Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Law Podcast. I'm June Grosso. Every
Speaker 1: day we bring you insight and analysis into the most
Speaker 1: important legal news of the day. You can find more
Speaker 1: episodes of the Bloomberg Law Podcast on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud
Speaker 1: and on Bloomberg dot com Slash Podcasts. Is special counsel
Speaker 1: Robert Mueller broadening his investigation on Russia's influence over the
Speaker 1: election to include influenced by the Emirates. According to The
Speaker 1: New York Times, George Nader, and Lebanese American businessman who
Speaker 1: was an advisor to the de facto ruler of the
Speaker 1: United Arab Emirates, is now a focus of Mueller's investigation,
Speaker 1: with investigators questioning him and other witnesses for information about
Speaker 1: any possible attempts by the Emirates to buy influence by
Speaker 1: directing money to Trump's presidential campaign. Joining me as Andrew kNN,
Speaker 1: professor at Fordham University Law School. Andrew, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of sketchy information about Nader um including under the radar
Speaker 1: interference in the Middle East and a guilty plead to
Speaker 1: a misdemeanor charge of providing one million dollars in illegal
Speaker 1: gifts to New York State pension authorities. What do we
Speaker 1: know about him generally in his connections with the Trump campaign.
Speaker 1: So there's been a little bit of reporting about this
Speaker 1: in the last month and then the big New York
Speaker 1: Time story, um, you know, just over the past days,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't provide that much information about his his
Speaker 1: relationship with the Trump campaign. What what it's been saying
Speaker 1: is that he was a visitor during the early months
Speaker 1: of the White House and frequently was there either because
Speaker 1: Bannon or Jared Kushner wanted him to be, and was
Speaker 1: seen a number of times at the White House. But
Speaker 1: in terms of his involvement in the campaign, there really
Speaker 1: hasn't been uh, you know, public reporting that's fleshed out
Speaker 1: what that might have been. The Times reported that he
Speaker 1: received that he received a detailed report from a top
Speaker 1: Trump fundraiser, Elliott Proidy, who has hundreds of millions of
Speaker 1: dollars in contracts allegedly with the U. A E. Asking
Speaker 1: for and he wanted a private meeting with the President
Speaker 1: and the Saudi Crown Prince. What what about the connection
Speaker 1: there and that report that he got. It's you know, again,
Speaker 1: it's a bit sketchy, but it seems that that Nader
Speaker 1: has a business relationship with this American security company that
Speaker 1: apparently has a very large contract for providing you know,
Speaker 1: some types of security contracting for the United Arab Emirates
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, the United Arab Emirates and and
Speaker 1: the Saudis have have been quite close and obviously there
Speaker 1: was a lot of sort of diplomatic back and forth
Speaker 1: between the Trump people in the Saudias and the Emirates
Speaker 1: a little while ago when they were blockading Cutter, their neighbor.
Speaker 1: That the that the Saudis and the Emiraties were upset
Speaker 1: about because of the Cutter support, as I thought for
Speaker 1: sort of politicized Islam. So there's sort of a a
Speaker 1: murky mix of money and Middle Eastern politics here that
Speaker 1: may have some intersection with the you know, with with
Speaker 1: the Trump scandals that Muller has been looking at, but
Speaker 1: it's a little unclear yet what that might be. We
Speaker 1: keep hearing about different aspects of or we think they're
Speaker 1: different aspects that could have been there from the beginning
Speaker 1: for all we know of Mahler's inquiry. Would this be
Speaker 1: a broadening of these investigations or just another avenue he's
Speaker 1: looking down if you certainly could be a broadening, but
Speaker 1: that's absolutely within the scope that he's been authorized to have.
Speaker 1: From the beginning of the order by Deputy Attorney General
Speaker 1: Rosenstein that appointed Muller made quite clear that Muller had
Speaker 1: the authority not just to investigate links between the Russian
Speaker 1: government and the Trump campaign, but also, as the order said,
Speaker 1: any matters that would arise directly from that investigation. So
Speaker 1: we saw for example, with Paul Manaford and with Rick
Speaker 1: Gates and you know, their indictments for or you know,
Speaker 1: money wandering in bank fraud and tetra. You know, those
Speaker 1: those were not directly about the you know, the Trump
Speaker 1: Russa relationship, but arose out of Muller's investigation. And certainly,
Speaker 1: you know, it's possible that you know something about you
Speaker 1: a e influence on the Trump campaign or perhaps even
Speaker 1: illegally giving money to the Trump campaign was something that
Speaker 1: Mueller came across while, you know, while interviewing people, and
Speaker 1: therefore decided to pursue I want to turn to a
Speaker 1: Muller grand jury subpoena. According to Axios, UH they got
Speaker 1: ahold of a grand jury subpoena given to a witness
Speaker 1: and it was for all communications, emails, text, handwritten notes
Speaker 1: that this witness sent and received from November one to
Speaker 1: the President regarding ten top Trump campaign officials, including I
Speaker 1: mean they go from Korey Lewandowski, Donald Trump, Junior, Hope Picks,
Speaker 1: Paul Man of Fort Rick Gates, Steve Bannon, Roger Stone,
Speaker 1: and tell us. I mean, is this unusual to have
Speaker 1: this broad and inquiry and to have it, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: sort of focused on ten specific Trump campaign officials present reformer. No,
Speaker 1: that sounds quite normal. I mean they've you know, the
Speaker 1: core of the of the Mueller inquiry is about possible
Speaker 1: coordination between the Russian government and the Trump campaign, and
Speaker 1: that sounds like a subpoena seeking you know, the communications
Speaker 1: and other kinds of documents about Trump campaign members. So
Speaker 1: I mean that that sounds like a like a reasonable
Speaker 1: kind of request that you had seen an investigation of
Speaker 1: this type. So we didn't have any indictments last week
Speaker 1: at last Friday. So where where does where do you
Speaker 1: see Mueller's investigation standing now? Some people say, well, it
Speaker 1: appears to be you know, reaching the White House, and
Speaker 1: perhaps it will be over soon, and others say, no,
Speaker 1: it has a long way to go. Well, I guess, sure,
Speaker 1: I guess the first thing, that's just a note of humility.
Speaker 1: I mean, the Muller team has been very leakproof. You know,
Speaker 1: we saw that, you know, we had guilty please from
Speaker 1: a number of people come without any advance you know,
Speaker 1: leaking or press reporting about it at all. So I
Speaker 1: think the first thing is that, you know, we really
Speaker 1: don't know, um what what Mueller is doing. They've been
Speaker 1: very good at keeping secrets, but um, you know, I'd
Speaker 1: be surprised if this is wrapping up quickly. I mean
Speaker 1: the Gates and and Papadopoulis and Michael Flynn, the former
Speaker 1: National Scarity advisor all got generous plea deals, presumably because
Speaker 1: they can provide information and lead to more prosecutions. All right, well,
Speaker 1: thank you as always for being here with us and
Speaker 1: helping us to sort through this and and try to
Speaker 1: figure out where that investigation is going. It's certainly going
Speaker 1: in many different directions as at once. Thanks Andrew. That's
Speaker 1: Andrew Kent. He's a professor at Fordham University Law School.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg Law podcast. You can
Speaker 1: subscribe and listen to the show on Apple podcasts, SoundCloud
Speaker 1: and on bloomberg dot com slash podcast. I'm June Brasso.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg