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Bannon has said many times that he has no Russia exposure but that his nemesis Jared Kushner is going down. The irony is that prior to his blabbing to Fire and Fury author Michael Wolff that was the conventional understanding-that Bannon himself had little Russia exposure.

But he had so much to say in the book that he became a person of interest in the Mueller probe.

FN: He had just as much to say in Wolff’s sequel-Chapter A for more. Interestingly with Bannon running an anti impeachment ‘war room’ he seems to slowly be getting back on Trump’s good side. However, what he said in Wolff’s sequel was no more helpful to Trump than the first book.

And then there’s Bannon’s testimony at Roger Stone’s trial that helped send Stone up the river.

But on the subject of who gave UAE  adviser George Nader access to the WH, Bannon and Kushner both share exposure. Indeed, when the question of who gave Nader access arises Bannon and Kushner in unison point fingers at each other and declare: ‘He did it!’

 “George Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman, has hovered on the fringes of international diplomacy for three decades. He was a back-channel negotiator with Syria during the Clinton administration, reinvented himself as an adviser to the de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates, and last year was a frequent visitor to President Trump’s White House.”

“Mr. Nader is now a focus of the investigation by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel. In recent weeks, Mr. Mueller’s investigators have questioned Mr. Nader and have pressed witnesses for information about any possible attempts by the Emiratis to buy political influence by directing money to support Mr. Trump during the presidential campaign, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.”

“Mr. Nader, 58, made frequent trips to the White House during the early months of the Trump administration, meeting with Stephen K. Bannon and Jared Kushner to discuss American policy toward the Persian Gulf states in advance of Mr. Trump’s trip to Saudi Arabia in May 2017, according to people familiar with the meetings. By some accounts, it was Mr. Bannon who pushed for him to gain access to White House policymakers. Others said Mr. Kushner backed him.”

But whoever was the first to push for Nader’s access-both are denying paternity-clearly they are both his buddies. And that’s a problem for both of them.

It’s certainly a problem for Kushner as Mueller is investigating if Kushner’s foreign financial ties in any way effected WH policy. It seems surreal but it’s possible the attack on Qatar and the resulting Middle East crisis that begun in May, 2017 was the result of Kushner and his Dad being piqued that the Qatari government refused to loan them money. 

Back to the NYTimes:

“Mr. Trump has closely allied himself with the Emiratis, endorsing their strong support for the new heir to the throne in Saudi Arabia, as well as their confrontational approaches toward Iran and their neighbor Qatar. In the case of Qatar, which is the host to a major United States military base, Mr. Trump’s endorsement of an Emirati- and Saudi-led blockade against that country has put him openly at odds with his secretary of state — as well as with years of American policy.”

In any case the news that Nader is now cooperating with Mueller is terrible news for both Kushner and Bannon.

FN: In retrospect this didn’t hold up alas. It seems that Mueller believed not only that you can’t indict the ‘President’ but you also can’t  indict his namesake son and son in law. And there wasn’t a great deal of Nader into in the Mueller Report-though he’s part of a number of ongoing cases so we’ll see what we may learn in the future.

 

“The Times reports that Mueller’s investigators have questioned Nader and other witnesses about possible efforts by the Emiratis to buy Trump’s support by funneling money to his campaign. They have also asked about Nader’s role in White House policy-making.

Nader has also drawn particular attention for his role in two meetings between foreign officials and Trump associates.

“The first occurred in December 2016, when MBZ — accompanied by Nader — met with Trump advisers Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn, and Jared Kushner at Trump Tower. The UAE failed to notify the Obama administration of the visit beforehand, and the breach of protocol raised concerns in the U.S. intelligence community. Around the same time, Kushner met with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the U.S., and Sergey Gorkov, a Russian banker close to Putin, and discussed setting up a back channel to communicate directly with Moscow during the transition. Kushner was simultaneously trying to find foreign investors for his family’s real estate projects.”

“The second meeting took place in the Seychelles days before Trump’s inauguration. The Times reported that Nader represented MBZ in the meeting with Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian investor close to President Vladimir Putin, and Erik Prince, the Blackwater founder and informal Trump adviser (who is the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos). Sources say Emirati officials were under the impression that Prince was speaking on behalf of the Trump transition, and Dmitriev was representing Putin.

Erik Prince is back again. He’s also a good friend of Bannon’s. His name comes up a lot in Trump-Russia but he is also front and center in another major scandal-Comeygate. There’s reason to believe he coordinated with the rogue NYPD and NYFBI agents who forced Comey’s hand.

Speaking of Prince speaking before Congress there is now reason to believe he perjured himself in his testimony regarding the Seychelles meeting. 

“The founder of the security firm Blackwater did not mention to the House Intelligence Committee last year that a Lebanese-American businessman had attended a meeting in the Seychelles islands, a trip that has come under intense scrutiny in the Russia investigation, according to a review of the transcript.”

It all goes back to George Nader’s cooperation with the Mueller probe.

“During his Russia investigation interview, Mr. Prince was asked directly by me and Mr. Schiff who he met with while he was in the Seychelles,” Rep. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat who is a member of the Intelligence Committee, told CNN. “He never gave the name George Nader. If he met with George Nader, he lied under oath.”

Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the panel, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that reports about Nader are “inconsistent” with Prince’s testimony before his committee. Rep. Mike Quigley, an Illinois Democrat on the panel, added that it’s clear from his testimony that Prince didn’t want to discuss his dealings with the UAE. “It is possible he was not truthful,” Quigley said.

When you’re under oath even lies of omission-lack of candor-is perjury.

In any case, Prince goes back many years with Nader.

 

For his part-thanks in large part to Nader’s cooperation-Mueller is now said to have evidence the 2017 Seychelles meeting was to establish a back channel between the Kremlin and the Trump Administration.

“Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has gathered evidence that a secret meeting in Seychelles just before the inauguration of Donald Trump was an effort to establish a back channel between the incoming administration and the Kremlin — apparently contradicting statements made to lawmakers by one of its participants, according to people familiar with the matter.

“In January 2017, Erik Prince, the founder of the private security company Blackwater, met with a Russian official close to Russian President Vladi­mir Putin and later described the meeting to congressional investigators as a chance encounter that was not a planned discussion of U.S.-Russia relations.”

“A witness cooperating with Mueller has told investigators the meeting was set up in advance so that a representative of the Trump transition could meet with an emissary from Moscow to discuss future relations between the countries, according to the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.”

“While Mueller is probing the circumstances of the Seychelles meeting, he is also more broadly examining apparent efforts by the Trump transition team to create a back channel for secret talks between the new administration and the Kremlin. Mueller was appointed special counsel to investigate possible Russian interference in the 2016 election, whether any Americans assisted in such efforts, and any other matters that arise in the course of his probe.”

“Investigators now suspect that the Seychelles meeting may have been one of the first efforts to establish such a line of communications between the two governments, these people said. Nader’s account is considered key evidence — but not the only evidence — about what transpired in Seychelles, according to people familiar with the matter.”

“Nader has long served as an adviser to the UAE leadership, and in that role he met more than once with Trump officials, including Stephen K. Bannon and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, according to people familiar with the matter. After the Seychelles meeting, Nader visited the White House several times, and met at least once there with Bannon and Kushner, these people said.”

“Prince told lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee that he did not plan to meet Dmitriev in Seychelles but that once he was there discussing possible business deals with UAE officials, they unexpectedly suggested that he visit the hotel bar and meet Dmitriev.”

“At the end, one of the entourage says, ‘Hey, by the way, there’s this Russian guy that we’ve dealt with in the past. 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,’ ” Prince told lawmakers.

The two men, he said, spoke for no more than 30 minutes, or about the time it took him to drink a beer.

“We chatted on topics ranging from oil and commodity prices to how much his country wished for resumption of normal trade relations with the USA,” Prince told lawmakers. “I remember telling him that if Franklin Roosevelt could work with Joseph Stalin to defeat Nazi fascism, then certainly Donald Trump could work with Vladi­mir Putin to defeat Islamic fascism.”

Work with Vladimir Putin to defeat Islamic fascism. Erik Prince everybody…

Natasha Bertrand for some perspective:

Maybe Kushner, Bannon, and Prince can all share a jail cell together.

UPDATE: So over a year since I wrote this on March 8, 2018-today’s March 13, 2019.  Regarding Prince recently finally admitted to an Intercept reporter that he did organize the Trump Tower Collusion meeting 2.0 of August 3, 2016. That was the meeting with both Nader and Joel Zamel-the Israeli who owns a social media company where they discussed the Saudis and UAE helping Trump win the election-ie, Russian Collusion Conspiracy wasn’t just the Russians. After the election Nader paid Zamel $2 million dollars.

Regarding the issue of a back channel, in early December, Kushner meeting with Kisylak-Flynn was also present-suggested the idea of a back channel with Russia in the Russian embassy. 

 

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