George Nader, a Lebanese American businessman with links to associates of President Trump, has been arrested on a charge of transporting child pornography.
U.S. officials arrested Nader at John F. Kennedy Airport on Monday morning, the Justice Department said.
Nader was charged under seal after he arrived in Washington from Dubai in January 2018 with a cellphone containing images of minors engaged in sexual conduct.
The criminal complaint, dated April 19, 2018, was made public after his arrest Monday.
Nader was a key figure in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference, sitting for multiple interviews and providing information on his effort to broker a meeting in the Seychelles between Trump ally and Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a Russian financier.
Nader pleaded guilty to the same charge in 1991.
An affidavit that was unsealed Monday alleges that a search warrant approved in a “matter unrelated to child pornography” allowed for the search of any items on Nader’s person as well as his baggage. Among the items cleared for search were electronic devices, including cellphones.
After Nader flew into Dulles International Airport, located in the D.C. area, on January 17, 2018, he was “voluntarily interviewed by FBI agents regarding a matter unrelated to child pornography,” the document states.
Following the interview, Nader was told of the search warrant, and all three iPhones he had with him were seized.
As one of the phones was being reviewed for other evidence, “the case agent in that other matter uncovered multiple files which appeared to contain child pornography,” the court filing reads.
Another search warrant was then issued to find potential child pornography on the phone, and 12 sexually explicit videos of minors were uncovered, according to the affidavit.
Nader, if convicted on the charge, faces a minimum of 15 years and up to 40 years in prison.
Nader is a business partner of Elliott Broidy, a top fundraiser for Trump.
Together they have helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Republican Party.
In May 2003, Nader was convicted in the Czech Republic of 10 counts of sexually abusing minors and sentenced to a one-year prison term.
He served his time in Prague, according to Czech authorities, then was expelled from the country.
Nader’s name is mentioned in Mueller’s report extensively in sections discussing links between associates and members of the Trump campaign and Moscow.
The report states that Nader sat for “multiple interviews” with the special counsel’s office, including one that was conducted under a “proffer agreement” — a potential signal Nader believed he could be charged with crimes and spoke to prosecutors on the condition his statements wouldn’t be used against him.
The report details that Nader, who has advised the United Arab Emirates, helped set up the meeting between Prince and Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian banker with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, in the Seychelles days before Trump took office.
The meeting was one of numerous contacts between campaign associates and Russians that Mueller examined in the course of his investigation.
“Nader developed contacts with both U.S. presidential campaigns during the 2016 election, and kept Dmitriev abreast of his efforts to do so,” the report says.
“According to Nader, Dmitriev said that his and the government of Russia’s preference was for candidate Trump to win and asked Nader to assist him in meeting members of the Trump Campaign.”
Nader did not introduce Dmitriev to anyone linked to the Trump campaign prior to the 2016 election, according to Mueller.
“Nader informed Prince that the Russians were looking to build a link with the incoming Trump Administration,” the report states. “Nader suggested, in light of Prince’s relationship with Transition Team officials, that Prince and Dmitriev meet to discuss issues of mutual concern.”
The special counsel concluded his investigation in late March and delivered his first public remarks on his report last week.