Letters reveal direct involvement of bin Zayed in plans to buy influence in Washington
Messages in the New York Times exposed direct involvement of the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, the de facto ruler of the UAE, Mohammed bin Zayed, in paying large sums of money in order to try to buy leverage in the United States.
In the charges that were uncovered this week by George Nader, an American businessman of Lebanese descent, the US Department of Justice laid down new elements of the UAE’s effort to gain influence in Washington.
Investigations revealed that the final sponsor of these attempts is Mohamed bin Zayed, where George Nader wrote in a text message in late June 2016, “We will send you a note about this according to His Highness’s instructions.” Referring to Bin Zayed, explaining that he paid a “baklava” million dollars according to Instructions for the indictment revealed by the Ministry of Justice this week.
As Nader wrote in another letter a few months later to Ahmed Al-Khawaja, a California businessman accused of working as a channel for Nader’s unlawful contributions “I will leave early in the morning to join His Highness, I have already told him about the wonderful event with our sister and he was happy and wanted to know everything about him personally”
The indictment against Nader included distributing more than $3.5 million in illegal donations to the campaign through Al-Khawaja to buy access and influence in Washington.
The campaign targeted Hillary Clinton and her Democratic allies during the 2016 campaign, then with Donald Trump after he won the election – to win “support” and “potential financial support” from a foreign government that was not named.
