(AP) A Lebanese American businessman who was a key witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report and who helped broker the release of American hostages was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison sentence on child sex charges.

George Nader pleaded guilty in January to bringing a 14-year-old boy from the Czech Republic to the U.S. 20 years ago to engage in sexual activity. He also acknowledged possessing child pornography.

Nader’s name appears more than 100 times in the Mueller report. It details Nader’s efforts to serve as liaison between Russians and members of President Donald Trump’s transition team.

Editors Note: The AP article left out the FACT that : In December 2019, Nader was charged in U.S. federal court with violating campaign finance laws by allegedly also using over three and half million dollars to reach out to Hillary Clinton‘s 2016 campaign for the U.S. Presidency, through a front, WSJ report 

In the 1990s, Nader served as a broker to facilitate the release of American hostages held in the Middle East.

The convictions carried a 10-year mandatory minimum. The judge could have imposed a longer term, though prosecutors also recommended a 10-year sentence.

Nader also agreed to pay $150,000 in restitution to the Czech boy he abused, who is now an adult and testified at Friday’s sentencing hearing in U.S. District Court in Alexandria by phone.

“George destroyed practically my entire life, and I am trying to put it back together piece by piece,” he said through a translator.

Nader’s interest in children and his status as a behind-the-scenes power player both extend back decades. And there’s at least some indication that the latter shielded him from the consequences of the former.

Almost 30 years ago, Nader was caught by customs officials transporting two films, hidden in candy tins, of minor boys into the U.S. He received a six-month sentence, a term that prosecutors in the current case acknowledge is “far below what would be expected of such a crime today.”

In 1991, as he awaited sentencing, his case was twice delayed so he could continue his work on hostage negotiations. Court records cited by his current defense lawyers indicate that British hostage Jon McCarthy and American hostage Edward Tracy were released in July of that year and that Nader played an outsized role in securing the release. Participants in the negotiations wrote letters to the judge on Nader’s behalf.

Later, in 2003, Nader sentenced to a 1-year prison term in the Czech Republic after being convicted there on 10 counts of sexually abusing minors and sentenced to a one-year prison term in 2003.

Prosecutors say the abused boys were largely child prostitutes. The 14-year-old boy brought to the U.S. also alleged he was victimized by Nader int he Czech case, though Nader’s lawyers say he wasn’t convicted there. The two sides dispute the extent of abuse inflicted on the boy in the U.S. but Nader has admitted to one sex act.

Nader “used his contacts and his wealth to accomplish” bringing the Czech boy into the U.S., prosecutor Jay Prabhu wrote.

The current case against Nader began in 2018 when images were found on his phone after it was confiscated under a search warrant connected to the Mueller probe.

The images found in Nader’s phones at Dulles International Airport ended up not being the basis for the child-pornography conviction. Instead, prosecutors relied on images and videos he received via email in 2012 that in some cases involved sadistic depictions of infants or toddlers.

Even though it had no bearing on the sentence Nader received, defense lawyers and prosecutors continued to argue at Friday’s sentencing hearing as to whether the images found on the phone were child pornography. Nader’s attorney, Jonathan Jeffress, acknowledged that the photos showed naked children and were obscene, but said they amounted to “dirty jokes” and that Nader had put his struggles with child pornography behind him in 2012.

Prosecutors say the images included clear depictions of child pornography and bestiality and show that Nader is a lifelong recidivist.

Parts of the sentencing papers detailing Nader’s testimony to the special counsel remain blacked out.

Nader, for his part, apologized for his actions at Friday’s hearing.

“I have listened to what’s been said about me,” he said. “I can say I am sincerely, deeply sorry for the suffering I have caused.”

Asked several times if he could have missed it, Bruno, who is white, said it was possible but unlikely.

“I guess if he whispered it,” he said. “But I never saw anything that shows one of them was whispering. And I would still be in close proximity.”

Photo

Young declined through a representative to comment and has not elaborated or spoken publicly about the incident since his initial post on Twitter on Tuesday morning. Harrison defeated Young in their first-round match, 6-3, 7-6 (4), but then lost his next one and was eliminated from the singles competition.

It is unclear whether the ATP will penalize either player. Harrison and Young have a history of acrimony, and Harrison is known on the tour for his aggressive and abrasive manner, often incurring the ire of opponents and tournament officials.

Bruno said he generally likes Young more than Harrison because Young is more approachable on court. But he said that he witnessed “ridiculous, immature behavior” from both players.

The incident occurred during a changeover at 4-3 in the first set Monday night. The players got into an argument that quickly grew so heated that the umpire had to come down from his chair to separate the players. Young, who is black, told ATP officials that the remark was made by Harrison, who is white, during that changeover.

The post on Young’s Twitter account read, “I’m shocked and disappointed, Ryan Harrison, to hear you tell me how you really feel about me as a black tennis player in the middle of our NY match.”

During its investigation, the ATP interviewed the umpire and the ball people and reviewed video of the incident, which shows Bruno standing behind Harrison. Audio of the exchange is unclear, but Bruno, who can be seen on the video drinking from a bottle of water and smirking, said he smiled because he thought the players were joking at first.

Harrison, he said, told Young not to audibly celebrate Harrison’s mistakes on the court, something that is considered poor sportsmanship in tennis. Young told Harrison to shut up, using an expletive. Bruno also said that Young leveled an abusive, nonracial, term at Harrison and challenged him to a fight. Harrison responded by holding his hand out, mocking Young for being short.

“Donald Young said, ‘Let’s take this outside, let’s fight outside,’ ” Bruno said. “Ryan kept saying, ‘You’re this tall,’ and kept gesturing with his hand, ‘You’re this tall, you’re this tall.’ ”

Photo

At that point, the umpire came down from his chair and separated the players. Later, Young took a bathroom break and Bruno said he heard the chair umpire say something to Harrison that appeared to be a warning.

“Harrison said, ‘You should really be addressing him and give him a talking to,’ ” Bruno said, “and that was that.”

Bruno said that he and others were rotated off the court before the end of the match, which is routine. He said he and the other ball people went into a lounge and discussed what they heard. An ATP official later came in and asked for their accounts, which Bruno said he believed was before anyone knew there would be charges of racism leveled on social media.

The next morning, on his way to the tournament in Uniondale, N.Y., Bruno heard about Young’s tweet about racial abuse. Bruno said he was surprised, and when he arrived at the event, an ATP official asked him and another ball person who was present the night before to write down their accounts of what had occurred.

“Nothing more, nothing less,” Bruno said he was told. “Just write exactly what you heard.”

He said he wrote a paragraph, and that was the last he heard about it from tournament officials. But later, when he saw the fallout on social media, he felt compelled to speak out. He wrote on his Twitter account that he was present and heard nothing racist. Harrison retweeted Bruno’s post.

He said Harrison later called him and told him how he was being “brutalized” on social media.

“It was pretty nasty, some of the things I was reading,” Bruno said. “For people to just jump on the bandwagon and start, like, really damaging someone’s character without hearing any evidence or details of the conversation, it didn’t sit right with me.”

A medical imaging technologist, Bruno said he played high school tennis at Francis Lewis High School in Queens and has been a ball person for more than a decade, including assignments at the United States Open since 2007.

He said he knew that by going public with his account he could be jeopardizing his ability to work as a ball person at future events because they are not supposed to speak publicly. But he also said if he had heard anything racial, he would have spoken up about that, too.

“If I heard it, I would definitely vouch that it was said,” he said. “It’s not right.”

Continue reading the main story