Jeffrey Epstein, Kathy Ruemmler, and Norwegian diplomat Terje Rød Larsen
The two events don’t look connected on the surface. But, actually, they are.
The Epstein files reveal that Ruemmler, Epstein and Bannon were mutually obsessed with the Mueller investigation into foreign interference into Trump’s 2016 election win and one of its shadiest actors.
Among Ruemmler’s clients after her stint as President Obama’s chief legal counsel was a man named George Nader. Ruemmler represented him as he became a cooperating witness in the Mueller investigation into Russian efforts to help the Trump 2016 campaign.
Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman, was a kind of free agent in the foreign influence campaign that boosted the TV reality show star into his first presidency. His name appears more than a hundred times in the final Mueller report in connection with both Russian and Middle Eastern efforts to influence the Trump campaign.
Nader is also now a convicted pedophile serving a ten year prison sentence, but a decade ago he was a key actor in multiple foreign influence ops aimed at helping Trump, involving Gulf oil monarchies, Israeli social media manipulators and, yes, Russians.
Nader’s exploits were once newsworthy and well-covered; but, the avalanche of absurdity and menace that is the Trump Two-era has buried him in the memory hole. Ruemmler’s client, though, was of intense interest to Epstein and Bannon. And the DOJ Epstein files reveal that Ruemmler was feeding both of them information about Nader and the Mueller investigation, as this text indicates.
Nader’s role in Trump-Russia actually came around the inauguration in January 2017, when Nader helped arrange and attended a meeting in the Seychelles between mercenary and Trump supporter Erik Prince and Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian sovereign wealth fund executive with close ties to Putin. Mueller’s team would later regard the meeting as a potential attempt to establish a secret back-channel between the incoming Trump administration and the Kremlin.
During the Mueller investigation, newly minted best buds (more on their affairs here and here) Bannon and Epstein were laser focused on Nader. They call him “George” or, when Epstein mentioned him to Bannon, “your boy George.” At the time, Epstein was connecting Bannon with the Gulf monarchs he had spent several years cultivating.
And Kathy Ruemmler - who Epstein bragged was his feminist “arch-defender” - was the insider who kept them up to speed on how “George” was faring with the Mueller investigators. The following string of their relevant communications could open a worthy line of inquiry at the Oversight Committee today — if for nothing else than to remind Americans of the depth and breadth of the foreign influence operations that helped Trump get elected in 2016.
In April 2018 Epstein first mentioned Ruemmler’s Nader connection to Bannon writing, “as you know Kathy is Nader s counsel. She s very busy [sic]”.
Four days later, he texted Bannon: “Kathy coming now to download” followed a few hours later he updated with “Im sittin here with Kathy rummer. If you have any questions [sic]”.
A few weeks later, Bannon texted Epstein: “Just got summoned to Abu Dhabi for meeting with mbz for Monday night.” A few days later, Bannon was making plans to meet with Dubai billionaire Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem — then chairman and CEO of global logistics giant DP World, now a disgraced Epstein john. Epstein texted Bannon: “you are going to have FUN”; to which Bannon replied: “I’m here @ least thru Sunday —- need to close this” [sic].
Around the same time, May 2018, The New York Times exposed a secret Trump Tower meeting Nader had with Donald Trump Jr. in the summer of 2016, where Nader pitched him on the UAE and Saudi princes wanting to help Trump win. According to the Times investigation, mercenary contractor Erik Prince put Nader together with the squirrelly scion to tell him of the princes’ aim. Nader also brought along Joel Zamel, whose Israeli company employed former intelligence officers who specialized in “collecting information and shaping opinion through social media” according to the Times. Zamel reportedly provided an “elaborate multi-million dollar proposal” for a social media “manipulation effort” to get Trump elected. (After Trump was elected, Nader paid Zamel $2 million – for reasons never made clear)
Two days after the article, Epstein wrote to Bannon: “Going to get more complex , - Susan Rice is one of the ‘when did she know? She is represented by the same lawyer as your boy, Nader - Kathy Ruemmler.”
Epstein often joked about Ruemmler and Bannon getting romantically involved, calling Bannon “your boyfriend Steve” in messages with Ruemmler and referring to Ruemmler as “your girlfriend” in texts with Bannon. The three of them met together on several occasions in 2018, during the Mueller investigation, based on the communications.
In an October 2018 text to Ruemmler, Epstein wrote “i think your boy [i.e., Bannon] is going to see george” to which she replied, “Hopefully they stay out of trouble”.
In January 2019, Ruemmler emailed Epstein a Reuters story on NSA cyberspies thwarting enemies of the UAE. In March, Mueller submitted his final report to Attorney General Bill Barr. Six days later, Epstein reported to Bannon: “Girl going to see George on sat in germany.”
Ruemmler’s appearance today on Capitol Hill is, among other matters, an opportunity to remember that Trump’s 2016 campaign was so rife with foreign interference that it kicked off a series of massive, years-long investigations that revealed the real - not the cocked-up Big Lie-connected - threats to American elections. When Trump speaks to the nation Thursday night, he will be flanked by leaders of a gutted and craven national security community looking for proof that the 2020 election was “stolen.” Meanwhile, Americans have all the proof we need that the 2016 election was contaminated with foreign influence. And if the President wants to warn Americans of the ongoing threat, he could start with a confession.
Nina Burleigh is a journalist, author, documentary producer, and adjunct professor at New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. She has written eight books including her recently published novel, Zero Visibility Possible.
Katie Chenoweth is associate professor of French at Princeton University and an investigative researcher
Reprinted with permission from American Freakshow
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