Daily Check-In 02/23/2018

Friday, February 23rd.

GATES TO PLEAD GUILTY, WILL COOPERATE WITH MUELLER

I’ve talked about this rumor for a while, but if the Washington Post is reporting it, it’s happening.  He is pleading guilty to Conspiracy and Lying to the FBI.

Here’s a copy of his plea deal.

Gates, who was once the Deputy Campaign Chairman, worked with the Trump team throughout the campaign, transition, and was Chief of Staff to the Chairman of the Inaugural Committee.  He continued to visit the White House through the Summer of 2017.

Over the last couple days, there was some screwiness with his deal, his legal team, and whether he would or wouldn’t cooperate.  Manafort, by all accounts, is putting his money on receiving a pardon from President Trump.  Gates probably bet on the same hope, right until the 32 charges came in yesterday from EDVA.  Whatever deal he was fighting against yesterday looked REAALLL nice all of a sudden.

In his Lying to the FBI charge, the deal says that he lied about a meeting with Manafort, a Lobbyist, and a member of Congress.  My first guess is that it was Congressman Dana Rohrabacher of Moscow California.

Rick Gates is looking at 31 counts of white-collar crime.  There are enough charges here that if he were convicted, he would grow very old and likely die in prison.  His kids won’t know their father.  Working with Mueller is his last, best hope to avoid that.

 

MUELLER’S TEAM HAS INDICTED 19 PEOPLE ON OVER 100 CHARGES

Here’s the list as of 09:30 EST, courtesy of the Washington Post:

The campaign team

Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign chairman. 27 counts in total.

• Conspiracy against the United States (1 count, contained in October indictment)
• Conspiracy to launder money (1 count, October)
• Bank fraud (4 counts, February indictment)
• Bank fraud conspiracy (5 counts, February)
• Subscribing to false tax returns (5 counts, February)
• Making false statements (1 count, October)
• Failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts (4 in October, 4 in February)
• Unregistered agent of a foreign principal (1 count, October)
• False FARA statements (1 count, October)

Rick Gates, former Trump campaign staffer. 31 counts in total.

• Conspiracy against the United States (1 count, October)
• Conspiracy to launder money (1 count, October)
• Bank fraud (4 counts, February)
• Bank fraud conspiracy (5 counts, February)
• Subscribing to false tax returns (5 counts, February)
• Assisting in preparation of false tax documents (5 counts, February)
• Subscribing to false amended tax returns (1 count, February)
• Making false statements (1 count, October)
• Failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts (3 in October, 3 in February)
• Unregistered agent of a foreign principal (1 count, October)
• False FARA statements (1 count, October)

Michael Flynn, former campaign staffer. 1 charge to which he pleaded guilty.

• Making false statements (1 count, December)

George Papadopoulos, former campaign adviser. 1 charge to which he pleaded guilty.

• Making false statements (1 count, October)

The Russians

Yevgeniy Prigozhin, controlled Concord Management and Consulting. 1 count in total.

• Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)

Mikhail Bystrov, general director of Internet Research Agency. 1 count in total.

• Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)

Mikhail Burchik, executive director of Internet Research Agency. 1 count in total.

• Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)

Aleksandra Krylova, director of Internet Research Agency. 1 count in total.

• Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)

Anna Bogacheva, Internet Research Agency employee. 1 count in total.

• Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)

Sergey Polozov, Internet Research Agency employee. 1 count in total.

• Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)

Maria Bovda, Internet Research Agency employee. 1 count in total.

• Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)

Robert Bovda, Internet Research Agency employee. 1 count in total.

• Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)

Dzheykhun Aslanov, Internet Research Agency employee. 8 counts in total.

• Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)
• Conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud (1 count, February)
• Aggravated identity theft (6 counts, February)

Vadim Podkopaev, Internet Research Agency employee. 1 count in total.

• Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)

Gleb Vasilchenko, Internet Research Agency employee. 8 counts in total.

• Conspiracy to defraud the United States. (1 count, February)
• Conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud (1 count, February)
• Aggravated identity theft (6 counts, February)

Irina Kaverzina, Internet Research Agency employee. 7 counts in total.

• Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)
• Aggravated identity theft (6 counts, February)

Vladimir Venkov, Internet Research Agency employee. 7 counts in total.

• Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)
• Aggravated identity theft (6 counts, February)

The other people

Richard Pinedo, businessman who sold bank account numbers allegedly used by the Russians as part of their efforts. 1 charge to which he pleaded guilty.

• Making false statements (1 count, December)

Alex van der Zwaan, attorney who helped develop a report benefiting Manafort’s client in Ukraine. 1 charge to which he pleaded guilty.

• Making false statements (1 count, October)

 

Comparing that information to this chart from Daily Kos, Trump is already well ahead of every President in number of Indictments and fourth in number of convictions with 3.

Executive Branch Criminal Activities by Presidential Administration

President	Party	Years in Office	Criminal Indictments	Criminal Convictions	Prison Sentences
Barack Obama	Democratic	8	0	0	0
George W. Bush	Republican	8	16	16	9
Bill Clinton	Democratic	8	2	1	1
George H. W. Bush	Republican	4	1	1	1
Ronald Reagan	Republican	8	26	16	8
Jimmy Carter	Democratic	4	1	0	0
Gerald Ford	Republican	2.4	1	1	1
Richard Nixon	Republican	5.6	76	55	15

 

5 NEW CHARGES FOR PAUL MANAFORT FROM DC SUPERSEDING INDICTMENT

Here it is. A couple hours after Rick Gates pleaded guilty, a superseding indictment was unsealed against Paul Manafort.

Here’s the new charges:

• Conspiracy Against the United States
• Conspiracy to Launder Money
• Unregistered Agent of a Foreign Principal
• False and Misleading FARA Statements
• False Statements

 

MANAFORT LEFT PAPER TRAIL BECAUSE HE COULDN’T CONVERT WORD DOC TO PDF

Why is it that it’s always some tiny, stupid, insignificant little thing that ends up leading investigators to unravel a massive conspiracy?

In this case, Manafort needed help converting a Word file to a PDF.  Even though there are literally dozens of ways for someone to do this themselves, Paul either couldn’t or wouldn’t figure it out.

Manafort, who is at or near 70 years old, asked a coconspirator at Lender D (Federal Savings Bank in Chicago, IL) for him to send a file to him in a Word file so that he could doctor it.  Manfort then sent this to Rick Gates, who sent back a PDF file.  All he had to do was ask for a copy of the Word file, spend 2 minutes doing a Google search, and he could have done the work himself.  Instead, his laziness likely cost two people their freedom and is a likely catalyst for them to turn on him.

STEPHEN CALK’S WORK WITH MANAFORT BROUGHT UP IN DIVORCE FILING LAST YEAR

Speaking of Federal Savings Bank, Stephen Calk’s wife/ex-wife to be Donna knew about Paul Manafort and Stephen’s working with him.

I’m wondering how long ago someone from Mueller’s office spoke to Donna.

 

CONOR LAMB RUNNING NECK AND NECK DESPITE GETTING OUTSPENT 17-1

With redistricting coming up later this year, if Lamb can pull of the upset in PA-18, that would set it up nicely for the future.

The seat Lamb is running for is heavily gerrymandered.  It splits parts of the city and closest city suburbs and dilutes their large Democratic influence with voters three counties away in Pennsyltucky.  Pennsyltucky is the heavily rural, white, and sparsely populated areas in the state between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.  More than half of the state’s population lives in and around those two cities.

If Lamb wins PA-18 in the Special Election, he’ll go into November with a new district, a new map, and a more centralized constituency.

 

FLORIDA GOVERNOR RICK SCOTT PROPOSES TO RAISE GUN PURCHASE AGE TO 21

Republican Sen. Bill Galvano, the next Senate president from south Tampa, has been working on similar legislation that he planned to present with House and Senate leaders later Friday. Though he has been a supporter of the NRA’s legislative efforts in the past, Galvano said Thursday that the group’s opposition to raising the age for semiautomatic rifle purchases would not change his focus.

“It doesn’t complicate my efforts,” he said after a committee hearing in the Capitol. “I think the desire to act and do something meaningful right now seems to be what’s going to win the day.”

We’re finally starting to see some change.  Too bad it took yet another senseless tragedy to get this to happen.

 

ANOTHER REPORT ABOUT THE FBI INVESTIGATING THE NRA

As I’ve said before and I’ll say again, Fuck the NRA.

This is something I’ve talked about before, but this piece does add some info to the puzzle, like that the NRA spent $55 million in the 2016 campaign, and $30 million of that went to Donald Trump.  That $55 million was a record for them.

Alexander Torshin is a Russian Oligarch, a former member of their Parliament, and a Lifetime Member of the NRA.

 

RNC PAYING RENT FOR AN APARTMENT IN TRUMP TOWER

After the Republican National Committee stopped paying the legal fees for Trump’s family, they immediately started paying Trump for rent on an apartment in Trump Tower, at a rate of $37,500 per month.

Over a year, that comes out to $450,000, being paid to Trump’s company.  Smells pretty rotten.

 

TRUMP SAYS KELLY WILL DECIDE WHAT HAPPENS WITH KUSHNER’S CLEARANCE

This story came out this morning.  For the last, well, ever, we’ve been asking how in the Crystal Pepsi Flavored Fuck does Jared Kushner still have a Top Secret clearance?

Remember last week or two weeks ago when John Kelly said that all Interim Security Clearances would be cancelled by today?  And how Jared’s camp in the White House felt that this was an attack directed at him?

Well…

 

TOP JUSTICE DEPT. OFFICIAL ALERTED WHITE HOUSE 2 WEEKS AGO TO ONGOING ISSUES IN KUSHNER’S SECURITY CLEARANCE

Two weeks ago, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein informed the White House that there was a “significant information requiring additional investigation would further delay the security clearance process of senior adviser Jared Kushner, according to three people familiar with the discussion.”

This came directly from Rod.  You know, the guy that Bob Mueller reports to for the Russian Investigation?  Yeah, that guy.

What happened two weeks ago?

• Daily Check-In 02/05/2018
• Daily Check-In 02/06/2018
• Daily Check-In 02/07/2018
• Daily Check-In 02/09/2018
• Daily Check-In 02/09/2018
• Daily Check-In 02/15/2018.  READ THE FIRST STORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If I could make that last one a big, flashing, obnoxious blinking link, I would.

Two weeks ago, Steve Bannon spent half a week interviewing with Robert Mueller and his team.  He told them EVERYTHING.  He told them about all of the crazy shit that Jared and Ivanka pulled in the White House.  He told Mueller about Kushner’s debts, his habits, his coconspirators, and why he’s accessing so much classified intel.

I finished listening to “Fire & Fury” yesterday.  I’ll do a review on it soon, but two things stand out about Steve Bannon; he knows a lot of shit and is a vindictive son of a bitch.

There was a 3-way battle in the White House for who would be the real power behind Donald Trump.  Steve Bannon represented the Nationalists, Reince Priebus represented the Republican Party, and Jared Kushner represented… his own self-interests.  They all schemed against each other, but eventually Reince and Bannon teamed up against Jarvanka (Jared-Ivanka).  Problem was, Trump would not let his kids get fired.  The kids were behind firing Comey, the Trump Jr. statement about the June 9th meeting, and the horrendous idea of letting Trump interview Maggie Haberman from the New York Times where he pulled that “red line” bullshit.

Bannon spoke to the author a lot about Kushner, Ivanka, and Hope Hicks.  He described Kushner’s very close ties to Israel, money laundering through diamonds, and how screwed his family is on 666 Fifth Avenue.  (If that building sounds familiar, I mentioned it on Daily Check-In 10/30/2017.)

If Bannon told this much to a journalist, just imagine what he told to Robert Mueller.

So, what conclusion am I drawing from this?

Steve Bannon told Robert Mueller some shit about Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump that strongly implies that they should never, EEVER, be allowed anywhere near classified intel.  Mueller told Rosenstein, and Rosenstein told the White House.

Jared’s gonna have a very rough year.

 

RUMOR MILL: CALLS FOR UNITY AND THE ONCOMING STORM

This article is already pretty long, and with all the news today, there were two main messages today.

We need to come together as Americans and lovers of Freedom, and resist the calls for divisiveness, since they’re likely coming from our enemies.

A lot of bad people are going to have a very bad time soon.  Things are speeding up.

 

That’s it for today.  CNN has a graphical page describing all of the different lawyers on The Justice League.  I think I might update my page with any missing attorneys.  I like CNN’s look.  All I want to say is…

I DID IT FIRST!

Ok, I’m done being petty.  I’ll update my version with the new information soon.

I’ll see you next time.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur