Mueller gathers evidence that 2016 Seychelles meeting was . . . to establish back channel to Kremlin

[reconceptualize]

Whoo boy.

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has gathered evidence that a secret meeting in the Seychelles just before the inauguration of Donald Trump was an effort to establish a back-channel between the incoming administration and the Kremlin — apparently contradicting statements made to lawmakers by one of its participants, according to people familiar with the matter.

In January, 2016, Erik Prince, the founder of the private military company Blackwater, met with a Russian official close to President Vladimir Putin, and later described the meeting to congressional investigators as a chance encounter that was not a planned discussion of U.S.-Russia relations.

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Last year, Prince told lawmakers — and the press — that his Seychelles meeting with Kirill Dmitriev, the head of a Russian government-controlled wealth fund, was an unplanned, unimportant encounter that came about by chance because he happened to be at a luxury hotel in the Indian Ocean island nation with officials from the United Arab Emirates.

In his statements, Prince has specifically denied reporting by The Washington Post that the Seychelles meeting, which took place about a week before Trump's inauguration, was described by U.S., European and Arab officials as part of an effort to establish a back-channel line of communication between Moscow and the incoming administration.

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Prince said he went to the Seychelles as a private businessman, not as an official or unofficial emissary from the Trump transition team. During the congressional interview, which got testy at times as Democratic lawmakers pressed him to be more specific in his answers, Prince repeatedly complained that he had reason to believe U.S. intelligence agencies were leaking information about his activities.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...bf9d112159c_story.html?utm_term=.1620f3212382

 

[Deleted member 45]

Locked due to duplicate - close race!

https://www.resetera.com/threads/mu...rt-to-establish-backchannel-to-kremlin.28028/