Staunch Donald Trump supporter and ally Erik Prince allegedly supplied weapons, mercenaries and plane to a Libyan militia commander for a plot to overthrow the internationally backed Libyan authorities, in response to a United Nations investigation, The New York Times reported Friday.
The confidential report obtained by the Times accused Prince, founding father of the personal army firm Blackwater, which has modified its title to Academi, of violating a United Nations arms embargo on Libya by deploying overseas mercenaries, armed with plane and gunboats, to japanese Libya in 2019 amid heavy preventing.
Part of the plan was to make use of a mercenary hit squad to kill Libyan army commanders, in response to the Times.
Eastern Libya is now managed by Khalifa Hifter, the commander Prince agreed to help, in response to the U.N. report. Trump supported Hifter in April 2019, 4 days after Prince made his pitch to the strongman for his $80 million Libyan operation, the Times reported.
The 121-page report on Prince, a former Navy SEAL and brother of Betsy DeVos, Trump’s training secretary, was reportedly delivered Thursday to the U.N. Security Council for doable additional motion.
Guards for Prince’s former Blackwater safety firm had been convicted of killing 14 Iraqi civilians in an unprovoked ambush in 2007. Just earlier than he left workplace, Trump pardoned four men serving time for the massacre.
Despite the horrific assault, Prince’s star started to rise once more throughout his time with Trump and advisers Roger Stone and Steve Bannon, who had been each pardoned lately by the previous president for numerous crimes.
Prince testified earlier than the House Intelligence Committee in 2017 that he played no role in Trump’s 2016 marketing campaign. But he lastly admitted in 2019 that he attended a gathering in Trump Tower with Donald Trump Jr. and a consultant of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to debate “Iran policy” in the course of the marketing campaign.
But the precise function of the assembly, in response to an emissary for 2 rich Arab princes who attended, was to debate the Arab nations’ offer to help Trump win the presidency, the Times reported.
Prince didn’t cooperate with the U.N. investigation, the Times reported. His legal professional, Matthew Schwartz, informed the newspaper final 12 months that Prince “had nothing whatsoever” to do with army operations in Libya.
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