In a related story, scientists confirmed that the universe is still expanding more quickly than we can see.
Cross-posting from another thread.
Mueller is expanding his inquiry to include a Lebanese-American foreign lobbyist type: George Nader (no relation to Ralph as far as I know). In fairness, Axios had parts of this story a month earlier, so I cited it as well (to NYT’s credit, they too cited it).
Mueller is looking at Nader as among witnesses regarding,
1 - any possible attempts by the Emiratis to buy political influence by directing money to support Mr. Trump during the presidential campaign…
and
2 - The investigators have also asked about Mr. Nader’s role in White House policymaking, those people said, suggesting that the special counsel investigation has broadened beyond Russian election meddling to include Emirati influence on the Trump administration. The focus on Mr. Nader could also prompt an examination of how money from multiple countries has flowed through and influenced Washington during the Trump era.
So, to put it in perspective, it’s about: 1. illegal campaign donations during the 2016 election year directed by a foreign government, 2. Bribery induced influence in policy making. That’s explosive.
I’ve long suspected that a lot of illegal foreign money flowed through the Trump campaign, their various entities and even the GOP. Up until this point, I believed it was largely from Russian backed sources and coordinated through Manafort and Gates (in part b/c of the Steele Dossier) and success fees (share of Rosneft sale). However, this article leads me to believe that I’ve been setting my sights too low. The corruption exhibited by the Trump crew extends way back to the campaign itself, all the way forward to the present day, and potentially involves every place where they have business interests or have shopped for money: Russia, China, UAE, Israel, Panama, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, India.
So, not only are we talking about illegal campaign finance donations, but we’re also talking about a series of bribes and inducements engineered and offered in exchange for policy changes. It isn’t just about Russian sanctions. It’s about geopolitics in the Arabian peninsula; it’s about Chinese priorities; it’s about that crazy Flynn nuke deal (also tied to sanctions); and it’s about building Trump properties in multiple countries.
It also shows that that there is real criminal liability exposure for the Trump family that is, to a certain extent, independent from Russia. Sen. Chris Murphy bluntly made that case today on This Week, stating that if the reason for the abrupt policy change supporting Saudi Arabia and the UAE against Qatar was because of Qatar’s decision not to approve financing for Kushner (and I would add the corresponding inducements (read: bribes) offered to the Trump campaign/organization by the UAE (and possibly Saudi Arabia) as alleged in this article), then that’s all you need to push a criminal inquiry, indictments and impeachment.
George Nader is a story that is far too familiar in the Trump era. A guy who established some diplomatic bona fides as a back channel resource in the Clinton years between the Clinton Administration and Syria appeared to change his focus more to the much more lucrative field of foreign lobbying, taking advantage of Bush’s war in Iraq to work for Erik Prince and Blackwater and build his own consulting practice with the Iraqi government and other regional governments, including the UAE. (As an aside, I didn’t see any indication that Nader has a FARA registration).
Although, Nader and Prince know each other, Nader’s connection to both the UAE and to Trump is a lot stronger and, based on my read, independent of Prince. Prince’s connection to Trump is through Bannon, so he’s always knocking on the door but not quite in Trumpland. Nader has become a strongly linked advisor to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed of the UAE royal family. He is also strongly connected to top Trump fundraiser Elliot Broidy. This is the same Broidy who was exposed for discussing a deal with the embattled Malaysian businessman, Jho Low, who is being investigated in the 1MDB scandal by the DOJ, where Low (and other people close to the Malaysia PM Razak) stole $700 mill from a gov’t backed development company and laundered a portion of the money into US real estate. Broidy was offered, in one draft of their agreement, a big $75 million pay day if he could make the the DOJ investigation go away (really dumb lawyers who allowed something like that to get on paper btw).
Broidy also owns a big security firm, Cirincus, that does a lot of business in the US and the UAE. That firm would be directly competitive with Erik Prince, who shops similar security type arrangements trying to recreate the magic of Blackwater through his Frontier Security Group. Broidy has been in legal trouble before, pleading guilty to providing illegal gifts to the NYS pension fund in exchange for the fund investing its large assets in companies that he owned. You know…typical Trumpist corruption.
So, what this story suggests is that the UAE placed bets on Trump while he was a candidate. Nader was the key go between for the Trump campaign/administration and the UAE gov’t. The Crown Prince of UAE visited NY in December 2016 after months of intermediary contact. That meeting in NY (which Susan Rice outed) set the stage for an advancement of the relationship, where the UAE was principally interested in support for the Saudi prince MBS and also a tougher line against Qatar. Trump/Kushner were interested in financing. Bannon was interested in remaking global alliances.
In my view, Erik Prince was dying to get in on these convos (as he lives part time in the UAE and knows many in the UAE gov’t). He hung around Trump Tower a lot in December, going through Bannon, who at the time, had a good relationship with Kushner. One agenda item from that meeting was the follow-up in the Seychelles arranged by the UAE between Russia and the US intermediaries to discuss sanctions relief in exchange for softening support for Iran and perhaps an incentive of Flynn’s crazy nuclear reactor expansion deal which would have heavy Russian involvement. Prince, I suspect, lobbied Bannon to be sent as the intermediary, and both Nader and the Trump crew agreed, because the US would need an American at that meeting who knew players in this space.
What all this means is that the Trump crew had a long-term plan to get Russian help to rig the election in their favor and, on a parallel track, use their political power and influence to gain international financing and more lucrative investment opportunities in exchange for major policy shifts. Nowhere in this mix were the interests of the United States considered the sole and primary concern. The Trumps operated as if their financial interests were the same as America’s national interests and vice versa. This is exactly what anti-bribery laws, conflicts of interest laws, the emoluments clause, and the anti-bribery portion of the impeachment clause were intended to stop.
We’ve got a big problem on our hands, and Robert Mueller may have exposed a very important and under appreciated part of the Trump crew move to capture the machinery of the US government and leverage it for their financial benefit on a global scale. They have natural allies in authoritarians and wealthy global elites.
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators have questioned an adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates, the New York Times reported Saturday, in addition to questioning others about possible attempts by the UAE to buy political influence in the United States.
I hear Jared has a GoFundMe site for knee pads, anyone have a link to it?
Face it, Trump came in and immediately hung a for sale sign on the front gate.
Josh is summing things up nicely.
The thing about what Trump and his family has done is it has been executed by morons. There is zero subtlety to their actions. They may as well have neon signs up with “Deals to be Made” flashing in magenta. But like his kid’s slicked back hair, they think they have sooooo cool going about their business. They are truly without any sense of the country in this. Soul-less in their entire world view. And that last point is why they are going to lose and lose big. A good portion of this country has not bought into that stateless and greedy view point. But damn, they are making a mess out of everything while they figure out they are no where as good as they think they are.
Another reason why they should not be given nice things to play with - like the government of our country.
Interesting write up, thanks. A lot to digest. Just before seeing this I was reading Laura Rozen’s twitter feed - she is looking at parts of these interlocking stories as well. Honestly, I became overwhelmed trying to follow it. https://twitter.com/lrozen/status/970362218935128064
I feel like I can only see a few pieces of a really big, really complex jigsaw puzzle. Thank goodness Mueller has a large, experienced team of lawyers.
I know grifters gotta grift, but oy vey, Charles Ponzi, Bernie Madoff, and the California Psychics could take pointers from these guys.
They come from a milieu that’s a kind of self-parody, a pseudo-tough-guy, hardboiled, wised-up world in which you do everything you think you can get away with. You give kickbacks and you get kickbacks. “One hand washes the other.” And you mock people with standards as “Boy Scouts.”
There’s an interesting exchange in the movie “Contact” where a guy has taken terrible advantage of the protagonist and wants her to know he feels a little bad about it:
DRUMLIN: I know you must think this is all very unfair. Maybe that’s an understatement. What you don’t know is I agree. I wish the world was a place where fair was the bottom line, where the kind of idealism you showed at the hearing was rewarded, not taken advantage of. Unfortunately, we don’t live in that world.
ELLIE: Funny, I’ve always believed that the world is what we make of it.
What these clowns don’t understand is most people play by the rules out of enlightened self-interest. They treat other people mostly right because that’s how they’d like to be treated in return. That’s our country, mostly. You don’t have to bribe anyone to get a building permit. We don’t want to live that way. In most towns you just fill out the forms and pay the fees. Most people aren’t cheaters. So I guess we’ll see if the country will let the Trump clan change us. I doubt it and I hope not. But stay tuned, sports fans.
Thanks as always for posting. A lot of us value your opinion and insights.
A copy of the memorandum about the meeting was provided to The New York Times by someone critical of the Emirati influence in Washington.
That whole Trump visit to the UAE, the blockade against Qatar, and the support for the Saudi Prince was all very troubling and strange. But once again, it was almost as if Trump was drawing a nice little picture for a subsequent investigation of the shenanigans.
Glad to see Erik Prince is mentioned again. Yes, that trip to the Seychelles arranged by the UAE was so innocent. I hope he goes down, too.
It’s easy to get lost in the details but there is always the straightforward reality of the case: the Trump/Kushner family is a gang of operators who thought running for POTUS would strengthen the brand and sweeten the grift. Winning caught them completely unprepared, with no more idea of how to run a government than a dog. However winning did confirm, for them at least, one critical truth: the nation must mostly be inhabited by suckers and winning was the ultimate brass ring; a license to pluck.
I’ve considered malevolence tempered by incompetence to be a succinct summation of the Trump/Kushner crew but now I think malevolence and venality tempered by incompetence would be more complete.
On one hand, I’m very glad Mueller is conducting this investigation slowly and methodically, leaving no stone unturned. That way, when it’s all said and done there will be no serious question as to who, what, when, where and why.
On the other hand: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, HURRY THE FUCK UP ALREADY!! THIS ADMINISTRATION IS ON THE BRINK OF UNTOLD DAMAGE!!!
Am I the only one experiencing these two slightly opposite feelings?
And this will save us in the long run.
I’ve considered malevolence tempered by incompetence to be a succinct summation of the Trump/Kushner crew but now I think malevolence and venality tempered by incompetence would be more complete.
I would add a callous adoption of Ryan/Teaparty Randian Misanthropy through policymaking as a vehicle (to stay in power) in order to feed their malevolence and venality tempered by incompetence.
Come now. He was just the baklava boy. Everyone knows you need baklava with covfefe.
Very insightful post. Thanks!
This will be unraveling for a looong …time —
They haven’t even gotten to the part where members of Congress were complicit in the conspiracy to effect our elections … beforehand ! ----
When we have the House… and begin serious investigations… the heads will begin to roll —
I can’t wait until we get that slime Rohrabacher under oath and squeeze …
I think he’s the one who spread the word to leadership —
This fiasco goes way beyond the donnie cabal …
The flailing has just begun ! —
There are a lot of moving parts. But if you zoom out what’s obviously happening is influence-peddling on a global scale, with enormous amounts of money, national elections, and war and peace as the chips on the table. It’s absolutely unheard-of at this level. The hubris of these people to think they could get away with all this, is just staggering.
You are not the only one. Wig makers are going to stand to profit nicely through this reign of terror while many of us keep pulling out our hair.
Me too. Seeing him skate along freely, profiting from mayhem and corruption, has been one of the sore subtexts to the story of American decline conducted under the umbrella of movement conservatism.