Thread by @j2dumfounded

Now that Tom Barrack has been arrested and charged with being an unregistered agent for the Emiratis, I feel like we need to revisit the role of Andy Khawaja played in funneling millions into the 2016 election, with help from George Nader.

Khawaja was indicted in 2019 for conspiring “with Nader to conceal the source of more than $3.5 million in campaign contributions, directed to political committees associated with a candidate for President of the United States in the 2016 election.”

justice.gov/opa/pr/califor…

Just a few months before, Khawaja’s company had agreed to pay a $110 million settlement to the FTC.

“Operators of Payment Processing Firm Settle Charges for Assisting Fraudulent Schemes that Took More than $110 Million from Consumers”

ftc.gov/news-events/pr…

The FTC settlement establishes that Khawaja was not playing by the rules.

Quite interestingly, at the time, he was serving as a Commissioner for the United States Commission on International Freedom. This is August 2019.

justice.gov/eoir/page/file…

Well connected as he was, billionaire or no, Andy couldn’t pay the $110 million FTC fine as he alleged he was making *only* $33 million annually. Yet months later, he’s funneling millions… into the campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Ruhroh. 😒

But it’s not Khawaja’s money.

Oh, no. It’s money from UAE.

The Spectator wrote a story in March 2020. I diagrammed their reporting as shown here.

https://twitter.com/j2dumfounded/status/1235451118768939014

So while DOJ was trying to prosecute Khawaja (who fled the country) over transfers to Clinton’s campaign, we see his accomplice very bad man George Nader was attempting to do the same for the Trump campaign. 🤨

This quote from the Spectator:

“Khawaja says that in September 2016, Nader told him why he needed the payment engine. Abu Dhabi wanted help making ‘online micropayments’ in bulk to the Trump campaign and the RNC. He describes Nader asking for help to make it work.”

NYT had in December 2019 reported that it was only after the election that money was transferred to the Trump campaign.

They gave at least $1 million to the inauguration.

nytimes.com/2019/12/05/us/…

More on the inauguration from Mother Jones.

motherjones.com/politics/2019/…

“Khawaja denied that Nader was his guest at the inauguration or an adviser to Allied Wallet. Any email suggesting this, he said, “is inaccurate. It’s bullshit. It’s fabricated.” 🤥

AP reports, along with many unsavory details, Khawaja “began extending his largesse to Republicans after a lunch with Republican fundraiser Elliott Broidy two weeks after Trump clinched the presidency.”

apnews.com/article/north-…

So the real story here isn’t Khawaja engaging in nefarious activities, fleeing the country, or him being detained in Lithuania (home of his bride) and getting out on bail, an “extremely rare decision”.
fintechdirect.net/2020/11/10/elu…

It certainly isn’t about him trying to rehabilitate his image, with cover stories on (unwitting?) business publications on his newest venture, “Artificial Intelligence Defense Platform, and the way it is changing the world for the better.” (Are you effing kidding me!?! 🙄)

The real story is that foreign influence is corrupting American politics.

Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ), who controls the UAE sovereign fund, can find any number of minions. Andy Kahawaja, like Tom Barrack, is emblematic of a far larger problem.

But it’s not just UAE & the Saudis.

We just noted Elliott Broidy welcoming Emerati money; he took $8 million from Jho Low of Malaysia, too. ⤵️

But it’s more than one or two grifters.

It’s Rudy getting paid by mobligarch Firtash.

It’s a whole web of hidden foreign influence.

Dozens of FARA busts are needed. 😡

https://twitter.com/j2dumfounded/status/1298288184510435328

This graphic, borrowed from @pleasesaveour, shows the timeline of interactions between the Trump campaign and UAE players.