It's Not Just Russia. Saudi Arabia and UAE Are Buying Influence in the Trump Administration.

By Paul Gottinger, Reader Supported News

23 March 18

 

here are the claims of a billion dollar bribe to President Trump and a boast about Jared Kushner being in “his pocket.” These are just two of the allegations swirling around the crown prince of Saudi Arabia and his attempts to buy influence in the Trump administration.

This week, Trump met with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammad Bin Salman as part of the prince’s tour of the US. Over the next two weeks, the prince, who is widely referred to as MBS, will meet US business leaders and politicians in an attempt to drum up investment in his country and deepen Saudi Arabian influence in the US.

Since Trump came to office, he’s strongly backed Saudi Arabia and its Persian Gulf ally, United Arab Emirates (UAE), in their aggressive and reckless polices in the Middle East — often at the expense of US interests. The most illustrative examples of this are the disastrous war in Yemen, the economic blockade of US-ally Qatar, and Saudi Arabia’s detention and torture of prominent Saudi citizens at a luxury hotel, reportedly with the help of US security contractor Academi, formerly known as Blackwater.

Saudi Arabia and UAE both have repressive, dictatorial regimes with long histories of supporting terrorism. Legal documents unearthed as part of the lawsuit brought by victims of 9/11 show that the US Saudi Embassy funded a “dry run” of the horrific attacks on September 11, 2001.

The documents show “a pattern of both financial and operational support” from the Saudi government, which helped the 9/11 hijackers in the run-up to the attacks.

Yet despite this, it looks as though Trump is planning to continue to push policies favored by Saudi Arabia and UAE. Trump is widely thought to be preparing to pull the US out of the Iran nuclear deal while preparing to grant Saudi Arabia the ability begin its own nuclear weapons program.

All this makes one wonder: has Trump sold US foreign policy to the highest bidders, Saudi Arabia and UAE?

Much has been written about Russia’s influence over the Trump administration; however, far less has been published on the increasingly clear signs that Saudi Arabia and the UAE are attempting to buy influence in the Trump administration — in likely illegal ways.

In November, a very well known Saudi Arabian whistleblower, who’s sometimes called the “Julian Assange of Saudi Arabia,” wrote that Saudi Arabia’s crown prince had transferred 1 billion dollars to Donald Trump as a bribe during Trump’s May 2017 visit to Saudi Arabia.

According to the whistleblower, who goes by the name Mujtahidd, “A private yacht discreetly arrived at Jeddah Port; heavily guarded and identity hidden. Even the Port’s authorities were not allowed near it. Only a number of individuals reached it — delivering several boxes of cash ($1 billion USD). After loading the boxes, the yacht disappeared. The operation lasted hours & was kept secret as was the yacht’s identity, origin and destination.”

This enormous allegation of bribery hasn’t been independently confirmed by any other sources; however, it has been reported that Trump received an astonishing 83 gifts from Saudi Arabia during his trip there — some of them quite extravagant. The gifts included “artwork featuring pictures of President Trump, multiple swords, daggers, leather ammo holders and holsters, tiger and cheetah fur robes, and a dagger made of pure silver with a mother of pearl sheath.”

The Saudi crown prince has even bragged, in a conversation with the crown prince of UAE, that Jared Kushner was “in his pocket.”

Last year, Kushner, who has a close relationship with MBS, took an unannounced trip to Saudi Arabia, where he is said to have discussed “the names of Saudis disloyal to the crown prince.” Jared Kushner, who until recently had top security clearance, reportedly read the president’s classified daily briefings regularly.

A week after Kushner left Saudi Arabia, MBS ordered the detention of 200 wealthy Saudi citizens, some of whom were explicitly mentioned in the president’s daily briefing. Seventeen of the Saudis detained were tortured so badly they required hospitalization and one detainee even died.

If Kushner did indeed pass classified intelligence to a foreign country to be used to target dissidents for torture, it would be possibly illegal. The president has the legal authority to allow Kushner to pass classified information on, but handing over US intelligence information to be used to target critics of the Saudi crown prince, is — to say the least — concerning.

Yet, this would not be a first for the Trump administration. In May, Trump reportedly passed highly classified information to the Russians.

In January 2017, Qorvis MSLGroup, a lobbying firm working for the Saudi Arabian government, made the first ever payment of a foreign government to a Trump property since Trump was elected president. The payment was for $270,000 worth of rooms at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC.

Last year, this same lobbying firm tricked US veterans into coming to Washington to urge Congress to repeal the law letting 9/11 victims’ families sue Saudi Arabia. While the veterans were in Washington they stayed at Trump International Hotel.

The United Arab Emirates is also playing the Trump influence game.

In December of 2016, George Nader, a convicted pedophile and representative of UAE, set up a meeting at Trump Tower between Jared Kushner, Steve Bannon and the crown prince of UAE, Mohammed Bin Zayed.

Then, in January of 2017, George Nader set up meeting between Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, and Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian oligarch who is close to President Vladimir Putin. The meeting, which took place in Seychelles, was likely set up by Nader on behalf of the UAE. The effort is widely seen as an attempt to set up a backchannel of communication between the Trump administration and Russia.

Nader was close enough to the Trump administration to make regular visits to the White House to see former White House strategist Steve Bannon, whom he describes as his “best friend.” Nader even claims to be behind the successful effort to push Rex Tillerson out of the Trump administration.

Nader’s close proximity to the Trump administration has drawn the attention of Robert Mueller. Mr. Nader has been asked to testify (for a second time) about his yearlong effort to gain influence in the Trump administration on behalf of the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Mueller is also investigating the possibility that Mr. Nader funneled UAE money into the Trump campaign.

Nader provided a $2.7 million payment — possibly transferred from UAE — to top Trump fundraiser Elliot Broidy, who then used it help pay for conferences put on by the hawkish think tanks Hudson Institute — where Steve Bannon was a key speaker — and the anti-Iran think tank, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD).

FDD is thought to have considerable influence with Trump administration; at times White House statements have even used their exact talking points in statements on Iran.

But Nader’s cooperation with the Mueller investigation may be over. There are reports that George Nader has fled the US to return to the UAE, after UAE’s crown prince “pulled strings” with US officials to allow his travel.

UAE’s crown prince is likely anxious to know what Nader has told Robert Mueller.

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Paul Gottinger is a staff reporter at RSN whose work focuses on the Middle East and the arms industry. He can be reached on Twitter @paulgottinger or via email.

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