Meeting indicates Russia may not have been only country eager to assist Trump in winning election
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It’s against the law for foreigners—individuals or governments—to be involved in U.S. elections. But Mark Mazzetti, Ronen Bergman, and David D. Kirkpatrick at The New York Times have ferreted out evidence that an emissary for the crown princes of SaudMeeting indicates Russia may not have been only country eager to assist Trump in winning election
It’s against the law for foreigners—individuals or governments—to be involved in U.S. elections. But Mark Mazzetti, Ronen Bergman, and David D. Kirkpatrick at The New York Times have ferreted out evidence that an emissary for the crown princes of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates met in Trump Tower in August 2016 with Don Trump Jr. along with an Israeli specialist in social media manipulation and a well-known—some would say notorious—private security contractor. The men were there, the reporters say they have learned, to discuss assisting Donald Trump in gaining the presidency. It’s unknown whether any plan that emerged from the meeting was implemented. But soon after the election, the emissary paid the social media specialist a large sum, what one associate said was $2 million: 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. Erik Prince, the private security contractor and the former head of Blackwater, arranged the meeting, which took place on Aug. 3, 2016. The emissary, George Nader, told Donald Trump Jr. that the crown princes who led Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were eager to help his father win election as president. The social media specialist, Joel Zamel, extolled his company’s ability to give an edge to a political campaign; by that time, the firm had already drawn up a multimillion-dollar proposal for a social media manipulation effort to help elect Mr. Trump. Donald Trump Jr.’s lawyer told the reporters the meeting came to nothing because his client wasn’t interested. A lawyer for Nader said he is fully cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, and a senior Saudi official said the government there had never hired Nader nor authorized him to speak for the crown prince. A lawyer for Zamel said his client had had “no involvement whatsoever in the U.S. election campaign.” Motivation for the Saudis being in such a plan, if they were, might well have been its ongoing clash with Iran. The Saudis were unhappy with President Barack Obama’s actions in the Middle East, including the negotiation of a 2015 multilateral agreement with Iran to remove economic sanctions in exchange for Tehran’s curtailing its nuclear development program. Read more