1092 people associated with Putin. Bannon also stated that had Prince mentioned such a meeting, Bannon would have remembered it, and Bannon would have 1093 objected to such a meeting having taken place. The conflicting accounts provided by Bannon and Prince could not be independently clarified by reviewing their communications, because neither one was able to produce any of the messages they exchanged in the time period surrounding the Seychelles meeting. Prince’s phone contained no text messages prior to March 2017, though provider records indicate that he and Bannon 1094 exchanged dozens of messages. Prince denied deleting any messages but claimed he did not know why there were no messages on his device before 1095 March 2017. Bannon’s devices similarly contained no messages in the relevant time period, and Bannon also stated he did not know why messages did 1096 not appear on his device. Bannon told the Office that, during both the months before and after the Seychelles meeting, he regularly used his personal Blackberry and personal email for work-related communications (including those with Prince), and he took no steps to preserve these work 1097 communications. d. Kirill Dmitriev’s Post-Election Contact with Rick Gerson Regarding U.S.-Russia Relations Dmitriev’s contacts during the transition period were not limited to those facilitated by Nader. In approximately late November 2016, the UAE national security advisor introduced Dmitriev to Rick Gerson, a friend of Jared Kushner 1098 who runs a hedge fund in New York. Gerson stated he had no formal role in the transition and had no involvement in the Trump Campaign other than 1099 occasional casual discussions about the Campaign with Kushner. After the election, Gerson assisted the transition by arranging meetings for transition officials with former UK prime minister Tony Blair and a UAE delegation led by 1100 Crown Prince Mohammed. When Dmitriev and Gerson met, they principally discussed potential joint 1101 ventures between Gerson’s hedge fund and RDIF. Dmitriev was interested in improved economic cooperation between the United States and Russia and