Adviser to Emirates With Ties to Trump Aides Is Cooperating With Special Counsel<br />The meeting, convened by the crown prince, brought together a Russian investor close to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia with Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater<br />and an informal adviser to Mr. Trump’s team during the presidential transition, according to three people familiar with the meeting.<br />Prince was speaking for the Trump transition team,<br />and a Russian fund manager, Kirill Dmitriev, represented Mr. Putin, according to several people familiar with the meeting.<br />Mr. Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and a senior transition adviser, met at Trump Tower with Sergey I. Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to Washington at the time,<br />and discussed setting up a back channel to communicate with Moscow during the transition — circumventing American diplomatic channels normally used during a presidential transition.<br />After Crown Prince Mohammed met with Mr. Putin in 2013 in Moscow on a state visit, two investment arms of the government in Abu Dhabi committed to invest<br />$6 billion in the Russian Direct Investment Fund, eventually paying to build projects like roads, an airport and cancer treatment centers in Russia.<br />Since then, Mr. Nader has been questioned numerous times about meetings in New York during the transition, the Seychelles meeting<br />and meetings in the White House with two of Mr. Trump’s senior advisers, Jared Kushner and Stephen K. Bannon, who has since left the administration.<br />He was in the Seychelles for a meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed and Emirati officials, Mr.<br />Mr. Nader’s cooperation in the special counsel’s investigation could prompt new legal risks for the Trump administration,<br />and Mr. Nader’s presence at the Seychelles meeting appears to connect him to the primary focus of Mr. Mueller’s investigation: examining Russian interference during the 2016 presidential campaign.
