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It’s Not Just the Russia Probe, Anymore

It’s Not Just the Russia Probe, Anymore

Last updated on: May 19, 2018 at 5:08 pm by Susan Wright

It’s Not Just the Russia Probe, Anymore 2018-05-19T17:08:43-04:00 Susan Wright

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President Trump’s eldest child, Donald Jr, maybe should have kept his attention focused on his marriage in 2016, rather than attempting to be a behind-the-scenes wheeler-dealer for his dad’s presidential campaign.

Everything that has been revealed about his efforts, thus far, have painted a disastrous picture of incompetence.

And maybe a bit of corruption. I’ll let you guys decide.

At this point, I imagine even those with only the bones-bare knowledge of the ongoing Russia probe have up to speed on the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Junior and the Russian attorney, Natalia Veselnitskaya.

For those who’ve somehow missed it, in 2016 Trump Jr. received an email from a family friend, telling him the Russian government had dirt on Hillary Clinton and they wanted to help his dad win.

Instead of going to authorities, he set up a meeting, and the June 2016 meeting was the result.

At that meeting was Trump Jr., Veselnitskaya, then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Trump son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a Russian translator, as well as a former Russian soldier, both with alleged ties to Russian intelligence, Rob Goldstone, a music producer (also the author of the email), and a representative for a Russian oligarch, whose name pops up more than once in the various tales of intrigue in this Trump saga.

The purpose behind that meeting has been debated, but the general consensus is that it was probably a really, really bad idea.

Given that, we’re now taking bets on just how bad this new revelation of another Trump Jr-led Trump Tower meeting will be.

The second meeting being discussed now was several months after the June 2016 Russia meeting. This time, it wasn’t Russian lawyers, but a Gulf emissary, with news that the Crown princes of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were eager to offer their services to the Trump campaign.

Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with George Nader was held at Trump Tower in August 2016, The New York Times reported Saturday, noting the meeting and other interactions are the first indication that a country other than Russia may have offered to help the Trump campaign before the election.

Also present at the meeting was an Israeli political strategist named Joel Zamel, whose company chalked up a plan to manipulate social media in an effort to help elect Trump, the Times reported.

So it wasn’t just Russian trolls?

Also tangled up in this particular encounter is Blackwater founder (and brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos), Erik Prince. He allegedly set up to August meeting.

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.

So did the Trump campaign jump on this offer of help?

That’s unclear, at this point, but after Trump won the election, Nader reportedly paid Zamel somewhere in the neighborhood of $2 million.

Why?

Nobody has a clear answer, but it may be for the Zamel-owned company that created a presentation that aimed to show the importance of social media campaigning for Trump.

The meetings, which have not been reported previously, are the first indication that countries other than Russia may have offered assistance to the Trump campaign in the months before the presidential election. The interactions are a focus of the investigation by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, who was originally tasked with examining possible Trump campaign coordination with Russia in the election.

Mr. Nader is cooperating with the inquiry, and investigators have questioned numerous witnesses in Washington, New York, Atlanta, Tel Aviv and elsewhere about what foreign help may have been pledged or accepted, and about whether any such assistance was coordinated with Russia, according to witnesses and others with knowledge of the interviews.

Alan Futerfas, attorney for Donald Trump Jr. doesn’t dispute the meeting took place. He says it was a simple meeting to propose a new marketing strategy for social media.

Maybe.

What this means for the observers of this American political thriller is that it’s not strictly a “Russia probe,” anymore. Now, it would appear there are other foreign players on the field, and it doesn’t matter whether they’re geopolitical allies or foes. Any foreign meddling in a U.S. election is illegal.

The revelations about the meetings come in the midst of new scrutiny about ties between Mr. Trump’s advisers and at least three wealthy Persian Gulf states. Besides his interest in Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, Mr. Mueller has also been asking witnesses about meetings between White House advisers and representatives of Qatar, Saudi Arabia’s bitter rival.

Speaking of those Gulf states, their reasons for favoring Trump were solid enough: They hoped for a stronger friend in the region, feeling the policies of Barack Obama had left a vacuum in the area. To them, Hillary Clinton represented that same weakness.

Since entering the White House, Mr. Trump has allied himself closely with Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. His first overseas trip was to Riyadh. He strongly backed Saudi and Emirati efforts to isolate their neighbor Qatar, another American ally, even over apparent disagreement from the State and Defense Departments.

And it probably had nothing to do with that August 2016 meeting, or anything that may have come afterwards.

It’s a lot to take in. It’s a whole new chapter of curiosities surrounding the election.

Or maybe it was nothing, at all.

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