George Nader, an adviser to the United Arab Emirates who has connections to Trump associates, is cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller and his Russia inquiry team, according to a new report.
Nader, who provided a testimony to a grand jury last week, is under scrutiny for possibly funneling Emirati money to Trump’s political activities, the New York Times reports. U.S. law bars Americans from wittingly accepting political contributions from foreign entities.
Nader is a Lebanese-American businessman and also advises the effective ruler of the Emirates, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan. Nader appears to be connected to the investigation into 2016 election interference because he participated in a meeting that Mueller’s team has put under a microscope — one that occurred last year in the Seychelles.
The meeting was put together by the crown prince and was attended by Erik Prince, an American investor with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is also the founder of Blackwater and was an informal adviser to Trump’s presidential transition team. Nader attended the meeting on behalf of the crown prince, and Emirati officials were under the impression Prince was speaking on behalf of the Trump transition team.
It is unclear why the meeting was held and has largely remained a mystery to American officials since the meeting was first discovered by intelligence agencies toward the end of the Obama administration.
