Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating senior White House aide Jared Kushner’s close friend Rick Gerson because of his closeness to several meetings between the Trump administration and several foreign officials.
Four unnamed sources close to the investigation told NBC News that Gerson, a hedge-fund manager in New York, was in Seychelles in January 2017, the same time President Donald Trump’s associate Erik Prince was there for a secret meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan and other officials from the United Arab Emirates and Russia.
On his trip, Gerson spoke with businessman George Nader, who facilitated the Prince meeting, as well as bin Zayed al-Nahyan, according to NBC.
A few weeks prior to that, Gerson, bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Kushner and other Trump officials secretly met at the Four Seasons hotel in New York. Others in attendance included former national security adviser Michael Flynn, chief political adviser Steve Bannon, as well as the UAE ambassador to the U.S., Yousef Al Otaiba.
A spokesperson for Gerson told NBC News on Friday that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair invited him to the New York meeting to discuss Israeli-Palestinian relations, for which Kushner was a champion of on behalf of the Trump administration. (RELATED: Report: Jared Kushner Didn’t Disclose Business Dealings With George Soros)
The report indicates that Mueller suspects Gerson’s meeting in Seychelles with Prince might have been an effort to create a back-channel between the incoming Trump administration and the Russian government.
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