://t.co/VB88SkwUeA— Maddow Blog (@Maddow Blog)1520470199.0
"One of the entourage says, 'Hey, by the way, there's this Russian guy that we've dealt with in the past,'" Prince told lawmakers. 'He's here also to see someone from the Emirati delegation. And you should meet him, he'd be an interesting guy for you to know, since you're doing a lot in the oil and gas and mineral space.'"
Special counsel Robert Mueller has gathered evidence that a secret meeting in Seychelles just before the inaugurati… https://t.co/pNlvk94sQ9— 🇺🇸 Trump Russia™🇷🇺 (@🇺🇸 Trump Russia™🇷🇺)1520476405.0
If this meeting indeed took place, and a back-channel between Trump and Russia was trying to be established, then it would corroborate a 2016 report in which Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, discussed setting up exactly such a channel with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kisliak.
BREAKING: George Nader, an advisor from the United Arab Emirates, gave testimony last week before a grand jury in t… https://t.co/DTSkN76fyW— Brian Krassenstein (@Brian Krassenstein)1520382583.0
In his testimony with Mueller, Nader recalls serving as a representative of the Crown Prince, and that "Emirati officials believed Prince was serving as a representative of the Trump transition team and Dmitriev as an envoy from the Kremlin," as reported by the New York Times.
BOOM! The Washington Post reports that Robert Mueller has evidence that a meeting which took place in Seychelles t… https://t.co/ugs6W5tlnS— Ed Krassenstein (@Ed Krassenstein)1520473465.0
The breadth of Mueller's investigation is mind-bending. The web of connections and coincidences and appearances of impropriety among Trump's closest associates is vast; as Mueller continues to "follow the money," one can only wonder what's to come. None of this bodes well for the President or Kushner.
Special counsel Robert Mueller has gathered evidence that a secret meeting in the Seychelles just before the inaug… https://t.co/LON5WsLdBs— EarlNash (@EarlNash)1520525211.0
And it's still only a little over one year into the Trump presidency.