NEW YORK _ A United Arab Emirates businessman who cooperated with Special Counsel Robert Mueller will be driven from New York to Virginia under FBI escort to face child pornography charges.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Cheryl Pollak in Brooklyn granted the request from George Nader for a federal escort instead of being transported on a prisoners' bus, as is standard practice. Nader's lawyer said his client had a weak heart and might not otherwise survive the trip.
Nader, 60, was arrested Monday after arriving at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and remains in custody. He is accused of having cellphone videos of children engaged in sexually-explicit conduct when he was stopped at a Washington airport in January 2018, after arriving on a flight from Dubai.
Nader spent the night at a federal lockup in Brooklyn. Defense attorney Christopher Clark said in court on Tuesday that Nader has a heart condition he called a "widow maker" and underwent open-heart surgery five weeks ago in Germany. He came to New York to consult with cardiologists, Clark said.
Pollak rejected Clark's suggestion that Nader be released from custody to consult with his doctors while he's watched by private security guards. One of the agents who will transport Nader to Virginia will be a trained paramedic.
"I'm confident you won't try anything," Pollak told Nader. "But if you were to try to escape, that would be a violation of the law and you will be arrested and put in jail."
