Month: August 2018

Daily Check-In 08/14/2018

Tuesday, August 14th.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

The Manafort Trial

The eleventh day of the Manafort Tax Trial was pretty short as the defense rested their case without calling any witnesses or entering any evidence into the record.  While this might seem like a bad idea, this is Manafort’s best approach, and it’s relatively common in White Collar cases for the defense to do this.  It is the burden of the prosecution to prove that Paul Manafort committed these crimes, not the Manafort’s burden to prove that he didn’t.  All his defense has to do is provide a reasonable doubt to the jury.  The jury cannot use the fact that Manafort did not take the stand against him.  If Manafort introduced any witnesses or evidence of their own, the prosecution gets the chance to go after them or that as well.  Besides, this is a tax avoidance crime.  It’s not like it’s a murder case and his friend provides an alibi that he was busy ballroom dancing instead of filling out tax forms or stabbing his mailman.

There were some arguments about how emails would be entered into evidence.  Emails, like the one linked to above where Paul Manafort mailed Jared Kushner a copy of Steve Calk’s resume and a recommendation letter that was dated two weeks after the loans from Federal Savings Bank cleared.

The trial will resume Wednesday morning with closing arguments.  Following the jury instructions from the judge, the jury will be sequestered until they reach a verdict.  The prosecution would like the jury to stick around afterward in the case of a guilty verdict to discuss asset forfeiture.

 

 

Before I get to this next section, I want to make a disclaimer.  I hoped that this whole Omarosa tape crap would stay in the realm of distraction, and for the most part it has.  But, like everything else in this shitshow, it’s connected to the Russian Investigation in some part or another.   Omarosa is no exception.

During Omarosa’s interview with Katy Tur on MSNBC, she let a little something slip; Trump knew about the Wikileaks email release before it was public knowledge.

I’m sorry, what the fuck was that?  Did she just…  Did she…

DID SHE JUST SAY THE ORANGE DAUGHTER FUCKER KNEW!!!!???!?!?!?

Holy dogshit, people.  That should be the game-changer right there.  But, before I start popping the popcorn and open that bottle of “Buttery Males” wine (seriously, someone should make that), let’s qualify this a little bit.

First, Omarosa’s track record is… well, it’s shit.  I’ve seen salesman at tiny buy-here-pay-here used car lots with more integrity than her.  She’s one of the more “dependable” people in Trump World, but that’s like being the tallest midget on the basketball team.

Second, she doesn’t mention which Wikileaks mail drop.  According to the following list from Wikipedia, there were a few releases in 2016.  The two most important to the Trump Team were the July 22nd DNC emails and the October 7th Podesta emails. (Daily Check-In 07/13/2018 , Daily Check-In 10/6/2017)  Omarosa joined the campaign at its onset, so it could be either of these.

Third, there’s a difference between knowledge and coordination.  Let’s assume for a moment that Trump was told about the release right before it happened, and that he had no control over it, and maybe Omarosa was in the room when the call came in.  I don’t buy this for a second, but this will eventually become the talking point Team Trump uses when their back is against the wall.  They’ll try to spin it that she was talking about a courtesy call that Trump received, and that there was no coordination.  Of course, that assumes that Donnie Jr. never told Daddy about his DM’s with Wikileaks. (Daily Check-In 11/13/2017)

After all of that, the defense against her will be that she’s a liar, unreliable, or blowing things out of proportion, or just mad that she was fired.  How can she battle against this?

Does anyone forget that she recorded EVERYTHING that happened?  She did it during her time in the White House, and said she did it because “in Trump World, everyone lies.”  Anyone want to bet that she started this habit BEFORE working at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?  I’ll put $20 down on that.  She wouldn’t be the first person to record conversations with Donald Trump (Daily Check-In 07/20/2018).

As far as her motivations go, I put them somewhere between greed and revenge, with just a sprinkling of conscience and patriotism.  She could have taken the hush money and stayed quiet, but I think at some point in the last couple years, she had her moment of clarity and realized what was going on.  Sure, she stuck around out of some sense of loyalty to Trump, but when he turned on her, or didn’t fight for her hard enough, or saw their efforts to screw her over, she decided to fight back.

Is she the long-rumored mole in the campaign?  Doubt it, but at this point nothing should surprise me.

By the way, she says she’s been interviewed by Special Counselor Robert Mueller.  And an NDA cannot be used to suppress criminal activities.

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

Let me get this straight…

Cadet Bone Spurs, who signed a tax bill that adds over a trillion dollars to the deficit, who has demanded a dictator-style parade while saying we have to cut funds from the VA, who is bending over to appease Russia and North Korea, and who is making a mockery of the military with this Space Force bullshit, asked if any of the soldiers in the Army’s busiest division would donate their pay raise to pay off his debts, and when none of them raised their hands, he attacks them?

JFC.  In any normal universe, this alone would be enough to sink him for good.

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

That makes sense for three reasons.

First, the economy is the only thing that’s sort of going right under Trump.  Of course, he’s tried to kill it with every action he takes, and it usually takes 2-5 years to finally see the damage caused by their actions.

Second, for the well-to-do Fox News viewer, this reinforces their view that everything is going great and that Cheeto Mussolini is great.

Finally, for the poor Fox News viewers, this helps anger them more.  Combine good news of Trump’s “accomplishments” with how bad anyone is with skin darker than a latte, then talk about how good the economy is doing, and they’ll put the pieces together and think that they’d have it good to if it wasn’t for all of the minorities.

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

Omarosa and the Tapes

As much as I’d like to say “the tapes would end his presidency once and for all”, I know that there are enough people in his base that would cheer him on.

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

The West Virginian Supreme Court has been rife with corruption for a long time, so it’s not the “End of Democracy” circle jerk that Reddit commenters who can’t be bothered to read the article make it to be.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday released a sweeping grand jury report on sex abuse in the Catholic Church, listing hundreds of accused clergy and detailing 70 years of misconduct and church response across the state.

The release is the culmination of an 18-month probe, led by state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, on six of the state’s eight dioceses — Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Scranton, Erie and Greensburg — and follows other state grand jury reports that revealed abuse and coverups in two other dioceses.

Some details and names that might reveal the 300 clergy listed have been redacted from the report. Legal challenges by clergy delayed the report’s release, after some said it is a violation of their constitutional rights. Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court ruled last month that the report must be released but with some redaction.

In the 12 hours following the release of this report, I’ve seen several posts on social media from friends detailing their run-ins, interactions, and abuse at the hands of priests mentioned in this report.  Some of them were benign, like one person saying “I wondered why Father XXXXXX was transferred away so quickly from the parish.”  Others weren’t so, like one tale of attempted abuse by a priest on a then 11-year-old boy who made an excuse to get away as fast as he could.  He put two and two together after reading that priest’s name in the report.  He’s a grown man with a family now, and will live with those memories for the rest of his life.

To be fair, this is the first “purposeful” death by fentanyl.  According to this story and the first chart, more than 20,000 people died of a fentanyl overdose in 2016.

 

ELECTION 2018

I’m noticing a pattern, and I’m not the only one that’s noticed it.

The Republicans have a primary election between a normal, run of the mill Neoconservative and a Trumpist.  One espouses whatever Ayn Rand-ian bullshit they claim to believe in, while the other goes full MAGA.  The Trumpist wins the primary.  Meanwhile, in the same district, the Democrats are running Moderate and Centrist candidates who don’t own red hats nor kale farms.  Those two face off in the General Election, and the Democrat outperforms what they’ve done historically.  Sometimes, like in Alabama’s Senate race, or the PA Congress special election, the Democrat wins.

We saw it again on Tuesday with Kansas and Minnesota.  In both states’ Governor election, the GOP “Base” went full MAGA.  Never go full MAGA.  Minnesota is usually a toss-up state, but Kansas has been the definition of a Red-State since the color choices were settled back in the 80’s.

The GOP Primaries across the nation are looking more and more like Pyrrhic Victories.  Sure, MAGA wins the primary, but now they have to bet that the average voter will put Party of Country like they did.

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Tuesday.  The Manafort Tax trial wraps up on Wednesday.  I’m not sure how long that will be with the jury.  We’ll probably get more stuff about Omarosa, and who knows what other craziness.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 08/13/2018

Monday, August 13th

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

The Manafort Trial

The tenth day of the Manafort Tax Trial began in the early afternoon with the prosecution calling their last new witness James Brennan.  Brennan, a Vice President at Federal Savings Bank, testified under immunity on Monday.  He said that Manafort did not qualify for the loans after it was discovered that he hid two mortgages that he didn’t disclose, but he authorized the loans anyway after the bank CEO Steve Calk intervened on Manafort’s behalf.

The defense showed some of their strategy when they said that Paul Manafort had no requirement to claim the bank accounts of his business DMP LLC because he didn’t own more than 50% of the company.  Paul owns 50% and his wife Kathleen owns the other 50%.  They file jointly.  This argument has more holes in it than a colander.  If a husband and wife file jointly, it’s because they share responsibility over their finances.  If one screws something up, the other is also at fault.  Filing jointly is the same legally as two people claiming to be one entity.  That one entity has ownership over any controlled company, and the partners or married couple have shared responsibility.  If anything, the defense just implicated Mrs. Manafort in some tax evasion, too.

The prosecution recalled Paula Liss from FinCEN back for a few questions about Manafort’s company.  The prosecution never asked about the company, but the defense brought up that the offshore bank accounts could have claimed under Manafort’s company instead of on his personal tax form.  Paula testified that the bank accounts were not claimed by the company, either.

At this point, the prosecution rested its case.  The defense said they will file a motion to dismiss the charges, and the judge said he would review it.  I am not a lawyer, but this sounds like it is pretty standard for a criminal trial.  If the prosecution has failed to make a case, or made grievous errors, the case can be dismissed before the defense makes their case.  That does not seem likely in this situation.

 

Peter Strzok, the FBI agent who was the nations top spy hunter and who was dragged through the coals by Congress (Daily Check-In 07/12/2018) for texting his mistress/girlfriend was fired.  This whole thing stinks to high heaven.

The FBI’s HR office decided that his actions of sending personal texts from a secured phone warranted a demotion and a 60-day suspension, which he had already served, but that was overruled and he was fired by Deputy Director Bowdich.

Strzok has been a punching bag of the Right Wing Media ever since the whole text thing came out.  Their claims of “Deep State” have raged for about a year while doing nothing but serve as a distraction for the piles of shit coming out about Trump and his team.

He was also one of the last two people at the FBI that James Comey told about his meetings with Donald Trump in real time.  The only other person left at this point is the aforementioned Bowdich.

I’m not sure what to think on this.  Something is rotten about this action, and it’s almost absolutely politically motivated.  Hell, Trump couldn’t even wait a whole day before tweeting about the firing, which makes this look even more like it was politically motivated.

I have two questions.

First, was this firing carried out reluctantly or willingly?

Second, is there a paper trail?

 

I should make a post about all of the fake deadlines, deals, and comments that Rudy’s made since he joined as Trump’s lawyer.

Notice how he pulled this as a deadline with a shade over 2 weeks left in August, when most of Washington is on vacation and there is no plan for anyone to be around.  It’s like going on vacation, but telling your coworker that you can’t do a certain task after you get back because it will be too late, but you can’t do it while on vacation, then blaming the coworker for it not getting done.

Funny how each and every judge that hears these challenges seems to rule in favor of the Special Counselor.  It’s almost like they have some of the world’s best attorneys on their side, making sure that every i is dotted and t is crossed.

Oh wait, they do.  The Justice League.

A lawyer for Randy Credico, the radio host, confirmed Friday that he received a subpoena from Mueller’s office requesting that Credico testify before a grand jury in Washington on September 7. The attorney, Martin Stolar, said he believes prosecutors want to ask Credico about his contacts with Stone and also potentially about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Assange called into Credico’s radio show in 2016, and Stone has claimed Credico gave him information from Assange about plans to release hacked emails related to Hillary Clinton.

According to two people familiar with the matter, investigators also want to question Credico about a series of emails Stone sent him earlier this year, after Credico publicly disputed Stone’s claims about their interactions. “They said they saw some emails,” one of the people said, adding that the investigators are interested in the extent to which Credico perceived Stone’s statements as threats.

Of course they’re looking at Stone’s emails.  They’ve had them for months.  They want to know what Credico has to say about them.

In March 2016, as the U.S. foreign policy establishment shunned presidential candidate Donald Trump, his son-in-law Jared Kushner was invited to lunch for a think tank urging detente with Russia and struggling for influence in Washington.

The meeting at Manhattan’s Time Warner Center, which hasn’t been reported before, would prove significant for the Center for the National Interest and Kushner, who was still a little-known figure in the Trump campaign.

The main attraction of the March 14th event was Henry Kissinger, the center’s honorary chairman, who gave a talk that included analyzing U.S.-Russia relations for a small group of attendees. Kushner, who remained quiet and unobtrusive during the lunch, introduced himself to Kissinger afterward. He also met Dimitri Simes, the Russian-born president of the center and publisher of its magazine, The National Interest.

Questions have recently been raised about the center for its ties to Russia, including its interactions with Maria Butina, a woman accused of conspiring to set up a back channel by infiltrating the National Rifle Organization and the National Prayer Breakfast.

Trump Being Questioned by Butina: Video

Kushner meeting Simes at the lunch turned out to be a solid match. In the weeks following they discussed the possibility of an event hosted by the center to give Trump a chance to lay out a cohesive foreign policy speech. Simes’s organization, more pro-Russian than most in Washington, had invited other presidential candidates but none accepted. And Republican foreign policy analysts feared associating with Trump could end their careers. The center had the imprimatur of Kissinger, however, because it had been established by Richard Nixon who named him national security adviser.

A partnership with the center would help catapult Kushner to his role as a key diplomat in the White House. He and Simes organized Trump’s “America First” speech at the Mayflower Hotel the next month, with writing input and a guest list from the center.

It was at the Mayflower that Kushner first met Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, an encounter he left off disclosure forms when he initially joined the government. After Trump was elected, but before he took office, Kushner asked Kislyak whether the transition team could use the Russian embassy to communicate privately with Moscow.

March 2016, Kushner meets with Simes.  In April, everyone meets with Sergey Kislyak at the Mayflower Hotel, where the Trump team allegedly asked the Russians for assistance in their campaign. (Scandal Speed Run, 2017 Retrospective).  This sounds like a back channel being formed.

 

The Department of Justice has added an attorney with expertise in weapons export and sanctions laws to the team prosecuting Maria Butina, the accused Russian agent whose handler was entwined with Kremlin-connected arms manufacturers banned from doing business in the United States.

The addition of Will Mackie brings to three the number of prosecutors pursuing the case against Butina. She faces charges of conspiracy and acting as an unregistered foreign agent for what authorities say was her attempt to gain political influence through the National Rifle Association, part of a broader Russian campaign to install Donald Trump in the White House.

Mackie, an assistant U.S. attorney in the Justice Department’s National Security Division, has spent years prosecuting violations of U.S. sanctions and international arms embargoes. In 2008, he helped win a guilty verdict in the high-profile case against John Reece Roth, a University of Tennessee professor who passed secret military data to research assistants from China and Iran. More recently, Mackie was involved in the controversial prosecution of Marc Turi, an Arizona arms dealer who sought to sell sniper rifles, machine guns, and other weapons to Libyan rebels during the uprising against Muammar el-Qaddafi. (The charges against Turi were dropped after he reached a civil settlement with the State Department).

Weapons trafficking and sanctions.  Considering that Butina’s patron Alexander Torshin is under sanctions, and we’re looking at the NRA, this sounds like it’s right up his alley.

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

Death threats.  Lots and lots of death threats.

What’s sad isn’t how far he’s taking these people, but how far they’re willing to go with just a little bit of encouragement.

Reminds me a bit of Ronald Reagan Jr.  He’s pretty much the polar opposite of his dad.

 

IMMIGRATION

Trump and my nephew both know their immigrant and refugee roots. Yet, they repeat the insults and false accusations of earlier generations against these refugees to make them seem less than human. — Almost every American family has an immigration story of its own based on flight from war, poverty, famine, persecution, fear or hopelessness. These immigrants became the workers, entrepreneurs, scientists and soldiers of America.

 

COLD WAR 2.0

Pavlov has engaged some of the world’s biggest law firms to act on behalf of him and his clients, has encouraged a former U.K. attorney general to lobby on his behalf, and has hired the consultancy firm part-owned by U.K. and Australian election maestro Lynton Crosby.

Yet he’s also embroiled in a huge international row over an alleged $230 million Russian fraud that left a lawyer tortured to death in a Russian prison; is closely tied to the Russian and Kazakh interior ministries; and is even alleged to have acted as a mediator between a Russian whistleblower and an alleged criminal gang, shortly before the whistleblower was found dead—with U.S. intelligence pointing blame for the death directly at Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Pavlov’s jetset lifestyle embodies the elaborate network of connections between the Russian state and Western elites that special counsel Robert Mueller is now charged with investigating. Like most people in this world, Pavlov has always been a closed book—until now.

The Daily Beast is able to shed unprecedented light on how Pavlov and those around him operate, thanks to a circumstance all too familiar to Hillary Clinton aide John Podesta, the Democratic National Committee, and others: The contents of Pavlov’s emails were leaked and posted online following what he says was a hacking attack to an obscure site used by hackers to dump their finds. (The identity of Pavlov’s hackers is not known, and Pavlov has not publicly speculated on it.)

This rare cache of documents, plus court records from cases across the U.S. and detailed reporting, give a rare insight into the complex nexus of connections in which Pavlov resides—a network that draws in interests connected to Putin and also business connections of President Trump.

Pavlov’s mails link him to everyone involved in the Magnitsky case, and link them to each other.  In any normal universe, this should be the top story.

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

SCOTUS

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

Omarosa

There is no way that Omarosa was the only person in the Reality Show White House that was walking around recording everything.  Granted, that should be a very short list, but I’m not buying that she was the only one doing it.

As much as this should be a simple distraction, she likely has some serious dirt to work with.  It’s not like these are the best of the best she’s working with.  She worked there.

Trump is likely having a panic attack about what she has, what she’s released, and could still released.  Of course, this idiot only knows one move, and that’s attack.  Neither of these parties are thinking logically or strategically.

The newest talk is about Trump’s N-word tape.  You know, the ones that Tom Arnold has been chasing down for a while.  Supposedly, Omarosa has a recording of the Trump staff talking about that tape, and what that could mean.

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

ELECTION 2018

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Monday.  If this is Monday, then the rest of week will probably be nuts.  I’d say I would like a nice,  quiet, slow day, but that is a lie.  At this point, I’m so used to the pace of the craziness that having a slow day would be jarring.  It’s like taking a day off from a workout routine.  It just feels… weird.

The Manafort Tax Trial should be wrapping up soon.  The defense will make their case on Tuesday, followed by both sides making their closing arguments.  The case would then go to the jury.  Most of the charges against him are paperwork charges, like not checking boxes or lying on forms.  Those are pretty open and shut charges.  I’m not on the jury, but the likelihood that the jury acquits him unanimously on all 18 charges is pretty damn low.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”  ‘

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 08/10/2018

Friday, August 10th and the weekend

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

The Manafort Trial

Day 9 of the Manafort Tax Trial started off a little weird.  The first few hours were spent with the lawyers and judge in meetings, and the judge giving a couple warnings to the jury.

The testimony didn’t start until 2:25 PM with Dennis Raico (Daily Check-In 07/23/2018) of Federal Savings Bank taking the stand.  Raico, a Senior Vice President at the bank, testified that Manafort received $16 million in two separate loans that the bank was originally going to reject because Manafort kept screwing around with the paperwork and changing the terms of the loan.  The loans were approved when the CEO of the bank, Steve Calk, personally intervened on Manafort’s behalf.  Raico testified under immunity protection.

Raico also testified that Manafort disputed a $200,000 charge on his AmEx card by saying that Rick Gates purchased Yankees season tickets with the card.  This was further disputed by the next witness, Irfan Kirimca, Senior Director for the New York Yankees.  Irfan testified that Manafort was a season ticket holder from 2010 to 2017.  Manafort purchased $226,800 worth of tickets for 2017.  $700 per seat for 81 home games for 4 people.  If $700 per ticket sounds crazy, they are.  That is front row seats, right along the dugout.  Any closer and you’d have to wear pinstripes.

The final witness of the day was Andrew Chojnowski, lending officer at FSB.  He testified that Paul Manafort signed the loan documents attesting that he had disclosed all of his debts.

The prosecution will call it’s final witness on Monday.  James Brennan  (Daily Check-In 07/23/2018) is an employee of FSB and will be testifying under immunity protection.

 

Peter Smith

The FBI, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office and Senate Intelligence Committee investigators are all scrutinizing the cash transactions of GOP activist Peter W. Smith, who sought Hillary Clinton’s emails from hackers. BuzzFeed News reports that Smith transferred $9,500 from a bank account dedicated to his email-finding efforts to his personal account, then took about $6,100 in cash out in three separate withdrawals. Both the FBI and Senate Intel are now trying to find out if “Smith paid anyone connected with the Russian government,” and Mueller’s office has reportedly “interviewed people who Smith tried to recruit” for his operation. The FBI has reportedly gathered information about how Russian hackers were discussing passing the Clinton emails to Gen. Michael Flynn “through a cutout.” Mueller’s team is also allegedly pursuing the Flynn angle, with their office trying to determine if “Flynn assisted Smith” in his effort to obtain Clinton’s emails during the 2016 campaign. Smith, who told the Wall Street Journal last year that he never intended to pay any of the hackers who gave him what they said were sample emails, committed suicide ten days after the paper’s story was published.

This story just gets crazier and crazier.  Peter Smith (Daily Check-In 10/17/2017,Daily Check-in 10/25/2017) withdrew large amounts of cash while on the hunt for HRC’s emails.

Here’s a question.  Why would the Russian hackers, who we know by now were GRU, want paid for the work they did when they’re already doing it for Russian Intelligence and the Trump Campaign?

Because it would give them financial Kompromat over other people.  Think how useful it could be to hold leverage over some wealthy mark like Peter Smith.

 

Rudy

There is no rule saying that an investigation has to wrap up before September to keep from interfering in the election.  Just ask Hilary about Comey’s October Surprise.  Hell, ask Rudy, he knew about it before anyone else did.

 

Roger Stone

Friends of Roger

Andrew Miller is under Civil Contempt of Court.  It hasn’t reached a criminal complaint, but I’m pretty sure we’re in Bench Warrant territory.  Miller, currently working as a house painter in St. Louis, just fought an extensive legal battle challenging the legality of the Mueller Investigation.

What the fuck is a house painter doing with high-rolling attorneys?

 

An investment company based in Las Vegas, with oil and gas interests in the Middle East claimed that they received a commitment of more than three hundred million dollars from Carter Page’s Global Energy Capital after Page’s involvement in the Trump campaign.

The investment company, RD Heritage Group, claimed on their website that they they secured a capital commitment of hundreds of millions of dollars from Page and his company:

“$350MM capital commitment by Global Energy Capital … an investment management and advisory firm focused on the energy sector primarily in emerging markets. Global Energy Capital was founded by Carter Page, CFA. Carter has spent 7 years as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch in London, Moscow and New York…Carter was also a foreign policy advisor to Presidential candidate Donald Trump.”

It is unclear if Page ever actually followed through with his commitment. The exact timing of the alleged partnership between RD Heritage and Global Energy Capital is unknown, though it happened after Carter Page’s involvement with the Trump campaign.

Take this with a grain of salt, but there could be something here that links the Sheldon Cooper of Treason to the Rosneft sale brokerage.  Also would explain how he’s able to travel the world with no discernible income stream.

 

Mobbed Up

When Manafort’s turncoat lieutenant Rick Gates took the stand to detail their alleged conspiracies, I was transported to the day back in 1992 when Gotti’s underboss Sammy Gravano began singing at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn. Gotti’s lawyers attacked Sammy the Bull by demanding to know how many people he’d whacked. Manafort’s team asked Gates how many affairs he’s had.

If it seems harsh to compare Manafort to a mobster, take it up with President Trump, who got the ball rolling with a tweet before the trial began. “Looking back at history, who was treated worse, [Al] Capone, legendary mob boss . . . or Paul Manafort?” Trump mused.

And the president ought to know: He has spent plenty of time in mobbed-up milieus. As many journalists have documented — the late Wayne Barrettand decorated investigator David Cay Johnston most deeply — Trump’s trail was blazed through one business after another notorious for corruption by organized crime.

New York construction, for starters. In 1988, Vincent “the Fish” Cafaro of the Genovese crime family testified before a U.S. Senate committee concerning the Mafia’s control of building projects in New York. Construction unions and concrete contractors were deeply dirty, Cafaro confirmed, and four of the city’s five crime families worked cooperatively to keep it that way.

This would not have been news to Trump, whose early political mentor and personal lawyer was Roy Cohn, consigliere to such dons as Fat Tony Salerno and Carmine Galante. After Cohn guided the brash young developer through the gutters of city politics to win permits for Trump Plaza and Trump Tower, it happened that Trump elected to build primarily with concrete rather than steel. He bought the mud at inflated prices from S&A; Concrete, co-owned by Cohn’s client Salerno and Paul Castellano, boss of the Gambino family.

Coincidence? Fuhgeddaboudit.

Trump moved next into the New Jersey casino business, which was every bit as clean as it sounds. State officials merely shrugged when Trump bought a piece of land from associates of Philadelphia mob boss “Little Nicky” Scarfo for roughly $500,000 more than it was worth. However, this and other ties persuaded police in Australia to block Trump’s bidto build a casino in Sydney in 1987, citing Trump’s “Mafia connections.”

His gambling interests led him into the world of boxing promotion, where Trump became chums with fight impresario Don King, a former Cleveland numbers runner. (Trump once told me that he owes his remarkable coiffure to King, who advised the future president, from personal experience, that outlandish hair is great PR.) King hasn’t been convicted since the 1960s, when he did time for stomping a man to death. But investigators at the FBI and U.S. Senate concluded that his Mafia ties ran from Cleveland to New York, Las Vegas to Atlantic City. Mobsters “were looking to launder illicit cash,” wrote one sleuth. “Boxing, of all the sports, was perhaps the most accommodating laundromat, what with its international subculture of unsavory characters who play by their own rules.”

But an even more accommodating laundromat came along: luxury real estate — yet another mob-adjacent field in which the Trump name has loomed large. Because buyers of high-end properties often hide their identities, it’s impossible to say how many Russian Mafia oligarchs own Trump-branded condos. Donald Trump Jr. gave a hint in 2008: “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets.”

For instance: In 2013, federal prosecutors indicted Russian mob boss Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov and 33 others on charges related to a gambling ring operating from two Trump Tower condos that allegedly laundered more than $100 million. A few months later, the same Mr. Tokhtakhounov, a fugitive from U.S. justice, was seen on the red carpet at Trump’s Miss Universe pageant in Moscow.

Obviously, not everyone in these industries is corrupt, and if Donald Trump spent four decades rubbing elbows with wiseguys and never got dirty, he has nothing to worry about from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. But does he look unworried to you?

Sorry for the wall of text, but I’ve been waiting for the MSM to pick up on Trump’s mob ties for a long time.  Trump’s family has been involved with the mob since before he was a gleam in a bottle of bourbon.  If it’s not that obvious by this point, here’s a nice, easy equation:

Trump = Mob.

As I said before many times, such as in Money Laundering, Trump is the laundromat for various mob groups, allowing them to spend their money wherever they please.  His deals, many of which “fail”, are the perfect vehicle for moving large sums of money.

And get the romantic, Mario Puzo-inspired schlock or Scorsese-directed films out of your head involving gentlemen Italians looking out for the little guy in the neighborhood or the Wiseguys playing footsie with the cops.  These people are criminals that make truckloads of money off of human suffering.  Gambling, drug dealing, prostitution, sex trafficking, murder, extortion, blackmail, slavery, ripping tags off of mattresses, they have their hands in it all.  If it helps, know that the Russians are in charge now, and no one has made any movies turning the Russian Mafia into folk heroes.

 

COHEN

A court-appointed special master who since April has been poring over a trove of documents and electronic files seized this spring from Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s former fixer and personal lawyer, said on Thursday that she had finished her review.

In her sixth and final report to the Manhattan federal judge who is overseeing Mr. Cohen’s case, the special master, Barbara S. Jones, echoed what she said in her previous reports: Only a tiny fraction of the nearly four million files federal agents seized when they raided Mr. Cohen’s office, apartment and hotel room were protected by attorney-client privilege.

That means prosecutors can use the vast majority of the files in their wide-ranging inquiry into Mr. Cohen’s business dealings, including hush-money payments he helped arrange for women who say they had affairs with Mr. Trump.

The end of the laborious review marked a milestone in the investigation and brings the prosecutors from the public corruption unit of the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan one step closer to deciding whether to file charges against Mr. Cohen or, perhaps, to seek his cooperation in other inquiries, including one being led by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, into potential ties between Russia and Mr. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Out of the millions of pieces of evidence the FBI seized from the raid on Cohen’s everything (Daily Check-In 04/09/2018), only a tiny portion was deemed by the Special Master to be protected by Attorney-Client privilege.  Out of that, some of it has already been leaked to the press (McDougal Tape, Daily Check-In 07/20/2018).

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

Imagine that U.S. military leaders spent most of 1941 warning President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his Democratic Party of a coming Pearl Harbor attack. Then imagine history’s harsh judgment against FDR’s party had it ignored those concerns, voted against efforts to fortify the Pacific fleet and plotted the firing of generals who were working to expose the looming Japanese threat. Historians would have rightly savaged these politicians as traitors to their country.

Seventy-seven years later, President Trump and his Republican Party are showing a disturbing ambivalence toward Russia’s attacks on U.S. democracy. What exactly are we to make of their disturbing behavior? Even after Trump’s intelligence chiefs handed Republicans incontrovertible evidence of Russian malevolence, Trump dismissed the warnings as a hoax, the GOP House Intelligence Committee chairman secretly plotted against those leading the Russia investigation and Senate Republicans voted in lock step against a Democratic bill providing a stronger defense against future Russian attacks.

…

So now is the time to ask again why Trump lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani is demanding a speedy end to the damning Russia investigation, when the Whitewater probe of the Clintons lasted much longer. And why did Vice President Pence spend months denying the Trump team’s contacts with Russian officials, only to pivot this past year to calling for a quick end to the investigation?

Will Pence’s future presidential primary challengers remember that Americans would have never uncovered the scope and scale of Putin’s plot against Western democracies if Pence had had his way? Do House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes’s constituents in California understand that their representative is trying to use his chairmanship to destroy the careers of officials overseeing the Russia investigation? Let us hope the answer is yes.

One thing is certain: Republicans can no longer plead ignorance when it comes to Putin. Our country’s national security community has sounded the alarm. Congress has been warned that our democracy is under attack by the Russians. How GOP leaders respond to this threat will determine not only the legacy of their political party but also the resilience of a political system they have carelessly ceded to a buffoon. Unless Republican leaders begin putting country ahead of party, history’s judgment against them all will be harsh.

We’ve long since passed the moment when the Republican Party should have abandoned Trump en masse.  Right now, an entire political party is defending one man at the cost of the country.  One man who knows no loyalty to others, who will do anything to save his own skin, and who openly attacks anyone and anything he sees as a threat.

There are four groups of Republicans that are supporting Trump.  The believers, the cowards, the enablers, and the complicit.  History will not be kind when details of the deals they made with the Russians come out.  (Scandal Speed Run)

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

SCOTUS

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

Omarosa

In early 2017, Manigault Newman says she walked Michael Cohen, then Trump’s personal lawyer, into the Oval Office for a meeting with Trump — and saw the president chewing up a piece of paper while Cohen was leaving the office. Another White House official confirmed that Manigault Newman brought Cohen into the White House and was later rebuked for it. The two remain in contact, according to people familiar with the relationship.

“I saw him put a note in his mouth. Since Trump was ever the germophobe, I was shocked he appeared to be chewing and swallowing the paper. It must have been something very, very sensitive,” she writes in her book.

I’d like to say this is the most shocking thing I’ve read this weekend, but it’s not even in the Top 5.  I’ve seen two reasons for the paper eating and tearing.

First is that Trump is deteriorating mentally and that this is a sign of dementia.

Second is that he’s mob, and ate a note to keep it from being seen by anyone else.

I say “Why not both?”

I mean, it’s not like anything else coming from the White House is shocking, right?

She recorded everything, including stuff from the Situation Room?  HAHAHAHAHAHAHA HOW IN THE CRYSTAL PEPSI FLAVORED FUCK DID THEY NOT SEE THIS COMING!!???!?!

Ok, ok, ok.  Maybe it was some clubhouse and they told her it was the Situation Room so that she wouldn’t go in there.

No, it was the actual goddamned SITROOM?  Fuck.

Remember that scene from Casino, where where the Feds bugged a deli and the owner talked about everything that happened, right in the open?  This is a whole hell of a lot worse.

How much worse? Let’s assume for a moment that this was her personal phone, and not an NSA or USSS approved device.  If any bad actors had that number, it wouldn’t take too much to hack it and get ALL of the recordings off of it.  Every meeting, comment, side conversation, everything.

I’ve got $20 that says she uses an iPhone, backed it up to her iCloud account, and the password is something like Donny4Ever!.  I hope I’m wrong.

The above is the actual NDA they sent her for her “work” on the Trump Campaign for President in 2020.  I’m not a lawyer, but after giving it a brief look, here’s a couple things that stick out as likely illegal and/or unenforceable.

Section 1, Paragraph e: Person cannot hand over information, documents, or assist with an investigation or legal request for documents without first informing the Trump Campaign, and only cooperate to the extent that Trump’s lawyers say you should.

Section 2: No disparagement of Team Trump, ever, in any way, shape, or form.  And it would outlast the life of the contract.

Section 6, Paragraph a: Any and all financial information is confidential.  All of it, even though as a public servant, it should all be public anyway.

Section 10: The terms will survive the end of the contract with no end date.

The rest of this is pretty onerous, even for an NDA.  In exchange for keeping her mouth shut for the rest of time, the Trump Campaign would pay Omarosa $15,000 a month each month until the end of 2018 to work as an Independent Contractor on the campaign.  Less than $180,000, and she still has to pay her own health care.  To stay quiet forever.

Fuck that shit.

My guess is that Omarosa saw what and how much they were offering, weighed that with all of the shit that she put up with, saw that there was a good chance that if she joined up with the campaign that she’d spend more in legal fees than she’d make, then decided to say “fuck that shit”, then decided to write a book.  She’ll likely make more money from the book than she would have from this agreement.  Plus, she knows she has negative credibility.  Each and every claim she makes has to be backed up with evidence.  If she said that Jared once ate food, she would need to prove it.  If she’s got the receipts, which it sounds like she does, we could be in for an ugly fight between the White House and Trump’s Black Friend.

 

THAT’S RACIST

 

Unite The Right

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

CALIFORNIA

 

ELECTION 2018

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

RUMOR MILL: DEATH IN TRUMP TOWER EDITION

 

That’s it for the last few days.  The Manafort Tax Trial continues Monday, and there’s bound to be some fallout from Trump’s Black Friend.  Also, it’s Monday, which means Sacha Baron Cohen will be up to some crazy shit, “tricking” GOP members into some crazy stuff.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 08/09/2018

Thursday, August 9th

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

The Manafort Trial

The trial started with the Judge apologizing for making a mistake earlier in the week by yelling at prosecutors for letting an expert witness watch the trial.  Jude Ellis allowed it, then said he didn’t.  He admitted his mistake Thursday morning.

The first witness was Melinda James, a loan officer from Citizens Bank.  She testified that Manafort lied about his SoHo apartment to obtain a loan for it.  He claimed that this rental property was a second home, since the bank would allow him to borrow more on a second home than on a rental.  She also testified that he lied about a loan he had on another property in Brooklyn.

The next witness was Darin Evenson, an executive from Airbnb.  He testified that the SoHo apartment that Manafort claimed as a second home was listed on the rental site for 1,125 nights, the maximum allowed on the site.  He also said that the listing was removed twice.  The second time was during the loan application process for the aforementioned loan.

Next was Peggy Miceli, a VP at Citizens Bank.  She explained that the loan amounts available are lower for rental properties as opposed to second homes, and they have higher interest rates as well.  This could have motivated Manafort to claim that the SoHo apartment was a second home and not a rental.  A second home loan also allowed Manafort to take that money directly from his bank account, which is not allowed for rental properties.

Following her was Taryn Rodriguez, an Assistant Loan Officer at Citizens Bank.  She testified that he applied for a $5.5 million loan on a property on Union Street in Brooklyn just 30 to 45 days after the SoHo loan was approved.  Several loans in a short period of time is a major red flag for bank fraud.

The last witness of the day was Gary Seferian, a VP at Banc of California.  He testified that Manafort applied for a $5 million loan to flip houses with his son-in-law Jeffrey Yohai (The Indicted). but received only $1 million after falsifying records for his loan application.  Gary also said that if DMP’s income was $400,000 and not the $4,400,000 that the loan application claimed, his bank would have not likely approved the loan.

 

Maria Butina, the Russian national accused of infiltrating the NRA and Republican political circles, received funding for her American activities from a Moscow billionaire. That’s according to U.S. prosecutors in their indictment of Butina.

But what the prosecutors didn’t say was that when Butina needed money from the oligarch, Konstantin Nikolaev, she went to a Kremlin-linked public relations power player named Igor Pisarsky for the cash. That’s according to two sources familiar with her activities, speaking to The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity.

Pisarsky was Butina’s point of contact for the Nikolaev money, according to these sources—the face of the financing. According to one of the sources, he essentially acted like he was distributing grant money.

This information, previously unreported, highlights the breadth of Butina’s support network; she had friends in a wide variety of high places. In Paul Erickson, she had a longtime Republican insider with close ties to the right’s most powerful groups. In Alexander Torshin, she had a Kremlin ally who was deeply involved in Russia’s banking sector. In Konstantin Nikolaev, she had an oligarch willing to help bankroll her undertakings. And now, in Igor Pisarsky, she had a worldly, sophisticated public relations professional whose firm boasts having worked for a host of Kremlin entities, as well as Vladimir Putin’s political party. Pisarsky’s firm also has worked for two banks whose CEOs have faced U.S. sanctions, according to its website and reports.

Butina’s attorney declined to comment for this story. Pisarsky also declined to comment.

His friend Svetlana Bolshakova, an orchestra musician and editor of the musical radio broadcaster Orpheus, told The Daily Beast that Pisarsky is currently traveling in South America.

“Igor is far from both politics and politicians. He is all about a good party, a good trip, or a good meal,” Bolshakova said. “Last time I saw him was about a month ago in a crowd of Moscow’s hip elite. I don’t think he ever hangs out with any government people, at least I’ve never seen him around any officials. He is an independent person, a co-owner of two hip restaurants. He adores cooking.”

Pisarsky and Butina are Facebook friends, and she has liked several of his pictures. She also wrote about him on her blog: An entry on March 12, 2015, describes Pisarsky as a “good friend” and says she attended his birthday party.

 

Randy Credico.  You might remember this radio host and comedian from such memorable days in the news like Daily Check-In 12/13/2017 , Daily Check-In 04/12/2018, and Unfinished Business.

So far we’ve learned that Mueller’s team has subpoenaed and/or interviewed Roger Stone’s protege (Sam Nunbert), his Social Media assistant (Andrew Miller), his Madam (Krisin Davis), and his old friend (Randy Credico).

 

Can we just stop listening to Rudy?  His job is just to lie for Trump to the Fox News crowd.  Everything that comes out of his mouth is either a blatant lie or the ramblings of someone with dementia.  Usually both.

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

Space Force

Space Force.  Just in case the Vulcans arrive and get a little uppity with their logic and pointy ears…

Here’s the hypocrisy of Republicans in a nut shell.  Pence said that starting the Space Force would cost $8 billion over the next 5 years.  But, they can’t afford $1.6 billion in funds for Veterans Affairs (Daily Check-In 07/19/2018).  The money they want to spend on making sure Space is safe could instead be spent on the VA.  But, fuck the veterans.  Until the GOP needs to use them as props for some parade or to shout down any sign of dissent or disapproval with the state of the country.

Devin Nunes

 

Chris Collins

 

At President Trump’s rally in Tampa last week, a familiar face made it back in the national news. Maurice Symonette, also known as Michael the Black Man, was front and center in a crowd hurling invective at CNN reporter Jim Acosta, waving a “Blacks for Trump” sign. Symonette has been a regular at Trump rallies all over Florida and as far away as Arizona. Just last month, he popped up at the U.S. border to appear in a video with disgraced sheriff-turned-pardoned-Senate-candidate Joe Arpaio.

All that national exposure raises an obvious question: Who is paying the bills for Symonette, a former member of Miami’s murderous Yahweh ben Yahweh cult, to represent “Blacks for Trump” at Trump rallies?  Since Blacks for Trump isn’t a registered political organization with the Florida Division of Elections or the Federal Election Commission, there are no public records of any donations funding the group’s operations.

It seems unlikely Symonette is fronting the cash for his travel himself because he filed for bankruptcy this past May. In federal court records, he reports that he’s unemployed, generates no income, and has $0 in the bank. He also says four banks have staked claims on $2.9 million worth of property around Dade County.

So how is he getting to Arizona and Tampa to stand behind Trump on national TV?  Reached on his cell phone, Symonette declined to discuss his group’s financing. “You guys are horrible racists,” he said. “You are lawbreakers and you’re mean… God is going to punish you horribly.”

Throughout the ’80s, Symonette — then known as Maurice Woodside — was a devoted follower of Yahweh ben Yahweh, a charismatic preacher who wore white robes and called himself the Messiah. Federal prosecutors later accused Yahweh, whose real name was Hulon Mitchell Jr., of ordering his followers to murder at least 14 people, including random white vagrants who were massacred as an initiation rite.

Symonette was charged in federal court along with Mitchell and 15 other followers in 1990; while the cult’s leader was later convicted of 14 charges of murder conspiracy and served nearly two decades in prison, Symonette and six other cult members were acquitted.

…

Symonette filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on May 16, listing Washington Mutual, Homecomings Financial, HSBC Bank, and Indymac Bank as his creditors; each institution laid claim to one of four houses. Three are in North Miami-Dade County, and one is near Kendall.

…

In his bankruptcy case, he’s repeated those allegations about the banking system being crooked to Judge Laurel M. Isicoff. He’s also repeatedly sought to change hearings that overlapped with Trump events. Symonette suggested the scheduling conflicts are a sinister plot to keep him away from the spotlight at Trump rallies.

“Creditors know that I have a rally in Arizona on July 25 and deliberately set the hearing on that date to cause me and my musical band to miss the performance and the rally with the bus we rented,” he wrote in a motion filed the same morning as the Phoenix rally. “The creditors overheard that at the house we are disputing… and set that hearing on the same date just to harm me.”

That motion was denied, as was another he filed on July 30, just before Trump’s Tampa rally. “As founder of Blacks for Trump, (I) have rented vans to go to Trump’s rally. We need to make the country aware how the banks (FOREIGNERS FROM THE EAST) are illegally taking WHITE AND BLACK PEOPLE’S houses away.”

I’m shocked.  Not that the “Blacks for Trump” guy is nuts, but that he’s former-member-of-a-death-cult crazy.  There’s not much room above death cult crazy in the Cray Cray Pyramid.

Here’s some free advice for Beto O’Rouke…

Use this request in attack ads on Ted Cruz.  Show clips of Trump attacking Ted, his wife, and his father.  Cut it together with news of this request.  Include a Voice Over (VO) saying “If Ted Cruz won’t protect his own family, what makes you think he’ll protect Texas?”

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

Laura Ingraham

 

InfoWars/Alex Jones

 

Tribune/Sinclair Merger

 

 

SCOTUS

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

PUERTO RICO

 

ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

So this is where we are. The Republican Party can’t win using ordinary methods. On the process side, they can win only by inflating the white vote via gerrymandering, cracked-and-packed districts, and ruthless black voter suppression. On the policy side, they can win only with heavy dollops of strident and outright bigotry against Mexicans, Muslims, blacks, Hispanics, Chinese, and anyone else who comes along. Even Canadians will do in a pinch.

Today, the Republican Party exists for one and only one purpose: to pass tax cuts for the rich and regulatory rollbacks for corporations. They accomplish this using one and only method: unapologetically racist appeals to win the votes of the heartland riff-raff they otherwise treat as mere money machines for their endless mail-order cons.

Like it or not, this is the modern Republican Party. It no longer serves any legitimate purpose. It needs to be crushed and the earth salted behind it, while a new conservative party rises to take its place. This new party should be conservative; brash; ruthless when it needs to be; as simpleminded as any major party usually is; and absolutely dedicated to making Democrats look like idiots. There should be no holds barred except for one: no appeals to racism. None. Not loud ones, not subtle ones. Whatever else it is, it should be a conservative party genuinely open to any person of any color.

When that happens, I will change my mind about how we should fight the Republican Party. Until then, no, I don’t think Brett Kavanaugh deserves any help from Democrats and I don’t think liberals should waste any time tut-tutting over Twitter mockery from 2013 that all of us know perfectly well doesn’t represent any genuine anti-white sentiment.

Nos victi Reipublicae. That’s it. Whatever works best, I’m in.

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

ELECTION 2018

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

RUMOR MILL

 

 

That’s it for Thursday.  Friday is going to be a weird one. As I’m wrapping this post up, Andrew Miller is in contempt of court, the Manafort Trial started the day on a different foot, and Omarosa’s getting attacked by the dumbest White House in

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur