Will a Pedophile Turn Russiagate into UAEgate?

Burbling right below the surface of the Mueller probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election is the actual meddling foreign power (or one of them at least), the United Arab Emirates (UAE). David Kirkpatrick had a lengthy article, "The Most Powerful Arab Ruler Isn’t M.B.S. It’s M.B.Z.," in the Sunday paper on the de facto ruler of the UAE, Prince Mohammed bin Zayed.

This morning comes the delightful news that George Nader, a bagman for Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, was arrested at Kennedy International Airport yesterday on child pornography charges. (See "Witness in Mueller Inquiry Is Arrested on Child Pornography Charges" by Mark Mazzetti.)

Mazzetti writes that

After the election, Mr. Nader helped set up a meeting in the Seychelles Islands off the coast of eastern Africa between Mr. Dmitriev, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates and Erik Prince, the former head of Blackwater who was serving as an unofficial adviser to the Trump transition.

Months earlier, Mr. Nader and Mr. Prince had met Donald Trump Jr. at Trump Tower. During that meeting, in August 2016, Mr. Nader told the younger Mr. Trump that both the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia were eager to help his father be elected president.

As an adviser to Prince Mohammed, Mr. Nader used his patron’s vast fortune to try to influence foreign policy during the early months of the Trump administration. Working with Elliott Broidy, a top Republican fund-raiser seeking Emirati and Saudi contracts for his security firm, Mr. Nader helped steer the White House to take a hard line against Qatar — the small Persian Gulf nation engaged in a bitter dispute with Saudi Arabia and the Emirates.

Kirill Dmitriev, head of a Russian investment fund purportedly close to Vladimir Putin, is the red herring here. Most of the smoking guns in the 2016 election are of Saudi, Emirati and Israeli origin.

Cui bono? It's certainly hasn't been the Russians. On the other hand, Trump's foreign policy is pretty much dictated by the Saudis, Emiratis and Israelis.