seasons hotel in new york city with the ruler of the united arab em rats, mbz who went out of his way to inform the obama administration he was making that visit despite the fact he was the ruler of a foreign country and that s the thing you re supposed to let the government know about. he did not tell the obama administration he was here at that secret meeting in december 2016 during the transition. the cast of characters reportedly involved george nader, the crown prince of the united arab em rats and once again, mike flynn, steve bannon, jared kushner, and this time another friend of jared kushner, rick gerson. he turns up multiple times in the mueller report, for funneling a putin approved document that he obtained from an investment fund and delivered that to the kremlin with direct approval from vladimir putin. so that happens in december of
figure, new york hedge fund manager names rick gerson is a close friend of jared kushner s, the president s son-in-law. most intriguing however, is that gerson is keckconnected to at l two participants in that meeting about a kremlin back channel. quote, while in the remote independent indiana island nation, gerson met with prince mohammed and communicated with george nader. the development adds a new layer of intrigue, i d say, to an already strange of set of circumstances. and as nbc news reports, mueller s team has asked witnesses about gerson s proximity to that seychelles meeting as well as another meeting a month earlier in new york city. a spokesperson for rick gerson told nbc that mr. gerson was on vacation in the seychelles prior to the meeting you reference. he knew nothing about the meeting. however, gerson declined his lawyer declined to say whether gerson has been personally
election, before trump took office. anyway, according to nbc s reporting, rick gerson has been friends with kushner for more than a decade. however, gerson first met george nader just weeks before his trip to the seychelles in another secret meeting at the four seasons hotel in new york in mid-december, right after the election. the participants of that meeting included gerson, jared kushner, george nader, and the crown prince of the uae along with trump s national security adviser michael flynn and trump s political adviser steve bannon. so what everybody is watching and nobody is like you, ken. let me just ask you as we move towards a declaration of guilt perhaps i expect to have one from robert mueller. we know it s going to deal with obstruction in the first instance. is he still building a heavy body of evidence regarding collusion with the russians? it sure looks that way, chris, because subpoenas are going out. you know, even as a few weeks ago on the roger stone aspect
special counsel bob mueller now looking into a close friend of jared kushner. this is all about the investigation of potential foreign influence or broken laws that relate to trump s presidential campaign. now, rick gerson according to nbc news was in the seychelles and had a meeting with the crown prince of abu dhabi. the meeting happened to be around the same time trump associate erik prince was also in the seychelles for that secret meeting with russian and ramadi officials, including the crown prince. mueller has gathered evidence that the meeting was an effort to establish a, quote, back channel between the incoming administration and the kremlin, according to the washington post. gerson s spokesperson says, no, mr. gerson was on vacation prior to the meeting that was referenced. he knew nothing about the meeting. joining us now is ken dilanian, intelligence and national
security reporter for nbc news, who helped break this whole story. betsy woodruff with us. ken, do you ever vacation in the seychelles, first of all? i would love to someday but haven t yet. maybe you can do some reporting and add on a couple days on the end. i don t think you need to be as great an expert reporter as you are in this to kind of question the explanation, but lay it all out for us. yeah. as you said, gerson s spokesperson is saying that he was there on vacation. he was not even aware of this secret meeting that george nader, the lebanese-american businessman that was there was telling mueller was actually a back channel. but he was also mr. gerson was at a separate meeting at the four seasons in new york, which was attended by steve bannon, michael flynn, as well as nader and some of the other characters. the bottom line for those trying to follow this at home is mueller appears to be investigating whether the united arab emirates essentially piggybacked on the r