Which sticks out like a thumb into the persian gulf right off the coast of saudi arabia, right next to the United Arab Emirates. And of course america has complicated and textured relationships with every major country in the middle east. But with qatar we do have this one very special thing. In that weve got this huge air base there. There are a ton of activeduty service members, American Service members, who live there all the time. Right . That special thing about us and qatar was what made it a weirder than usual moment in the Trump Presidency when just a few months after he was sworn in, President Trump summoned the courage to try to pronounce qatar live and in front of some cameras, i think for the very first time ever. The reason that he decided he would take the leap and try to pronounce qatar was so he could proclaim them to be a bunch of terrorists. The nation of qatar unfortunately has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level. This was a somewhat random occasion for the president to bring this up. He was standing there in the rose garden. You might not recognize the flag behind President Trump there. He was standing there in the rose garden with the president of romania when that thing about qatar, or as he calls it katar, popped out of his mouth like a loose denture. It was also strange, because that comment about qatar appeared to be completely disassociated from anything going on in u. S. Policy at the time. I mean, to put a very fine point on how weird it was, that the president decided that day that he was going to denounce qatar as a bunch of terrorists, i mean, literally these than a week later, the u. S. Government sold qatar a whole bunch of f15 fighter jets. 12. 5 billion worth of fighter jets. So where did that thing come from from trump that day . With him apropos of nothing denouncing qatar, denouncing this country that has the largest u. S. Air base in the middle east, this key u. S. Ally in the middle east. Why did he say that . Well, who knows exactly and for sure . But if you start flipping through the rap sheets, literally the criminal history of some of the People Associated with this president and his campaign, you may get pretty close to a story that explains it. Elliott broidy was a top fundraiser for donald trump during the campaign. He was then named deputy finance chair of the National Republican party after trump became the partys nominee for president. Elliott broidy also narrowly avoided prison time when he became a cooperating witness back in the day after he was caught paying an elaborate and brazen series of bribes to financial regulators in new york state. Along with their family members and their mistresses. That sort of a record was apparently not a barrier for entry into the upper echelons of the Trump Campaign in 2016 and into the upper echelons of the Republican Party in the trump era. At the trump inaugural festivities, Elliott Broidy, of course, was there and at the inauguration he reportedly hooked one another trumpconnected excon who the New York Times reports would go on to take frequent meetings. Sorry, the New York Times reports had taken frequent meetings throughout the campaign with donald trump jr. And Jared Kushner and mike flynn. After the inauguration, during the first year of the Trump Administration. This guy was also reported to have spent lots of time at the Trump White House, including multiple visits to Steve Bannons office just off the oval. His name was george nader. And his criminal history included multiple convictions for child pornography and child molestation in two countries, resulting in at least two prison sentences. So when Elliott Broidy, the guy who had narrowly avoided prison in the new york state bribery scheme, and george nader, the multiply convicted child pornography and child molestation guy, when they met up at trump inaugural, that was clearly a match made somewhere other than heaven. But they hit it off. And those two men, after meeting at the trump inaugural, reportedly decided they would go into a kind of business together. Because george nader had longstanding connections to two gulf monarchies, to the United Arab Emirates and saudi arabia, those two countries quite near qatar that we just showed on the map. Nader at various points appears to have been a paid emissary of some kind of diplomatic gobetween for the royal families of both uae and saudi arabia. According to landmark reporting from the associated press, the basic deal that Elliott Broidy and george nader hatched after they met at the inauguration was that nader would use those connections he had with the royal families in saudi arabia and United Arab Emirates, hed use those connections to get huge contracts from those countries for Elliott Broidy. Broidy was operating some kind of Defense Contracting Firm. Nader was planning to hook him up with a huge amount of contracting revenue, like a billion dollars in contracts from uae and saudi arabia. Was that because his Defense Contracting Firm was the greatest one on earth and ought to have those contracts . I dont know. But this is what broidy was reportedly going to do in exchange for him getting those contracts. In exchange for those billion dollars worth of contracts broidy, right, this deputy finance chair for the rnc, leading fundraiser for the Trump Campaign, broidy would use his influence with the new Trump Administration to get the administration to do things that the u. S. Government would never otherwise be inclined to do. But that saudi and United Arab Emirates wanted. Specifically, in exchange for his Company Getting a billion dollars in contracts, broidy would reportedly try to persuade the Trump Administration that the president should Start Talking smack against qatar. That the u. S. Government should turn against qatar. That the u. S. Government should separate itself from and start denouncing qatar. Where we have that huge air base. Right . Qatar, this crucial u. S. Ally in the middle east. The biggest u. S. Military outpost anywhere in the middle east. Those other gulf countries right next to qatar, though, uae and saudi arabia, they see qatar as their arch enemy. They want to turn the u. S. Government against qatar. How much would they be willing to pay for that . Almost anything presumably. Well, george nader and Elliott Broidy reportedly teamed up after they met at the Trump Inauguration to try to give those countries someone to pay in order to achieve that result. And that result, the president himself inexplicably delivered in the rose garden standing right next to the president of romania on a fine june day in 2017, just months after he was inaugurated. Out of the blue inexplicably denouncing qatar as terrorists. Its almost like you could pick any day on the calendar, you could pick any day the Trump Administration has been in effect, just pick one thing that happened that day. If you then go back and tell the full back story as to what led to that moment in the Trump Administration and what cast of characters made that moment possible, i mean, if you cast it really well and you got like George Clooney or ben stiller to direct it, you could make a movie about any day of the Trump Administration that had a plot that was more scandalous than anything that has happened in any other u. S. President ial Administration Since there were cars. Or, like, since there was america. I mean, just the president making those all right, anyway. But now these kinds of trailing ends and the fuller back story on these excons and these revealed schemes, theyre all starting to come to some dramatic conclusions. When it comes to that seedy little plot to apparently pay for the u. S. Government turning against our ally qatar, well, Elliott Broidy, he is no longer the deputy finance chairman of the rnc. He stepped down from that position when it was revealed he made hush money payments to a playboy model with whom hed had an affair. Oddly, the hush money payments were brokered by the president s longtime Attorney Michael Cohen and another man named keith davidson, two men involved in hush money payments before the election arrangements for which Michael Cohen is now serving his own federal prison sentence and for which he too had to step down as deputy finance chairman of the rnc. Broidy himself has also reportedly come under federal investigation for, among other things, offering to have the Justice Department investigation into a Huge International fraud case turned off. Broidy was offering a contract in which he said that he could get that investigation quashed if the interested parties would pay him and his wife 75 million. Now, why did Elliott Broidy believe that he could turn off a major Justice Department investigation in exchange for tens of millions of dollars . I dont know. But that is one of a number of issues for which Elliott Broidy has reportedly come under investigation. Nice folks from the Trump Campaign. Nice folks from the trumpera Republican National committee. Now, as for Elliott Broidys Business Partner in that qatar thing, well, as of today, he has a new and newly serious additional child pornography charge to contend with. Devlin barrett and Rachel Weiner at the Washington Post were first to break the news today that george nader has been indicted again on new child pornography charges, stemming from an fbi search of his three iphones at Dulles Airport in january of last year. These charges we now know have been pending against nader for months. But apparently hes been out of the country and therefore out of the reach of u. S. Federal law enforcement, despite this sealed criminal complaint against him and a sealed warrant for his arrest that were filed with the court last april. He fell back into the clutches of u. S. Law enforcement today when he reentered the country. He flew in to jfk airport in the new york city area reportedly to seek medical treatment. Upon landing at the airport, he was arrested and taken into custody. Today, he made an initial appearance in the Eastern District of new york, which means in federal court in brooklyn. The magistrate judge hearing his case said she believed nader is a flight risk. She would not give him bail today. She ordered him held overnight and reassessed tomorrow. He is expected ultimately to be conveyed to virginia, to the Eastern District of virginia, where he will face these new child pornography charges. But as i said, these types of charges are not a novel thing for george nader. In 1985, he was charged with importing child pornography into the United States. He ultimately had that charge dismissed on a technicality. A few years later, in 1991, he was again charged with importing child pornography from overseas. In that case, he was convicted. He was given a sixmonth sentence. Years later, in 2003, he was sentenced again, this time, in the czech republic, this time, not for child pornography, but for child molestation. That conviction also resulted in a prison sentence in the czech republic. Despite that extensive record, though, george nader did become some kind of adviser to the government of the United Arab Emirates and the government of saudi arabia. And he did then attach himself like a barnacle to the Trump Campaign and the Trump White House. Where he really made himself one of the guys. He was apparently around a lot. In august 2016, during the president ial campaign, george nader organized a meeting at trump tower which ultimately became the subject of this blockbuster report in the New York Times this time last year. At the trump tower meeting where george nader, donald trump jr. , erik prince and a man named joel zamel, who was reportedly offering at that meeting an off the shelf foreign election interference effort that would be run by mr. Zamels Israeli Company and financed by some of these gulf monarchies that mr. Nader worked for, all to benefit the Trump Campaign by flooding American Social media and what amounted to a giant siops campaign to turn off clinton voters and boost trump. Thats what he was offering. The Trump Campaign, of course, says they werent buying. The times reports that after that meeting, george nader became a close presence around the Trump Campaign, he took multiple meetings with Jared Kushner and Michael Flynn and with steve bannon. After trump got elected in november of that year, george nader reportedly made a 2 million payment to one of joel zamels companies. Again, zamel was the guy who had been offering a foreign election interference effort for sale at that trump tower meeting back in august. And again, the Trump Campaign says they didnt buy what he was offering. But still, nader paid him 2 million right after the election. And that payment has still never been explained. That same month, december 2016, george nader is the one who organized another meeting, this one involving Jared Kushner, mike flynn, steve bannon and the crown prince of United Arab Emirates, whos usually described in the west by his initials, mbz. That meeting took place in new york at the four seasons hotel. Again, this is right after the election, december 2016. That meeting ended up becoming a flashing red light for the Obama Administration at the time, because it was a big breach of protocol. It was a strange thing for the crown prince of this u. S. Ally, the senior government official, in fact, the de facto ruler of that country, to come visit the United States without telling the Current Administration that he was going to be paying a visit. Its a very unusual thing. Its not the way these things are usually done. But in fact, that meeting that george nader organized in december 2016, it involved the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates there in person, plus all of those trump transition officials. It was conducted as a secret thing. United arab emirates did not notify the Obama Administration that he was coming in. They found out anyway that mbz was here and that he took that meeting. But knowing that he had secretly come into the country to take that secret meeting set off alarm bells for the Obama Administration. A month after that, in january 2017, just before the inauguration itself, george nader set up another meeting. And this time it was in an exotic locale. It was in the Seychelles Islands. George nader is the one that organized that strange encounter where erik prince, the brother of betsy devos, whos the education secretary, the founder of the controversial Security Firm blackwater, a man whos described in the Mueller Report as essentially being an informal representative of the trump transition, he met with the head of a Russian Sovereign Wealth Fund in Seychelles Islands in a meeting that was set up by george nader. That meeting is now believed to have been yet another effort by the russian government between the russian government and the Trump Campaign to try to set up some sort of back channel secret communications between the two. Nader set up that meeting in the seychelles as well. The crown prince of the uae was there. Mbz was there. Erik prince was there. The guy from the Russian Sovereign Wealth Fund was there as an emissary