Mr. Broidy and Mr. Nader met around the inauguration and worked to sway the Trump administration on behalf the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia at a time when Mr. Broidy was seeking contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars from the two countries.
Credit
Ron Sachs/Picture-Alliance, via Associated Press
In a statement, Mr. Broidy said, “This whole narrative is a fabrication driven by hackers who want to undermine me.”
Mr. Broidy resigned as deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee last week after admitting that he had worked through Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, to reach an agreement to pay $1.6 million to a Playboy model who became pregnant during an affair with the fund-raiser.
The results of Mr. Broidy’s efforts on Mr. Guo’s case are unclear. China has charged Mr. Guo with corruption, but he remains in New York, where he has become an outspoken critic of Chinese government self-dealing and is seeking asylum.
Mr. Broidy’s attempts to curry favor with Malaysia through the golf date, however, entailed more direct and insistent communications with the White House, illustrating the influence he hoped to use for the benefit of both Asian countries.
“I have done work in Malaysia over many years and know Prime Minister Najib Razak well,” Mr. Broidy wrote in an email to the White House chief of staff, John F. Kelly, dated Aug. 31, 2017, early in Mr. Kelly’s tenure.
Mr. Broidy had personally appealed to Mr. Trump in June for a one-on-one golf date with Mr. Najib during the prime minister’s coming visit to Washington, and “the president told me he would be happy to play golf with the PM,” Mr. Broidy wrote in the email. The president’s previous chief of staff, Reince Priebus, had confirmed the golf date to Mr. Broidy, but “unfortunately, the golf game is not appearing on the schedule that has been provided through protocol to the PM,” he wrote.
Mr. Broidy’s knowledge of the schedule indicates close contact with the Malaysian prime minister. “I look forward to discussing this with you,” Mr. Broidy wrote to Mr. Kelly, thanking him for his assistance. It was not clear if Mr. Kelly replied.
For Mr. Trump, a golf date with Mr. Najib could have fueled criticism that the president is indifferent to the appearance of corruption. Mr. Najib is under investigation by prosecutors in both the United States and Malaysia on suspicion of embezzling from a state investment fund, the 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB. The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit seeking to seize $540 million in American assets purchased with money stolen from the fund.
A person close to Mr. Broidy said the golf date never happened and his business discussions with Malaysia never passed the preliminary stage.
The Chinese dissident, Mr. Guo, made a fortune in real estate and finance in China but fled in 2014 in anticipation of charges of corruption. He has said the allegations were fabricated by business and political opponents, and he has since styled himself as a whistle-blower exposing the corruption of the Chinese elite. He lives primarily in a 9,000-square-foot apartment overlooking Central Park that he bought three years ago for more than $67 million.
One person close to Mr. Broidy said he was interested in the case because of his friendship with Steve Wynn, another top Republican fund-raiser. Mr. Wynn, a casino mogul who himself recently resigned as a Republican finance chairman after a sex scandal, had large business interests in China and also sought to persuade the United States to expel Mr. Guo.
A representative of Mr. Wynn did not respond to requests for comment, and a representative of Mr. Guo declined to comment.
Mr. Broidy wrote a draft memorandum dated May 6, 2017, to Mr. Nader, the Emirati adviser, laying out a complex proposal for both men to profit from an unusual three-way trade relying on their combined influence in Washington and Abu Dhabi, the capital of the U.A.E.
Mr. Nader would encourage his patron, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed al-Nahyan, to ask the United States to hand over Mr. Guo in connection with a business dispute with the U.A.E.
Mr. Broidy, meanwhile, would prod the Trump administration to comply with the extradition request from the U.A.E. while avoiding the appearance of turning a Chinese dissident over to China.
The Emiratis might then agree to deliver Mr. Guo to China, Mr. Broidy wrote, because they believe Mr. Guo owes $3 billion to Emirati investment funds. In exchange, the Chinese might pay off that debt, Mr. Broidy wrote.
“China would agree to pay” Mr. Nader and himself, Mr. Broidy wrote, and “Abu Dhabi would pay” them as well.
He and Mr. Nader “can assist members of the Trump administration, including President Trump, Mr. Kushner, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Secretary of Homeland Security John F. Kelly, and National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster, see the value of cooperating with Abu Dhabi in getting custody of Mr. Guo, which in effect helps China get one step closer to acquiring custody of Mr. Guo,” Mr. Broidy wrote.
A person close to Mr. Broidy and familiar with the case said he did not send the email but still approached Mr. Nader about the proposal.
In his statement, Mr. Broidy said: “I have never had a strategy or plan regarding Mr. Guo nor was there any compensation given or even discussed. And, to be clear, at no time was I told by George Nader or anyone that anyone from U.A.E. had any interest whatsoever in Mr. Guo.”
Most of the documents appear in 20 pages of emails from Mr. Broidy’s account that were provided to The Times by an anonymous group critical of his advocacy of foreign policies in the Middle East. Lawyers for Mr. Broidy have filed a lawsuit charging that hackers working for Qatar stole his emails in retaliation for his criticism of the country; Qatar has denied responsibility. The email to Mr. Kelly was provided by a different person.
Mr. Broidy drafted another memorandum, dated May 21, 2017, to Mr. Sessions. In it, Mr. Broidy wrote that “while conducting business in Malaysia” he had learned of “a potential opportunity for the U.S. and China to increase their law enforcement cooperation.”
A delegation from China was on its way to Washington four days later, Mr. Broidy wrote, and “the one request China will make” is the extradition of Mr. Guo, “who China alleges has conspired with others who have been arrested and charged with violations of numerous criminal laws of China.”
A person close to Mr. Broidy said he never sent that memorandum, and a Justice Department spokeswoman said Mr. Sessions never received it. But as late as the end of 2017 Mr. Broidy was evidently seeking to encourage Mr. Guo’s expulsion, in part by generating negative publicity about him. “Slam him,” Mr. Broidy wrote in October to an associate seeking to promote negative articles about Mr. Guo.
Source : Nytimes
