Erik Prince: Criminal referral accusing Trump ally of 'lying to Congress' to be sent to Justice Department

House intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff says evidence is 'weighty' and needs to be looked at

The head of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff has said that he will be sending a criminal referral to the Justice Department (DoJ) over the conduct of Donald Trump-backer Erik Prince.

Mr Schiff told a Washington Post event there was evidence that Mr Prince, who founded the now defunct Blackwater security firm, had willingly misled the committee.

“The evidence is so weighty that the Justice Department needs to consider this,” Mr Schiff said. He added that it would be up to the DoJ to decide whether the allegations rise to the level of criminal prosecution.

Part of the evidence Mr Schiff pointed to was a meeting that took place nine days before Mr Trump took office in January 2017, between Mr Prince and a Russian financier close to Russian President Vladi­mir Putin in the Seychelles islands.

Mr Prince told congressional officials examining Russia’s interference in the presidential election in November 2017 that the meeting happened by chance and was not taken at the behest of the incoming administration, testimony that Mr Schiff and the Democrats now believe was false.

Mr Prince, the founder of the private security firm Blackwater, had been pressed by the committee about whether the meeting constituted an attempt to set up secret communications between the Trump administration and Russia.

The Blackwater founder said that he had “no official” or “really unofficial role” in the Trump campaign and his only involvement in helping was attending fundraisers and placing signs. He said he had little contact with Trump campaign officials.

Investigators from Robert Mueller probe into Russian interference are said to have received a different version of the Seychelles meeting from Mr Prince to his sworn testimony to the House committee.

“We know from the Mueller report not that that was not a chance meeting,” Mr Schiff said. The Congressman added that he believed the Mueller Report showed Mr Prince had "willingly misled" the committee.

Representatives for Mr Prince could not immediately be reached. Mr Prince has always denied acting on behalf of the administration over the Seychelles meeting.

Mr Prince told Mr Mueller's investigation that he had briefed Trump advisor Steve Bannon on the meeting, but Mr Bannon denies this. The Mueller report sad these “conflicting accounts” could not be reconciled using communications between the pair as text messages were missing. Phone provider records showed that Mr Bannon and Mr Prince had exchanged dozens of messages they were not found on their phones.

Mr Prince denied deleting messages while Mr Bannon said he did not know why the messages were not found.

Last month, Mr Prince admitted to meeting with members of the Trump campaign in August 2016. The meeting at Trump Tower was initially reported by The New York Times last year and is said to have included Donald Trump Jr, Trump campaign officials and an emissary for two Gulf princes.

Mr Prince told Al Jazeera that they were discussing "Iran policy". When asked why a transcript of his testimony to the House committee did not include this meeting, Mr Prince initially said he “disclosed any meetings, the very, very few” he had.

When pressed Mr Prince said: “I don't believe I was asked that question.” But later in the interview he said that he did tell the panel about the meeting and that “I don't know if they got the transcript wrong.”

He later also said that “not all of the discussion that day was transcribed”.

Replying to those comments, Mr Schiff told NBC's Meet the Press that Mr Prince was “certainly not telling the truth in that interview.”

“There's nothing wrong with our transcript,” Mr Schiff said. “He did not disclose that meeting to our committee.”

During the Washington Post event, Representative Schiff refused to say whether the panel also planned to submit referrals for President Trump's son-in-law and White House advisor Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jr.

Associated Press contributed to this report