Thread by @SethAbramson

(THREAD) Erik Prince—Trump advisor; ex-head of a murderous mercenary army; would-be head of Trump's private spy agency; would-be head of a privatized U.S. army—is a dangerous liar. He just testified under oath. This is a live reading of the transcript. Hope you'll read and share.

1/ Not only did Prince appear without counsel—though he could be charged with a crime for any lie he told—he told the House Intel Committee he had no plans to *hire* an attorney. In the situation he's in—and given who he is—that statement is actually chilling. I'll tell you why.

2/ It suggests he may expect a pardon for any misconduct; or is so confident the GOP won't make him answer any questions he doesn't want to that he sees no risk of self-incrimination; or that he's that confident in his skills as a liar; or thinks his misdeeds can't be uncovered.

3/ What's important to understand is that for a man this rich—and he's very, very rich—and a man with so much nefarious conduct in his past—and he's very, very dangerous—to show up before Congress to testify under oath *without legal counsel* is a *statement*.

A middle finger.

4/ The very first thing Erik Prince does is call the ranking Democrat on the House Intel Committee, Adam Schiff, a liar.

Schiff says documents were requested from Prince—and they *were*—and Prince starts out by saying, "I don't recall receiving any letter asking for documents."

5/ He then tells Schiff to pound sand, telling him he's free to ask Senate Intel for the docs he sent them—"I'd imagine it's pretty much the same thing you're looking for." You don't talk to Congress like this—it's another middle finger. Prince doesn't decide what Congress wants.

6/ Rep. Rooney is the first questioner.

I did many trial examinations as a lawyer—so I know when a questioner is trying to help a witness. The first thing you do is lead the witness—give them the answer you want in the question you ask.

Rooney leads Prince on *every* question.

7/ Prince's first answer to Congressional inquiry is a lie. He literally begins his testimony by committing a crime.

"I played no official or, really, unofficial role" in the Donald Trump for President campaign, he says.

This is a lie—and all the available evidence confirms it.

8/ What's striking is even Prince's own testimony confirms he's lying. He says "sure" when Rooney leads him—rather pathetically—by "asking," "Are you saying that you were basically just a supporter of his?" That's a leading question—it tells the witness what you want them to say.

9/ Let's say you're "just a supporter" of Politician X. Do you:

(a) Give them money?
(b) Attend multiple private events with the candidate?
(c) Write ADVISORY POLICY PAPERS and give them DIRECTLY to the CEO OF THE POLITICIAN'S CAMPAIGN?

Well—

(a) Sure.
(b) Likely not.
(c) No.

10/ Prince was a key advisor to the Trump campaign and he knows it. He "normally" sent his advisory opinions to Bannon—the campaign CEO—which means he sometimes sent them to others—so he had multiple contacts on the campaign willing to directly receive advisory opinions from him.

11/ And note, too, that him giving money—a lot of it—to Trump would have obviated the need for him to *also* attend *multiple* private events with the candidate. Prince wasn't wooed at fundraisers—he gave Trump a *ton* of money and *then* went to private events to speak with him.

12/ Most answers Prince gives include what we call "weasel words" in trial advocacy. These are words you use if you don't want to commit to the truth of something. Prince says Bannon was the only Trump aide he knew "pretty well." So that *means* he knew others; Rooney lets it go.

13/ Prince says he gave the Trump campaign CEO repeated advisory opinions "on his own"—meaning, they weren't asked for. But of course he had reason to know they were being read closely because he knows Bannon "pretty well." The invitation to keep advising was *at least* implicit.

14/ Prince admits to meeting personally with Trump during the campaign—note that he also hung with him at Trump's election-night party—but you have to wade through his bullshit to understand it. "I met him once at a fundraiser photo-op prior to the election. That's all," he says.

15/ This too is a lie, though it's easy to miss. To say you "met someone once at a photo-op" is to say you were with them for the amount of time it takes to get a photo.

*No one in Congress* thinks Prince gave Trump that much money—and advice—and got to meet him for *seconds*.

16/ Asked about his January 2017 Seychelles meeting—the key part of his testimony, and a point of controversy, so therefore the most dangerous for Prince in terms of self-incrimination or revealing information he wants to hide—Prince does what guilty people do: reads off a paper.

17/ This helps explain the lack of a lawyer: Prince had a lawyer go through his written statement carefully so that he wouldn't deviate from it and incriminate himself. Prince then cuts his attorney loose so he can flaunt (excuse me saying it) his asshole bravado before Congress.

18/ Prince's story—and it *is* a *story*, nothing more—about his meeting in the Seychelles in January 2017 is so absurdly false that I'm just going to paste it in below so we can all bask in the veritable mountains of BS of which it is composed. This is *really* something, folks.

19/ Some context—weeks earlier, a prince from the UAE secretly entered the U.S. to talk to Flynn about bringing nuclear power to the Middle East by dropping all sanctions on Russia and having Russia build the reactors. The cooperation would be called an "anti-terror" partnership.

20/ So when Prince says, euphemistically, "potential customers for my logistics business," understand that that phrasing is *intentionally* meaningless. The business he was there to discuss had to do with energy issues in the Middle East. But he has *no* intention of saying that.

21/ Then—"weasel words". The UAE folks "mentioned" (just "mentioned"!) a "guy" (just some "guy"!) who runs "some sort" of hedge fund (what kind? who knows!). Did they have a serious talk? No! Just a quick "meet."

After all, Dmitriev was *only* there to meet with *other* people.

22/ They met in the hotel bar—just two guys getting a drink!—and "chatted"—nothing serious!—on "ranging" topics—the conversation meandered randomly!—and the *one* sentence Prince remembers from the "chat" is a piece of self-aggrandizing asshole bravado about Trump being like FDR.

23/ The meeting was a "maximum of 30 minutes" (could've been way less, who knows!) and "that's all there is to say" (what more could anyone want, after all?).

This sort of BS drives prosecutors—both state and federal—up a wall. Flagrantly false to the point of grave disrespect.

24/ Prince says the *only* thing he knew about Dmitriev was that he was a "Russian fund manager"—in other words, what the men from the UAE told him. What he wants us to think is he asked *no questions* and did *no research* on Dmitriev when he was "advised" to meet with him.

No.

25/ Erik Prince is an international operator—he's run an international mercenary army, wants to build a private international spy agency, and wants to privatize the U.S. military under (presumably) his command.

He *doesn't meet strange Russian men before getting intel on them*.

26/ But it gets worse. Now he's pretending that the Emiratis *didn't know if he had any business in the commodities space*. Oh, so they met with *him* without knowing anything about *him*, either!

Yeah, that's not how this works—that's not how any of this works. These are lies.

27/ Suddenly, one of Putin's closest pals—an unbelievably rich and powerful Russian oligarch—is just "an interesting guy from Russia."

And—Prince underscores—the Emiratis only *maybe* thought he should meet him.

And hey—just for a quick drink!

No one thinks this is the truth.

28/ Prince then says, when Rooney asks, that "Russian cyber-activity and active measures" is "not my area of expertise."

Wow—a lot to say.

First, this man wants to start a secret, private, international spy agency controlled by Trump and spy stuff isn't his "area of expertise"?

29/ Here's the original (and quite recent) article on how, in fact, spy stuff *is* Prince's "area of expertise" and *exactly* where he sees his future going.

This story has since been picked up everywhere. theintercept.com/2017/12/04/tru…

30/ Secondly, Prince knows *a lot* about Russian "active measures" because he appears to have *used* them before the election. Here he is—96 hours before election day—trying to poison American voters with Russian disinformation that's literally 100% false. breitbart.com/radio/2016/11/…

31/ I'm not going to waste time on the rant Prince goes on against U.S. media and the U.S. government for finding out about his Seychelles meeting.

And I won't waste time with his ridiculous claim that his meeting happening in January means there was no Trump-Russia collusion.

32/ But I *will* note Prince's *audacity* in complaining about leaks.

This is a man who *admitted* to being the beneficiary of Hatch Act-violative leaks from the NYPD—about the Wiener case—that *materially affected* the results of a presidential election. huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-dome…

33/ Rooney closes his questions by misstating Prince's testimony to make it less inculpatory—claiming Prince said he only wrote a "couple" advisory opinions (he didn't say that) and broadly asking about "collusion, conspiracy, or coordination" rather than making specific queries.

34/ Schiff begins his questioning by pulverizing Prince—putting on the record that a letter requesting documents from Prince (which Prince says "he doesn't remember receiving") was sent by letter AND email AND fax AND other means.

Prince knows feigning ignorance won't cost him.

35/ This is actually pretty striking: the Committee reached out to Prince by many, many different means to get information from him in May of 2017, but Prince is claiming (under oath before Congress) that he knew nothing about it until *six months later*, in early November. Wow.

36/ Prosecutors and investigators look at whether people's actions are consistent with their known qualities.

Note: every time there's something Prince doesn't *want* to say he knew—before Congress, in the Seychelles, at a Trump fundraiser—he pretends he's an oaf.

Transparent.

37/ This is just a mid-thread reminder that Erik Prince is one of the foremost—and indeed one of the most dangerous—international operators on Earth.

Any time he pretends to be aloof on an important matter, it's not to be credited.

38/ Prince then reveals he met with known Trump agent—yes, in the legal sense—Devin Nunes in advance of his testimony. He says they talked about "unmasking" issues—in other words, Prince confesses they talked about Flynn, nuclear reactors, and the UAE. The topic of his testimony.

39/ Remember, Flynn was "unmasked" for talking to a UAE national, and we know Flynn was then secretly working on bringing nuclear reactors to certain countries in the Middle East.

Shortly after that, the UAE got Prince a meeting with Dmitriev—a Kremlin agent—in the Seychelles.

40/ Remember, all the initiatives Prince wanted to and/or did lobby Trump on—new Middle East energy; Trump's private spy agency; a privatized U.S. army—fell into Flynn's policy bailiwick as Trump's National Security Advisor.

The connection between the two men isn't hard to see.

41/ The lies on issues crucial to the Trump-Russia investigation begin.

42/ Remember, Flynn says the only reason he knew Congress wanted to talk to him was from Nunes, and Nunes had summoned him to discuss *precisely* the Flynn/UAE meeting Schiff is asking about.

Now Prince says he "can't recall" if anyone from that *critical meeting* spoke to him.

43/ But both Schiff and Prince are smart men—so Prince immediately realizes he's letting his bravado get the best of him and putting himself in jeopardy as a consequence. So after saying "I can't recall," he *proves* that was a lie by confessing he *did* speak to Bannon about it.

44/ (Typo in Tweet #42: It should read, "Prince says the only reason...")

45/ Prince now "can't remember" if Bannon told him the UAE met with Flynn *prior* to him (Prince) going to the Seychelles to meet with the UAE.

Folks, I'm shrugging here.

You have to understand that *no one in the room*—that includes Republicans—thinks he's telling the truth.

46/ Asked what he can remember about his conversation with Bannon about the UAE national who met Flynn, all Prince remembers—he says—is that Bannon said the UAE national was a great guy.

Yep, I bet that's the *only thing* that made the conversation memorable: "He's a great guy."

47/ Remember how I said Flynn's Russia-Saudi Arabia nuclear reactor plot (hatched with Iran-Contra criminal Bud McFarlane) was couched as an "anti-terror" initiative to weaken Iran? Check out this Schiff-Prince exchange on what Bannon told Prince about the UAE official Flynn met:

48/ A very odd and—I suspect—inadvertent slip by Prince: he concedes he hasn't done business with the UAE since 2011, but has met the UAE national Flynn met with 12 times. OK, let's generously say 11 were pre-2012. So the January 2017 meet would've been considered unusual, right?

49/ I mean, is Prince regularly traveling around the world to meet with a guy whose country he does no business with? I don't think so. Which makes his January 2017 visit to the Seychelles (a) highly unusual, and (b) *far* more likely to *not* be about *his* business but Trump's.

50/ Prince's fund looks for energy opportunities in the Middle East to invest in.

Let that sink in, relative to Flynn and McFarlane developing an international plot to bring nuclear energy to Saudi Arabia using Russian-built reactors (in a no-sanctions U.S.-Russia relationship).

51/ Here's what combative witnesses whose answers clearly reflect consciousness of guilt do under questioning: when asked if Bannon knew that he (Prince) did business in the UAE—after Prince admitted to speaking to Bannon about the UAE—Prince says, "I'm sure he reads the paper."

52/ Is this how people are, in your experience? They call you to tell you about a meeting, but won't tell you who attended it? They want to give you all the details about what was discussed, but give no indication of *why you should care*?

Is that how people are, would you say?

53/ Schiff is smarter than Prince—and a prosecutor—so here he effortlessly traps Prince into proving he's lying. He asks if Prince can recall "anything," knowing Prince will say "no." Then he asks a question he knows Prince *wants* to answer, which proves he *does* recall things.

54/ This is an advanced trial advocacy technique, and Schiff executes it to perfection. One gets to use it less frequently than one would like—as you almost never encounter a trial witness who lies as much as Prince. But what Schiff does here is critical—and I want to explain it.

55/ In the Q&A you see in Tweet #53, we find Schiff establishing that (a) Prince is lying, and (b) Prince is lying *with an agenda* (i.e., he demonstrably *wants* to answer that Kushner/Flynn weren't mentioned). But those facts produce (c): you don't believe him on Kushner/Flynn.

56/ Incidentally, this is why even dangerous strongmen should bring—or at least retain—an attorney when they're going to testify under oath before Congress.

Especially if they're going to be questioned by a seasoned federal prosecutor.

But Prince knows the GOP will protect him.

57/ (FYI: here's a recent article on Prince's illicit meeting with Trump agent Nunes in advance of his Congressional testimony. Nunes discussed the subject of that testimony with Prince—raising a real specter of Trump tampering with the witness via Nunes.) businessinsider.com/erik-prince-te…

58/ Prince admits asking for and receiving a meeting with Flynn during the campaign. He says "before Flynn joined the campaign in any official capacity"—but that's sly, as Trump used Flynn as an advisor from August '15 on *but didn't make him official* until *after* the election.

59/ And Prince is—indeed—sly: note that he doesn't say when the meeting was, only that he *knows* it was before Flynn was "officially" on Trump's team (which exculpatory fact definitionally means Prince knows *exactly* when it was—as he remembers the time-period *quite* clearly).

60/ Prince also wisely loads up Schiff with topics he discussed with Flynn, making sure none are inculpatory. That makes it *appear* like he's being candid and exhaustive, when in fact he's leaving out any nation they discussed that could be a problem (Russia, Saudi Arabia, UAE).

61/ But here's what Bob Mueller is seeing: a liar. A witness whose memory fades in and out—and in a *pattern* that is recognizable to anyone who has worked in the justice system or watched Sessions testify before Congress: anything exculpatory is clear, anything inculpatory hazy.

62/ Oh my god—{facepalm}—look, no one in that room was believing this. No Republican and no Democrat.

A paraphrase of this particular lie: "I waved. No—wait—maybe I walked up and said hi. Or maybe I said a few sentences of encouragement."

And maybe it was a bit more than that?

63/ Prince has now expanded his advisory role for Trump via his responses to Schiff. He now concedes he was sending Bannon texts as well as advisory opinions. Somehow he forgot to mention those regular texts to the CEO of the Trump campaign to Rooney—"just a supporter," you know.

64/ I mean, *you* send regular texts to the CEO of the presidential campaign of the candidate *you* supported in 2016, right? And mail him printed advisory materials that he then reads and considers closely? Normal course of business for a mere political "supporter"—right? Right?

65/ Prince now concedes that as part of his Trump advisory role during the 2016 campaign he discussed having better relations with Russia with Steve Bannon, the CEO of the campaign. The only way Trump was then discussing better relations was through the dropping of all sanctions.

66/ I don't think you have to read between the lines much to see in Prince's concession a confession that he did discuss U.S.-Russia sanctions policy with the Trump campaign *prior* to the 2016 presidential election. Mueller will certainly infer that from Prince's responses here.

67/ When you know you won't face perjury charges—at least not any referred to the DOJ by the GOP—you pull stunts like this.

This sort of middle finger is just unacceptable in Congressional testimony. You don't answer this sort of question in this way.

68/ So his response is, "No idea if they indicated that to me." In other words, I care so little about your question—central to the biggest political scandal of our times—that I'm not even going to pretend to you that I'm *trying* to recall whether I *could* answer your question.

69/ Again, I come back to the fact that Erik Prince *concedes* he'd done no business in UAE since 2011. Then—suddenly—a member of the UAE royal court contacts him.

Mere weeks after the UAE made contact with Flynn and (it seems) Kushner.

That's one *major* coincidence too far.

70/ Don't remember who called, don't remember what they said, no information given about anything except please fly here immediately.

Yes, this sounds like international business to me.

In a children's cartoon.

71/ Some of you may wonder why Prince won't answer how quickly he flew to the Seychelles after he was beckoned or even what hotel he stayed at.

The answers could be inculpatory—and in the latter case could assist Congress in finding witnesses to what happened in the Seychelles.

72/ Yes, a man who was next to Trump at his victory party on election night just told a federal prosecutor he had "no great access" to the incoming administration and no one in the UAE would have had *any* reason to think that (by the way, his wife put the photo on social media).

73/ What comes across throughout Prince's testimony is a *seething* hatred for Barack Obama—Prince takes every possible opportunity to deflect from his own actions and mention Obama's failures—that I would say is probably as *virulent* as that of *any* hostile foreign government.

74/ Yes, Prince really *is* saying that the presence of a top Kremlin agent at a meeting that the UAE expressly invited him to was a coincidence.

75/ If you're wondering, this is how a federal prosecutor tells you he knows you're lying.

This is just one of the 50+ times Adam Schiff telegraphed that to Prince.

76/ Prince makes sure to say the person who told him to meet with the Kremlin agent was one of the UAE nationals whose name he *can't* remember—not the only one he *can*.

Sorry: "remember."

I don't want to pretend we're *actually* discussing what Prince really remembers here.

77/ What you see in some of these exchanges is something *really* rare in sworn testimony: someone so certain they won't face perjury charges—or would get a pardon if they did—that they will literally give two answers to the same question seconds apart with no self-consciousness.

78/ Incidentally, that exchange was important because it would have established a prior plan hatched by UAE nationals and Russia to get Prince and a top Kremlin agent together.

This way, Prince can pretend the UAE nationals didn't even *know* where the Kremlin agent would *be*.

79/ Prince just cut the length of his meeting with a Kremlin agent by 33%—from 30 minutes to 20. He did it without breaking a sweat. This is a man with no fear of criminal charges. Thank god for him there's no Special Counsel investigating him a few blocks away from Capitol Hill.

80/ Oh man—priceless. Prince claims he had to Google Dmitriev's name so he could recognize him at the bar. (Apparently a very *quick* Google—he maintains all he knew as the entered the meeting was that some UAE fellows said this was a hedge fund manager and an "interesting guy.")

81/ Wait—it gets better.

The reason Prince did just a *seconds-long* Google of Dmitriev, who he was about to meet on the advice of the royal family of the UAE, was...

wait for it...

ROAMING DATA IS EXPENSIVE.

Prince is a multi-millionaire.

This man has *no* fear of the law.

82/ Note: Dmitriev's bank is a sanctioned entity U.S. persons can't do business with. But to know that, Prince would have had to Google him for more than a few seconds (and roaming data *is* expensive, so...).

Prince concedes they talked U.S.-Russia trade (so, U.S. *sanctions*).

83/ Yes, this is how people talk when they're doing people-talking.

84/ Per Business Insider, this answer is a crime—a lie under oath before Congress, with the witness having been clearly instructed beforehand that any lie would be a federal crime—because Prince met with Trump agent Devin Nunes to discuss his testimony prior to going to the Hill.

85/ Going to take a break to get a bite to eat; I'll return later.

Reading this much deceit is exhausting, I'll be honest. I really feel for Adam Schiff, who had to be lied to to his face.

86/ I'll be resuming this live-tweet momentarily, god help me.

87/ When Jim Himes (D-CT) begins questioning Prince, things get *very* strange *very* quickly. Himes challenges Prince on his repeated and extraordinary accusations of criminal conduct by the Obama Administration—specifically, leaking signals intelligence to The Washington Post.

88/ Himes demands proof. Prince stalls. Himes pushes. Princes then makes this extraordinary statement (put aside the audacity of a private citizen under oath before Congress *instructing* a Congressman by saying, "we'll leave it at that"):

89/ Himes isn't playing, though, and he eventually gets Prince to admit that he has *no specific evidence* (despite saying "I know it came from SIGNINT and we'll leave it at that") The Washington Post report on his Seychelles meeting came from an Obama Administration SIGINT leak.

90/ Here's what's telling, though, if I view things through the lens of an criminal investigator and attorney: Prince described his meeting with the Emiratis as vague, brief and stupid—yet despite WP saying it had "Arab" sources, Prince says there is *zero* chance the UAE leaked.

91/ That level of certainty the Emiratis *didn't* say a *peep* about their meeting with Prince would seem to come from Prince's knowledge—which he's repeatedly lied about under oath in his testimony—that in fact his meeting with the Emiratis involved *much more* than he has said.

92/ Prince insists he has access to "very experienced people in the Intelligence Community" who've "deduced" SIGINT was leaked by Obama's people to The Washington Post. So, *many top-level contacts*, but remember, he said Russian intel activities were "not his area of expertise."

93/ This Himes-Prince exchange is garish. Prince now switches his story in mid-stream to say his sources *do* have "specific information" proving their claims (suddenly they're not "deducing") but he *won't name any names*—so no one can get that "specific" information from them.

94/ Prince won't even be pinned down on whether the Kremlin agent gave him a *business card*. Why? Because if he *has* one, it might suggest that the Kremlin planned to follow up with him—as we should assume they did. So "maybe" Prince got a card—"I looked around"—and maybe not.

95/ Prince isn't as smart as he thinks: he telegraphs which people/topics he wants to avoid. Remember how he was so proud of his FDR/Trump comparison, enough that it was the *only* thing he recalled from the meeting with the Kremlin agent? He's realized he set a trap for himself.

96/ Prince's initial quote *conceded* Trump was a topic of discussion with the Russian, and that one of the few topics of the meeting was sanctions, which means Prince *admitted discussing Trump and sanctions with the Kremlin*.

So he changes his *well-remembered quote* to "we."

97/ The same thing was true in my live-tweet of Carter Page's testimony—none of these hoodlums are as smart as they think, so *any* prosecutor (or juror) can triangulate their testimony to deduce some *very* damning things about their conversations with top agents of the Kremlin.

98/ So we now know Prince discussed Trump with the Kremlin; discussed sanctions with the Kremlin; and lied about every single element of his meeting with the Kremlin: whether he recalls who set it up, whether it was impromptu, and even whether he got a *business card* afterward.

99/ Prince "looked around" for the business card he "maybe" got—as he was clear they didn't share cell numbers—but had as much luck finding that as the LETTER FROM CONGRESS sent by EMAIL and LETTER and FAX and OTHER MEANS he never saw for the 6 MONTHS Congress was waiting on him.

100/ Keep in mind, Prince concedes that this Russian was waiting for him in the bar of the very building the Emiratis summoned him to, had been contacted by the Emiratis beforehand telling him to expect Prince, and he *still* claims the meeting was just a passing suggestion. JFC.

101/ To me, the most damning thing is that the GOP basically has *no questions* for Prince—they've *no interest* in getting to the bottom of this illicit meeting between a Trump advisor and a Kremlin agent *in an investigation into that very issue*. So Dems ask all the questions.

102/ This man is a *spectacular* asshole.

I'm sorry for the language, but I've now had to read 70 pages of this punk talking and as an officer of the court and someone who *proudly* swore an oath to uphold the Constitution in 2001 it makes me livid to see a witness act this way.

103/ Very sad for Prince—*every time* he gets to meet this man who he advises through his campaign CEO and who he gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to all he gets is a seconds-long "photo-op." One before the election, one after, and... wait, did he mention the election party?

104/ So Prince fails to disclose he was at Trump's election-night party and lies about two other pre-inauguration meetings by calling them "photo-ops." He then says he was "briefly introduced" to Kushner twice in December 2016 at Trump Tower when he was... "dropping off papers."

105/ This is the part where I remind you that this man is UNDER OATH.

ANY LIE is a crime.

So, to repeat: in December 2016 he "briefly" met Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, twice *at Trump Tower* (oh, but "in a hallway"!) when he was "dropping off papers."

*facepalm*

106/ Trying to cover for the fact that he went to *Trump Tower*, and *twice*, and *during the transition*, and met *Jared Kushner* "in a hallway" both times, while there to meet *Steve Bannon*—who he could have met *anywhere in NYC*—Prince says he might have talked the UAE. Oops.

107/ So *earlier*, Prince "couldn't remember" when or how or why or in what context or for what purpose Bannon talked with him about the UAE.

*Now*, he's placed himself at Trump Tower, during the transition, twice, with Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon, discussing the UAE.

Jesus.

108/ You don't talk to a Congressman this way during Congressional testimony—ever.

109/ You also *never* speak like this during Congressional testimony—ever.

110/ Hey, guess who else Prince met "in a hallway" at Trump Tower? (*Super* quick handshake, y'all—that's it.)

Anthony Scaramucci.

Who met with the same Kremlin agent Prince did—six days later.

111/ (Pausing to underscore who Prince met with in the Seychelles: Kirill Dmitriev, the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, the Kremlin's sovereign wealth fund and a man whose organization is sanctioned by America,

But hey, he's just "an interesting guy from Russia"—yes?)

112/ Rep. Speier (D-CA) asks some questions that are almost too complicated to go into, because they involve Prince's 2016 and 2017 contacts with another person (Christophe Charlier) who is connected—by one degree, if I understand correctly—to Manafort's old boss, OLEG DERIPASKA.

113/ Yeah, so that got heavy fast. (You see what I mean about struggling to summarize Speier's questions.)

114/ That's right: an international businessman whose area is oil has never heard of the Rosneft oil deal—the largest oil deal in Russia's history, which was closing during the times Prince (and Bud McFarlane, and Mike Flynn) were at Trump Tower talking oil during the transition.

115/ I wonder if Prince's sudden mental block on Russia's largest-ever oil deal has anything to do with it being the key event in the STEELE DOSSIER—which alleges Trump was using intermediaries (kind of like Prince, come to think of it) to negotiate sanctions with Kremlin agents?

116/ And—hold on—come to think of it, wasn't Erik Prince a Trump advisor acting as an intermediary to discuss Trump and sanctions with a Kremlin agent in a carefully arranged meeting just a *few weeks* after Russia's largest-ever oil deal closed?

Now *that's* an odd coincidence.

117/ Prince can't resist: he has to add that the Rosneft deal is "way out of my league," which everyone in the room knows isn't true and almost certainly rolled their eyes at but hey—what are you going to do—the man's about to have a *private international spy army* run by Trump.

118/ Prince tells Speier his Googling of Kirill Dmitriev *didn't bring up what the man's job is*.

Seriously, he *said* that.

So here's what happens if you Google Dmitriev, as Prince did (side note: can we just charge Prince with perjury already?):

119/ Prince says when Dmitriev said he wanted U.S.-Russian trade relations to return to "normal," Prince had (a) *no idea* what that meant, (b) no ability to determine if sanctions were being referenced or not, (c) didn't ask Dmitriev what he meant, and (d) can't speculate on it.

120/ Crazy moment—Prince outright refuses to answer a question from Quigley, says it isn't relevant, Quigley asks Conaway to make the witness answer and Conaway says the witness can do whatever he damn well pleases and oh by the way your time is up, Quigley.

Yeah—that happened.

121/ Turd.

122/ Turd.

123/ Travel tidbits for Prince (via Swalwell's questioning): Prince was in Ukraine in 2016, and Italy in 2016. Both of these are critical nations for the investigation, and both trips were during the campaign. Relevant? Who knows. Prince certainly isn't going to concede anything.

124/ Prince also went to Hungary during the campaign, possibly Prague ("I don't think so," he says—which is inappropriately vague for a big foreign trip that would've happened LAST YEAR). In other words, Prince went everywhere the Trump-Russia action was, and during the campaign.

125/ Hey, what do you know—the *one quote* Erik Prince remembers from his secret meeting with a Kremlin agent just nine days before Trump's inauguration has changed *yet again*.

(1) "Trump"
(2) "we"
(3) "the United States"

Getting farther and farther away from Trump, isn't it.

126/ Prince admits meeting Donald Trump Jr. multiple times during the campaign and multiple times during the transition.

To misquote Star Wars: "This deal's getting better all the time!"

I mean Prince's deal being just a Trump "supporter"—with "no great access" to Team Trump.

127/ I'm *kind* of getting the sense Prince's line on Russia is he's never discussed Russia with any person at any time—even the Russian he met in the Seychelles. To be honest, I don't know how Prince doesn't end up with criminal charges somehow. He's practically BEGGING Mueller.

128/ (Prince says Mueller hasn't contacted him yet, which is consistent with Prince being a target. You don't interview targets early; you do it either not at all—you just indict—or you interview them when you can catch them in as many lies as possible. That takes much research.)

129/ Wait a minute—big reveal. Joseph Schmitz—Trump NatSec advisor—used to work for Prince. Schmitz took a trip to Budapest—the European HQ for Russian intelligence—no one knows the purpose of during the campaign. So I'm guessing Prince knew everything about Trump's NatSec plans.

130/ Prince (remember, just a run-of-the-mill Trump "supporter") admits to meeting top Trump national security advisor Schmitz *in person* at least twice during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Oh, friends—I promise you they weren't discussing crochet.

131/ Yeah, this never happened.

This is the "after-school special" or maybe Care Bear Reunion version of how two major international operators meet illicitly in the Seychelles.

("What do you do?" Prince asked, batting his eyelashes innocently.)

132/ Poor FDR. Poor Trump. Now they've *both* dropped out of the *one* quote Mr. Prince "remembers" from his illicit meeting with a Kremlin agent in the Seychelles.

Now all we have is "Stalin" and "we" instead of "Trump," "FDR," and tons of good stuff.

Very, very disappointing.

133/ Now we come to it: THE BIG REVEAL. Prince knows everything said about this meeting in the Post is true. He knows there are transcripts. He doesn't care; he's leaving the country soon.

And he's laid the groundwork for challenging those "illegal" transcripts if they surface.

134/ Prince seems to finally admit—via dramatic evasion—he was lying to America when he told Breitbart NYPD sources told him Clinton committed innumerable crimes and NYPD had proof.

I wrote about this in HuffPost a year ago, as those lies pushed Comey to write The Comey Letter.

135/ Here again is my article in The Huffington Post—from a year ago—about how Prince's lies about NYPD leaks helped convince Jim Comey to intercede in the 2016 presidential election. Prince suddenly gets very defensive when this comes up (see last tweet). huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-dome…

136/ What Erik Prince *doesn't say* is that everything his NYPD "source" told him—and let's be super clear here, there *was no source*—turned out to be a disgusting libel, 100% false, and a despicable attempt to swing the 2016 campaign to Donald Trump.

Oh, and it worked.

137/ I told you guys a year ago what Prince did 96 hours before the election was a smoking gun—the (successful) use of Russian "deza" to blackmail the FBI into speaking publicly on the Weiner case and raise Clinton's emails right before the vote—so this looks like metaphor to me:

138/ Oh, man—it went *down*.

(And by the way, Prince is lying here: he clearly indicated to Breitbart, just 96 hours before the 2016 presidential election, that he was discussing—among other emails—emails from a State Department address, i.e. Clinton's, and *not* just Wiener's.)

139/ ...and there he is, admitting it. He lied about Hillary's emails.

And he was using Russian "deza" just 96 hours before a presidential election, at a time he was a top advisor to the Trump campaign.

Like I said in The Huffington Post, it was a domestic criminal conspiracy.

140/ Rooney closes it out with—a paraphrase—"Don't worry, there's no way in hell we'll let the Democrats subpoena *anything* from you that you don't want to give us—the secret of what you did in the Seychelles with a Kremlin agent right before the inauguration remains safe, sir."

CONCLUSION/ Prince is toast—the transcripts exist. He may fight them in court. They'll confirm he lied repeatedly in the transcript I analyzed here. He's almost certainly looking at criminal charges. He lives abroad—so he may flee the jurisdiction and not return. He's a monster.

PERSONAL NOTE/ As I spent the last 7 hours live-tweeting this transcript—with a brief dinner break—10,000 people retweeted this thread, about 1,000 people unfollowed me, and a few folks donated to the feed.

I appreciate *all* these reactions, as—unlike Prince—they were honest.

SOURCE/ Here's The Washington Post article that Erik Prince spent most of his time during his Congressional testimony (when he had a spare moment, at least) ranting about, alleging major federal felonies up and down the Obama Administration: washingtonpost.com/world/national…

SOURCE2/ Here's the full transcript: docs.house.gov/meetings/IG/IG…

SOURCE3/ Here's a link to my recent thread on Flynn, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Flynn's covert plan to give nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia. All sourced by major media, and much of it directly relevant to my live-tweeting of the Prince transcript, above.

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SOURCE4/ This thread references on several occasions Erik Prince's desire (and lobbying efforts) to privatize U.S. military operations. Here's an article on that: buzzfeed.com/amphtml/aramro…