Erik Prince is the brother of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. He is also (according to the mainstream media) a "Trump associate" whatever that means. Right now, he has been injected into the latest storm of media coverage regarding the Trump-Russia election collusion story. Here's the tale: Last fall, Prince testified before the House Intelligence Committee. During the testimony, he was asked about a trip he took to the Seychelles Islands in January of 2017. Prince was asked for the identities of the people with whom he met. Prince said he met with a group from the United Arabe Emirates and also with a Russsian banker/businessman. Prince said his trip had nothing to do with Trump and the discussions with the Russian also had nothing to do with Trump. Now, however, there's a claim that George Nader (no relation to Ralph) was also present for at least the meeting with the Emiratis. Nader is a Lebanese-American businessman with whom Prince had worked about five years earlier. That doesn't sound like much, but here's the big claim: supposedly, Prince was meeting to try to set up a back channel of communications between Russia and the USA. The media is now hyperventilating that Prince may have lied to the House panel by failing to identify Nader by name as being present at the meeting.
Things in the Trump-Russia space-time continuum are clearly getting desperate. Remember in January of 2017, Trump was either President-elect or President. If he wanted to set up a back channel of communications with Russia, that would be perfectly normal. Not all messages with foreign governments are sent through the State Department, especially when there is a need to avoid leaks. Obviously, this could not be part of a plan to collude on the elections, since they were over months earlier. More important, there is no evidence that this meeting had anything to do with setting up a back channel of communications in the first place. So what does the media really have? Prince, who was not part of the Trump administration, took a trip to Africa that Prince says had nothing to do with Trump. There is no proof of any involvement by Trump or his staff. During that trip, Prince meets a Russian businessman, a meeting Prince says happened by chance. There is no proof that the meeting was pre-arranged. While meeting with the Russian, Prince did not discuss Trump. Again, there is no proof to the contrary. Nevertheless, when Prince met with a group from the UAE, he didn't mention that Nader was also in the room. Of course, if you read his testimony, Prince did say that the staff and associates of the UAE group were there. We don't know if Nader was working for the UAE or not. That is hardly proof of Trump-Russia collusion. It isn't even proof of anything of importance. This is nothing more than BS.
Things in the Trump-Russia space-time continuum are clearly getting desperate. Remember in January of 2017, Trump was either President-elect or President. If he wanted to set up a back channel of communications with Russia, that would be perfectly normal. Not all messages with foreign governments are sent through the State Department, especially when there is a need to avoid leaks. Obviously, this could not be part of a plan to collude on the elections, since they were over months earlier. More important, there is no evidence that this meeting had anything to do with setting up a back channel of communications in the first place. So what does the media really have? Prince, who was not part of the Trump administration, took a trip to Africa that Prince says had nothing to do with Trump. There is no proof of any involvement by Trump or his staff. During that trip, Prince meets a Russian businessman, a meeting Prince says happened by chance. There is no proof that the meeting was pre-arranged. While meeting with the Russian, Prince did not discuss Trump. Again, there is no proof to the contrary. Nevertheless, when Prince met with a group from the UAE, he didn't mention that Nader was also in the room. Of course, if you read his testimony, Prince did say that the staff and associates of the UAE group were there. We don't know if Nader was working for the UAE or not. That is hardly proof of Trump-Russia collusion. It isn't even proof of anything of importance. This is nothing more than BS.
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