The net in Robert Mueller’s Russia probe is now being cast wider.
CNN on Tuesday looked into Middle East specialist George Nader, whom a reporter for the network referred to as a ‘mystery man’ for his cooperation in the Mueller investigation over ties to the United Arab Emirates.
Sources told CNN that Nader is cooperating with Mueller and providing information to a federal jury regarding two meetings he attended between Trump campaign associates and Emirati officials.
Nader was stopped and questioned by the FBI at Virginia’s Dulles International Airport as he returned from an overseas trip in January.
“They started asking him questions about some meetings that they had believed he attended with some of the associates of the president,” reporter Shimon Prokupecz told OutFront’s Erin Burnett on-air.
Prokupecz went on to call Nader a “mystery man,” and added that the FBI was also interested in a “meeting that he had attended in the Seychelles with Erik Prince, who was a Trump supporter and associate.”
The first meeting of interest took place in December 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. It was reportedly attended by Nader, along with Michael Flynn, Jared Kushner, Steve Bannon, and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan.
The meeting, reported on by the Washington Post in April of last year, was notable because bin Zayed al Nahyan did not notify President Obama that he would be arriving in the US or meeting with the Trump transition team.
The second meeting in question was in the Seychelles and occurred in January 2017. Nader was present as Trump ally Erik Prince–founder of the private security firm Blackwater–met with Emirati officials, along with Kirill Dmitriev, the chief executive of the state-run Russian Direct Investment Fund.
Prince has maintained that he spoke with Dmitriev on the recommendation of the Emirati entourage, and that the conversation related to private business opportunities.
Nader, the former president and editor of the magazine Middle East Insight, served as a meeting broker between the US government and Middle Eastern leaders throughout the ’80s and ’90s.
He notably used his contacts to help the George H.W. Bush administration negotiate the release of Americans held hostage in Lebanon following the Iran-Contra affair.
“He is a man of mystery,” said Frederic Hof of the Atlantic Council’s Middle East center. “Until this recent flurry of interest in him, I don’t think I’ve even heard his name mentioned for 12 years.”
The reports on Nader’s cooperation with the Mueller probe suggest that the Special Counsel’s investigation of Russian electoral interference and possible collusion by the Trump campaign is expanding beyond its original purpose.
Yawn. Growing very old and wasting our money ???
— Irish (@irishbangers) March 4, 2018
Wasn’t he hired to investigate the bogus Russia collusion story? Why are they letting him get away with this crap?
— Deborah Scott (@frankie601) March 4, 2018
Pretty soon Mueller will be investigating air. ????
— ⚖ The Justice Team ⚖ (@robyns323) March 6, 2018
Gets more embarrassing every day. How can this go on.
— DavidaubrgNJ (@imdavidlg) March 4, 2018
Smoke and mirrors. Just beautifully entertaining. Tax $ doing wonderful things.
— Wiz (@SMW_Myron) March 4, 2018
They shouldn’t be allowed to just look for nothing everywhere & waste our time & money!
— Push Past Paralysis (@MarissaMeleske) March 4, 2018
Mueller has gone so far off the deep end. Its time to call an end to this crazy “special council”.
— Denise Hatfield (@lilbityzer) March 5, 2018
It’s high time that Jeff Sessions eliminates Mueller’s Witch Hunt. Without parameters and boundaries, it continues to meander and spread its tentacles, all part of the Deep State corruption #deepstate #draintheswamp #MAGA @jeffsessions #liesoftheleft
— Greg Boll (@GregBoll) March 6, 2018
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