Convicted sex offender George Nader, who was a key witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, has been indicted by United States prosecutors for his alleged role in a scheme to conceal large sums of illegal campaign contributions to help Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.
Nader, a 60-year-old Lebanese American lobbyist, is accused of conspiring with Ahmad “Andy” Khawaja, the Los Angeles-based 48-year-old chief executive of Allied Wallet, to conceal the source of more than $3.5 million in campaign contributions to political committees associated with a presidential candidate to gain influence during and after the 2016 campaign.
Nader and Khawaja were charged on Nov. 7 as part of a 53-count indictment dealt by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia. The indictment was unsealed on Tuesday.
Khawaja gave more than $4 million to Clinton's campaign and other Democrats during the 2016 cycle but later donated $1 million to President Trump's inaugural committee after Clinton lost, according to the Associated Press. As he shifted his focus to Republicans after the 2016 election, the Lebanese-born Khawaja met with Trump at a Manhattan fundraiser and got a photo with the president in the Oval Office.
The Justice Department announced on Tuesday that Khawaja allegedly conspired with Nader to make $3.5 million in straw donations to boost a presidential candidate from March 2016 through January 2017.
No candidate is mentioned by name, but the indictment and campaign finance records make it clear that the money was directed towards helping Clinton during the 2016 campaign.
"By design, these contributions appeared to be in the names of Khawaja, his wife, and his company. In reality, they allegedly were funded by Nader," Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and FBI Washington Field Office chief Timothy Slater announced in a statement.
According to the indictment, after the election Khawaja used his company to steer $1 million to Trump's inaugural committee and attended Trump's inauguration with Nader.