Opinion| In some breaking news, it has been reported by the Hill that “George Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman with links to President Trump’s associates, was arrested Monday on charges of transporting child pornography.” Nader was a major figure in special counsel Robert Mueller’s nearly-2-year probe into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, an investigation which turned up no evidence of collusion.
Via the Hill:
U.S. officials arrested Nader at John F. Kennedy Airport on Monday morning, the Justice Department said. Nader was charged after he arrived in Washington from Dubai in January 2018 with a cellphone containing images of minors engaged in sexual conduct, officials said. The criminal complaint was only made public after his arrest Monday.
“An adviser to the United Arab Emirates who cooperated extensively with Special Counsel Robert Mueller was arrested Monday on year-old charges of transporting child pornography. George Nader was arrested as he arrived at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. He previously pleaded guilty to the same charges in Virginia in 1991,” reports Bloomberg. “Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman who has ties to former aides to President Donald Trump, has served as an adviser to the ruling families of Saudi Arabia and the UAE. He is mentioned repeatedly in Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, including in a section discussing his work arranging a January 2017 meeting in the Seychelles between Trump ally Erik Prince and Kirill Dmitriev, who heads the Russian sovereign wealth fund,” the news outlet explains.
It has been stated by prosecutors that the 60-year-old Lebanese-American businessman was in possession of “cell phones with images of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct when he arrived at Washington-Dulles International Airport on Jan. 17, 2018, on a flight from Dubai,” according to Bloomberg.
Prosecutors said that he was stopped, and subsequently questioned, by agents at the time who had a search warrant on an “matter unrelated to child pornography.”
Bloomberg reports that it didn’t take long for Nader to decide to cooperate with Mueller’s investigation.
According to the news outlet, “The evidence includes a dozen sexually explicit videos recovered from Nader’s cell phones, prosecutors said. The charges, filed under seal on April 19, 2018, were unsealed Monday. Nader is scheduled to appear in federal court in New York on Monday. A call to his lawyer wasn’t immediately returned.”
This story is still developing. Check back for updates.
