Trump Clingers Sought to Use Access to President to Win Big Money Contracts From Foreign Princes

I’ve said this often, but given what we’re seeing, it can’t be repeated often enough:

Donald Trump may be the most innocent man alive, totally uninvolved in the raging scandal that has followed him for his entire, short career as president.

He may be, but he has surrounded himself with some of the shadiest, most corrupt individuals, and everything that is haunting him now is because of those associations.

He should pick his friends better.

At the very least, he should be more proactive in knowing who is connecting themselves to his circle.

The Associated Press is reporting on a pair of mercenaries who have sought to use the connection to Trump and his circle to lobby for foreign governments, controlling what has been U.S. policy for some time, as well as to rake in profits for themselves.

It sounds like the usual, swampy Washington political scene, doesn’t it?

It would likely be just another Washington story, as a matter of fact, had it not been for Trump’s pledge to “drain the swamp.”

GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy and businessman George Nader reportedly worked to catch the president’s ear by passing along praise from the princes of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Broidy and Nader, who marketed themselves as having a back channel to the Oval Office, sought million-dollar contracts with the two Gulf countries for their efforts, according to the AP investigation, which included dozens of interviews as well as the review of hundreds of pages of leaked emails between the two men.

Specifically, it appears they attempted to do the work of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who wished to see the United States policy regarding Qatar changed.

Broidy and Nader were getting a tidy sum of money to push through an anti-Qatar bill in Congress.

Chris Clark, an attorney for Broidy claims that there isn’t evidence to suggest his client and Nader were working together, in order to push the interests of foreign nations.

Broidy and his wife had filed a lawsuit in late March alleging the Qatari government has carried out a sophisticated disinformation campaign that aimed to tarnish his reputation. They did this, he argued, by hacking into his email accounts, stealing his data and then maliciously leaking the information to the press.

Broidy had several meetings with President Trump, where he plied him with the praises of the two princes from Saudia Arabia and the UAE. He wrote up summaries of those meetings, afterwards.

According to these summaries, he tried to dissuade Trump from intervening on behalf of Qatar as well as quietly set up a meeting between Trump and the Abu Dhabi crown prince, Mohammed Bin Zayed of Abu Dhabi, who they referred to as “MBZ” their correspondence

Nader and Broidy were also working to get contracts with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

Nader and Broidy should have registered with the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which would require that anyone working on behalf of a foreign government must disclose that information.

Broidy insists that he’s good, and that he didn’t need to register.

Yeah. About that…

The AP notes that its investigation reveals that he was looking early on to receive contracts from his lobbying campaign. A spreadsheet from Broidy’s company, Circinus LLC. countries, lists the two princes as “clients” for the lobbying campaign.

Broidy and Nader met during Trump’s inauguration, and began plotting ways to prove Qatar had ties to Iran. They would do this to benefit Saudi Arabia.

Back in March 2017, it was noted on a document that the goal was to prove Qatar was connected to the Muslim Brotherhood – and they planned to do this with a $12 million price tag.

Shortly after Broidy met with the president, the UAE offered Broidy an intelligence contract that  would award him up to $600 million over the course of five years, the AP reports, citing a leaked email.

Broidy told Nader in January that he had received $36 million, the first installment of this deal.

“First among many to go!” Nader reportedly responded.

After President Trump’s trip to Saudi Arabia last year, Broidy boasted of the success of the visit, attributing it, in part, to his lobbying efforts.

“We have introduced a fully integrated campaign that is yielding tremendous results,” Broidy writes.

He then begins to highlight the possible contracts he could receive on behalf of Saudi Arabia, noting his access to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

“I can help in educating Mnuchin on the importance of the Treasury Department putting many Qatari individuals and organizations on the applicable sanctions lists,” Broidy said in an email to Nader.

“My Goals, Circinus’ goals and the Goals of Saudi Arabia are completely aligned,” he added.

Except he totally was not a lobbyist, guys.

He was at least successful in convincing the president that Qatar were the bad guys. Trump tweeted out a Twitter hit against Qatar.

“[Saudi Arabia] said they would take a hard line on funding extremism and all reference was pointing to Qatar. Perhaps this will be the beginning of the end to horror of terrorism!” Trump tweeted last June.

To further complicate matters, Broidy was also a client of Trump’s longtime “fixer,” Michael Cohen.

Cohen worked for Broidy to arrange a $1.6 million payout to Playboy Playmate Shera Bechard, after an affair left her pregnant and she wanted an abortion.

Seriously, paying off Playmates and porn stars for his wealthy “clients” must be the only real work Michael Cohen does.

Not quite.

Cohen attempted to get involved in the same game Broidy and Nader were playing, by offering Qatari officials access to the president for $1 million. He made this offer at about the same time those Qatari officials met with Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn at Trump Tower.

So remember me saying it wasn’t just about the Russia probe, anymore?

This would be why.

Nader is said to be cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller, now.