Key Mueller Witness, George Nader, Arrested for Child Porn

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George Nader, one of Mueller's key witnesses, has been arrested on charges of transporting child pornography.

George Nader, one of Mueller’s key witnesses, has been arrested on charges of transporting child pornography.

George Nader, a Middle East power broker who cooperated with former special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, was arrested Monday on a federal charge of transporting child pornography.

Nader, who after the election of President Donald Trump was asked by a leading Russian money manager to introduce him to officials in Trump’s transition team, was taken into custody at JFK Airport in New York.

Thehill.com reports: The criminal complaint, dated April 19, 2018, was made public after his arrest Monday.

Nader was a key figure in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference, sitting for multiple interviews and providing information on his effort to broker a meeting in the Seychelles between Trump ally and Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a Russian financier.

He was arrested after landing at JFK and is expected to be arraigned Monday afternoon, according to the Department of Justice.

Nader pleaded guilty to the same charge in 1991.

An affidavit that was unsealed Monday alleges that a search warrant approved in a “matter unrelated to child pornography” allowed for the search of any items on Nader’s person as well as his baggage. Among the items cleared for search were electronic devices, including cellphones.

After Nader flew into Dulles International Airport, located in the D.C. area, on January 17, 2018, he was “voluntarily interviewed by FBI agents regarding a matter unrelated to child pornography,” the document states.

Following the interview, Nader was told of the search warrant, and all three iPhones he had with him were seized.

As one of the phones was being reviewed for other evidence, “the case agent in that other matter uncovered multiple files which appeared to contain child pornography,” the court filing reads.

Another search warrant was then issued to find potential child pornography on the phone, and 12 sexually explicit videos of minors were uncovered, according to the affidavit.

Nader, if convicted on the charge, faces a minimum of 15 years and up to 40 years in prison.

Nader’s name is mentioned in Mueller’s report extensively in sections discussing links between associates and members of the Trump campaign and Moscow.

The report states that Nader sat for “multiple interviews” with the special counsel’s office, including one that was conducted under a “proffer agreement” — a potential signal Nader believed he could be charged with crimes and spoke to prosecutors on the condition his statements wouldn’t be used against him.

The report details that Nader, who has advised the United Arab Emirates, helped set up the meeting between Prince and Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian banker with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, in the Seychelles days before Trump took office. The meeting was one of numerous contacts between campaign associates and Russians that Mueller examined in the course of his investigation.

“Nader developed contacts with both U.S. presidential campaigns during the 2016 election, and kept Dmitriev abreast of his efforts to do so,” the report says. “According to Nader, Dmitriev said that his and the government of Russia’s preference was for candidate Trump to win and asked Nader to assist him in meeting members of the Trump Campaign.”

Nader did not introduce Dmitriev to anyone linked to the Trump campaign prior to the 2016 election, according to Mueller.

“Nader informed Prince that the Russians were looking to build a link with the incoming Trump Administration,” the report states. “Nader suggested, in light of Prince’s relationship with Transition Team officials, that Prince and Dmitriev meet to discuss issues of mutual concern.”

Mueller did not find sufficient evidence to charge members or associates of the Trump campaign with conspiring with Russia. The special counsel concluded his investigation in late March and delivered his first public remarks on his report last week.

Correction: An earlier version of this story featured image of another person by the name of ‘George Nader’ posing next to former President Bill Clinton. This is not the same George Nader as the person arrested earlier this week. This image has now been removed.

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