Erik Prince, a high-dollar donor and Trump transition team advisor, is scheduled to appear before the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday, November 30th from 2pm - 6pm ET.
The hearing is classified as being "open in a closed space" which means it will take place in private, but the committee will release a transcript to the public afterwards.
Prince is both the founder of the controversial private security firm Blackwater and the brother of Trump's Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. Politico also refers to him as a "longtime ally of former White House strategist Steve Bannon."
Congressional investigators are interested in a trip Prince took to the Seychelles in January, allegedly to meet with a Russian close to Vladimir Putin. The purpose of the meeting, arranged by the United Arab Emirates, was "to establish a back-channel line of communication between Moscow and President-elect Donald Trump."
The meeting took place around Jan. 11 — nine days before Trump’s inauguration — in the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean, officials said. Though the full agenda remains unclear, the UAE agreed to broker the meeting in part to explore whether Russia could be persuaded to curtail its relationship with Iran, including in Syria, a Trump administration objective that would be likely to require major concessions to Moscow on U.S. sanctions.
Former Blackwater chief to testify to House panel in Russia inquiry (Politico)
Blackwater founder held secret Seychelles meeting to establish Trump-Putin back channel (WaPo)