Your Monday afternoon new, damning Trump-Putin connection

Is anyone surprised that Eric Prince, CEO of Blackwater, brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and familiar face around the NYC Trump transition office, held a clandestine meeting in the Seychelles with a close advisor to El Sr. Putin just days before the inauguration?

Via the Washington Post:

Prince was an avid supporter of Trump who gave $250,000 last year to support the GOP nominee's campaign, records show. He has ties to people in Trump's circle, including Stephen K. Bannon, now serving as the president's chief strategist and senior counselor. Prince's sister Betsy DeVos serves as education secretary in the Trump administration. And Prince was seen in the Trump transition offices in New York in December.

U.S. officials said the FBI has been scrutinizing the Seychelles meeting as part of a broader probe of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and alleged contacts between associates of Putin and Trump. The FBI declined to comment.

The Seychelles encounter, which one official said spanned two days, adds to an expanding web of connections between Russia and Americans with ties to Trump - contacts that the White House has been reluctant to acknowledge or explain until they have been exposed by news organizations.