The Washington Post reports that Blackwater founder Erik Prince, acting on behalf of Trump, secretly met in January, just before the inauguration, with a representative of Vladimir Putin in the Seychelles.
According to the Post report, Trump supporter and “Blackwater founder Erik Prince met with a Russian person close to President Vladimir Putin.”
The United Arab Emirates arranged a secret meeting in January between Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a Russian close to President VladiÂmir Putin as part of an apparent effort to establish a back-channel line of communication between Moscow and President-elect Donald Trump, according to U.S., European and Arab officials.
The Post reports that the two men met on January 11, which was just 9 days before Donald Trump’s poorly-attended inauguration. This revelation joins another report that Trump campaign adviser Carter Page met with a Russian spy.
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
Prince, 47, while having no “formal role with the Trump campaign” is an “avid supporter of Trump,” having donated $250,000 to his campaign, and,
[H]e presented himself as an unofficial envoy for Trump to high-ranking Emiratis involved in setting up his meeting with the Putin confidant, according to the officials, who did not identify the Russian.
It turns out that Prince has close ties to the power behind the Trump throne, Steve Bannon, and Betsy DeVos happens to be his sister.
This whole sordid affair explains her role in the administration. There’s President Obama’s much-mocked “guns and religion” remark right there, as true as the day he spoke it.
Atlantic editor Norman Ornstein’s reaction speaks for many:
“Good God. Blackwater thug Erik Prince (Betsy DeVos brother) had Dec. secret back channel meeting in Seychelles w Putin surrogate. Horrible.”
Prince is a Trump guy through and through. Which obligates Sean Spicer to protest,
“We are not aware of any meetings, and Erik Prince had no role in the transition.”
Right, and Flynn never met the Russian ambassador. Ivanka Trump was never going to have a security clearance or any official role in the administration either. The list goes on.
Official protests, whether from Trump or Prince, are obviously difficult to swallow given the administration’s poor track record with facts.
The news left Independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin asking,
“Why would an administration with so many documented Russia ties require another channel to Moscow? And why so soon?”
GOP strategist Rick Wilson used the news to take a shot at GOP whining focused on Susan Rice:
I'll see your Susan Rice and raise you. https://t.co/bymQKY6wdq
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) April 3, 2017
The more Donald Trump claims this is about him being wiretapped or his team unmasked, the more we have to remember this is about Donald Trump’s ties to Vladimir Putin, the man who helped him win the 2016 presidential election.
This report of yet another secret meeting between a Trump representative and Russia is obviously bad news for Trump.
Chess champion Garry Kasparov offered an answer to McMullin’s question: “In the words of Bond nemesis Goldfinger,
“Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, the third time it’s enemy action.” Well beyond third.”
Whatever the reason for the seeming redundancy of these meetings noted by McMullin, it is one more thread to the rope tightening around POTUS’ neck.
We’ve gotten to the point where the most skilled liar in American history cannot lie fast enough to cover all the meetings between his people and Putin’s agents.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
