Members-Only Article
Last night I wrote a quick summary of the news about George Nader and the Mueller probe in response to the first reports from CNN and The New York Times. I want to step back and try to sift together the critical elements of the story and suggest how they may fit into the larger picture of the Mueller probe and the Trump/Russia story.
Perhaps unusually, the most telling part of the story is the color about Nader’s first encounter with the FBI, the fullest account of which is in the Times version of the story. George Nader was returning to Dulles airport on January 17th, apparently from abroad, when he was met by FBI agents with search warrants and a subpoena. Nader was planning to travel on to Florida to Mar-a-Lago for a celebration of Trump’s first year in office. Presumably, he planned to meet Trump himself or other members of the Trump inner circle. The FBI swooped in, confiscated Nader’s electronics, began questioning him at length and appear to have presented him with evidence and knowledge that more or less immediately turned him into a cooperating witness. He’s been cooperating ever since and has recently made at least one appearance before Mueller’s grand jury.