Obama State Dept Official Who Aided Dossier Author Was Key Player in Dubai Ports Scandal

NEW YORK — Jonathan M. Winer, the Obama State Department official who acknowledged regularly interfacing and exchanging information with the author of the largely discredited 35-page anti-Trump dossier, headed a firm that helped the company owned by the United Arab Emirates government in its controversial failed bid to take over some terminal operations at major American ports.

The events known as the Dubai Ports World controversy saw DP World, the holding company owned by the United Arab Emirates, face backlash when their attempted ports takeover prompted an American national security debate in 2006. DP World hired Winer’s company to help them purchase Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation, which had the contract to operate some of America’s biggest ports.

Involvement in the deal represents another possible link between Winer and the Clintons. Breitbart News first reported that Winer served as senior vice president of another firm that did extensive pro bono work for the Clinton Global Initiative. Breitbart News also first reported that the firm where Winer worked in a senior capacity lobbied for the U.S. subsidiary of a Russian state company that purchased a controlling stake in Uranium One, the Canadian uranium mining company with operations in the U.S. The purchase was approved by the Obama administration in a decision that is currently being probed by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

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