ABC News reports that Special Counsel Robert Mueller continues to focus on Erik Prince and is reviewing his calls, texts, and emails.
Prince told The Daily Beast last week he is cooperating with Mueller's investigators, and his spokesperson released a statement to ABC News saying Prince also has given them "total access to his phones and computer."
But Prince has reason to be concerned. What he told Congress about his meeting in the Seychelles with a Russian banker just before the Trump inauguration contradicts what news reports have uncovered about the encounter.
In April 2017, the Washington Post reported that Prince, whose sister Betsy DeVos is President Donald Trump’s education secretary, had traveled to the Seychelles in January following Trump’s election for a secret meeting with a Russian official with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Prince testified before the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in November that he hadn’t made the trip "to meet any Russian guy” and described his meeting with Kirill Dmitriev, the Putin-appointed head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund, as a chance encounter “over a beer.”
... Lebanese-American businessman George Nader, a key witness given limited immunity by Mueller, told investigators that he set up the meeting in the Seychelles between Prince and Dmitriev ... Documents obtained by Mueller also suggest that before and after Prince met Nader in New York a week before the trip, Nader shared information with Prince about Dmitriev.
Prince also may have lied to the House Intelligence Committee about his business ties.
Prince had a simple answer when asked by Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democrat from California, whether he ever had any "investments" or "business partnerships with Russian nationals."
"Zero," Prince replied.
(...)
Two of Prince’s former business associates ... told ABC News they have been contacted by investigators probing a pair of proposed business deals between the Hong Kong-based security firm Frontier Services Group, of which Prince is the founder and chairman, and Russian nationals.
(...)
It is a federal crime to lie to Congress, but it is unclear whether Mueller's office would prosecute Prince or even make a referral to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia if they found convincing evidence of perjury.
Full story: Special counsel obtains Trump ally Erik Prince's phones, computer (ABC News)