Trump’s son met agent of UAE, Saudi offering help
NEW CONTROVERSY Not known if proposal was executed WASHINGTON:
US President Donald Trump’s eldest son met an emissary of the governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates with an offer of their help for his father’s presidential campaign in 2016, The New York Times has reported.
The meeting of Donald Trump Jr and George Nader took place at Trump Tower in New York on August 3, 2016 — three months before the US elections — and was organised by controversial security consultant Erik Prince. This is the first instance of foreign governments other than of Russia seeking to influence the 2016 poll.
The Times reported this was one of the focus of special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation into Russian meddling and possible collusion by members of the Trump campaign.
According to the report, Nader told Trump Jr that Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and Abu Dhabi crown prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan — considered the de facto ruler of the UAE — had offered to help his father win the election. Joel Zamel, an Israeli social media specialist who was also present at the meet, reportedly offered to put together a package for the campaign to shape support for Trump.
Referring to the two crown princes as “my friends”, Nader told Trump Jr they viewed Trump as a strong leader who would fill the vacuum left behind by president Barack Obama and they would be glad to help Trump, the Times reported citing persons with knowledge of the meeting.
The outcome of the meeting was not clear from the Times report, which, however, noted that Trump Jr had “responded approvingly”.
Trump slammed the report in a Tweet on Sunday, calling it “a long & boring story” that indicted that as the “World’s most expensive Witch Hunt has found nothing on Russia & me so now they are looking at the rest of the World!” He went on to re-air his case for further investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of private email server and other related grievance.
Nader would go on to forge close relationships with other members of Trump’s team, such son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner and Michael Flynn, who would be fired as national security adviser.
Mueller’s team has interviewed Nader, who is cooperating with the investigation, as well as Zamel. FBI agents are reported to have visited Zamel’s firm in Israel and spoken to his employees. Alan Futerfas, a lawyer for Trump Jr, told the Times in a statement: “Prior to the 2016 election, Donald Trump Jr recalls a meeting with Erik Prince, George Nader and another individual who may be Joel Zamel. They pitched Mr Trump Jr on a social media platform or marketing strategy. He was not interested and that was the end of it”.
Trump Jr has been under scrutiny for another Trump Tower meeting, in which he and other senior members of the campaign met a Russian lawyer who had offered political “dirt” on Clinton.