Month: September 2018

Daily Check-In 09/12/2018

Wednesday, September 12, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

 But secret documents reviewed by BuzzFeed News reveal a previously undisclosed aspect of the meeting: a complex web of financial transactions among some of the planners and participants who moved money from Russia and Switzerland to the British Virgin Islands, Bangkok, and a small office park in New Jersey.

The documents show Aras Agalarov, a billionaire real estate developer close to both Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, at the center of this vast network and how he used accounts overseas to filter money to himself, his son, and at least two people who attended the Trump Tower meeting. The records also offer new insight into the murky financial world inhabited by many of Trump’s associates, who use shell companies and secret bank accounts to quickly and quietly move money across the globe.

Now, four federal law enforcement officials told BuzzFeed News, investigators are focused on two bursts of transactions that bank examiners deemed suspicious: one a short time after the meeting and another immediately after the November 2016 presidential election.

The first set came just 11 days after the June 9 meeting, when an offshore company controlled by Agalarov wired more than $19.5 million to his account at a bank in New York.

The second flurry began shortly after Trump was elected. The Agalarov family started sending what would amount to $1.2 million from their bank in Russia to an account in New Jersey controlled by the billionaire’s son, pop singer Emin Agalarov, and two of his friends. The account had been virtually dormant since the summer of 2015, according to records reviewed by BuzzFeed News, and bankers found it strange that activity in Emin Agalarov’s checking account surged after Trump’s victory.

After the election, that New Jersey account sent money to a company controlled by Irakly “Ike” Kaveladze, a longtime business associate of the Agalarovs and their representative at the Trump Tower meeting. Kaveladze’s company, meanwhile, had long funded a music business set up by the person who first proposed the meeting to the Trump camp, Emin Agalarov’s brash British publicist, Rob Goldstone.

…

Bankers were suspicious for a number of reasons. For one, Kaveladze was an employee of the Agalarovs’ Crocus Group, their sprawling construction and real estate empire based in Russia. Why, bankers wondered, would the funds start in Russia, briefly make a pit stop in Emin Agalarov’s New Jersey account, and finally be sent to Corsy International? Balber, the attorney for Kaveladze and the Agalarovs, would not address questions about specific transactions, but said they were all legitimate.

Second, bankers noted that Kaveladze — who after the election pushed for an additional get-together with the Trumps and some of the original Tower meeting participants — had previously been investigated for money laundering. According to a Government Accountability Office report published in 2000, Kaveladze established more than 2,000 corporations in Delaware for Russian real estate brokers, then set up bank accounts for them in the US. The brokers used these accounts to launder about $1.4 billion, the report found. Kaveladze was never charged with a crime and he referred to the GAO’s probe as a “witch hunt.”

Finally, bankers focused on the New Jersey address of Corsy International: a small, windowless office in an unremarkable building near the Hudson River. It was suspicious, officials reported, that such large sums flowed through such a nondescript location. When examiners began investigating this address, they discovered at least eight other companies located there, all of them controlled by Kaveladze, Emin Agalarov, or their associates.

The headquarters for these companies is Suite 309. There is no sign on the door. When a reporter visited last month, a man refused to open the door and said he was unable to talk or even accept a business card.

But in July 2017, after the New York Times broke the news of the Trump Tower meeting, there was another flurry of financial activity. This time, it centered around the man who first reached out to the Trump campaign — Rob Goldstone, Emin Agalarov’s publicist.

…

During his congressional testimony, Goldstone said that Emin Agalarov was his only client. But he said he didn’t know the “chain of command” of who paid him.

The documents reviewed by BuzzFeed News show that most of the funds flowing into Goldstone’s music business, Oui 2 Entertainment, and his personal checking account came from Corsy International, Kaveladze’s company. Between July 2015 and January 2017, Oui 2 received more than half a million dollars from Corsy International. Bank examiners found this suspicious because Corsy was an import-export business, while Oui 2 was involved with music. It didn’t make sense, bankers reported, for these two companies to conduct transactions with one another.

Bankers were also concerned that Goldstone set up the meeting and received money through Kaveladze, who had previously been investigated for money laundering involving Russians.

While they couldn’t explain these transfers, bankers flagged additional suspicious behavior in Goldstone’s account shortly after the Trump Tower meeting came to light.

By July 24, 2017, about two weeks after the New York Times broke the story about the meeting, Goldstone had left for Bangkok. He told congressional investigators that he wanted to take time off, equating it to a college student’s “gap year,” so he could write a book. But bank officials questioned his financial behavior there, particularly a series of 37 ATM withdrawals totaling about $8,400. The last of those withdrawals was made in November 2017. His business partner, David Tominello, appears to have traveled to Bangkok as well, making 51 withdrawals during the same period for about $7,600. Bankers noted that the withdrawals came shortly after news broke about Goldstone’s role in the Trump Tower meeting.

On Aug. 31, 2017, while they were still overseas, Goldstone and Tominello tapped into a home equity line of credit to withdraw money. The two received the loan on an apartment in New Jersey and used the funds to transfer about $32,000 to Oui 2. Examiners said the two men were essentially using a loan to make “payroll,” which bankers thought was unusual, especially when they had such a lucrative source of income through Kaveladze’s company. They also found it “concerning” that the home equity line of credit funded ATM cash withdrawals in Bangkok.

Four Federal Law Enforcement Officials? Assuming that it’s not 4 people on a team all talking to the reporter at once, this is huge. BFN got 4 people to go on the record for this, and they have enough detailed information to trace the cash flow.

The money flow itself is incriminating enough, but combined with the dates, then Team Trump is screwed. June 20th is right after the Trump Tower meeting, the day that Manafort was named the Campaign Chairman, and before any changes were made to the Republican Party platform regarding Ukraine. The second time, November 21st, is right after the election, and right when Michael Cohen started accepting bribes for Trump. Manafort was closing on his fraudulent loan around this time, too.

So, the guy that worked with Trump to host Miss Universe in Moscow and get on Putin’s good side made a lot of suspicious, large payments right around the time of the meeting, and they expect us to believe this is all coincidental?

 

WOODWARD AND THE ANONYMOUS OP-ED

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

POLLS

 

SCOTUS

Q&A

Collins

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

STUDENT LOANS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

DRUGS

 

PRIESTS

 

#METOO

 

HURRICANES

 

ENVIRONMENT

 

ELECTION 2018

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

I recommend checking this thread out.  She links to a few of the threads I talked about yesterday (Daily Check-In 09/11/2018), as well as some new ones.  She talks about how to explain the Weaponized Craziness to others.  It’s important that we do going forward.  This shit is too crazy for most people.

 

That’s it for Wednesday.  It’s a little lighter than normal, things are little nuts in the real world today.  I hope to get back to a slight level of normalcy for Thursday and Friday.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 09/11/2018

Tuesday, September 11, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Days before in-person jury ­selection is set to begin in his second trial, President Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort is in talks with the special counsel’s office about a possible plea deal, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions.

The people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to ­describe the conversations, cautioned that the negotiations may not result in a deal with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is prosecuting Manafort for alleged money laundering and lobbying violations.

But the discussions indicate a possible shift in strategy for Manafort, who earlier this year chose to go to trial in Virginia, only to be convicted last month in Alexandria federal court on eight counts of bank and tax fraud. He had derided his former business partner, Rick Gates, for striking a deal with prosecutors that provided him leniency in exchange for testimony against Manafort.

“I had hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence,” Manafort said in February.

This is the third or fourth report about Manafort negotiating a flip in as many days.  This leads me to think there’s something to this.  That, and he’s already a convicted felon looking at a long prison sentence.  At this point, the negotiations center around what he pleads guilty to, how long he servers, will he cooperate, or does he have anything to give?

WASHINGTON – Donald Trump Jr. said Tuesday he is not afraid of going to jail as the result of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

“I’m not because I know what I did, and I’m not worried about any of that,” the president’s eldest son said during an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America. “That doesn’t mean they won’t try to create something, I mean, we’ve seen that happen with everything. But, again, I’m not.”

He said he would “deal with it as it comes.”

Trump Jr. is reportedly being investigated by Mueller because he agreed to take a meeting with a Kremlin-connected attorney in June 2016 at Trump Tower to get “dirt” on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. It is a violation of federal law for an American campaign to solicit or accept anything of value from a foreign national.

Donald Trump, Jr. is the dumbest person named Donald Trump.  This is the same brainiac that decided the best way to clear his name and eliminate speculation about him colluding with the Russians was to release the email chain showing him setting up a meeting with the Russians.

This latest round of stupidity might be because he believes he did nothing wrong, that consequences don’t apply to him, or that Daddy will keep him out of jail with a pardon.  Small problem with that theory, Donnie.  It’s called state charges.  New York is looking into the Trump Foundation for multiple crimes.  Plus there’s a half a dozen other states at least that have some level of jackfuckery they’d like to do to him.

 

WOODWARD AND THE ANONYMOUS OP-ED

 

9/11

Today

Retrospective Pieces

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET – THE 9/11 EDITION

There’s a little more down in the Rumor Mill section.

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

Sen. Jeff Merkley released a document Tuesday showing a transfer of nearly $10 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and accused President Donald Trump’s administration of diverting funds from hurricane relief just as hurricane season was starting.

However, the document from the Department of Homeland Security specifically mentions the money would come from the agency’s budgets for travel, training, public engagement and information technology work. The department denies that the money came from disaster relief funding.
Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, said on MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show” that the administration is taking money from “response and recovery” and “working hard to find funds for additional detention camps.”
“I would dispute the statement that this has no bearing on … addressing the challenges from hurricanes,” Merkley said.
CNN received a copy of the document from Merkley’s office. It details the effects the transfer would have on FEMA’s operations and from where in the budget the money would come.
“FEMA will curtail training, travel, public engagement sessions, IT security support and infrastructure maintenance, and IT investments in the legacy grants systems for transition to the Grants Management Modernization Program,” the document reads.
Merkley was one of the first lawmakers to bring the family separation crisis on the southern border of the United States into pubic view, when he tried to visit a detention facility in June and was turned away. He has continued to be a critical voice on the Trump administration’s immigration policy, which included separating families at the border when the administration decided to criminally detain individuals caught crossing the border illegally.

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

  

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

 FIXING THE INTERNET

 

SCOTUS

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

POLLS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

HURRICANES

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

ELECTION 2018

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

RUMOR MILL

9/11 Rumors

Today’s the anniversary of the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor.  Possibly worse, since this targeted civilians, using civilians as weapons.  It’s also the day where every man, woman, and child wearing a Tin-Foil Hat comes out and espouses their favorite conspiracy theories about what happened.  In 17 years, I’ve heard them all, and I’m ashamed to admit it, but I gave credence to a couple of them over the years.  This was also in my younger days when I did a fucktonne of drugs and hadn’t studied Logic or Critical Thinking yet.  I was also a Libertarian and listened to InfoWars and Coast to Coast, too.

That said, read those threads with a heavy dose of skepticism.  Fuck that whole “keep an open mind” bullshit.  I hate that phrase.  That phrase might as well say “my batshit insane quackery is so fucking batshit insane that if you analyzed even the smallest piece of it, you’d realize that I’m a fucking conman, but instead of acknowledging that I’m trying to rip you off or fool you, I’ll blame your ‘preconceptions and biases’ and guilt trip you into buying my health supplements after making you feel guilty by somehow making you feel like an ass for questioning my batshit insane quackery.”  There’s a world of difference between keeping an open mind to analyze new claims and facts, and keeping your mind so open that your brain falls out and is replaced with Alternative Medicine claims, brochures about the Moon Landing, and cherry-picked evidence about how jet fuel can’t melt steel beams.

These threads, two from sources I’ve seen floating around from time to time and one from a trusted source, take three different paths, analyzing three different sets of information, and each coming to the same conclusion:

The Russians, specifically Russian Mafia like Semion Mogilivech and the Russian Government, had at least an indirect role, if not a direct role, in the terrorist attack on New York City in 2001, as well as a major role in the events that followed, such as the dissemination of disinformation and propaganda regarding the attack in the years that followed.

I think I might have a new record for the craziest thing I’ve ever typed.  And I’ve typed some crazy shit on this blog.

This is in no way to say that Osama Bin Ladn wasn’t the mastermind of the attack, or that it wasn’t carried out by Al Qaeda.  That shit happened, and I’m disputing any of that.  I’m going back to before that, and following these threads to the days and years before the attack.

What do we know?  After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia went to hell in a handbasket pretty quickly.  The government was in shambles, their economy was a joke, and basic services were up in the air.  There was one group that came out of this smelling like roses: the Russian Mafia.  Without anyone else to provide basic services, and the military officers looking to make a buck, the mob bought tons of weapons for pennies on the dollar, then sold them around the world.  Who was buying?  Warlords and Terrorists.  Most of the Soviet Bloc countries had enough weapons to last a lifetime, and an AK-47 is great for a lot of things, but eating one is frowned upon.  Global terrorism was still a few years down the road, but the earliest groups like Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Hezbollah in the Palestine region were looking for weapons.  The Russian Mafia sold guns to whomever was willing to buy.

We also know that this blood money was dirty AF, and needed a laundromat.  Where could one launder millions of dollars at once with little oversight?   Who would be the perfect combination of desperate, egotistical, and evil enough to serve as a willing participant in this scheme for a chunk of the profits?

Enter Donald Trump.

Trump was already laundering money for La Cosa Nostra by this point, and had developed strong ties with the Russian Mafia in the late 90’s following yet another one of his bankruptcies.

At some point, OBL comes up with this attack plan.  I’m not completely sold that Russian Intelligence was behind the details and planning, but I’m not ruling it out.  Since I’m not convinced and there isn’t ample evidence, I’m leaving the known facts in place.  So, OBL plans this attack with or without RU’s help, but Russia hears about it and let some of their top level people know about it.  Trump, being the egotistical, NPD-laden prick that he is, can’t help but go on television and make crazy claims.  At some point, Felix Sater talks to the FBI and brags about stopping a terrorist attack.

Time passes, and Russia sees an opportunity to sow discord in the United States.  Using some of their favorite dezya outlets like InfoWars, they push the fringes into conspiracy theories like Bush, the Saudis, and the Jews were behind the attack, or that the U.S. Government used Special Forces to plant explosives in the buildings, or they planted thermite on the supporting columns to bring the tower down with no one noticing, or the military shot down Flight 93, or time-traveling space ninjas from the planet Xaxxon 7 saw this as the bifurcation point to change the timeline to relegate humanity to the interstellar backwaters for millennia to come.  And people eat this shit up.  These theories get posted to every crazy forum on the internet until social media comes around.  Eventually, the U.S. catches and kills OBL, and things are happy for about 20 minutes.  Then the next problem comes around, ISIS.

The Russians are behind a lot of shit, but I’ve never connected them to 9/11 before, not even tangentially.  Sure, they supply every terrorist group in the world with their gear, and it’s an amazing coincidence that most of the terrorist websites are hosted out of the RU, and that there’s never an Islamic Terrorist attack in Russia, yet all of the groups use AK-47’s made in Russia.  Or, how the same disinformation campaign being used against Americans and Europe today matches the same moves, point for point, that were unfurled twenty years ago.  Funny how that is.

I’m still hesitant to say that the Russians were involved in 9/11 because it still sounds completely off-the-wall bonkers, but at this point I wouldn’t be surprised.  Putin killed his own citizens in St. Petersburg to help rise to power, hearing he tried the same stuff in New York wouldn’t be that far of a leap.

 

 

That’s it for Tuesday.  That last section rocked me.  I spent a lot of time thinking about that last night, and trying to wargame out the following question:

What if the Cold War never ended?  What if the Russians kept fighting it?  Would things look different than they do today if the attack was stopped?  Who benefited from the War on Terror?

I think I’m going to go into more detail on these questions in a future post, but the short version is the actions of the Putin regime are the same ones used by the Soviet Union back in the day.  Spycraft, disinformation, propaganda, proxy wars, it’s all the same.

As far as who benefited from the War on Terror, think about this.  Before 9/11, the FBI’s primary mission was fighting crime, with intelligence gathering and counterterrorism as a distant second and third priority.  Following the attack, crime fighting took a back seat.  Meanwhile, corruption has run rampant and the white collar criminals get away with countless crimes.  Does Donald Trump get away with laundering Mogilevich’s money if the FBI cracked down on international crime as hard as they cracked down on terrorism?

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 09/10/2018

Monday, September 10, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

A missing Maltese professor who promised the Trump campaign “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the run-up to the presidential election may be dead, a US court has been told.

Joseph Mifsud, a former teaching fellow at Stirling University, held meetings in 2016 with George Papadopoulos, a former Trump administration foreign policy adviser who was jailed last week for lying to the FBI, including over his connections to the 57-year-old professor.

Prosecutors in the Papadopoulos case allege Mr Mifsud touted his “substantial connections with Russian government officials”, who could deliver “thousands of emails” featuring incriminating information against Ms Clinton.

But in unrelated court filings last week, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) claimed Mr Mifsud, who has not been seen since November last year, “may be deceased”.

The DNC is suing Russia, WikiLeaks and the Trump campaign over alleged interference in the 2016 election. Lawyers for the committee said it believed all defendants in the case were served with complaints, “with the exception of Mifsud (who is missing and may be deceased),” according to Bloomberg. They did not elaborate.

Court documents relating to the Papadopoulos case revealed the young foreign policy adviser initially tried to downplay Mr Mifsud as “a nothing” and “just a guy talk[ing] up connections or something”.

Mifsud has gone to ground.  Either’s he’s dead, he’s in such a deep hole that he hasn’t seen sunlight in over a year, or he’s already changed his name, appearance, profession, and favorite sports teams.

I hate to say this, but he’s probably dead.  Daily Check-In 02/27/2018 had a report about how his baby momma hasn’t heard from him for months, and that was 7 months ago.  Not even a peep asking how his child is doing.  It’s possible that he’s the Hide and Seek World Champion, but he’s a loose end with the Russian Spy Mob.

Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos, wife of former Trump campaign foreign policy aide George Papadopoulos, said in an exclusive live interview with her husband on “This Week” Sunday that her international political background raised “a red flag” for U.S. investigators.

She was responding to a question from ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos about her interactions with the special counsel’s team, asking, “You were questioned, as well, by Robert Mueller’s team and from the start, they suspected you were a Russian agent. How did that manifest itself?”

Mangiante Papadopoulos responded, “I come from a political background myself. I used to work as a diplomat at the European Parliament for a few years and this could be a red flag because many officials at European Union actually — it’s a cover-up for spy jobs.”

She added that she understands their concern about her role as it relates to her husband, but has denied that she has any ties to Russia.

“Of course this connection was highly suspicious. I respect the, I always said I respect Mueller’s interest in my profile because clearly it’s quite alarming, the fact that I marry George Papadopoulos in the middle of this storm,” Mangiante Papadopoulos said.

The couple married in March of this year. They met through Joseph Mifsud, a mysterious Maltese professor who is believed to be an operative for the Russian government and who attempted during the campaign to introduce George Papadopoulos to people purportedly connected to Russia.

No shit.  Really?  A good looking European woman who happens to be a diplomat for the European Parliament starts dating and eventually marries George?  Either she’s a spy, or he’s the most charming mother fucker who’s also got a magic penis.  I mean, it’s not like there’s news of a honeypot in the news already.

Did someone say honeypot?  Must be time for Maria…

 

Maria Butina, the alleged Russian agent who stands accused of developing a covert influence operation in the United States, boasted of connections to high-ranking Kremlin officials and was even paid to pursue access to Russian President Vladimir Putin for a television show, ABC News has learned.

Dozens of pages of email correspondence between August 2015 and November 2016, obtained exclusively by ABC News, reveal Butina’s hand in a pair of potentially explosive projects: appearing to arrange a meeting for a delegation of high-ranking members of the National Rifle Association with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and working with the Outdoor Channel to develop a television show highlighting Putin’s “love of the outdoors” that would feature the Russian President himself.

In one exchange, a pair of NRA insiders discuss their upcoming trip to Russia and appear to copy and paste a previous note from the trip’s organizer Butina — describing the note as “In Maria’s own words” — that makes explicit reference to Lavrov, one of Putin’s closest advisers.

“Almost all your schedule is done,” Butina wrote. “We are waiting [sic] a response from The Ministry Of Foreign Affairs — Mr. Lavrov wants to meet you and we are working to make it real.”

And in another exchange between Butina and a senior executive at the Outdoor Channel, Butina claimed her “contacts directly within the President’s office” were “VERY happy (and excited)” about the proposed program and its political potential.

“I have also just arranged for an official delegation of Russian Kremlin cabinet ministers to travel the U.S. to observe your presidential election in the fall,” Butina wrote in June 2016. “This matters to your project because THEY have already lobbied President Putin to do this show as an example of the kind of relationship Russia could have with America … and with President Trump.”

JFC, the Outdoor Channel?  What’s next, a hunting show with Ted Nugent?

Wait, they already have that?  Shit.

How long have the Russians been trying to get into the NRA?

 

As Siberian gun rights activist Maria Butinafaces a hearing in Washington, here is a look at the unusual path that led to her arrest.

She’s accused of working as an undeclared foreign agent, based on FBI suspicions that she and patron Alexander Torshin sought to infiltrate the NRA and build a long-term influence campaign with the American right. She has pleaded not guilty.

2001

Torshin is elected to serve in Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council. He makes his first contact with the NRA.

2011

Butina moves to Moscow, funded by an oligarch couple, and forms gun rights group Right to Bear Arms. Torshin and Butina meet at Moscow gun rally.

2012

Torshin presents draft bill on liberalizing gun sales, crafted in part by Butina. It fails miserably, lacking support from President Vladimir Putin.

Torshin attends NRA convention in St. Louis, and goes to Nashville to observe the 2012 U.S. presidential election.

2013

Torshin attends NRA convention in Houston in May. Three months later, Spanish police try and fail to arrest Torshin for alleged connections to organized crime; Torshin denies wrongdoing.

In October, an NRA delegation including then-chief David Keene visits Russia for a conference organized by Butina’s group Right to Bear Arms. Butina meets Torshin’s NRA contacts.

2014

Butina goes to the U.S. for the first time, and she and Torshin attend an NRA convention in Indianapolis. She resigns as leader of Right to Bear Arms.

2015

Torshin leaves parliament to become deputy governor of Russia’s Central Bank; Butina becomes his assistant.

Butina and Torshin attend an NRA convention in Nashville; Torshin says he met Donald Trump there. Butina questions Trump at Freedomfest gun show in Las Vegas.

NRA delegation visits Moscow on Butina’s invitation, meets Torshin, oligarchs, top officials.

2016

Butina and Torshin attend National Prayer Breakfast, and Torshin attends NRA convention in Louisville where he says he met Donald Trump Jr.

Butina starts masters program at AU. She and Torshin exchange messages about contacts with Russian intelligence, and a “back channel” to U.S. right wing, according to the FBI.

2017

Butina, in Washington, joins celebrations of Trump’s inauguration. She and Torshin attend National Prayer Breakfast.

2018

Senate questions Butina in April, and her apartment is searched by FBI. Torshin is hit with US sanctions. Butina is arrested July 15.

Most of this activity kicks into high gear following 2012, which lines up with the Magnitsky Act becoming law.  Everything from that point on could be considered part of their operation.  The earlier activities would have been laying the groundwork, but things got hot and heavy when it became clear that Magnitsky was going to become law.

 

A series of mystery court documents that were filed under seal last week were made public Monday, in the litigation surrounding special counsel Robert Mueller’s grand jury subpoena of Andrew Miller, a former aide to Roger Stone.

The mystery filings were a joint motion to unseal a previously sealed contempt order against Miller, who had been continuing to resist testifying in front of the grand jury, even after U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled against his request to quash the subpoena.

Howell, last month, ordered Miller to jail until he testified, but paused the order to give Miller time to either come to an alternative agreement with the prosecutors or to appeal her order. Miller appealed, so the contempt order continues to be on pause.

Miller’s attorneys, after a hearing behind closed doors last month, told reporters that their client had been held in contempt but that the judge was pausing the order for him to appeal it.

Miller is expected to file a brief in the appeals case on Monday…

Miller, currently working as a house painter in St. Louis, is having his legal bills paid by a group with close ties to Trump, hoping to get this case before a friendly SCOTUS.

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

Going forward, I’m going to put all of the Michael Cohen/Stormy Daniels/Summer Zervos/Trump Foundation/New York State/Emoluments/Corruption stuff in this section.  I feel that these things deal more immediate danger to Trump than Mueller’s investigation into Russia.  While Mueller poses the greatest overall danger, New York can really screw him and his family, and there is nothing he can do to stop them.

 

WOODWARD AND THE ANONYMOUS OP-ED

The Woodward book and the Op-Ed have everyone in the White House on edge.  And it’s a major distraction, pulling resources away from the day-to-day job of…whatever the fuck it is they’re supposed to be doing.

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

ICC

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

POLLS

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

SCOTUS

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

With Bob Woodward’s new book climbing the best-seller charts ahead of its official release this week and all of Washington still obsessing over that anonymous op-ed in The New York Times, it’s possible Omarosa Manigault Newman is starting to feel a little left out.

The author of Unhinged returned to The View on Monday morning armed with yet another secret audio recording that she says was made inside the White House. Introduced by Whoopi Goldberg as someone who went from one of Trump’s “biggest defenders to one of his biggest nightmares,” Manigault-Newman came out swinging against the president.

“You cannot silence someone when they’re coming forward to expose corruption,” she said of the Trump team’s arbitration action against her. “I’m going to keep on fighting.”

And yet as eager as Manigault Newman has been to trash her former boss now that she’s out of the White House, The View’s co-hosts did not let her off the hook for being his staunch defender in the past. Abby Huntsman asked why she stayed in her job so long if she was so “miserable” and Sunny Hostin called out her hypocrisy of praising Trump’s supposed inclusiveness in the past and now labeling him a “racist.”

In reference to the alleged “N-word” tape, Manigault Newman said, “I don’t hold the tape. I’ve heard the tape. They’ve been talking about releasing it. I suspect they’re going to release it around the midterms.” She did not disclose who she meant by “they.”

“I was in a toxic relationship with Donald Trump and I regret that I was so complicit,” she added. “You know, Hillary Clinton was robbed and I was a co-conspirator in that robbery. And I will regret that for the rest of my life, that I was a co-conspirator along with the rest of the folks who helped this con man get into office.”

It wasn’t until later in the show, after Manigault Newman reiterated who she believes wrote the Times op-ed (Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff Nick Ayers) and shared the code texts she and her White House colleagues would use to mock the president (#TFA for “25th Amendment” and the orange emoji), that she brought out the new tape.

Manigault Newman said the audio recording, which was first released on ABC’s “The View” and later aired on MSNBC, was made in October 2017 during a meeting between senior communications staffers about tax reform that Trump crashed to talk about a dossier alleging collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia compiled by British intelligence operative Christopher Steele.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders and former White House communications director Hope Hicks can be heard on the recording talking to Trump:

Trump: I think Hillary is getting killed with Russia. The real Russia story is Hillary and collusion. Somebody told me, Hope, you told me it was $9 million they spent on the phony report.

Sanders: Closer to six.

Hope Hicks: Yeah, someone just said, “She’s far worse for the country than we thought if she didn’t know her own campaign was spending $9 million.”

Trump: Did you see? Nobody knows who spent it. No, I heard it was nine. I heard it was 5.7 but now they say it was nine. It was spent through a law firm that way they can’t trace it. But they traced it. One thing in this business is they trace it. And, yeah, close to $9 million. I can’t even believe it. The reason a law firm is because this way you don’t have to give any papers. But they found out, it’s definitely illegal and it’s illegal from a campaign standpoint, from a campaign financing standpoint. So the whole Russia thing, I think seems to have turned around. What do you think, Sarah?

Sanders: Absolutely.

…

Manigault Newman later released another previously unaired tape on MSNBC on Monday, in which Trump can be heard discussing the deadly Niger ambush that claimed the lives of four U.S. servicemen in early October 2017.

She said the recording is from a meeting of the White House communications team that Trump walked into on Oct. 27, 2017:

Trump: We had 3.2 last quarter before this, so it’s really, it’s really going good. And we have a lot of things happening on the economic front. I think the military’s doing good. And now, on Niger. So, what happens is we’re decimated — You know, it’s a rough business. They’re rough too, they wanna kill us.

We’ve let the military do what they have to do. And whether you call it rules of engagement or any way you want to say it, but we’ve let them do. And in the Middle East, there’s very few left. We really — we’ve done a very good job. We’ve done more in 7 months, because really it’s 7 months that we’ve started — we’ve done more in 7 months than they’ve done in 8 years, okay? And so we’re — But what happens, is now they flee, and they flee to Africa, and they flee to Niger, and countries around there. And that’s how these [inaudible] people get attacked, and they got attacked by 50 real fighters.

These were people in many cases, that were in the Middle East, that now go to Africa to try and, you know, cause problems there. And ultimately they wanna come back here, because this is where they really wanna be. So it’s a rough uh, business. I wouldn’t, I don’t think I’d want to be a terrorist right now. [laughter] It’s not a good life, but it’s uh, the only thing that — What else is there? But um, but that is — You know, people don’t say that. The reason they’re there, is because we forced them out, and it’s not nearly as many, it’s not nearly as intense, but it’s pretty intense, you see that happening. So that’s that.

Manigault Newman characterized the remarks as “mocking” the deaths of soldiers,” particularly the laughter from Trump and staffers heard on the tape. She also claimed that none of the attendees had security clearance to discuss the topic of Niger.

“They were laughing because he’s like making light of the situation, he’s saying, “Well I wouldn’t want to be a terrorist,” she said, “but it’s not a laughing matter we lost four American soldiers and four of our allies, the Nigerien troops that we were fighting alongside.”

Trump caused a firestorm after he allegedly told the widow of U.S. Army Sgt. La David Johnson, who died in the ambush, during a phone call that the serviceman “must’ve known what he signed up for.” The president denied the allegation at the time.

Well, shit.  Not only do we get tape of SHS being a sycophant, which we already knew, but Trump telling the staff HOW to commit campaign fund fraud AND him cracking jokes at dead soldiers.

Remind me again, which party is the one that brags about how much they love the troops?  That’s right, the same party that voted this asshole into office, cut funding to the Veteran’s Affairs department, and continuously refuse to expand the G.I. Bill, increase military pay, and only use these young men and women as props when it suits them.

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

ENVIRONMENT

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

#METOO

 

ELECTION 2018

For now, most of the preparation is just talk rather than concrete moves like hiring staff or organizing support networks, let alone raising money. But, say Republicans of all stripes, the preparation for any kind of challenge likely needs to get real with in a matter of a few months — specifically, before 2019.

“If anyone wants to do this, they need to start talking to people in New Hampshire pretty soon, they need to start getting organized,” said Horn. “But there are a number of very strong networks here that were built for people like John Kasich, Marco Rubio, Mitt Romney, in previous cycles that might be accessible to the right candidate.”

Such prep just needs to strike a delicate balance, stealthily measuring the environment before going public: it likely can’t afford to risk drawing Trump’s dangerous ire before that kind of campaign is ready for prime time.

“If you’re going to shoot at the king, you have to hit the king. And if you’re going to shoot, you have to be sure. So waiting is wise. Look at the midterm elections: Republicans need to see if they’re going to get their clock cleaned,” and if the nationwide anti-Trump fervor is as significant as many expect, said Ari Fleischer, the George W. Bush White House press secretary who’s become a more-often-than-not Trump defender. “Here’s what’s known that will shake up the environment: midterm elections, government shutdown possibilities and government rancor that creates discontentment — or contentment — and Bob Mueller.”

The next three months will be crucial in determining what happens in the next couple years.  There are five scenarios I see playing out.

The first scenario is that there is no blue wave, the GOP keeps the House, and things stay relatively sane.  In that situation, Trump/Pence go to the 2020 unopposed, or with only the smallest of battles, like a token run from someone on the fringes of the party.

The second scenario starts the same, but a Never-Trumper like Jeff Flake or John Kasich runs as a protest campaign against the Fascist policies of Trump/Pence.

The third scenario is that the Democrats win the House, and somehow Trump/Pence are still in office by the end of 2019.  In that case, they run against at least one or two others like Kasich, Flake, Marco Rubio, or Ben Sasse.  While Trump/Pence might have an advantage, they could become the first incumbent President to get primaried.

The fourth scenario is Pence vs. Trump.  For some reason, Pence decides that now is his time to act, and he openly campaigns against Trump.  A VP hasn’t run against their former boss since John Gardner ran against FDR in 1940.

The last scenario is GOP Armageddon Free-For-All.  Trump/Pence is no longer a thing.  The GOP field is wide open, and it’s anyone’s game to lose.

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

Check out Eric’s thread on Thomas Daffron.  He’s a lobbyist who has represented Russian churches in Alaska on behalf of a Free Alaskan movement. That’s right, a secessionist movement with ties to Russia that wants the state of Alaska to “decide it’s own future.”

By the way, anytime a secessionist movement arises, there’s a Russian agent behind it.

Sometimes Eric comes up with some crazy connections, but he’s been right more often than not.  Remember all of the stuff that led to the Governor of Missouri resigning?  Eric was on the frontline for that.

 

That’s it for Monday.  As we’re getting closer to the election, we’re gonna see more polls come out on Tuesdays going forward.  Polls are interesting, but they only tell one part of the story, and are usually a week behind on the daily news, if not more.  But, they can create a feedback loop.  If enough crap hits at a time, and for long enough, the polls dip down further and further.

For polls, keep an eye out for an aggregate 30% approval rating and 60% support in his party.  That is about as far down as Trump can go before he becomes a political cancer.  Even if he has a majority in his party, that doesn’t mean much when most of the party has left.  30/60 is his core base.  Once that starts eroding, there’s nothing left to keep him afloat.  If he dips below both of those numbers, talk of impeachment or invoking the 25th Amendment might become commonplace.  Remember, Nixon still had an approval rating in the mid-20’s when he left office.

Also, on Tuesday, “Fear” gets released.  It’s probably next on my Audible queue.  Currently, I’m listening to Russian Roulette, which came out a few months ago.  I think I might start a book club page, with all of the related books I’ve read and listened too since this clusterfuck began.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 09/06/2018

Thursday, September 6th through the weekend.  And it’s a bit of a long one.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Papadopoulos

George Papadopoulos is the first American to serve jail time in the Mueller Investigation. He was originally looking at a month, but the judge felt that he was remorseful, and cut it down to 2 weeks plus a year probation, 200 hours of community service, and a $9500 fine.

 

Manafort

 

Roger Stone

 

 

COHEN AND NEW YORK

Campaign Finance

Broidy

 

THE ANONYMOUS OP-ED AND WOODWARD

 

Getting a Shrink

 

25th Amendment

 

 

SCOTUS

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

 

TRAITOR TOTS

Rudy

 

FIGHTING BACK

Obama

 

Nike

 

Standing Up

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

 

Montana Rally

Beyoncé

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

DRUGS

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS

 

ENVIRONMENT

 

ELECTION 2018

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for now.  I’m not a big fan of putting so much into one update, but it was either this or miss a couple really big developments.  Butina and Erickson are about to flip on each other, Kavanaugh’s caught in the middle of committing perjury several times, Cory Booker is facing possible explosion from the Senate for showing the lengths of the GOP’s corruption and cover-up, Trump is provably batshit crazy, we have multiple stories showing how close we’ve come to a full-scale war with everyone from North Korea to Canada, and Barack Obama is back in the game.

I’m curious about the timing of all of this.  It’s almost like everything coming at once to breach the gates of the White House.  And it’s not just these attacks, but combined with ALL of the investigations, lawsuits, inquiries, and protests they’re facing, it’s just a matter of time until something breaks.

I should be back to a semi-regular schedule this week.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur