Mueller report witness facing child porn charge

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A businessman who served as a key witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation will remain in jail temporarily on charges he transported images of child pornography.

Sixty-year-old Lebanese-American businessman George Nader made an initial appearance Thursday in federal court in Alexandria, Va. Prosecutors want him detained pending trial. Nader’s lawyers say he’s in poor health and should be released.

A detention hearing will be held Friday afternoon.

Nader’s name shows up more than 100 times in Mueller’s recently released report. It details his efforts to serve as liaison between a Russian banker close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and members of President Donald Trump’s transition team.

The images depicting child pornography and bestiality were discovered on his phone last year after they were confiscated under a search warrant unrelated to the pornography case.