George Nader, former witness of Mueller, arrested for child pornography



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Nader was arrested on arrival at the John F. Kennedy International Airport for "transport of visual representations of minors engaging in sexually explicit behavior".

He had previously pleaded guilty to the same charge in 1991, said the Justice Department.

If he is found guilty, he incurs a minimum sentence of 15 years imprisonment and a maximum of 40 years.

Nader was indicted by prosecutors in Virginia, but appeared for the first time before a magistrate in Brooklyn on Monday. US Judge Cheryl Pollack postponed Nader's bail decision on Tuesday to give Nader's lawyer additional notice to provide details of a security arrangement that would to take care of the serious medical problem of his client.

Pollack said that without Nader's health problems, she would have ordered him to be sent back to the eastern district of Virginia.

"He has every interest in fleeing," she said.

The Mueller report mentions Nader in almost four dozen footnotes, including references to his interviews with specialized investigators, as well as other documents, such as his e-mails and SMS.

Prosecutors filed a secret criminal complaint against Nader on January 17, 2018, according to the Ministry of Justice. CNN had previously reported that Nader had been interviewed by the FBI on that date, the first of several sessions with investigators from Mueller's office.

Read and search Mueller's full report

The investigators seized Nader's electronic devices the same day and had a warrant to search his luggage, according to the Department of Justice. The warrants were issued in connection with a "case unrelated to child pornography," according to the FBI.

Nader's arrest warrant was issued and a sealed criminal complaint was filed in April 2018, according to court records. Prosecutors sought to keep him confidential in order to prevent him from fleeing or tampering with evidence until he was arrested.

According to an FBI affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, the FBI reportedly found a dozen pornographic videos of young boys on one of its iPhones.

Nader appeared in Brooklyn federal court with a beige long-sleeved shirt and pants with what appeared to be a medical bracelet around his left wrist. He flew to the United States on Monday to go to an appointment with a doctor at Mount Sinai Hospital, according to his lawyer and a government attorney. He had an open heart surgery five weeks ago, said his lawyer, and recently had complications.

"It's a sick man," said the lawyer.

His lawyer suggested that he be transported by ambulance with armed security in the Eastern District of Virginia, an arrangement that his lawyer would have promised to Nader.

Nader contributed to the investigation in the Mueller case by organizing several interviews and filing in front of the grand jury. The Mueller report stated that "all but one of his interviews had been conducted" as part of a complicity agreement "during which he could provide information with some legal protection.

He is often quoted in parts of the report on the meeting in Seychelles between Erik Prince, a supporter of Trump, and a Russian banker closely linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Her testimony about her role in the January 2017 secret affair refuted Prince's claims that the meeting was a random meeting and that she had been coordinated with no one from Trump's transition.

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