These Shady UAE Donors Gave Millions to Clinton and Trump While the Feds Dozed
In this excerpt from “Spyfail,” James Bamford reveals how the FBI and Secret Service missed millions in dirty money funneled to Clinton and Trump by the UAE in 2016.
A note from James Bamford:
Incredibly, at the same time FBI counterintelligence agents and Secret Service agents were on alert to attempts to interfere in Hillary Clinton’s campaign, they completely missed the fact that the campaign had been penetrated by foreign agents. In this chapter, I explore how a secret agent from the UAE, along with his sub-agent, were able to penetrate the Clinton campaign from beginning to end. How they demanded a million dollars from the secret agent for a number of private cocktail parties, involving both Hillary and her husband Bill, in the agent’s home. Even though one of the agents was not only a foreign agent but also a convicted serial pedophile. And the other was a known high-level con man. In this chapter, I not only detail the operation, but I quote from the messages the UAE agent sent back to his spymaster, as well as the country’s crown prince.
Beneath a fringe of trees on either side of Iredell Lane, a small road near the Hollywood Hills, protesters waited in anticipation in front of elaborately sculpted iron driveway gates and private tennis courts. A few doors away, set back from the road was a three-story villa protected by police with long black batons. Soon, motorcycles and squad cars flashed by in a kaleidoscope of reds and blues. And racing behind them was a conga line of boxy Chevy Suburbans, black as midnight, men with clenched jaws staring from every window.
Suddenly the crowd erupted—taunts and boos, then a shower of green as handfuls of dollar bills were angrily tossed at the cars. Moments later, Hillary Clinton arrived at George Clooney’s Studio City home for a $33,400-a-person fund-raiser. “Plutocrat’s Ball!” shouted a protester in his late twenties wearing a straw hat and a tan “Bernie for the Future” T-shirt. Unlike Bernie Sanders, with his grassroots donation policies, and an average campaign contribution of $27, Hillary Clinton needed a Brink’s armored truck to follow her from rally to rally.
By mid-April 2016, Clinton had made ten visits to Los Angeles, which included twenty-two fund-raisers. Now she was back at her favorite ATM for more cash, this time a high-priced dinner with Clooney, where the $33,400 would get you in the door, another $5,400 would buy you a selfie with Clinton for two, and $353,400 would put you at the same table as George and Hillary. The night before, the Clinton/Clooney road show was in San Francisco for an identical cash-for-contact event.
Inside, crowded around Clooney’s bar with its photos of the Rat Pack in Ocean’s Eleven, the original and the remake starring Clooney, was Hollywood’s deep-pocketed elite. Among them were DreamWorks SKG cofounders Jeffrey Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg, and billionaire media mogul Haim Saban, along with their wives. And nearby was Andy Khawaja. Sports club trim with well-developed biceps, he was the creator of a reality television show on the 4KUniverse channel called Model Turned Superstar. The idea was to bring together a hundred barely clad models from around the world to compete in exotic locations, such as swimming with sharks in the waters of Bora Bora, for a million-dollar prize and Hollywood stardom. Appropriately, he was married to a striking Lithuanian-born, blonde-haired, blue-eyed model, Ana Stoliarova- Khawaja, who goes by Ana Kha.
But Khawaja also had another job. He was a clandestine agent working for a foreign spy. A spy who was also mingling with guests at the party. A spy whose assignment was to become a mole in the Clinton campaign. Once on the inside, he would report back to his foreign government on Clinton’s plans and intentions. And after she entered the White House, he would become an agent of influence, secretly steering her to make decisions favorable to his government. To that end, he needed to get as close to Clinton as possible, for as long as possible throughout the campaign, no matter the cost. And as long as the FBI was hunting under every rock for nonexistent Russian foreign agents, a real spy would have free rein.
The spy was George Nader, a paunchy Middle Easterner with a broad, dimpled smile, a facial tic, and a shadowy career connecting discreet handshakes, passing on high-level whispers, and turning influence into a weapon. Unknown to the Clinton campaign, he was a senior adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed. Based in the United Arab Emirates’ capital of Abu Dhabi, a city of towering skyscrapers, placid lagoons, and man-made islands, Crown Prince Mohammed became the de facto ruler of the UAE due to the ill health of his half brother, UAE president Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed. And in 2019, The New York Times named him “the most powerful leader in the Arab world.”
Lebanese-American businessman, 'Middle East Insight' magazine editor, and convicted sex offender George Nader speaks during an event sponsored by his magazine, Washington DC, March 18, 1999.
Ron Sachs/CNP/Getty Images
He was also the wealthiest. “He may be the richest man in the world,” noted the Times. “He controls sovereign wealth funds worth $1.3 trillion, more than any other country.” In the same way the crown prince stayed fit through rigorous exercise, he kept that power and wealth through rigorous gamesmanship. The trick was balancing superpower off superpower, region off region, and powerful leader off powerful leader. And that was where his spy Nader came in, with his ability to find the right player able to push the right button to get the crown prince the right outcome.
Born in 1959 in the ancient northern Lebanese city of Batroun, Nader moved with his family to Cleveland, Ohio, when he was fifteen. Sworn in as a U.S. citizen and eager to become a journalist, in 1980 he started his own magazine, Middle East Insight, at first published out of his home, and later turned it into an influential journal. That led to interviews with major players in the region, including former Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat and Ayatollah Khomeini, the former head of Iran who led the 1979 revolution. He even played a role in the shuttle diplomacy between Syria and Israel over the Golan Heights in 1998.
Nader also worked secretly with a variety of intelligence organizations over the years, including those in the United States. “George Nader did some very discreet work for us of a humanitarian nature,” said James Baker, secretary of state under President George H. W. Bush, “having to do with the then-ongoing crisis over the taking of hostages, American citizens as hostage. And George worked very closely and very discreetly with us on that.” Depending on which way the political winds catch a flag, sometimes a country is a friend and sometimes a target.
For Nader, it was a busy time. He was also assisting the crown prince in secret negotiations with a number of Gulf and Middle Eastern leaders on a yacht in the Red Sea. In addition to the UAE’s crown prince, among those on board were the then deputy crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman; Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the president of Egypt; Crown Prince Salman of Bahrain; and King Abdullah of Jordan. The discussions centered on ways to create a new, more proactive and aggressive joint organization to counter the increasing power of Iran and Turkey throughout the region. What they needed was to somehow find a way to secretly influence the new U.S. president to back them and follow their advice. Nader agreed to quietly take on the mission.
His solution would take the form of secretly spending millions of dollars to buy up-close-and-personal influence with Hillary Clinton, the leading candidate for president and the likely next occupant of the White House. Money buys access, and access gets you results. Nader’s problem, however, was that he could not do it himself; his name was too closely associated with the UAE and its royal family. His cash would immediately be flagged. He would need a clandestine agent, an American straw man, a wealthy political nobody willing to take a risk and secretly and illegally donate millions of UAE dollars without revealing its foreign source. In other words, millions in dirty cash.
Enter Andy Khawaja, the man at Clooney’s bar sipping champagne and nibbling canapés with Hollywood’s plutocracy. According to government documents, he was little more than a professional con man. His TV show, Model Turned Superstar, was simply a sideline. His fortune actually came from his company, Allied Wallet. Little known, it functioned as a sort of credit card processor for fraudsters, swindlers, and rip-off artists bilking the public out of more than $100 million. It was the go-to company for Ponzi and pyramid scheme operators, phony debt collectors, coaching and education scams, and other fraudulent activities.
Khawaja and Nader had first met months earlier, in the fall of 2015, when Khawaja decided to visit the UAE. Like Nader, a Lebanese American and fluent in Arabic, he requested an audience with Crown Prince Mohammed and at one point was introduced to Nader. Soon the two began discussing a joint business venture, but the topic quickly turned to the election and the offer to become Nader’s secret agent. Until 2015, Khawaja had never made a political contribution to anyone. But in November of that year, he witnessed what money can buy. For a donation of $2,700 he received an invitation to the home of Hollywood film director Rob Reiner, where he had his picture taken with a smiling, toothy Hillary Clinton, and got to mingle with stars such as actor Ted Danson. And for $27,000 he could have attended an even more exclusive reception.
Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, arrives in Downing Street ahead of bilateral talks with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, on Sept. 16, 2021 in London, England.
Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing via Getty Images
Now with Nader’s bags of cash and secret help, Khawaja was about to be transformed from a political nobody hustling credit card companies to someone who shared champagne toasts and inside gossip with a former president and the likely next president in the living room of his own home— with Nader, as always, by his side. Thus, beginning in March 2016, Nader began secretly pumping millions of illegal dollars into Clinton’s insatiable campaign coffers through his obscure American agent, Andy Khawaja.
In no time, Khawaja became one of Hillary Clinton’s heaviest donors. On April 7, he paid $33,400 for his ticket to George Clooney’s dinner for Clinton. Then, just four days later, he tossed in another $150,000 to the Hillary Victory Fund, assuring an extra-warm welcome at Clooney’s home for both him and his spy, George Nader. The next day, Nader reported back to his spymaster—likely the crown prince—in the UAE’s capital of Abu Dhabi. “Wonderful meeting with the Big Lady,” he wrote. “Can’t wait to tell you all about it.” Continuing to burrow his way into Clinton’s inner circle of donors, in March and April alone Nader, through his agent Khawaja, contributed a total of $275,000.
By May, with more hidden cash flowing, more doors were opening, more favors were arriving, and more intelligence and influence were accruing for Nader’s foreign masters. “Had a magnificent session with Big Lady’s key people,” he boasted. “You will be most amazed by my progress on that side!”
Often commuting back and forth between his villa in Abu Dhabi, his chalet in Lebanon, and Clinton events in the United States with Khawaja, on June 2 Nader wrote his spymaster that he was “leaving very early morning to catch up with big Lady over the weekend . . . Can I come over for 10 minutes . . . to get your blessings and instruction before I leave please?”
The Big Lady was scheduled to appear at a star-clogged fund- raising concert in Griffith Park on June 6, with ticket prices topping out at $50,000.
Among those taking to the stage in the park’s Greek Theatre were Cher, John Legend, Stevie Wonder, Ricky Martin, Eva Longoria, Jamie Foxx, and Christina Aguilera. Also appearing was Congressman Adam Schiff of the House Intelligence Committee, who would lead the charge accusing the Trump campaign of being a patsy for Russian spies and influence peddlers. While he never uncovered any dirty Russian money going to the Trump campaign, Schiff ’s own campaign received more than $8,000 in dirty cash from the UAE’s foreign agent. And with a donation of another $250,000 to Hillary’s campaign and committee, Nader and his agent were guaranteed some quality time at the concert for quality influence with Clinton. The following day, armed with a new load of intelligence to share, Nader secretly texted his spymaster in Abu Dhabi: “Had a terrific meeting with my Big Sister H You will be most delighted!”
Now fully burrowed in, the mole and his agent began making arrangements to throw their own fundraisers for both Hillary and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, in the agent’s home. It was a major move. In spite of the very suspicious backgrounds of the two, the Clinton campaign nevertheless agreed—provided they could cough up a million bucks. In a secret message back to the UAE, Nader referred to the event as a “birthday party” and Clinton as “my sister.” “The birthday party has been set up. & party have been arranged for my sister and it’s going to be huge for her. She is very excited and happy. All arranged buddy:) as you will see I’m a man of my word.”
Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton embrace after Hillary officially launched her presidential campaign at a rally on June 13, 2015 in New York City.
John Moore/Getty Images
Up until now, Khawaja had been fronting all of the money on his own, including the million dollars for the Bill and Hillary Clinton fundraiser in his home, on Nader’s promise that it would be fully repaid by his bosses in Abu Dhabi. In fact, the money Khawaja was passing out was already dirty, having been ripped off from the innocent victims of his fraud-racked company. But with the fundraiser scheduled for June 26, Khawaja was beginning to get nervous and agitated since the check had not yet arrived. As a result, on June 13, with Bill Clinton due to show up at his door on the twenty-sixth and Hillary due in a separate fundraiser two days later, Khawaja sent a secret message to Nader telling him the “package” had not yet arrived.
“I told them about the upcoming deadline and events and they assure me that it will be over there in coming days! It will be over there in time for the 26th event! That is all!” Nader wrote back.
“Just make sure you guys don’t look bad buddy,” Khawaja replied. “I did [my] part and more. It’s all up in your hands now.”
“Good!” said Nader. “I am sure you can take care of it till the package arrive! No way I can press them anymore! You have to understand that will backfire if I push anymore! It will be there! I have seeing the approval of the first package! I am not worry about it at all I hope you deliver as promised!”
Secrecy was critical. To hide the payments, they discussed using a false invoice, making it look as though it was a legitimate commercial transaction. As a result, on June 15, one of Khawaja’s employees sent Nader an email. Attached was a phony invoice from Khawaja’s company for 10 million euros for a supposed license of Allied Wallet’s software for one of Nader’s companies.
But with just a few days to go, there was still nothing and Khawaja complained again. “The issue has been taken care of and is in order! Nothing more can be done about it!” an agitated Nader responded. On Friday, June 24, Nader notified his spymaster, “traveling on Sat morning to catch up with our Big Sister and her husband: I am seeing him on Sunday and her in Tuesday Sir! Would love to see you tomorrow at your convenience . . . f or your guidance, instruction and blessing!”
That Sunday, accompanied by several black SUVs loaded with Secret Service agents, former president Bill Clinton arrived at Khawaja’s home, a $15 million Italian-style villa named Grande Belleza (Big Beauty) at 3100 Benedict Canyon Drive in Beverly Hills. With 11,500 square feet of living space, a 1,700-square- foot master bedroom, a dozen indoor and outdoor fireplaces, an infinity pool, water fountains, movie theater, waterfall, wine bar and wine cellar, steam and sauna rooms, an elevator, six bedrooms, and eleven baths, it was certainly up to Clinton fundraiser standards. It was also all paid for with Khawaja’s dirty money.
The Daily Beast
“Meeting with Bill Clinton was superb!” Nader told his spymaster. Two days later, Hillary Clinton’s own entourage of Secret Service SUVs pulled through the gates of Grande Belleza and parked in the large circular motor court. “Meeting with Big Lady went extremely well,” noted the mole. But despite the success, Khawaja was still being stiffed by Nader’s boss, the crown prince. At one point, Nader wrote to Khawaja, “I have also discussed the company issue [the phony receipt] and will send you a note on the matter as per HH instruction!” HH stood for His Highness, Crown Prince Mohammed.
Nevertheless, having Bill and Hillary Clinton over for cocktail parties in his home, dining with movie stars, and driving around Hollywood in his Ferrari with a mysterious spy seated next to him—as if he was George Smiley or James Bond—was a con man’s dream, giving Khawaja enormous credibility with future victims. With no intention of stopping, on July 14 he wrote a check for $550,000 for box seats at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, scheduled for the end of July, and, ever the good agent, invited his spy.
Nader wanted to attend, but his spymaster in Abu Dhabi thought it unwise— there were too many chances of blowing his cover—so he declined. “I have a dilemma,” he wrote to an associate in Abu Dhabi; “invited to attend the [Democratic] convention next week with Andy as a VIP guest where I meet all the major principles! On 29/30 July invited to a very small dinner with the Lady: just 5 people altogether!” But, he noted, his spymaster is “cautious and not terribly excited about the big event. He thinks I am better off with the smaller private one but the convention you are too exposed!”
As a result, the intimate high-priced meetings with Hillary Clinton would continue. Among them was a brunch at his agent’s house with Hillary, but this time limited to just Khawaja and his wife, Nader, and one other person. It would provide some quality time to impart some quality influence and learn some quality intelligence for his spymasters.
Finally, the same day Khawaja bought his convention tickets, he received his “baklava”—code for cash—from Nader. “Fresh hand made Baklava on the way designed especially for that private event at your house later this month! First tray on the way!” wrote Nader. “You have got to lose some weight for the upcoming tray of Baklava next week. Once you taste it and you like the choices more on the way soon.” The “baklava” consisted of 2.5 million euros, about $3 million.
On August 22, the private, intimate brunch in Khawaja’s home scheduled for that day had fallen through. Clinton had become greedier and Khawaja hadn’t come up with enough cash. She thought her presence was now worth five times more than he was offering. “Too small of birthday gift and the time is worth 5 times more they say,” Khawaja wrote to Nader, using “birthday gift” as code for donation. Instead, Khawaja paid to cohost a larger event that same day, with his fellow mole as always by his side. “I just had dinner with my Big Sister and had a very very productive discussion with her,” wrote Nader to his spymasters.
Throughout the remainder of the summer and fall, the lunches, dinners, and cocktails with Clinton would continue, the freshly made baklava would keep flowing, the spying would never stop, and the secret influence would go on being peddled. In Las Vegas, Clinton’s managers told Khawaja he would have to cough up another million bucks if he wanted to have another dinner party for Hillary, which he did. And as usual, Nader wrote back to his spymaster about his success. “Had a simply Terrific Magnificent brainstorming and discussion with the Big Lady This evening!” he declared. Later he wrote to Khawaja, “I am leaving early morning back to join HH [His Highness Crown Prince Mohammed]. Have already told him about the Wonderful Event with Our Sister and he was thrilled and want to know all about it in person.”
For months, Nader had been spying on Hillary Clinton with the help of his agent, Khawaja. He would meet with her and her inner circle, pick up inside details of her plans and future policies, push his influence agenda, then fly back to Abu Dhabi and brief the crown prince, before returning for another expensive dinner with the candidate. But much of what he was learning greatly troubled the prince. Based on Nader’s intelligence, Clinton appeared to be fully prepared to continue normalizing relations with Iran, the longtime rival and nemesis of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. That included support of the nuclear agreement, which the prince believed was very flawed and dangerous.
A fighter of the UAE-trained Security Belt Force walks with a separatist flag past an oil tanker set ablaze during clashes between the separatists and the Saudi-backed government forces at the Fayush-Alam crossroads in southern Yemen on Aug. 30, 2019.
Nabil Hasan/AFP via Getty Images
Based on Nader’s intelligence reports, there were also worries over Clinton’s future support for the UAE and Saudi Arabia’s joint military actions in Yemen. Largely with U.S.-supplied arms, the two countries had invaded Yemen in March 2015 to expel militants aligned with Iran. But the war had dragged on, creating a humanitarian disaster in the process, and many vocal critics. By the Obama administration arming the UAE with advanced weaponry, noted former State Department official Tamara Cofman, “We have created a little Frankenstein.” As a result, Clinton’s support seemed to be wavering. Trump, on the other hand, appeared to be willing to continue pouring weapons into the UAE while adopting a largely hands-off policy on the war. Therefore, with his belligerent tough guy talk about Iran, Trump was far more appealing to the crown prince than Clinton. It was time for his mole to begin burrowing into the Trump camp as well.
Ever the Machiavellian, George Nader began secretly playing both sides against the middle. Hedging his bets in case the unexpected happened and Clinton lost, he began making quiet overtures to Team Trump. On July 19, the day Trump was formally nominated at the Republican convention in Cleveland, Nader sent a message to his spymaster in Abu Dhabi saying he was “developing a steady, consistent and constructive relationship with both camps!” He then began dividing his time between Clinton’s salmon-and- Sancerre dinners and Trump’s barbecue-and-beer rallies.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump delivers a speech during the evening session on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention on July 21, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.
Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images
In November, both Khawaja and Nader attended Clinton’s election night party in Manhattan. Upon hearing of Trump’s win, Nader must have used every facial muscle to secretly repress a broad grin while feigning severe disappointment after spending millions of dollars to get Clinton elected. As if at a roulette table, all along he had been secretly betting on both black and red, Clinton and Trump, in order to become a White House mole no matter who won. And in the end, he wanted the ball to land on red. It was time to put all his efforts on developing sources in the Trump camp.
Within days of the election, Khawaja donated a million dollars to the Trump inaugural committee. In return, he received two tickets to the inauguration, one for him and one for Nader. Later, Khawaja even had his picture taken in the Oval Office, standing next to Trump behind his presidential desk. And now in a super-sleazy political pay-to-play move, no doubt as a payoff for Khawaja’s millions in donations in dirty money to the Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party, Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer had a gift for Khawaja. He appointed him to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent, bipartisan federal body, despite Khawaja’s long history of fraud and a client list of porn operators and scam artists.
**
George Nader’s double life began to implode on January 17, 2018, as he stepped off an Emirates Airways jet at Washington’s Dulles International Airport. He was traveling from Dubai and was on his way to attend a gala dinner at Mar-a-Lago to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Trump’s inauguration. By then, however, the Mueller probe was fully under way and Nader’s name had surfaced. As a result, FBI agents questioned him upon arrival. They also seized his three cell phones to check for text messages and emails.
But all they were interested in was Russia, and nothing pointed to any connection with Moscow. They ignored, however, any intelligence connection between the Clinton and Trump campaigns and the UAE government.
By accident, however, they discovered that the phones did contain a dozen sexually explicit videos featuring boys as young as two, including one showing baby goats performing fellatio on a three- or four-year-old boy. Another shows a boy thirteen or fourteen years old penetrating a goat from behind. “The goat reacts and makes noise each time the boy thrusts,” said the FBI’s complaint. Knowing he was in deep trouble, Nader asked for a limited grant of immunity to tell what he knew about the 2016 election. Granted the immunity, he went into detail before a secret grand jury about his activities. He was then allowed to leave.
It was only then that the FBI finally began discovering what it and the Secret Service should have noticed at the start of the campaign. It is inexplicable that the foreign influence operation was allowed to take place for so long under the noses of both organizations. A simple background check would have turned up the fact that Nader was not only working for a foreign leader but was also a convicted felon and serial pedophile. In 1991 he pled guilty to transporting videotapes, hidden in candy tins, containing child pornography. The check would also have uncovered a May 2003 conviction in the Czech Republic for “sexual abuse and impairing morals” after he abused ten underage boys. Among the cases was one where Nader had requested oral sex from a fourteen-year-old in a room at Prague’s Hilton Hotel. Following the boy’s refusal, Nader masturbated in front of him and paid the boy the equivalent of $100. He was sentenced to a year in prison, after which he was deported.
And according to U.S. prosecutors, in both 1997 and 2002, Nader brought fourteen-year-old boys into the country. Interviewed by the FBI back then, one boy told the agents he had viewed child pornography with Nader, and the other said he was sexually abused by him. Even earlier, Nader repeatedly had come under scrutiny by law enforcement agencies for similar behavior. In 1985, a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., indicted him on two counts of mailing and importing child pornography. But the charges were dismissed because the government had illegally seized evidence in the case. It was during that period, as he was awaiting trial, that Nader became a U.S. citizen. In addition, twice during 1988, Nader received in the mail sexually explicit material featuring underage boys. Although he was not charged, his home was searched and child pornography was found in his toilet.
Following the investigation, in April 2018 charges finally were brought against Nader. But because by then he was safely out of the country the indictment was placed under seal and kept secret. Unaware of the pending charges, Nader landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport on June 3, 2019 and was arrested and charged with transporting sexually explicit videos. They had been shared with “multiple people,” according to a prosecutor, who added that Nader had “hands-on contact with more than a dozen minor boys.” On January 13, 2020, Nader pled guilty to bringing a fourteen-year-old boy to the United States for sex and to possessing child pornography. Although the charges carry a maximum penalty of thirty years, prosecutors instead agreed to recommend the mandatory minimum of ten years.
Finally, on November 7, 2019, a secret fifty-three-count indictment was unsealed. Nearly four years after they began their covert influence operation, Nader, Khawaja, and others in his company were charged with conspiring to conceal more than $3.5 million in political donations to Hillary Clinton. By then, Nader was already in custody and later pled guilty. But the FBI, in one final blunder, had managed to allow Khawaja to flee to the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius five months earlier. He was accompanied by his Lithuanian-born model-turned-superstar wife, along with hundreds of millions of dollars in dirty money from his crooked credit card processing company, Allied Wallet.
Although, on behalf of the U.S. Justice Department, Lithuanian authorities arrested Khawaja, he was released on bail after several months, and there is little prospect of his extradition. According to a local newspaper report on the “U.S. billionaire,” “The amount paid to the Prosecutor’s Office’s account is not disclosed. But according to sources, it is the largest in the history of Lithuania—about one million euros.” Then on August 26, 2021, the U.S. Jus-tice Department charged Khawaja in a $150 million payment processing scheme involving Allied Wallet. But as noted in the Justice Department press release, “Khawaja is a fugitive.” A very wealthy fugitive with no plans to show up in court. “The Republic of Lithuania is his and his family’s permanent residence,” his lawyer wrote.
There remains, however, the question as to whether Clinton herself should have at least been investigated for possible violation of campaign finance laws. As a former secretary of state, she should have been aware of the odd behaviors of Nader and Khawaja, the constant pumping of millions of dollars into her campaign for face time and questions about the Middle East, and her campaign’s demands for more and more millions for more and more dinners and more and more face time. And why over eight months did she never bother checking out the odd pair, one donating millions while nibbling pretzels at the bar, with the other obviously interested in influence?
By election day 2016, Clinton had raised an eye-popping $1.14 billion to Trump’s $712 million, with unknown amounts of illegal foreign cash pouring into both campaigns since the FBI wasn’t watching. Nor were they watching as moles burrowed deep into both presidential campaigns, thus illegally interfering in the U.S. democratic process. These were critical failures. Even worse, deep in the bureau’s own ranks was another mole, one fingering clan-destine American spies to Chinese intelligence. Many of whom would be killed.
Excerpted from SPYFAIL: Foreign Spies, Moles, Saboteurs, and the Collapse of America’s Counterintelligence ©2022 James Bamford and reprinted by permission from Twelve Books/Hachette Book Group.