Day 413: Another Russia Meeting, Another Forgetful Memory
Over the past year-plus, Donald Trump and his associates have had consistently awful memories about meetings and communications with Russians.
First there was Michael Flynn’s pre-inauguration discussions with Russian officials. Flynn claimed that sanctions against Russia weren’t discussed, only it was later proven that they were. He was eventually forced to resign in disgrace before pleading guilty to lying to the FBI.
Then there was Jeff Sessions testifying during his confirmation hearings to be attorney general that he never met with any Russians. When it was later revealed that he had met with Russians on at least two occasions, he claimed he didn’t think those meetings counted. His false testimony eventually led him to have to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia probe and opened the door for Robert Mueller’s appointment as special counsel.
Donald Trump, Jr. never disclosed a now-infamous June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with numerous Russian officials until The New York Times broke the story. He continued to change his story day after day as the Times published more information about it.
Jared Kushner left the Trump Tower meeting off his security clearance questionnaire. He also neglected to mention a pre-inauguration meeting with Russian counterparts where they explored setting up back-channel communications that would entirely bypass U.S. intelligence agencies.
Now, Erik Prince’s meeting has come full circle. As wrote about Prince on Day 75:
The Post reported that prior to Trump’s January inauguration, a secret meeting was brokered in the Seychelles by the U.A.E. The meeting was headed by controversial defense contracting company Blackwater founder Erik Prince on behalf of the Trump team and a Russian close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Prince is the brother to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, whose nomination process was fraught with bipartisan allegations of DeVos’ incompetence and confusion as to how and why she was chosen.)
Prince was a big supporter of Trump behind the scenes, pouring money into his campaign directly, through the RNC and a super PAC. While Prince wasn’t given an official role within Trump’s inner circle, likely due to his ties to Blackwater, he was very involved on a wide range of issues behind the scenes.
Those at the meetings in the Seychelles were under the impression Prince was speaking on behalf of Trump, according to reports. Despite U.S., European and Arab officials providing information regarding the arrangement, the White House has denied any knowledge of these meetings. The White House denials fly in the face of reports indicating that the FBI is scrutinizing the gathering.
In sworn testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, Prince subsequently denied the meeting was planned, claiming the meeting was brief, unimportant and a happenstance encounter. Now, Mueller has a cooperating witness set to blow up Prince’s story.
Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has gathered evidence that a secret meeting in the 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.
The witness is George Nader, described by Vox as a “Lebanese-American businessman who has a decades-long history in international diplomacy [and who] has lately advised [U.A.E. crown prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan]. He visited the White House several times in 2017. He also at one point consulted for Blackwater.”
Nader is someone with ties to all parties in this story and is earnest that Prince is lying. Prince is set to join an ever-growing club of people close to Trump that have lied about the exact same thing: meeting with Russians.
413 days in, 1049 to go
Follow us on Twitter at @TrumpTimer
