Erik Prince Helped Raise Money for Conservative Spy Venture

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:

Peter Strzok
@petestrzok
Update to an older story, Prince hired former MI6 officer Richard Seddon to train US operatives to spy against political rivals.

Which happens to be against the law, see 50 USC 851
https://justice.gov/nsd-fara/fara-related-statutes…

But guess we're just gonna let that one slide.
Erik Prince, founder of the private military firm Blackwater, helped raise money for a political-intelligence operation run by Richard Seddon, a former British spy.
nytimes.com
Erik Prince Helped Raise Money for Conservative Spy Venture
New details reveal the ambitions of an operation intended to infiltrate opponents of Donald Trump, including moderate Republicans as well as progressives and Democrats.
6:49 AM · Feb 8, 2022

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/08/us/politics/erik-prince-spy-operation-trump-democrats.html

No paywall
https://archive.fo/yqy3T

WASHINGTON — During the summer of 2018, as Richard Seddon, a former British spy, was trying to launch a new venture to use undercover agents to infiltrate progressive groups, Democratic campaigns and other opponents of President Donald J. Trump, he turned for help to a longtime friend and former colleague: Erik Prince, the private military contractor.

Mr. Prince took on the role of celebrity pitchman, according to interviews and documents, raising money for Mr. Seddon’s spying operation, which was aimed at gathering dirt that could discredit politicians and activists in several states. After Mr. Prince and Mr. Seddon met in August 2018 with Susan Gore, a Wyoming heiress to the Gore-Tex fortune, Ms. Gore became the project’s main benefactor.

Mr. Prince’s role in the effort, which has not been previously disclosed, sheds further light on how a group of ultraconservative Republicans employed spycraft to try to manipulate the American political landscape. Mr. Prince — a former C.I.A. contractor who is best known as the founder of the private military firm Blackwater and whose sister, Betsy DeVos, was Mr. Trump’s education secretary — has drawn scrutiny over the years for Blackwater’s record of violence around the world and his subsequent ventures training and arming foreign forces.

His willingness to support Mr. Seddon’s operation is fresh evidence of his engagement in political espionage projects at home during a period when he was an informal adviser to Trump administration officials.

*snip*