Why
the George Nader story is potentially so significant
Over the past few days a number of details
have emerged about the Mueller-led “Russia” investigation’s interest in the
Trump campaign’s dealings in the middle-east, most particularly with the United
Arab Emirates. What does the UAE have to
do with the Russia investigation?
Potentially quite a bit. The
direct tie is due to one George Nader, a Lebanese-American member of the Trump
circus who seems to have been a quite active arranger for Trump and his family,
particularly, Jared Kushner.
According to New York Times reporting, Nader was
returning to the US on 17 January, 2018, when he was met by FBI agents at
Dulles airport with search warrants and a subpoena. Nader was in transit to Florida for the celebration
of Trump’s first year in office at Mar-a-Largo. But he was stopped by the FBI, who confiscated
all his electronics, questioned him at length and almost immediately turned him
into a cooperating witness for the Mueller investigation. He’s already made at least one appearance
before Mueller’s grand jury.
The fact that the FBI apparently
presented him with evidence against him serious enough to compel immediate
cooperation suggests that Mueller’s team were not merely looking for further
leads in their investigation. Why might
he be important enough to warrant such attention? As both the Times and CNN
have explained, Nader was a participant and perhaps even the convener of the
Trump Transition team’s meeting in the Seychelles which brought together a
representative of President Trump (Erik Prince) with representatives of both
Russian President Putin and the government of the United Arab Emirates. He continued to have on-going contact with the
Trump White House. Most importantly
appears to have been an interlocutor with Jared Kushner in Kushner’s dealings
with Gulf states, which connect up with Kushner
family’s failed attempt to secure a loan from Qatar and subsequent Kushner
green-lighting of the Saudi/UAE blockade of Qatar. While the other Gulf states had their own
clear motives for punishing Qatar, the fact the Kushner backed Qatar’s
diplomatic isolation after failing to get money from its sovereign investment
fund to bail-out his own family’s real estate debts, suggests a level of potential
criminal corruption within the White House that is clearly legally
actionable. And Nader may well be a key
witness in this particular focus of the investigation. Mueller’s investigators are also reportedly
examining whether Nader helped facilitate illegal transfers of foreign funds to
the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.
The Nader story suggests that:
1. all those observers who have
been saying that Mueller appears to be mainly pursuing an obstruction
investigation against Trump rather than a collusion (or
more accurately, a conspiracy against the United States) investigation are
wrong. Mueller seems to be pursuing very
serious investigations into alleged crimes which have nothing to do with
obstruction of justice on the part the President. He is likely to be pursuing the obstruction
angle as well, but those expressed fears/hopes that there was evidence of a pattern
of obstruction but no evidence of the crimes that the obstruction was meant to hide,
seem to me to be wrong. Mueller is
investigating both serious crimes and the subsequent conspiracy to hide them.
2. there are clearly sovereign
actors involved in addition to Russia. The UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey may all
be involved, if not as primary actors than as targets or collateral damage – Qatar
for instance, which Kushner tried to shakedown for a half billion or more to
save his family business and the subsequent blockade by the rest of the Gulf
states. And Michael Flynn’s story is as
tied to Turkey as it is Russia. Thereare indications here that the Trump administrations actions in the Middle East,which we’ve known to involve Kushner’s money begging, are connected with
Russia’s efforts to cultivate the Trump syndicate as well as interfere in the
2016 election. Personally, I’ve been
very skeptical of the maximal
interpretations of the Qatar story which connects Kushner’s money troubles with
Russia and the Steele Dossier. But maybe
there is something there: Mueller’s recent tack in the investigation suggests
there might be.
3. Jared Kushner’s finances and activities are as much a part of this as Donald
Trump’s and may go places even Trump did not.
Losing his security clearance might be the least of Kushner’s worries.
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