Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators want to know how a close friend of Jared Kushner’s ended up in the Seychelles last year and met with some of the same mysterious figures who huddled with Blackwater founder Erik Prince there.
New Yorker hedge funder Rick Gerson was in the Seychelles, an island nation in the Pacific, just weeks before Prince, the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, was there.
Both men met with separately with Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan of Abu Dhabi while they were there.
Both also had contacts with George Nader, the Lebanese-American man with high level Middle East contacts going back decades who helped broker the meeting.
Rick Gerson is a friend of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner’s who ended up in the Seychelles shortly before Erik Prince showed up and met with some of the same people. Here Libi Gerson (L) and Rick Gerson attend the Museum of Modern Art film benefit honoring Quentin Tarantino on December 3, 2012 in New York City.
Gerson’s presence was established by his text messages and confirmed by a person familiar with the meeting, NBC News reported.
Nader has been cooperating with prosecutors since being stopped by the FBI at Dulles International Airport in Virginia in January. He was arrested 1985 on child pornography charges, although charges were later dismissed.
Nader also attended a December 2016 meeting at New York’s Four Seasons hotel, which was attended by the crown prince, as well as key members of Donald Trump’s inner circle.
Among them were Kushner, former chief White House strategist Steve Bannon, and former White House national security advisor Mike Flynn.
Mueller’s team, which is probing Russian election interference, is interested whether the meetings were an effort to set up a back channel to Russia.
Blackwater founder Erik Prince met with the crown prince of Abu Dhabi in the Seychelles
Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates
Prosecutors are focusing on a December meeting in New York with the crown prince as well as a meeting in the Seychelles
Nader, who has for years served as a conduit between administrations and Middle Eastern leaders, also was there when Prince met with a Putin-connected investor Kirill Dmitriev and Emiratis who were there.
Dmitriev oversees the state-run $10 billion Russian Direct Investment Fund and has ties to Putin family members.
The Washington Post reported last April cited officials who said MBZ coordinated the meeting with Russians in hopes of setting up a back channel between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A Gerson spokesman pushed back at the NBC report and said Gerson wasn’t there when Prince met with the Russian and the Emirati representatives.
‘Mr. Gerson was on vacation in the Seychelles prior to the meeting you reference. He knew nothing about the meeting, had left before the meeting was reported to have taken place, and has never met or communicated with Erik Prince,’ said the spokesman.
George Nader has been a go-between between U.S. officials and top Middle Eastern leaders
LETS GET TOGETHER: Waves break over coral reef near the coast of the Seychelles main island Mahe on November 28, 2009
Stephan Roseman and Rick Gerson attend “BASS! How Low Can You Go?” Curated by AMIR SHARIAT at Leila Heller Gallery on May 8, 2013 in New York City
The spokesman also pushed back following publication of the NBC report.
“Your story today about Rick Gerson is completely wrong. Mr. Gerson is not under scrutiny or investigation by any agency including the Special Counsel’s office. Your reporters have completely distorted the facts to suit their narrative making false and misleading suggestions,’ according to the statement.
People familiar with the meetings told NBC Gerson attended because of his ties to Kushner, and that UAE officials considered him ‘Kushner’s guy.’
When he was president-elect, Trump made Kushner a key figure to contact various foreign leaders, then brought him onto this White House staff where he has been a close advisor.