Tuesday February 20th, and a little of what happened over President’s Day weekend.
RICK GATES TO PLEAD GUILTY, COOPERATE WITH MUELLER
This has been covered a few times over the past week or two, but this, combined with the next two stories, is confirmation that Rick Gates flipped like a gymnast. Or one of those snowboarders.
Part of his plea deal is that he has to tell Mueller EVERYTHING.
MANAFORT TO HAVE BAIL REVOKED, NEW BANK FRAUD INDICTMENTS ADDED
One of the things that it looks like Gates told Mueller was about his boss, Paul Manafort.
Manafort is being investigated for even more money laundering, bank fraud, mortgage fraud, and tax evasion.
It looks like Gates gave Mueller proof that Manafort used doctored balance sheets from some of his companies to acquire a mortgage for his home in Fairfax, VA. It’s the same house he put up for bail.
Uh oh.
ALEX VAN DER ZWAAN TO PLEAD GUILTY TO LYING TO THE FBI
Alex Van Der Zwaan, a Dutch lawyer who formerly worked with Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Up until a few weeks ago, Alex was Rick Gates’s attorney. Alex was busted for lying about a conversation he had with Rick Gates and “Person A” about a Ukrainian case he worked on a few years ago about trying to whitewash corruption. Alex said it didn’t happen, then deleted the emails and a recording of the phone conversation. Alex is highly motivated to cooperate, as his wife is pregnant. His father-in-law is German Khan, founder of Alfa Group/Alfa Bank.
So, let’s break that down.
First, Mueller got Gates to turn on his lawyer. That’s just straight up gansta.
Next, Alex was a lawyer for Skadden, a blue chip law firm that is normally very cautious about who they take on as a client, but worked with Paul Manafort on preparing a report to justify the prosecution and jailing of Yulia Tymoshenko. Tymoshenko was the Prime Minister in Ukraine who ran against Viktor Yanukovich, who was Paul Manafort’s client. This ties back to Ukraine.
Alfa Group has retained Skadden for a few years, and it appears that Alex Van Der Zwaan worked on their account. Another employee of Skadden was Andrea Manafort Shand. If that name looks familiar, it’s Paul’s daughter.
Finally, we have a direct connection to Alfa Bank. Remember the weird network connections between a server in Alfa Bank and Trump Tower? No, okay, quick recap…
Tea Pain broke down the connections a while back but the short, short version is there was a server in Trump Tower that only communicated with two other IP Addresses. Those IP’s are associated with a server at Spectrum Health (a health care company owned by the DeVos family) and a server located in Alfa Bank. Here’s a copy of the network traffic between the Alfa Server and Trump Tower server. Reddit user /u/RyanClinton2017 put together a sobering timeline
- The Mayflower hotel meeting was held on April 27, 2016.
- The first traffic seen between Alfa and Trump servers was seen on May 6, 2016.
- It started out low and slow, see graph here.
- The first uptick of traffic is seen on June 2, 2016, the very next day Goldstein sends an email to Don Jr. about Russians having dirt on Hillary.
- On June 9, 2016 Don Jr, Manafort and Kushner meet with the Russians at Trump Tower.
- On June 10, 2016 another uptick as seen in the graph.
- On June 18, 2016 Spectrum joins in and traffic increases and continues to increase through the election.
Now that we’ve built that back up, let’s talk about Alex. Alex is a newlywed to Eva Khan, daughter of German Khan. He’s the founder of Alfa Group/Alfa Bank, and is mentioned on page 25 of The Steele Dossier. He’s very close to Putin, and may be one of the few Oligarchs that can call on more power than Putin.
So, not only is Alex Van Der Zwaan the son-in-law of German Khan (pronounced Herman), but Alex is also the father of his grandchild.
Eva is pregnant, and Alex doesn’t want to miss his child’s birth in prison. The only way he doesn’t miss that is by cooperating, and he can deliver the Skadden law firm, more of Manafort’s associates, the Americans that helped Alfa Group, and possibly even German Khan himself.
STUDENTS TAKING THE LEAD IN FIGHT FOR GUN CONTROL
This is what we need. The next generation grabbing this subject and taking their leadership to task.
March For Our Lives is scheduled for March 24th.
NETENYAHU: AIDE TRIED TO BRIBE JUDGES WIFE, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR TO TESTIFY AGAINST HIM
Benjamin “Bibi” Netenyahu, the embattled Israeli Prime Minister, is not having a good month.
Good.
Bibi was one of the corrupt politicians that benefited from the scourge of vice and corruption around the world that used the Trump’s and Kushner’s, among others, to launder their money. Bibi looked the other way as Israelis broke the law all over the world.
He might be the first world leader to go down, but he won’t be the last.
PENNSYLVANIA GETS A NEW CONGRESSIONAL MAP
Here’s the new map.
Compare it to the old map.
There’s a special election in March for Tim Murphy’s old district. It’s the middle-red one in the bottom left corner.
BANNON SOLD STAKE IN CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA WHILE IN WHITE HOUSE
Not that this is any surprise, but his ethics finding showed that he didn’t sell his ownership stake in CA until April. This also proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Steve Bannon had his hands in Cambridge Analytica.
DONNIE JR., A TRIP TO INDIA, AND OPEN CORRUPTION
Donnie Jr. is visiting India, and is looking to make “deals” while over there. He’s selling “access” to himself and the White House, as well as apartments.
I’m not sure what I’m more upset about, his brazen lack of decorum to at least hide his corruption, or his blatant stupidity.
Anyone who’s been reading this site for a while knows that Mueller’s coming for Kushner. He’s had Kushner in his sights for a long time, and has him dead to rights on everything from perjury to espionage. We’re left with two big questions.
When, and what for first?
The “when” will likely happen before the Summer begins, if not much sooner. I think he’ll be the first family member indicted. It’ll send a powerful message that Mueller’s coming for the family, while at the same time giving the Redcaps a chance to say “He’s not a Trump, he’s a Kushner.” An hour later, Donnie Jr. will be indicted.
What for first is a good question. There’s a lot that Mueller can tag him for, but as long as Trump’s in the White House, he has to tread carefully at first. I’m not worried about Trump trying to pardon Kushner, so much as expecting him to try, and figuring that Mueller gameplanned for that contingency. But the first crime should be big enough to establish that he’s a criminal, but not directly tied to Russia.
If I had to put money on it, he will be indicted for Obstruction of Justice.
RUMOR MILL: WHO IS PERSON A?
in or about September 2016, he spoke with both Gates and Person A regarding the Report, and surreptitiously recorded the calls
There’s a couple theories floating around who Person A is from Alex’s indictment.
The first, and most obvious, is Paul Manafort.
The next is a known intermediary representing Manafort, possibly his daughter.
The third is a Ukrainian national. While that could be anyone unknown at this point, one name I heard floating around is Konstantin Kilimnik. Konstantin was Manafort’s man in Kiev, and has a background in Russian Intelligence.
There are few people who know. Mueller, Gates, Van Der Zwaan, and whomever Person A is. They know who they are, and other people know.
Not only that, but Mueller knows who they are, and sure as hell has that recording. They caught Alex trying to delete that recording AFTER they interviewed him in November 2017. Damn straight he was under surveillance.
That’s it for today. Things are shaping up quick with Russia. I did not talk about Trump’s tweets, because they are almost always distraction. But, since he spewed a bunch of shit on Twitter, here’s a very brief recap…
He attacked everyone from the FBI to Mueller to Adam Schiff to the kids in Parkland, but not once did Trump attack Putin or Russia. If he wasn’t a Russian Agent, it would seem weird AF.
Expect things to speed up from here on out on the indictment front. There are at least three cooperating witnesses, if not more. George Papadopoulos, Mike Flynn, Richard Pinedo, and Alex Van Der Zwaan have all pleaded guilty so far, with Rick Gates on deck. Each and every one of their deals depend on them helping Mueller, or facing VERY long prison terms. They stay out of jail by flipping on bigger fish. Pretty soon, we’ll be dining on swordfish.
Thank you, and have a good one.
“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”
– Katy Tur
None of this is Normal 
4 thoughts on “Daily Check-In 02/20/2018”