The following article by Rebecca Kheel was posted on the Hill website August 24, 2018:
Erik Prince
Erik Prince isn’t giving up.
A year after the Trump administration rejected the Blackwater founder’s plan to replace most U.S. troops in Afghanistan with private contractors — an idea roundly criticized by the defense and foreign policy establishment — he’s back trying to sell his plan to President Trump.
He hasn’t talked to Trump about the idea recently, he admits. But he’s been making the rounds in the media, including an appearance on Trump’s favorite television show, “Fox & Friends,” talking up his plan as a way to end the stagnation of the 17-year-old war.
As ABC News reports, Prince came under Mueller’s investigatory purview after he reportedly tried to establish a backchannel between Trump and the Kremlin. As the Washington Post reported, on January 11, 2017, Prince met with Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian wealth fund manager, in the Seychelles. Sources told the Post the purpose of that trip was to connect Trump’s team with Russian officials.
Prince told Congress he took the meeting for business, and was not acting on behalf of Trump’s team, but Mueller is reportedly examining evidence to the contrary. As ABC reports, “Lebanese-American businessman George Nader, a key witness given limited immunity by Mueller, told investigators that he set up the meeting in the Seychelles between Prince and Dmitriev, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News. Documents obtained by Mueller also suggest that before and after Prince met Nader in New York a week before the trip, Nader shared information with Prince about Dmitriev.” Continue reading “Special Counsel Mueller Is Reviewing Blackwater Founder Erik Prince’s Phones and Computer: Report”
The following article by Mark Mazzetti, Ronen Bergman and David D. Kirkpatrick was posted on the New York Times website May 19, 2018:
Trump Tower Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
WASHINGTON — Three months before the 2016 election, a small group gathered at Trump Tower to meet with Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son. One was an Israeli specialist in social media manipulation. Another was an emissary for two wealthy Arab princes. The third was a Republican donor with a controversial past in the Middle East as a private security contractor.
The meeting was convened primarily to offer help to the Trump team, and it forged relationships between the men and Trump insiders that would develop over the coming months — past the election and well into President Trump’s first year in office, according to several people with knowledge of their encounters. Continue reading “Trump Jr. and Other Aides Met With Gulf Emissary Offering Help to Win Election”
The following article by Pierre Thomas and James Gordon Meek was posted on the ABC News website April 6, 2018:
Special Counsel Robert Mueller has obtained evidence that calls into question Congressional testimony given by Trump supporter and Blackwater founder Erik Prince last year, when he described a meeting in Seychelles with a Russian financier close to Vladimir Putin as a casual chance encounter “over a beer,” sources told ABC News.
Well-connected Lebanese-American businessman George Nader, a key witness given limited immunity by Mueller, has been interviewed seven times by prosecutors on a wide range of subjects. He told investigators that he set up a meeting in the Seychelles between Prince and Russian sovereign wealth fund CEO Kirill Dmitriev, mere days before Trump was inaugurated, sources familiar with the investigation said this week. Continue reading “Mueller has evidence that Trump supporter’s meeting with Putin ally may not have been a chance encounter: Sources”
The following article by Shari Horwitz and Devlin Barret was posted on the Washington Post website March 7, 2018:
Blackwater founder Erik Prince met with a Russian person close to President Vladimir Putin in Jan. 2017, according to U.S., European and Arab officials. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)
Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has gathered evidence that a secret meeting in 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.
The following article by Devlin Barrett, Sari Horwitz and Rosalind S. Helderman was posted on the Washington Post website March 7, 2018:
Credit: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
A Lebanese American businessman who has acted as an adviser to the United Arab Emirates has been cooperating with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, after he was hit with a subpoena upon arriving in the United States in mid-January, according to people familiar with the matter.
The businessman, George Nader, was served with a grand jury subpoena shortly after landing at Dulles International Airport, these people said. Investigators are interested in Nader’s role at a January 2017 meeting in the Seychelles between Erik Prince, a supporter of President Trump, and a Russian official close to President Vladimir Putin, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. Continue reading “Businessman with ties to United Arab Emirates is cooperating with Mueller probe”
The following article by Keri Geiger with Bloomberg News was posted on the Boston Globe website April 19, 2017:
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY THE DAILY BEAST
NEW YORK — In the very public, post-election parade of dignitaries, confidantes, and job-seekers filing in and out of Donald Trump’s marquee Manhattan tower, Blackwater founder Erik Prince was largely out of sight. And yet Prince was very much a presence, giving advice to Trump’s inner circle, including his top national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, according to people familiar with his activities.
Trump was weakest in the area where the stakes were highest — foreign affairs. Among those his aides turned to was Prince, a man whose specialty is paramilitary security forces, and whose company is best remembered after its employees were convicted of killing Iraqi citizens, including children, in the notorious 2007 Nisour Square gun battle. Prince wasn’t implicated in the shootings. In the decade since, Prince has carved out a role as a controversial critic of US policies to fight terrorism, a view often espoused by the incoming Trump administration, which was eager to ramp up its anti-terrorism policies. Continue reading “Blackwater founder Erik Prince said to have advised Trump team”
The following article by Adam Entous, Greg Miller, Kevin Sieff and Karen DeYoung was posted on the Washington Post website April 3, 2017:
The United Arab Emirates arranged a secret meeting in January between Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a Russian close to President Vladimir Putin as part of an apparent effort to establish a back-channel line of communication between Moscow and President-elect Donald Trump, according to U.S., European and Arab officials.
The meeting took place around Jan. 11 — nine days before Trump’s inauguration — in the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean, officials said. Though the full agenda remains unclear, the UAE agreed to broker the meeting in part to explore whether Russia could be persuaded to curtail its relationship with Iran, including in Syria, a Trump administration objective that would be likely to require major concessions to Moscow on U.S. sanctions. Continue reading “Blackwater founder held secret Seychelles meeting to establish Trump-Putin back channel”
