george nader is cooperating with mueller and is telling him that this was a back channel.r the russians to meet with officials in the trump administration or send messages to them about better relations with russia. don't forget this is after the 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 rega

the participants at that meeting included gerson, jared kushner, george nader and the crowns prince oflong with trump's national security adviser michael flynn and trump's political adviser steve bannon. what everybody's watching, the experts nobody is like you, ken, let me ask you, as we move towards a declaration of guilt, i expect one from robert mueller. it's going to deal with obstruction. is he still building a heavy body of evidence regarding collusion with the russians? >> it looks like thatting. > subpoenas are going out. even as of a few weeks ago on the roger stone aspect of potential collusion. he's looking at this now. what we don't know what evidence he's already gathered particularly what donald trump the candidate knew about that trump tower meeting that his son set up. is he still investigating that. the question is, what does he have. >> i'm calling the iceberg. since we were kids, we know the iceberg including the one that sunk the titanic, you only see about 10%. that's why i look at bob mueller's operation. you don't see 90%. >> less about it as time goes on. just

he was working with george nader who said he was close to both of the crown princes from saudi arabia and the u.a.e. broady reportedly lobbied the president and later received hundreds of millions of dollars worth of defense deals from the u.a.e. in one e-mail bertie boasted about his role writing trumps vocal support of saudi arabia at this summit quote is a direct result of the campaign we have led over the past two months to highlight the funding of terrorism by cutter and the muslim brotherhood brody is suing cutter he says they hacked his e-mails a charge they deny but cutters facing more scrutiny because of another court case prominent guitars are being sued by rapper ice cube he says they didn't pay him as promised in a business deal and his partner testified that they tried to use them to get to steve benen in testimony describing their offer as a bribe which they also deny all sides of spent millions of dollars on lobbyist trying to sway the traffic in a straight line country in the gulf region is a threat to global security qatar put ads in the president's favor cable channe

he was working with george nader who said he was close to both of the crown princes from saudi arabia and the u.a.e. broady reportedly lobbied the president and later received hundreds of millions of dollars worth of defense deals from the u.a.e. in one e-mail bertie boasted about his role writing trumps vocal support of saudi arabia at this summit quote is a direct result of the campaign we have led over the past two months to highlight the funding of terrorism by cutter and the muslim brotherhood brody is suing cutter he says they hacked his e-mails a charge they deny but cutters facing more scrutiny because of another court case prominent guitars are being sued by rapper ice cube he says they didn't pay him as promised in a business deal and his partner testified that they tried to use them to get to steve bannon in testimony describing their offer as a bribe which they also deny all sides of spent millions of dollars on lobbyist trying to sway the trying to win a straight line country in the gulf region is a threat to global security are put in ads in the president's favor cable c

he was working with george nader who said he was close to both of the crown princes from saudi arabia and the u.a.e. broady reportedly lobbied the president and later received hundreds of millions of dollars worth of defense deals from the u.a.e. in one email bertie boasted about his role writing trumps vocal support of saudi arabia at this summit quote is a direct result of the campaign we have led over the past two months to highlight the funding of terrorism by qatar and the muslim brotherhood brody is suing cutter he says they hacked his e-mails a charge they deny but cutters facing more scrutiny because of another court case prominent guitars are being sued by rapper ice cube he says they didn't pay him as promised in a business deal and his partner testified that they tried to use them to get to steve benen in testimony describing their offer as a bribe which they also deny all sides of spent millions of dollars on lobbyist trying to sway the traffic in a straight line country in the gulf region is a threat to global security are putting ads in the president's favorite cable cha

he was working with george nader who said he was close to both of the crown princes from saudi arabia and the u.a.e. broady reportedly lobbied the president and later received hundreds of millions of dollars worth of defense deals from the u.a.e. in one e-mail bertie boasted about his role writing trumps vocal support of saudi arabia at this summit quote is a direct result of the campaign we have led over the past two months to highlight the funding of terrorism by qatar and the muslim brotherhood brody is suing cutter he says they hacked his e-mails a charge they deny but cutters facing more scrutiny because of another court case prominent guitars are being sued by rapper ice cube he says they didn't pay him as promised in a business deal and his partner testified that they tried to use them to get to steve bannon in testimony describing their offer as a bribe which they also deny all sides of spent millions of dollars on lobbyist trying to sway the traffic in a straight line country in the gulf region is a threat to global security are put ads in the president's favor cable channels

that's reporting centered on george nader as you said. it all comes together in the seychelles meeting you discussed in past a meeting convened by the united arab emirates and george nader bringing together er of the trump administration in their view with a businessman close to vladimir putin. and i thi we know for sure that that meeting has caught the interest of the special prosecutor and that they're asking questions about nader, about nader's connections with russia, about efforts by the uae and possibly saudi arabia to try to help the trump campaign and whether or not there was some communication there. all of that to the best of my knowledge does not invol barrick. tom barrick enters the picture earlier, trying to build a bridge, as you say between the trump campaign and therab leaders. en we we doing the nader reporting i wondered, how is it the uae and saudi araby can feel so confident and positive about trump that the uae would send this emissary to the trump camp offering their help? some of that becomes clear when you look at

exchange for his cooperation with robert mueller and the special counsel's office his name is george nader. he has multiple criminal convictions in multiple countries, including for child pornography and child molestation. but he has nevertheless turned up multiple times in the trump white house. he's turned up in this photo with donald trump, and he turns up again and again and again in trump tower and interacting with trump campaign officials in meetings that would later come under scrutiny by the special counsel's office as the special counsel looks at links between the trump campaign and russia's attack on the 2016 election. so a couple of weeks ago we learned in "the new york times" that that guy, george nader, was in attendance at a previously unreported meeting that happened at trump tower in new york three months before the 2016 election. at that meeting, according to the times' reporting, a foreign company pitched the trump campaign on what would be a foreign-funded social media manipulation campaign, which they were offering to mount in the united states in order to help trump wi

that's reporting centered on george nader, as you said.gether in the seychelles meeting which you discussed in the past. a meeting by the united arab of emirates where they brought together a representative of the trump administration, in their view, with a business man close to vladimir putin. i think we know for sure that that meeting has caught the interest of the special prosecutor and that they're asking questions about nader, about nader's connections with russia, about efforts by the uae and possibly saudi arabia to try to help the trump campaign and whether or not there was some communication there. all of that, to my knowledge, does not involve tom barrick. he enters the picture earlier trying to build a bridge as you between the trump campaign and the arab leaders. when we were doing the nader reporting, i wondered how is it the uae and saudi arabia can feel so positive about trump that they would send this emissary to the trump campaign to offer their help. some of that is clear when you look at the communications that tom barri

he was working with george nader who said he was close to both of the crown princes from saudi arabia and the u.a.e. broady reportedly lobbied the president and later received hundreds of millions of dollars worth of defense deals from the u.a.e. in one e-mail bertie boasted about his role writing trumps vocal support of saudi arabia at this summit quote is a direct result of the campaign we have led over the past two months to highlight the funding of terrorism by cutter and the muslim brotherhood brody is suing cutter he says they hacked his e-mails a charge they deny but cutters facing more scrutiny because of another court case prominent guitars are being sued by rapper ice cube he says they didn't pay him as promised in a business deal and his partner testified that they tried to use them to get to steve bannon in testimony describing their offer as a bribe which they also deny all sides of spent millions of dollars on lobbyist trying to sway the trumped up in a straight line country in the gulf region is a threat to global security are put in ads in the president's favor cable c

he was working with george nader who said he was close to both of the crown princes from saudi arabia and the u.a.e. broady reportedly lobbied the president and later received hundreds of millions of dollars worth of defense deals from the u.a.e. in one e-mail bertie boasted about his role writing trumps vocal support of saudi arabia at this summit quote is a direct result of the campaign we have led over the past two months to highlight the funding of terrorism by cutter and the muslim brotherhood brody is suing cutter he says they hacked his e-mails a charge they deny but cutters facing more scrutiny because of another court case prominent guitars are being sued by rapper ice cube he says they didn't pay him as promised in a business deal and his partner testified that they tried to use them to get to steve bannon in testimony describing their offer as a bribe which they also deny all sides of spent millions of dollars on lobbyist trying to sway the traffic in a straight line country in the gulf region is a threat to global security are put ads in the president's favor cable channel

gerson, had maintained contact with george nader. and there's another meeting "the new york times" is reporting on that he was in in early 2017 that's under scrutiny. it's significant in the sense that what investigators would want to know is why this person who does not have a government role would have been in these sorts of settings. >> it's very, very interesting. carol, thank you so much. just keeps getting more tangled. amazing piece if you haven't read it yet, please check it out on nbcnews.com. >>> coming up, a special delivery from the white house today. a serious one. from north korean leader kim jong-un. what impact it could have on the negotiations for that june 12th summit. but first, last year, active wear brand lulu lemon announced they will be making equal pay for equal work a reality. 13 months later, the company says it has achieved that goal, reaching 100% global pay parity. good on you, lulu, let's hope we see other companies do it. it was here. i couldn't catch my breath. it was the last song of the night. it fel

he was working with george nader who said he was close to both of the crown princes from saudi arabia and the u.a.e. broady reportedly lobbied the president and later received hundreds of millions of dollars worth of defense deals from the u.a.e. in one email bertie boasted about his role writing trumps vocal support of saudi arabia at this summit quote is a direct result of the campaign we have led over the past two months to highlight the funding of terrorism by cutter and the muslim brotherhood brody is suing cutter he says they hacked his e-mails a charge they deny but cutters facing more scrutiny because of another court case prominent guitars are being sued by rapper ice cube he says they didn't pay him as promised in a business deal and his partner testified that they tried to use them to get to steve bannon in testimony describing their offer as a bribe which they also deny all sides of spent millions of dollars on lobbyist trying to sway the traffic in a straight line country in the gulf region is a threat to global security are put ads in the president's favorite cable chann

he was not even aware of this secret meeting that george nader, the lebanese-american businessman thate 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 russian election interference effort and whether after trump got elected they took steps to broker kind of an arrangement between the russians and the trump team and whether they sought to also influence the trump administration and also potentially the saudis. when you look at what the saudis and the emirates have gotten out of the trump administration, it's quite a lot. trump withdrew from the iran nuclear deal, which those countries hated. he also backed them -- >> he campaigned against that anyway. >> yeah, he did. he also backed them, though, very strongly in their blockade move against

he was working with george nader who said he was close to both of the crown princes from saudi arabia and the u.a.e. broady reportedly lobbied the president and later received hundreds of millions of dollars worth of defense deals from the u.a.e. in one email bertie boasted about his role writing trumps vocal support of saudi arabia at this summit quote is a direct result of the campaign we have led over the past two months to highlight the funding of terrorism by qatar and the muslim brotherhood brody is suing cutter he says they hacked his e-mails a charge they deny but cutters facing more scrutiny because of another court case prominent guitars are being sued by rapper ice cube he says they didn't pay him as promised in a business deal and his partner testified that they tried to use them to get to steve bannon in testimony describing their offer as a bribe which they also deny all sides of spent millions of dollars on lobbyist trying to sway the traffic in a straight line country in the gulf region is a threat to global security are put ads in the president's favorite cable channe

but we know while he was in the seychelles, he communicated with george nader, a businessman who is a fixer for the uae. they exchanged text messages, so he had developed, started to develop a relationship with him as well. we know that mr. nader has been cooperating with the special counsel. >> well and george nader is one of the shadiest characters in all of this. he was in prison in the czech republic for pedophilia. and this is someone that this group of individuals has chosen to associate with for these so-called business dealings of sorts. as you recall it. so the relationship isn't longstanding with george nader or he, you know, gerson game a figure just involved in the swirl of all of this. >> our understanding is that they met during, in december. so it wasn't, it's not a long-term relationship. they started to you know, basically connect after that decision meeting in 2016 in new york. that after that, then they connected and then that relationship continued according to people we talked to, after the inauguration, they got more into policy matters and things like that. >> a

george nader. he facilitated a meeting between eric prince and russian contacts. nunberg initially said he's not going to work with the special counsel but ended up testifying. paul manafort opted the go to trial rather than please guilty. he's charged with conspiracy against the united states and money laundering. he sued to get the charges thrown out in washington, d.c. and virginia courts. there are also 13 other russian individuals and entities. the most symbolic was the charging of the russian businesses and oligarchs who will likely never face trial. the charges stand. if sarah sanders or anyone at the white house need a reference, i can send this to you in a link. these are the results of special counsel's probe so far. right now at the white house president trump is about to greet japan's prime minister, shinzo abe. they will hold a working lunch and a joint news conference. we'll bring that to you live at 2:00 eastern time. that brings this very busy hour to an end for me. thank you for watching this hour of "velshi & ruhle." i'll be back here at 3:00 p.m

>> it's just another example of this information provided by george nader, the lebanese american sort ofdiary between some of the middle eastern countries, even russia and the u.s. i think what is clear is that mueller is getting a lot of his information from nader and he's pursuing those investigative leads, as any good prosecutor would. it really begs the question, though, if this is about back channels to russia or to the uae or other middle eastern countries, in january 2017, shortly before the inauguration, why does jared kushner or other trump administration officials, why do they need a back channel? there are formal channels of diplomacy, of negotiation. what is it that they would need a back channel for? as a former prosecutor, that's what i'm looking at. why back channels? it's the same question you often get in terms of why charge false statements? people only make false statements when the truth will be damaging. so that's why you pursue charges of false statements and you look into the substance surrounding the false statements. the same thing goes here as well for the ba

that other meeting we reported on befores with organized in part by a guy named george nader. he's a lebanese businessman with close ties to the emirates. that included prince, the black water founder and the russian official. they're look at whether that meet, meeting two was an attempt to set a back channel with the kremlin. julie aimsly is here along with national security for the washington post. and, matt, i'll get to you in a second. julie, let me start with you and explain why this matters. why does it matter that he is now being looked at so closely on this? >> so it matters because of his connection to the united emirates. and it's just been emerging that he's not only interested in russian influence but united arab imrates as well which is thought to be lesser but still significant. he's closely tied to kushner which makes him of interest to us if you're following the white house and that presidency and the investigation into that campaign. and he also has had strong connections with this crown prince who's known as nbz. when we first approached his plan or his spoke