(Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty)
One incontrovertible truth of the Trump administration is that Trump has attracted some of the worst human beings imaginable into his orbit. Paul Manafort is an international criminal who made money by propping up oppressive regimes. Steven Miller appears to be a racist psychopath. Michael Cohen is grifter and a liar. This list of Trump associates who are criminal or evil or both never ends.
And now we can add another allegedly despicable human to the list of Trump liasons. Yesterday, it was revealed that George Nader had been charged with transporting child pornography.
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I’m not sure what Nader’s actual “job” was. Here’s how the Washington Post describes it:
Nader played an unusual role as a kind of liaison between Trump supporters, Middle East leaders and Russians interested in making contact with the incoming administration in early 2017.
Just another gross hanger-on that was attracted to the Trump campaign like flies are attracted to s**t.
According to the complaint, Nader was interviewed by FBI agents at the airport, and one of his three iPhones was searched for reasons unrelated to child pornography. But on the phone, authorities found 12 sexually explicit videos featuring boys approximately ranging in age from 2 to 14, according to the court documents.
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In normal times, having any kind of association with a man busted with sexually explicit child pornography on his phone would dominate the news headlines for a week. Trump would have to answer for this, explain exactly what his relationship was to the transition and the administration, and distance himself from this scandal.
Instead, we live in a world where it’s kind of baked-in that the President of the United States receives help from incredibly shady people and that some of those people are actual criminals.
President Trump, who tweets like a lonely teen who doesn’t get invited to parties, has said nothing about Nader. Nobody has asked him about Nader as he travels around the world, embarrassing America in his rented tux. And Nader, who set up meetings for senior Trump administration advisors like Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner, is already out of the news cycle.
If Hillary Clinton were president and a guy like Nader had set up meetings with John Podesta and Middle Eastern oligarchs, Breitbart readers would be self-immolating on the White House lawn right now.
Figure linked to Trump transition charged with transporting child pornography [Washington Post]
Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and a contributor at The Nation. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He will resist.