meeting with Vnesheconombank chief executive Gorkov—a bank known for “advancing the strategic interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin and for its role in a past U.S. espionage case,” according to the Washington Post—raises red flags for the special counsel’s office due to the parties’ divergent explanations for its purpose and content.155 Gorkov, who speaks Arabic, contends the meeting “was held as part of a new business strategy and was conducted with Kushner in his role as the head of his family’s real estate business,” while the White House says “the meeting was unrelated to business and was one of many diplomatic encounters” Kushner was holding ahead of the inauguration.”156
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Sometime in December, George Nader, Jared Kushner, Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn, and MBZ—and possibly others—meet secretly at Trump Tower.157 As with every other pre-election and transition meeting at Trump Tower between members of the Trump campaign or PTT and foreign nationals, the participants will give no indication of whether Trump had knowledge of the meeting before, during, or after its occurrence—despite it happening in the building in which he works and lives.158
On January 3, 2017, Nader meets twice with Erik Prince to discuss Putin’s emissary Dmitriev, with whom Nader has been in touch throughout the general election campaign.159 Based on his years of familiarity with Prince and his months of pre-election contacts with the Trump campaign, Nader considers Prince to be in Trump’s “inner circle,” and moreover someone who “wield[s] influence,” is “trusted,” and is “well connected” within that circle. Therefore, Nader decides, Prince is a good person for Dmitriev to meet as the latter man tries to execute Putin’s plan to negotiate sanctions relief with members of the PTT.160 On January 4, Nader sends Prince a series of documents regarding Dmitriev that Prince opens almost immediately from a location inside Trump Tower. During the same three-hour period Prince is at Trump Tower reading the documents Nader has sent him about Putin’s emissary, Prince speaks with former Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, future Trump commerce secretary Wilbur Ross, future Trump treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin, and Bannon, the former Trump campaign CEO.161 Within seventy-two hours—even before Nader has informed Dmitriev that Prince has agreed to meet with him—Prince has booked a ticket to the Seychelles for a January 11 meeting with the RDIF director.162 According to Nader, the decision to have Prince meet Dmitriev was made by Bannon; Prince, however, will tell the special counsel’s office that he cannot recall if Bannon knew of his trip to the Seychelles in advance—one of dozens of Prince statements to Congress and the special counsel that contradicts statements made by other witnesses, including witnesses under cooperation agreements with federal law enforcement that guarantee swift legal punishment for any deceit.163 Notwithstanding Prince’s repeated misstatements, he will eventually concede to the special counsel’s office that “it was fair for Nader to think that [he] would pass information on to the Transition Team.”164 Bannon, however, will make no such concession to the special counsel, claiming that he had no knowledge of Prince’s trip in advance despite Mueller’s cooperating witness Nader saying otherwise.165
On January 11, Prince meets with Dmitriev twice in the Seychelles: once for thirty to forty-five minutes with Nader in Nader’s villa on the island, and once for a briefer meeting with Nader and the Russian at a restaurant inside the Four Seasons Hotel.166 During the first meeting, Dmitriev seeks to “outlin[e] a strategic roadmap for both countries [the United States and Russia] to follow” in restarting their relationship. During the second meeting, Prince, despite the clear restrictions imposed upon the negotiation of U.S. foreign policy by private citizens, negotiates U.S. foreign policy toward Libya with the Kremlin agent, informing him that Libya is “off the table” for Russian intervention because “the United States”—an entity for whom Prince does not speak—“could not accept any Russian involvement in Libya because it would make the situation there much worse.”167 It will later be revealed by the Washington Post that Trump ally MBS has been secretly involving himself in Libya, “egg[ing] on and materially support[ing]” a Libyan warlord (and accused war criminal) named Khalifa Hifter; this may explain why Trump’s emissary in the Seychelles, Prince, does not want either Russia or any of its allies, particularly Iran, becoming involved in the troubled North African nation.168 As Libya was originally envisioned as the sixth member of the Red Sea Conspiracy (along with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Bahrain, and Jordan), it is also possible MBS’s designs on the war-torn country