Jan. 13 (UPI) -- A key witness in former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election pleaded guilty Monday to two child sexual exploitation charges.
George Nader, a 60-year-old Lebanese businessman, pleaded guilty to having transported a 14-year-old boy from Europe to the United Staes and having viewed child pornography online in September 2012, the Justice Department said in a press release.
Nader, who was also convicted on child pornography charges in 1991, is scheduled to be sentenced April 10 and faces from 10 to 50 years in prison. Under his peal deal, prosecutors agreed to drop similar charges filed against him in the Eastern District of Virginia in July 2019, the Justice Department said.
According to court documents, Nader met the boy in Prague, Czech Republic, and brought him to his Washington, D.C., residence for the purposes of sex in early 2000 via Dulles International Airport.
Prosecutors said the case was brought under Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse.
Nader became embroiled in the Mueller investigation for having helped arrange a meeting in January 2017 between Erik Prince, founder of the private security firm Blackwater, and a Russian official with connections to President Vladimir Putin. It was during the interviews with Mueller's camp that images of child pornography were discovered on his phone.
He still faces charges in federal court for conspiring to funnel $3.5 million in illegal campaign contributions to presidential candidates through political committees.
