On Tuesday night, the New York Times published online an important story about Lebanese-American businessman George Nader, an adviser to the United Arab Emirates, who is now a witness cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of the Russia scandal. The article, which appeared on the Times‘ front page yesterday, was a doozy.
Not only is Mueller apparently “examining the influence of foreign money” in the 2016 campaign, but Nader also helped arrange the controversial January 2017 meeting in the Seychelles — a meeting that featured a prominent Trump supporter and a Russian official close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Yesterday, Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) reportedly told a CBS News reporter, “I don’t have any clue who George Nader is.”
At face value, that may not seem especially notable, except Mike Conaway is a member of the House Intelligence Committee — and he’s ostensibly helping lead the investigation into the Trump-Russia scandal. Even if he’d missed the front-page scoop in the New York Times, it stands to reason he’d know who George Nader is, simply by virtue of his own familiarity with the details of his own probe.
New York‘s Jon Chait had the appropriate reaction.
If you’re getting the idea that maybe Conaway and his party aren’t utterly determined to uncover foul play between Moscow and Trump Tower, your suspicions are warranted. Conaway recently declared the investigation to be nearing its completion. “All investigations have a natural conclusion,” he explained. “As soon as we have everybody interviewed, we’ll start working on the report, we’ll get the report finalized, and we’ll move forward. Every investigation ought to have a conclusion, including this one. So we’re coming towards the end of it.”









