Special Counsel Robert Mueller has been provided "total access" to Blackwater founder Erik Prince's phones and computer, and is voluntarily cooperating with the Russia investigation, reports ABC News.
Prince, America's most famous private military contractor, admitted last week that he has "cooperated" with the Mueller probe after allegations of an alleged attempt to establish a backchannel emerged - something Prince has repeatedly denied.
A spokesperson for Prince told ABC that Prince basically thinks the Mueller investigation is a farce, but he is cooperating.
“As Mr. Prince told the Daily Beast he has spoken voluntarily with Congress and also cooperated completely with the Special Counsel’s investigation, including by providing them total access to his phones and computer,” the spokesperson said. “Mr. Prince has a lot of opinions about the various investigations, but there is no question that they are important and serious, and so Mr. Prince will keep his opinions to himself for now and to let the investigators do their work. All we will add is that much of the reporting and speculation about Mr. Prince in the media is inaccurate, and we are confident that when the investigators have finished their work, we will be able to put these distractions to the side.”
The Washington Post reported in April 2017 about a trip Prince took to Seychelles in January following Donald Trump's election, in which he allegedly met with a Russian official with close ties to Vladimir Putin. Prince, whose sister is Trump's education secretary, Betsy DeVos, testified before the US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence last November that he did not make the trip "to meet any Russian guy," and described his meeting with Kirill Dmitriev - the Putin-appointed head of Russian's sovereign wealth fund - as chance encounter "over a beer."
That said, Mueller may have obtained evidence that calls Prince's account into question.
ABC News reported earlier this year that Mueller has obtained evidence that calls that testimony into question. Lebanese-American businessman George Nader, a key witness given limited immunity by Mueller, told investigators that he set up the meeting in the Seychelles between Prince and Dmitriev, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News. Documents obtained by Mueller also suggest that before and after Prince met Nader in New York a week before the trip, Nader shared information with Prince about Dmitriev.
And that’s not the only potential inconsistency in Prince’s testimony before the House Intelligence Committee that appears to have caught the attention of investigators.
Prince had a simple answer when asked by Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democrat from California, whether he ever had any "investments" or "business partnerships with Russian nationals."
"Zero," Prince replied. -ABC News
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