A key witness in former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe who was also linked to President Trump’s transition team has been indicted on child pornography charges.
George Nader, who is accused of transporting a dozen of videos depicting boys as young as 3, made an initial appearance in Brooklyn Federal court on Monday.
The 60-year-old Lebanese-American businessman acted as a liaison among Trump supporters, Middle East leaders and Russians in 2017. His organizing of meetings between Trump supporter Erik Prince and Russian officials close to Vladimir Putin was of particular interest to Mueller, who subpoenaed Nader regarding the meetings in 2018.
Nader was stopped at Washington-Dulles Airport after returning from the United Arab Emirates on Jan. 16, 2018, pursuant to a search warrant “unrelated to child pornography,” according to a criminal complaint unsealed Monday.
After interviewing him, FBI agents seized three iPhones from him — also pursuant to an investigation unrelated to child porn, the complaint notes.
But once investigators peered inside his devices, they found a trove of at least 12 disgusting and humiliating videos, including ones depicting children as young as three masturbating, being sexually abused by adults and engaging in bestiality.
Some videos were edited to slow-motion replay particularly explicit portions of the clips, investigators noted.
Nader, who looked disheveled on court Monday, wearing glasses, a wrinkled shirt and khakis with no belt, answered “yes” when magistrate Cheryl Pollack asked if he understood the charges — which makes sense, because he was already convicted of them once 28 years ago.
He was busted trying to sneak kiddie porn through the very same airport in 1990 — when he was found with two reels of illicit video tape concealed in candy tins, the complaint notes.
He was convicted the following year, but received a reduced sentence after arguing at the time that he played a vital national security role in working to free U.S. hostages then held in Lebanon, the Washington Post reported.
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