Mueller Expands Investigation into UAE Contact (Audio)

election to include influenced by the Emirates. According to The New York Times, George Nader, and Lebanese American businessman who was an advisor to the de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates, is now a focus of Mueller's investigation, with investigators questioning him and other witnesses for information about any possible attempts by the Emirates to buy influence by directing money to Trump's presidential campaign. Joining me as Andrew kNN,

professor at Fordham University Law School. Andrew, there's a lot of sketchy information about Nader um including under the radar interference in the Middle East and a guilty plead to a misdemeanor charge of providing one million dollars in illegal gifts to New York State pension authorities. What do we know about him generally in his connections with the Trump campaign.

So there's been a little bit of reporting about this in the last month and then the big New York Time story, um, you know, just over the past days, but it doesn't provide that much information about his his relationship with the Trump campaign. What what it's been saying is that he was a visitor during the early months of the White House and frequently was there either because Bannon or Jared Kushner wanted him to be, and was

seen a number of times at the White House. But in terms of his involvement in the campaign, there really hasn't been uh, you know, public reporting that's fleshed out what that might have been. The Times reported that he received that he received a detailed report from a top Trump fundraiser, Elliott Proidy, who has hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts allegedly with the U. A E. Asking for and he wanted a private meeting with the President

and the Saudi Crown Prince. What what about the connection

there and that report that he got. It's you know, again, it's a bit sketchy, but it seems that that Nader has a business relationship with this American security company that apparently has a very large contract for providing you know, some types of security contracting for the United Arab Emirates and uh, you know, the United Arab Emirates and and the Saudis have have been quite close and obviously there was a lot of sort of diplomatic back and forth

between the Trump people in the Saudias and the Emirates a little while ago when they were blockading Cutter, their neighbor. That the that the Saudis and the Emiraties were upset about because of the Cutter support, as I thought for sort of politicized Islam. So there's sort of a a murky mix of money and Middle Eastern politics here that may have some intersection with the you know, with with the Trump scandals that Muller has been looking at, but

it's a little unclear yet what that might be. We keep hearing about different aspects of or we think they're different aspects that could have been there from the beginning for all we know of Mahler's inquiry. Would this be a broadening of these investigations or just another avenue he's looking down if you certainly could be a broadening, but that's absolutely within the scope that he's been authorized to have.

From the beginning of the order by Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein that appointed Muller made quite clear that Muller had the authority not just to investigate links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign, but also, as the order said, any matters that would arise directly from that investigation. So we saw for example, with Paul Manaford and with Rick Gates and you know, their indictments for or you know,

money wandering in bank fraud and tetra. You know, those those were not directly about the you know, the Trump Russa relationship, but arose out of Muller's investigation. And certainly, you know, it's possible that you know something about you a e influence on the Trump campaign or perhaps even illegally giving money to the Trump campaign was something that Mueller came across while, you know, while interviewing people, and therefore decided to pursue I want to turn to a

Muller grand jury subpoena. According to Axios, UH they got ahold of a grand jury subpoena given to a witness and it was for all communications, emails, text, handwritten notes that this witness sent and received from November one to the President regarding ten top Trump campaign officials, including I mean they go from Korey Lewandowski, Donald Trump, Junior, Hope Picks, Paul Man of Fort Rick Gates, Steve Bannon, Roger Stone,

and tell us. I mean, is this unusual to have this broad and inquiry and to have it, uh, you know, sort of focused on ten specific Trump campaign officials present reformer. No, that sounds quite normal. I mean they've you know, the core of the of the Mueller inquiry is about possible coordination between the Russian government and the Trump campaign, and that sounds like a subpoena seeking you know, the communications

and other kinds of documents about Trump campaign members. So I mean that that sounds like a like a reasonable kind of request that you had seen an investigation of this type. So we didn't have any indictments last week at last Friday. So where where does where do you see Mueller's investigation standing now? Some people say, well, it appears to be you know, reaching the White House, and perhaps it will be over soon, and others say, no,

it has a long way to go. Well, I guess, sure, I guess the first thing, that's just a note of humility. I mean, the Muller team has been very leakproof. You know, we saw that, you know, we had guilty please from a number of people come without any advance you know, leaking or press reporting about it at all. So I think the first thing is that, you know, we really don't know, um what what Mueller is doing. They've been very good at keeping secrets, but um, you know, I'd

be surprised if this is wrapping up quickly. I mean the Gates and and Papadopoulis and Michael Flynn, the former National Scarity advisor all got generous plea deals, presumably because they can provide information and lead to more prosecutions. All right, well, thank you as always for being here with us and helping us to sort through this and and try to figure out where that investigation is going. It's certainly going in many different directions as at once. Thanks Andrew. That's

Andrew Kent. He's a professor at Fordham University Law School. Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg Law podcast. You can subscribe and listen to the show on Apple podcasts, SoundCloud and on bloomberg dot com slash podcast. I'm June Brasso. This is Bloomberg