Trump Jr. Used Israeli Fixer To Gain Help For Dad’s Campaign From Arab Princes

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By Reuters May 20, 2018

Donald Trump, Jr. met an Israeli envoy and a representative of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia who offered help to the Trump presidential campaign, the New York Times reported on Saturday.

The newspaper said the meeting, held on Aug. 3, 2016, was arranged by Erik Prince, the founder and former head of private military contractor Blackwater, who also attended the meeting. Joel Zamel, a co-founder of an Israeli consulting firm, also attended.

A company connected to Zamel also worked on a proposal for a “covert multimillion-dollar online manipulation campaign” to help Trump, utilizing thousands of fake social media accounts, the report said.

The envoy, Lebanese-American businessman George Nader, told Trump, Jr. that the crown princes of Saudi Arabia and the UAE were eager to help his father win the 2016 presidential election, the report said.

Since 1974, the United States has barred foreign nationals from giving money to political campaigns and it later barred them from donating to political parties. The campaign financing laws also prohibit foreign nationals from coordinating with a campaign and from buying an ad that explicitly calls for the election or defeat of a candidate.

The Saudi and UAE embassies in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Wall Street Journal last month reported that investigators working for special counsel Robert Mueller had met with Zamel, and that Mueller’s team was looking into his firm’s work and his relationship with Nader.

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