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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNew Report Undermines Erik Prince's Sworn Testimony On Ties To Campaign
By Allegra Kirkland | May 21, 2018 12:45 pm
Erik Prince appears to have withheld critical information in his sworn testimony before the House Intelligence Committee.
The private security contractor and Blackwater founder told Congress that he was barely involved with the Trump campaign during the 2016 election cycle, and that most of his interaction with the team came during the presidential transition. Reports that have since surfaced gravely undermine that version of events.
Most recently, a blockbuster New York Times report published Saturday detailed how Prince personally arranged and attended an August 2016 meeting between foreign emissaries and Donald Trumps eldest son. At the meeting, Prince told Donald Trump Jr. that we are working hard for your father.
The Times report provides new evidence that Prince may have knowingly perjured himself in his congressional testimony. Lying to Congress is a crime punishable by up to five years in prison, but it is rarely enforced.
Princes interview focused primarily on a January 2017 trip he took to the Seychelles, ostensibly to meet with officials from the United Arab Emirates, and a conversation he had there with a Russian banker allied with Vladimir Putin. In his testimony, Prince downplayed the trip, saying it was primarily an opportunity to discuss business prospects with the UAEs government and characterizing his conversation with the banker, Kirill Dmitriev, as a chance encounter. Prince insisted that he was not there as a representative of the incoming administration.
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