A series of truly remarkable coincidences

This AP expose on Elliott Broidy’s excellent adventure has to be read in full to be appreciated.  But here’s a particularly interesting passage:

It was time for Broidy to visit the UAE and nail down his first contract. He and [George] Nader had already discussed sharing the profits and begun setting up a UAE subsidiary of Circinus, Broidy’s company.

In late November, Broidy planned a visit to complete the contracts in the UAE, where MBZ was hosting a Formula One auto race.

But maybe that was too public.

“I think my friend not very wise for you to be seeing (sic) at this event,” Nader wrote to Broidy. “Many journalists and people from Russia and other countries will be around.”

Broidy met Trump once again on Dec. 2. He reported back to Nader that he’d told Trump the crown princes were “most favorably impressed by his leadership.” He offered the crown princes’ help in the Middle East peace plan being developed by Jared Kushner. He did not tell Trump that his partner had complete contempt for the plan — and for the president’s son-in-law.

“You have to hear in private my Brother what Principals think of ‘Clown prince’s’ efforts and his plan!” Nader wrote. “Nobody would even waste cup of coffee on him if it wasn’t for who he is married to.”

Days after Broidy’s meeting with Trump, the UAE awarded Broidy the intelligence contract the partners had been seeking for up to $600 million over 5 years, according to a leaked email.

The Muslim fighting force contract would be even larger, potentially bringing their entire Gulf enterprise to more than $1 billion.

In January, Broidy was preparing for a third meeting with Trump, at Mar-a-Lago, during celebrations of the president’s first year in office. Nader was supposed to join them, but the initial payment for the intelligence contract was late. He delayed his trip to the U.S. for a day to make sure it was wired.

On Jan. 17, Broidy reported that he had received the first installment — $36 million.

“Terrific!” Nader wrote before his flight. “First among many to go!”

Hours after that money transfer, Nader and Broidy discovered that, despite all their precautions, they had not escaped notice.

When Nader landed at Dulles Airport outside Washington, D.C., a team of FBI agents working for Mueller was there to meet him. He was relieved of his electronic devices and later agreed to cooperate. It is unclear why Nader was detained, but he is a link between the Trump campaign and the Russian investor who attended the meeting in the Seychelles.

While there is no evidence that Mueller is interested in the lobbying effort, Nader’s detention kicked off a spiral of misfortune for the two partners.

In February, the AP, The New York Times and other news organizations began receiving anonymously leaked batches of Broidy’s emails and documents that had apparently been hacked. News stories linked him to plans to leverage his White House access for clients in Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Broidy fought back. He sued Qatar and its lobbyists, alleging in a lawsuit filed in March that the hack was a smear campaign.

“We believe the evidence is clear that a nation state is waging a sophisticated disinformation campaign against me in order to silence me, including hacking emails, forging documents, and engaging in espionage and numerous other illegal activities,” Broidy said in a statement at the time.

Qatar responded that it was Broidy who had engaged in a propaganda campaign.

Then, on April 9, another blow.

The FBI raided the premises of Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, seeking information on hush money paid to porn actress Stormy Daniels, who said she’d had an affair with the president.

Broidy, it turned out, was also a Cohen client. He’d had an affair with Playboy Playmate Shera Bechard, who got pregnant and later had an abortion. Broidy agreed to pay her $1.6 million to help her out, so long as she never spoke about it.

Tommy: Mr. McClure, I have a crazy friend who says this all looks very much like Elliott Broidy paid a seven-figure bribe to help President Trump out with yet another one of his Playmate problems, in exchange for White House help getting some nine and ten figure defense contracts. Is he crazy?

Troy McClure: No Tommy, just ignorant!  You see, even though $1.6 million looks like a fantastic investment when it yields a $600 million to multi-billion dollar return, and even though the first payment of that investment was made exactly one day before Broidy had a one-on-one meeting with Donald Trump to help smooth the way for Broidy’s gazillion dollar contract with the U.A.E., there happens to be absolutely irrefutable evidence that, despite all appearances, Elliott Broidy really did have an affair with Shera Bechard, so all that money he funneled to the president’s personal bag man lawyer was totally on the up and up.

Tommy: Really Mr. McClure? Irre-what do you call it evidence?

Troy McClure: Really Tommy.  You see, Elliott Broidy himself told the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times that those payments to Michael Cohen were to cover up the affair Broidy had with Miss November 2010.  Now does Elliott Broidy seem like the kind of man who would lie about something like that?

Tommy: Gee Mr. McClure, I feel like a Grade A moron!

Troy McClure: That’s OK Tommy, you can always go to Trump University — or if they turn you down, become an investigative journalist for our leading newspapers!

. . . Note that the “innocent” explanation here is that an influence-peddler who had been convicted of felonious bribing of public officials got into the Oval Office for private meetings with the POTUS, thereby apparently influencing US Mideast policy in ways that led to his own personal enrichment, while at the same time funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to the president’s personal lawyer. Again, that’s the INNOCENT explanation for all this.