Adviser to Emirates With Ties to Trump Aides Is Cooperating With Special Counsel (07dc-investigate) (07dc-investigate)

Mr. Dmitriev’s Russian Direct Investment Fund seeks outside investments, often from foreign governments, for unglamorous infrastructure projects inside of Russia. Sounds similar to another infrastructure I have heard floated where $200 billion of infrastructure spending by the Federal Government is supposed to result in over a trillion in infrastructure. Boondoggle! SAD!

The devil has many tools at his disposal but they all share the same handle LIES LIES LIES.

How can CNN and other news outlets continue to give Scaramucci camera time? Wittingly or not, The Mooch is directly connected to Russia's attack on our democracy. He might be covering his or other's collaboration with the Russians, and therefore should not be on television, amusing antics notwithstanding. Prince must be sweating, wondering what hard evidence Nader has that might conflict with his testimony before Congress. His sister, Betsy DeVos, was at Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School today for a photo-op press conference where she did not meet with or take questions from the students. Instead, our Secretary of Education abandoned her own podium. So glad that Trump has all the best people.

"Resumption of normal trade relations" is the same thing as "Russia being treated with respect" is the same thing as "Russian adoptions": it is all about Putin leveraging the active measures during the campaign, the money funneled into the campaign and the Trump Organization (real estate, $30m through NRA, money from Nader and UAE), and kompromat to compel Trump and his advisers to remove sanctions, or prevent any new sanctions from being imposed. It's what Flynn was caught talking about, it's what J.D. Gordon was tasked with at the convention, it's what Michael Cohen and Felix Sater were working on in Jan. 2017 with their "secret plan for Ukraine", it's what Manafort and Don Jr and Jared were meeting about at Trump Tower...

I am surprised at the level of naivety. Did they (pick anyone named so far) think they would be able to engage with Russians under the radar of our intelligence agencies? Google tracks where I walk my dog every day. But flights to Seychelles to meet a Russian already monitored by the U.S. will go unnoticed?? One trip to the SPY Museum in D.C. would have let them know how this will end.

Robert Mueller has taken on board a Lebanese-American huckster of a shadowy past, who spent decades ingratiating himself with people in power in the US and across the Middle East. George Nader always sought to portray himself as a successful go-between. It comes as no surprise that he had been picked by the Trump administration to weave a web of secret contacts with Russia via the United Arab Emirates to dodge scrutiny. People who knew Nader before he resurfaced in the special counsel’s Russia probe, believe he was an opportunist with hardly a political agenda. He was eager to reach out to people with power, mainly seeking to make money whenever he could.

It's been well over a dozen hours since this article was published, and fact that (as I type this) fewer than forty comments have been posted says *something* about the dreadful state of affairs we're in. Are we bored? Overwhelmed? Incredulous? Maybe some graduate of Trump University could venture as good a guess as anyone.

How can you in good conscious publish a story about Erik Prince's connections with UAE & Russia and the Trump transition team and completely fail to mention that he is Secretary of Education Betsy Prince DeVos' brother??

Looks like the " deep state" is on the right side of the political spectrum. Who knew?

There is a satisfactory hypothesis here. Mr. Trump did not have the cash he needed to fulfill his promise to fund his own campaign. The Emiratis, for whom this meeting was part of a pattern, were illegally buying influence. The Kremlin was providing illegal assistance to the Trump campaign, in exchange for removing sanctions. The Trump campaign subsequently increased its criticism of President Obama's sanctions. Trump for his part continued with his inexplicable and even traitorous behavior vis-a-vis Russia. One can imagine the Trump staff meeting at which it was decided to push once again the same tired old Islamic terrorism fig leaf. When it comes to this administration, one general principle has almost never been wrong. Under any and every rock, one will find wrongdoing.

Erik Prince may have figured out the way to funnel federal money into his company's pockets--Blackwater is, after all, a quasi-mercenary, war profitering enterprise--but he, like so many of the eager beavers who have clustered around Trump--is no match for the dark arts of the KGB and its post-Soviet ambitions. Just chatting over beer with a Ruski? You may think it's innocent, or you may claim it's innocent, but they are head and shoulders above you in the great chess game of counter-intelligence and kompromat. In dealings with Russia, it's impossible not to be had. Reagan made famous the phrase Trust, but verify. With the no longer Soviet Russians, it should be never trust. Not ever.

Clear Mr. Mueller is leaving few stones unturned. Good for him. Perhaps as an infrastructure project the government can quickly start building more white-collar prisons. They very well may need them, and it'd be better to have them in place when that time comes.

"Bandar Bush" the Saudi prince and intelligence chief was one of the Bush brothers, hanging out at their home. He never got any money into those campaigns? Money for Israel? Never happens? The hypocrisy is stunning. Purest dishonesty on display.

So then, it’s possible Nader has been wearing a wire for over a year. Interesting.

Mueller is pushing the limits on his mandate. Reasonable people would have concluded that there no collusion long ago. Seems he is just fishing around. Seems more and more like abuse of office and waste of tax money.

And another shoe drops. One of the most bizarre episodes in the Trump administration was the specter of Betsy DeVos' shocking inability to answer the most basic questions about Education in her confirmation hearing. Now we know why. Her brother, Erik Prince, committed crimes for the Trump administration, so she was going to get the job regardless of her internationally televised jaw-dropping incompetence.

"During congressional testimony in November, Mr. Prince denied representing the Trump transition team during the meeting and dismissed his encounter with Mr. Dmitriev as nothing more than a friendly conversation over a drink." YES! Please indict that war profiteer Erik Prince for perjury!

So I guess we're looking at the UAE because we can't find anything on Russia collusion.

Donald Trump has been corrupt his entire life. He gets elected as potus and all of a sudden he turns into a normal law abiding person? I DON'T THINK SO!

I find Mr. Prince's explanation for his presence in the hotel and the S. Islands with this other cast of shady characters as engaging in passing conversation and not even informally representing the Trump Transition...to be utterly incredible. Prince and his ever-changing list of companies have a long history of padding his and corporate pockets at taxpayer expense and securing either no bid or limited bid contracts. Go Mueller GO!

Was Prince compensated for his actions by giving his sister, Betsy DeVos, the Education Secretary cabinet post? Good job draining the swamp!

The drilling on the wall continues.

It is plausible that Trump and his slapped together team of C league consultants and foreign policy types simply wanted to establish better relations with Russia, perhaps to get their cooperation with regard to Syria-ISIS or, more likely, because the C leaguers had personal and business dealings with Russia and did not see them through the same lens as the mainstream foreign policy establishment

Before the election in 2016 there were many reports that significant money was flowing into the Trump campaign from Russia. If only the FBI had informed the American people of this possible conspiracy and definite violation of campaign finance laws before the election we could have saved all of the pain and suffering we are about to experience.

Any relation between this Nader and Ralph, who elected GWB in 2000 and in doing so ushered in this whole era of endless war?

Bob Mueller's mission is to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 elections and its ramifications and offshoots, so I doubt that his interest in George Nader is centered on Nader's role as an advisor to the United Arab Emirates. I suspect there's a more direct connection to Russian election interference. For instance, the January 2017 meeting in the Seychelles included Nader, a Trump campaign advisor, and Kirill Dmitriev, who is "a Russian investor close to President Vladimir V. Putin." Dmitriev is a hugely important figure to Putin. Not only does Dmitriev manage the $10 billion Russian sovereign wealth fund, he also sits on the boards of directors of several of the biggest Russian government-owned conglomerates, including Rostelecom, the Russian telecommunications giant; Gazprombank, the third largest bank in Russia; Russian Railways; and Transneft, the Russian oil pipeline monopoly. Obviously, a meeting held just days before Donald Trump took office wasn't about helping Trump win the election. But it could have been about what Putin wanted from Trump now that he had won. If Nader violated American law by failing to register as an agent of the UAE, Mueller may well have used that as leverage to get Nader to talk. But what Mueller wants Nader to talk about is Russia. politicsbyeccehomo.wordpress.com

Why are the Republicans still supporting Trump? Of course he's guilty. He and his enablers have told lie after lie after lie denying the campaign's Russian ties. The lies include faking concern over Russian adoptions -- as if this clown car of self-serving sleazes would possibly care. Just about every day there is another story about indictments, guilty pleas, and grand jury testimony. Mueller is obviously closing in on something very big. There is no other credible explanation. How can the Republicans not be smart enough to distance themselves from Trump at this point?

This can go on for 5 years or 10 years or 25 years; no Russian conspiracy. This is called a "fishing" trip. Mr. Mueller; please refund the millions of dollars you are stealing from my tax money to pay for your farce.

one sleazy correction omitted here. Erik Prinz is Betsy DeVos' brother. we're not in Kansas any more, we're in Russia.

Some people will do ANYTHING for money. Treason. Its Mueller time. PROSECUTE RUSSIAGATE!

Couple things: first of all, who hasn't met a Russian businessman in the Seychelles? I mean really, let he who is without sin cast the first stone. [/sarcasm] Secondly, do you know how long it takes to get to the Seychelles from the United States? From the east coast you're looking at 30 hours. So Mr. Prince traveled 30 hours-plus to meet a Russian businessman for a half-hour. It would seem there would be easier ways to get that done... UNLESS you were trying to be very careful not to have anyone find out about the meeting. Third, I seem to remember a battle cry from conservatives during the campaign about the Clinton Foundation and how it was used to funnel money to Hillary. Curiously, these same folks seem rather silent now. And lastly, I will say this again: the biggest threat to our democracy, by a country mile, is campaign finance. With the way international banking is nowadays, how seamlessly you can both move money around and hide from whence it came (hi, Wilbur Ross!), it is virtually impossible to enforce federal law on foreign money in federal campaigns. The only, and I mean *only* solution here, is federally-funded campaigns. American voters have been losing influence to monied interests for a long time. Now we're losing influence to our country's enemies as well.

Wow! Just when you think things could not get any stranger, "The Mooch" may be in on the fix! I did not see that one coming. Turns out Hillary Clinton might have been right about one thing many years ago: a vast right wing conspiracy.

Wow, this is a complex article with many implications. I had to read it a couple of times to follow all the connections. It makes you realize that part of Mueller's job is not just to dig up pre-inauguration connections, but to let everyone know that an eye is being kept on Trump-era connections. The trouble with Russia-US contacts is that while they are in part obvious and innocuous (a la the Stalin-Roosevelt alliance), the country itself is so profoundly corrupt. Any contacts that are not constantly observed, publicized and vetted have the potential to draw our political system into the morass that is the Russian political/economic/secret police system today. As a Russian specialist I feel so sad for what has happened to that country under Putin. I also understand why it has happened, in historic terms, and sympathize with the "chip-on-the-shoulder" emotions; but that doesn't make it any easier to accept.

This is starting to make more sense. This meeting sounds suspicious but I don't think Mueller is trying to prove Seychelles was a smoking gun. There's no need for hyperbole. Assuming Mueller has the evidence, anyone involved in these meetings is potentially guilty of conspiracy to defraud the US government. It doesn't matter whether the suspect was present for innocent reasons or not. Intent isn't necessarily a requirement for guilt under this law. That was the lesson Mueller offered from the Russian indictments. Russia conspired to defraud the US election process. Specifically, Russia was defrauding the FEC but possibly other agencies as well. If a suspect was involved in that conspiracy in any way and took any action towards advancing that conspiracy, intentionally or unintentionally, that suspect is potentially guilty of a crime. Nader seems to fit this description. Possibly Prince as well. The law applies equally to US citizens. As you can imagine, the list of possible interesting suspects is basically endless. All of them considered interesting within the confines of Mueller's mandate. You might better understand why Sam Nunberg is having heart palpitations over his emails now. Mueller has leverage even when you think you're innocent. Best to cooperate with the man.

What they knew and when they knew it... The picture will get clearer and clearer as the "cooperating' witnesses answer the Mueller team questions.

Is this a web of deceit or is it all accidental meetings? Are we Americans witnesses a collaboration of wealthy individuals from foreign cointries influencing and shaping our federal government policies or are our imaginations straying from reality? Whether you are a democrat, a republican, or an independent we need to know. And the only way is to trust Robert Mueller and his team of investigators. Let us not bring down our system of democracy for any one political party - in the end we are all Americans.

Erik Prince is the younger brother of United States Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. Interesting connection to Trump.