2018

Thursday, February 22nd. I’m spending most of this time talking about the first story, so the rest will get short write-ups today.

MUELLER UNSEALS 32 INDICTMENTS AGAINST MANAFORT, GATES

Jesus Fucking Christ. A superseding indictment from Eastern District of Virginia containing 32 indictments against both Paul Manafort and Rick Gates.

According to the indictment, they laundered $75 million, committed a fuck ton of bank and mortgage fraud, and a shitload of tax evasion.

Here’s a PDF of the indictment.

It’s a pretty long list, so I’ll see you in a couple screens.

Count	Charge	Defendant
1	Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns (2010) (26 U.S.C. §7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2)	Manafort
2	Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns (2011) (26 U.S.C. §7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2)	Manafort
3	Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns (2012) (26 U.S.C. §7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2)	Manafort
4	Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns (2013) (26 U.S.C. §7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2)	Manafort
5	Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns (2014) (26 U.S.C. §7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2)	Manafort
6	Assisting in the Preparation of False United States Individual Income (2010) (26 U.S.C. §7206 (2))	Gates
7	Assisting in the Preparation of False United States Individual Income (2011) (26 U.S.C. §7206 (2))	Gates
8	Assisting in the Preparation of False United States Individual Income (2012) (26 U.S.C. §7206 (2))	Gates
9	Assisting in the Preparation of False United States Individual Income (2013) (26 U.S.C. §7206 (2))	Gates
10	Assisting in the Preparation of False United States Individual Income (2014) (26 U.S.C. §7206 (2))	Gates
11	Failure To File Reports Of Foreign Bank And Financial Accounts (2011) (31 U.S.C. §5314 and §5322(a); 18 U.S.C. §2)	Manafort
12	Failure To File Reports Of Foreign Bank And Financial Accounts (2012) (31 U.S.C. §5314 and §5322(a); 18 U.S.C. §2)	Manafort
13	Failure To File Reports Of Foreign Bank And Financial Accounts (2013) (31 U.S.C. §5314 and §5322(a); 18 U.S.C. §2)	Manafort
14	Failure To File Reports Of Foreign Bank And Financial Accounts (2014) (31 U.S.C. §5314 and §5322(a); 18 U.S.C. §2)	Manafort
15	Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns (2010) (26 U.S.C. § 7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2)	Gates
16	Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns (2011) (26 U.S.C. § 7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2)	Gates
17	Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns (2012) (26 U.S.C. § 7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2)	Gates
18	Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns (2013) (26 U.S.C. § 7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2)	Gates
19	Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns (2014) (26 U.S.C. § 7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2)	Gates
20	Subscribing to a False Amended United States Individual Income Tax Return (2013) (26 U.S.C. §7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2)	Gates
21	Failure To File Reports Of Foreign Bank And Financial Accounts (2011) (31 U.S.C. §5314 and §5322(a); 18 U.S.C. § 2)	Gates
22	Failure To File Reports Of Foreign Bank And Financial Accounts (2012) (31 U.S.C. §5314 and §5322(a); 18 U.S.C. § 2)	Gates
23	Failure To File Reports Of Foreign Bank And Financial Accounts (2013) (31 U.S.C. §5314 and §5322(a); 18 U.S.C. § 2)	Gates
24	Bank Fraud Conspiracy (Lender B/$3.4 million loan) (18 U.S.C. §1349)	Manafort Gates
25	Bank Fraud (Lender B/$3.4 million loan) (18 U.S.C. §§1344, 2)	Manafort Gates
26	Bank Fraud Conspiracy (Lender C/$1 million loan) (18 U.S.C. §1349)	Manafort Gates
27	Bank Fraud (Lender C/$1 million loan) (18 U.S.C. §1344, 2)	Manafort Gates
28	Bank Fraud Conspiracy (Lender B/$5.5 million loan) (18 U.S.C. §1349)	Manafort Gates
29	Bank Fraud Conspiracy (Lender D/$9.5 million loan) (18 U.S.C. §1349)	Manafort Gates
30	Bank Fraud (Lender D/$9.5 million loan) (18 U.S.C. §§1344, 2)	Manafort Gates
31	Bank Fraud Conspiracy (Lender D/$6.5 million loan) (18 U.S.C. §1349)	Manafort Gates
32	Bank Fraud (Lender D/$6.5 million loan) (18 U.S.C. §§1344, 2)	Manafort Gates

This all started back in Ukraine. They stole a bunch of money while Yakunovich was President, until about 2015. From 2015 until January 2017, they allegedly played a shell game with multiple banks to try to drum up some cash to keep them running until their next scheme takes off. They’re lying to banks, altering profit & loss sheets, lied about their stated incomes, lied about rental properties, and lied about all of this on state, local, and federal taxes.

Notice the dates, 2015 to 2017. This overlaps their time on the Trump Campaign.

I can’t get a credit card increase for $500 without 38 references, and these pricks got millions of loans in a few months.

By the way, Lender D is likely Federal Savings Bank from Chicago, Illinois. I talked about Stephen Calk yesterday in Daily Check-In 02/21/2018. He gave these loans to Manafort in a Quid Pro Quo for a position in the White House, likely the Secretary of the Army. Reportedly, him or someone in his bank is working with Mueller.

But, now the $64,000 question. If Gates flipped, why’s he still getting indicted?

There was some confusion this afternoon about his legal representation. Looks like Tom Green is still his attorney. No, not the Tom Green that had a TV show back on MTV from the late 90’s who had testicular cancer, but the Tom Green who was a lawyer during Watergate.

There’s two hypotheses about this. First, he’s not flipping on Manafort, or he doesn’t have enough new evidence. Second, these indictments include enough criminal activity by both of them together, and they were indicted together.

Either way, this sends a message to Paul Manfort. Deliver Donald Trump or die in prison.

FIRST NATIONAL BANK TO END THEIR NRA VISA CARD

The boycott of the NRA begins.

Time to add Enterprise Holdings to that list. They own Enterprise, National, and Alamo rental car companies.

NRA AT CPAC CONFERENCE IS AN EMBARRASSMENT TO EVERYTHING

Wayne LaPierre went off on everything from blacks to socialism to video games, and blamed all of them for mass shootings.

You know, it’s everyone else’s fault, but his.

Fuck him.

TRUMP CRIES ‘FAKE NEWS’ ON CNN AND NBC SAYING HE’D ARM TEACHERS, THEN SAYS ARMING TEACHERS WOULD ‘SOLVE THE PROBLEM INSTANTLY’

The only reason I’m mentioning a Trump tweet is to illustrate his inability to keep a coherent thought for more than 30 seconds. I’ll address the stupidity of arming teachers in the Rumor Mill section.

MISSIOURI GOVERNOR TAKEN INTO CUSTODY

Republican Governor of Missouri Eric Greitens was indicted and arrested on felony invasion of privacy. He allegedly took pictures of his mistress without her permission as she was bound, gagged, and semi-naked on her bed, then threatened to blackmail her with them if she spoke out about the affair.

TRUMP LEGAL FUND RECIPIENTS UNCLEAR; FLYNN SAYS NO THANKS

This fund is supposed to be for people around Trump that can’t afford their own legal bills, like low-level staffers.

There was an argument making the rounds of the Fringe RWM that the Government doesn’t have a case against Flynn and he should fight it. Flynn said “No Thanks.”

RUSSIAN OPPOSITION LEADER ALEXEI NAVALNY DETAINED IN MOSCOW, AGAIN

Once again, this shows how weak Putin really is. Nalvany is protesting the sham practice known as the 2018 Russian Presidential Election.

PUTIN ALLY SAID TO BE IN TOUCH WITH KREMLIN, ASSAD BEFORE HIS MERCENARIES ATTACKED U.S. TROOPS

In intercepted communications in late January, the oligarch, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, told a senior Syrian official that he had “secured permission” from an unspecified Russian minister to move forward with a “fast and strong” initiative that would take place in early February.

Yevgeniy was indicted last week as the Oligarch in charge of the IRA. His forces attacked U.S. troops in Syria, but were routed when the Americans attacked them from the air.

Yes, Russian mercenaries that report to ‘Putin’s Chef’ attacked American troops.

GUILTY PLEA DOESN’T PROHIBIT CONSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGE TO CONVICTIONS, SUPREME COURT RULES

This has nothing to do with Russia so far, but I thought it was an interesting ruling.

RUMOR MILL: TEACHERS WITH GUNS AND MANAFORT’S CONNECTIONS

One of the stupidest things I’ve heard come from the NRA “enthusiasts” is that the solution to gun violence and mass shootings is if more “good guys” were armed. Their thinking, if you can call it that, is that more armed people will offset and outshoot the bad people with guns. Their recommendation to stop school shootings is to arm teachers.

Outside of a bad Hollywood movie, this is by far the dumbest, least thought out, and wildly horrible ideas since… well, I one time heard of Orange Juice and Toothpaste flavored potato chips.

Let’s talk first about the realities of gunfights.

Trained professionals who spend years perfecting the art of shooting are not very accurate in live fire situations. The NYPD has an 18% accuracy rate. Soldiers are about the same rate. That means, even in a great situation, 4 out of every 5 bullets will miss its target. In a shooting range, that miss is going to hit a wall, or a dirt mound. In a school, that bullet is flying into a kid.

Next, let’s think about who teachers are. They are overworked, underpaid, and stressed out. In a lot of schools, they move from class to class, and that’s most of their exercise all day. So, on a good day, their nerves are only slightly frayed. Let’s throw guns into that mix, and students who know that they can beat up a teacher to steal their gun, or take it out of an unlocked drawer.

Also, who the fuck’s gonna pay for this? We don’t pay the teachers enough as it is, and a lot of schools have problems paying for essential supplies like pencils and staplers. Who’s gonna pay for range time and ammo?

Finally, teachers know their students. Do you know who the most likely shooters are in a school? Angry boy students. Those boys are either current or former students. This idea of arming teachers implies that they’ll have to shoot and kill people they know. Imagine, for a moment, the kind of mindfuck that puts a person through.

Soldiers train to kill by dehumanizing their enemies. It’s the only way they can get through their tour of duties. Listen to some veterans talk about being in combat, and if they describe fighting at all, they’ll use some pretty denigrating and racist terms to describe who they fought and what they did. Are they racists? No, not really. This is the only way they can sleep at night without ending up a sobbing pile on the floor.

Law Enforcement Officers who fire at and kill people in the line of duty have to go through counseling for the rest of their careers just to cope with what they did. Often times, the dehumanizing traits occur.

Think about that, then think about the people who say that teachers should train with guns, just in case they need to be ready to kill one of their students, a kid they spend months teaching and mentoring.

I wasn’t the only person who thinks that arming teachers is a terrible idea. There are literally ~~dozens hundreds thousands~~ millions of us on Twitter who feel the same way.

Finally, Countercheckist has been rather critical of Bernie Sanders recently. Okay, ever since I started following him. He was one of the first to point out that the same bots that were pushing Trump’s message were also pushing Bernie’s message, and they both seemed to have the same reaction to tales of Russian interference. They blamed Obama.

He’s also shown over time how well connected Paul Manfort is to every single shady mutha fucka that does shady shit. At this point, I’m half expecting to find out that my elementary school bullies were funded by Paul Manafort.

In a tweet earlier today, Countercheckist alluded to ties between Paul and Bernie. I don’t know how, and as much as I’d like to say it ain’t so, at this point I wouldn’t be surprised.

That’s it for today. Keep in mind, it’s not even Friday, and we’ve had 5 days of court activity from Robert Mueller in a row. Manafort is Manafucked.

I have to do the math on this, but there have been over 100 criminal charges filed on 19 people from the Special Counselor’s Office.

And we’re just warming up.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 02/21/2018

Wednesday, February 21.

NEW SEALED CHARGES FILED BY MUELLER

For the third court day in a row, Special Counselor Robert Mueller and his team have filed new charges in their investigation. This time, I have no clue what the charges are. No one outside of Mueller’s team and the clerk have a clue. And possibly Rick Gates.

Odds are they’re additional charges against Paul Manafort for bank fraud. The details about that in 3, 2, 1…

STEPHEN CALK, FEDERAL SAVINGS BANK OF CHICAGO, GAVE PAUL MANAFORT MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN LOANS IN EXCHANGE FOR WHITE HOUSE POSITION

Yes, Mueller is very interested.

The day that Paul Manafort was fired from the Trump Campaign, he started a company named Sunbreeze LLC. That company then took out a loan against one of his homes. By the end of 2016, Paul had taken out $16 million in loans, all of them signed off on by Stephen Calk.

So, who is Stephen Calk? He was an economic advisor to the Trump Transition Team, and a manager at Federal Savings Bank in Chicago, Illinois. FSB is a smaller bank that usually offers mortgages to veterans.

And he approved loans that totaled more than 25% of his bank’s assets in mortgages to one person.

Why would he approve such a risk for his bank, over the objections of his staff? He reportedly did this for a position in the White House.

This is a simple and elegant solution to a weird problem. How was a little bank in Chicago wrapped up in this mess? Turns out, Manafort played on his desire for power and/or service.

I like simple and elegant solutions.

STUDENTS PROTEST AROUND THE NATION

All across the nations, students left class today to protest against the inaction of our leadership in this country.

They’re taking the lead. I like it.

These children grew up in a world after 9/11, where the U.S. has been at war their whole lives. They grew up on Harry Potter and Hunger Games and Marvel movies believing that one person can make a difference, and now they’re facing down the inept government.

They are an entire generation of Potter’s and Everdeen’s. They are not going away.

EX-WORKERS AT IRA SAY MUELLER INDICTMENTS ARE TRUE

Multiple Russians have gone on the record describing the size and scope of the Internet Research Agency, and the accuracy of Mueller’s indictments.

They are spot on.

It’s almost like someone had high level intelligence and access to the IRA.

KEITH SCHILLER PAID $15K PER MONTH FROM GOP SLUSH FUND

Trump’s former body guard Keith Schiller is getting paid $15k a month by the GOP as a “Security Consultant” for the 2020 campaign.

That’s $180,000 a year.

Keith has been by Trump’s side since the 1990’s, and has often been the one to do Trump’s dirty work, like organizing hookers, threatening litigants, or harassing journalists.

Keith was involved in James Comey’s firing, personally delivering the termination letter to his office in D.C. Of course, Comey was visiting the L.A. field office. Rumor has it that Schiller tried to take Comey’s office computer.

DEVIN NUNES ASKED RUSSIAN BOTS TO HELP MAKE AN ARTICLE DISCREDITING THE RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ‘GO VIRAL’

I covered this before, but Dipshit Cowpoke Devin Nunes actively engaged trolls and bots to push the #Releasethememo hashtag on Twitter.

This doesn’t look good for the head of the House Intelligence Committee.

He’s one of the few people in the world who should have known the scope and extent of Russian activity on Twitter. The Intelligence Community has been on this for a while. Yet, he still engaged with them.

I can only think of three explanations. Either he didn’t know the extent of their activities, he ignored the information, or he was counting on their actions. None of them look good for a member of the GOP Leadership Committee.

RUMOR MILL: THE GREAT BOT PURGE OF FEBRUARY 2018

A funny thing happened on Twitter over the last 24 hours. They decided to purge another set of users that were associated with specific Russian IP addresses which were traced back to Russian Bot and Troll activity.

Alright, real quick about IP addresses…

An IP address, or Internet Protocol address, is a numeric value that corresponds to a specific internet connection. Each and every device on the internet uses them to connect to each other. It makes up the backbone of how the internet works. It’s how you can make a request on a laptop in your house to a website halfway across the world, and have it end up on your laptop, and not your neighbor’s computer.

We generally use IPv4, which uses a format of xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx, where the numbers range from 0-255. Those are the values that a byte can produce. 256 values, or 2^8th power, for each group (called an octet), and four octets.

One thing with IP’s is that they’re region specific. IP’s in the United States start with 10. Asia in the 110’s, Latin America in 180’s. Russia’s in the 80’s and 90’s. These IP addresses are easy to find and trace.

What Twitter did was trace back a large number of troll accounts to a specific set of IP’s, and blocked them.

5,000 accounts and IP’s were blocked. They were controlling millions of bots. Those bots make up a lot of followers for people like Trump or the Alt-Right. Many members of the GOP lost thousands, if not millions of followers.

I only lost 4 followers this time. Most of the robots following me are good old ‘Merican Porn Bots.

Of course, that means I might be on their radar. If anything, I’m a tiny blip. Still, we are in an information war, and information is power.

That’s it for today. I do have a correction to make, though I’m not sure if I said it here.

Alex Vad Der Zwaan pleaded guilty yesterday, and I assumed that he was cooperating with Mueller. According to the court transcripts, he did not enter into a cooperating agreement. That doesn’t he’s not giving them information, but he’s either not doing it willingly, or there is no formal agreement. He could also be keeping quiet.

At some point in the last 24 hours, I said he was cooperating. My bad.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 02/20/2018

Tuesday February 20th, and a little of what happened over President’s Day weekend.

RICK GATES TO PLEAD GUILTY, COOPERATE WITH MUELLER

This has been covered a few times over the past week or two, but this, combined with the next two stories, is confirmation that Rick Gates flipped like a gymnast. Or one of those snowboarders.

Part of his plea deal is that he has to tell Mueller EVERYTHING.

MANAFORT TO HAVE BAIL REVOKED, NEW BANK FRAUD INDICTMENTS ADDED

One of the things that it looks like Gates told Mueller was about his boss, Paul Manafort.

Manafort is being investigated for even more money laundering, bank fraud, mortgage fraud, and tax evasion.

It looks like Gates gave Mueller proof that Manafort used doctored balance sheets from some of his companies to acquire a mortgage for his home in Fairfax, VA. It’s the same house he put up for bail.

Uh oh.

ALEX VAN DER ZWAAN TO PLEAD GUILTY TO LYING TO THE FBI

Alex Van Der Zwaan, a Dutch lawyer who formerly worked with Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Up until a few weeks ago, Alex was Rick Gates’s attorney. Alex was busted for lying about a conversation he had with Rick Gates and “Person A” about a Ukrainian case he worked on a few years ago about trying to whitewash corruption. Alex said it didn’t happen, then deleted the emails and a recording of the phone conversation. Alex is highly motivated to cooperate, as his wife is pregnant. His father-in-law is German Khan, founder of Alfa Group/Alfa Bank.

So, let’s break that down.

First, Mueller got Gates to turn on his lawyer. That’s just straight up gansta.

Next, Alex was a lawyer for Skadden, a blue chip law firm that is normally very cautious about who they take on as a client, but worked with Paul Manafort on preparing a report to justify the prosecution and jailing of Yulia Tymoshenko. Tymoshenko was the Prime Minister in Ukraine who ran against Viktor Yanukovich, who was Paul Manafort’s client. This ties back to Ukraine.

Alfa Group has retained Skadden for a few years, and it appears that Alex Van Der Zwaan worked on their account. Another employee of Skadden was Andrea Manafort Shand. If that name looks familiar, it’s Paul’s daughter.

Finally, we have a direct connection to Alfa Bank. Remember the weird network connections between a server in Alfa Bank and Trump Tower? No, okay, quick recap…

Tea Pain broke down the connections a while back but the short, short version is there was a server in Trump Tower that only communicated with two other IP Addresses. Those IP’s are associated with a server at Spectrum Health (a health care company owned by the DeVos family) and a server located in Alfa Bank. Here’s a copy of the network traffic between the Alfa Server and Trump Tower server. Reddit user /u/RyanClinton2017 put together a sobering timeline

The Mayflower hotel meeting was held on April 27, 2016.

The first traffic seen between Alfa and Trump servers was seen on May 6, 2016.

It started out low and slow, see graph here.

The first uptick of traffic is seen on June 2, 2016, the very next day Goldstein sends an email to Don Jr. about Russians having dirt on Hillary.

On June 9, 2016 Don Jr, Manafort and Kushner meet with the Russians at Trump Tower.

On June 10, 2016 another uptick as seen in the graph.

On June 18, 2016 Spectrum joins in and traffic increases and continues to increase through the election.

Now that we’ve built that back up, let’s talk about Alex. Alex is a newlywed to Eva Khan, daughter of German Khan. He’s the founder of Alfa Group/Alfa Bank, and is mentioned on page 25 of The Steele Dossier. He’s very close to Putin, and may be one of the few Oligarchs that can call on more power than Putin.

So, not only is Alex Van Der Zwaan the son-in-law of German Khan (pronounced Herman), but Alex is also the father of his grandchild.

Eva is pregnant, and Alex doesn’t want to miss his child’s birth in prison. The only way he doesn’t miss that is by cooperating, and he can deliver the Skadden law firm, more of Manafort’s associates, the Americans that helped Alfa Group, and possibly even German Khan himself.

STUDENTS TAKING THE LEAD IN FIGHT FOR GUN CONTROL

This is what we need. The next generation grabbing this subject and taking their leadership to task.

March For Our Lives is scheduled for March 24th.

NETENYAHU: AIDE TRIED TO BRIBE JUDGES WIFE, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR TO TESTIFY AGAINST HIM

Benjamin “Bibi” Netenyahu, the embattled Israeli Prime Minister, is not having a good month.

Good.

Bibi was one of the corrupt politicians that benefited from the scourge of vice and corruption around the world that used the Trump’s and Kushner’s, among others, to launder their money. Bibi looked the other way as Israelis broke the law all over the world.

He might be the first world leader to go down, but he won’t be the last.

PENNSYLVANIA GETS A NEW CONGRESSIONAL MAP

Here’s the new map.

NewPA

Compare it to the old map.

OldPA

There’s a special election in March for Tim Murphy’s old district. It’s the middle-red one in the bottom left corner.

BANNON SOLD STAKE IN CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA WHILE IN WHITE HOUSE

Not that this is any surprise, but his ethics finding showed that he didn’t sell his ownership stake in CA until April. This also proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Steve Bannon had his hands in Cambridge Analytica.

DONNIE JR., A TRIP TO INDIA, AND OPEN CORRUPTION

Donnie Jr. is visiting India, and is looking to make “deals” while over there. He’s selling “access” to himself and the White House, as well as apartments.

I’m not sure what I’m more upset about, his brazen lack of decorum to at least hide his corruption, or his blatant stupidity.

MUELLER COMING FOR KUSHNER

Anyone who’s been reading this site for a while knows that Mueller’s coming for Kushner. He’s had Kushner in his sights for a long time, and has him dead to rights on everything from perjury to espionage. We’re left with two big questions.

When, and what for first?

The “when” will likely happen before the Summer begins, if not much sooner. I think he’ll be the first family member indicted. It’ll send a powerful message that Mueller’s coming for the family, while at the same time giving the Redcaps a chance to say “He’s not a Trump, he’s a Kushner.” An hour later, Donnie Jr. will be indicted.

What for first is a good question. There’s a lot that Mueller can tag him for, but as long as Trump’s in the White House, he has to tread carefully at first. I’m not worried about Trump trying to pardon Kushner, so much as expecting him to try, and figuring that Mueller gameplanned for that contingency. But the first crime should be big enough to establish that he’s a criminal, but not directly tied to Russia.

If I had to put money on it, he will be indicted for Obstruction of Justice.

RUMOR MILL: WHO IS PERSON A?

in or about September 2016, he spoke with both Gates and Person A regarding the Report, and surreptitiously recorded the calls

There’s a couple theories floating around who Person A is from Alex’s indictment.

The first, and most obvious, is Paul Manafort.

The next is a known intermediary representing Manafort, possibly his daughter.

The third is a Ukrainian national. While that could be anyone unknown at this point, one name I heard floating around is Konstantin Kilimnik. Konstantin was Manafort’s man in Kiev, and has a background in Russian Intelligence.

There are few people who know. Mueller, Gates, Van Der Zwaan, and whomever Person A is. They know who they are, and other people know.

Not only that, but Mueller knows who they are, and sure as hell has that recording. They caught Alex trying to delete that recording AFTER they interviewed him in November 2017. Damn straight he was under surveillance.

That’s it for today. Things are shaping up quick with Russia. I did not talk about Trump’s tweets, because they are almost always distraction. But, since he spewed a bunch of shit on Twitter, here’s a very brief recap…

He attacked everyone from the FBI to Mueller to Adam Schiff to the kids in Parkland, but not once did Trump attack Putin or Russia. If he wasn’t a Russian Agent, it would seem weird AF.

Expect things to speed up from here on out on the indictment front. There are at least three cooperating witnesses, if not more. George Papadopoulos, Mike Flynn, Richard Pinedo, and Alex Van Der Zwaan have all pleaded guilty so far, with Rick Gates on deck. Each and every one of their deals depend on them helping Mueller, or facing VERY long prison terms. They stay out of jail by flipping on bigger fish. Pretty soon, we’ll be dining on swordfish.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-in 02/16/2018

Friday, February 16, 2018.

13 RUSSIANS, 3 COMPANIES INDICTED BY SPECIAL COUNSELOR MUELLER

Special Counselor Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russians and 3 Russian entities for their actions in to influence the 2016 Presidential Election.

This indictment lays out the who, how, where, what, when, and why of the Russian Influence Operation. It describes how they started this op back in 2014, which coincides with the Ukrainian Revolution.

The Russians used stolen identities to bypass security measures in PayPal, and used those accounts to pay for advertisements on Facebook and other social media sites. They also paid for expenses for the Trump Campaign, even at low-level like parades.

Here are some excerpts from the indictments. They can be found Here, at justice.gov.

Defendants’ operations included supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump (“Trump Campaign”) and disparaging Hillary Clinton. Defendants made various expenditures to carry out those activities, including buying political advertisements on social media in the names of U.S. persons and entities. Defendants also staged political rallies inside the United States, and while posing as U.S. grassroots entities and U.S. persons, and without revealing their Russian identities and ORGANIZATION affiliation, solicited and compensated real U.S. persons to promote or disparage candidates. Some Defendants, posing as U.S. persons and without revealing their Russian association, communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities.

There has been a lot of talk about the Russians organizing opposing rallies, and using friendly sources in the U.S. as feet on the ground. This confirms it.

In order to carry out their activities to interfere in U.S. political and electoral processes without detection of their Russian affiliation, Defendants conspired to obstruct the lawful functions of the United States government through fraud and deceit, including by making expenditures in connection with the 2016 U.S. presidential election without proper regulatory disclosure; failing to register as foreign agents carrying out political activities within the United States; and obtaining visas through false and fraudulent statements.

So, we have Russians giving money to the Trump Campaign, and several FARA violations as well. Not to mention, lying on an entry visa.

Defendants and their co-conspirators used their fictitious online personas to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election. They engaged in operations primarily intended to communicate derogatory information about Hillary Clinton, to denigrate other candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and to support Bernie Sanders and then-candidate Donald Trump.

Yes. Attack everyone except Trump. and Bernie. I mentioned in Trump vs. Bernie how this was Putin’s goal for the U.S. Presidential Election.

On or about February 10, 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators internally circulated an outline of themes for future content to be posted to ORGANIZATION-controlled social media accounts. Specialists were instructed to post content that focused on “politics in the USA” and to “use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump–we support them).”

That quote is interesting. That sounds like a direct quote from an internal email or some other type of surveillance. Remember, The Dutch Had Eyes on Cozy Bear.

From at least April 2016 through November 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators, while concealing their Russian identities and ORGANIZATION affiliation through false personas, began to produce, purchase, and post advertisements on U.S. social media and other online sites expressly advocating for the election of then-candidate Trump or expressly opposing Clinton. Defendants and their co-conspirators did not report their expenditures to the Federal Election Commission, or register as foreign agents with the U.S. Department of Justice. The political advertisements included the following:

April 6, 2016 “You know, a great number of black people support us saying that #HillaryClintonlsNotMyPresident”

April 7, 2016 “I say no to Hillary Clinton / I say no to manipulation”

April 19, 2016 “JOIN our #HillaryClintonForPrison2016”

May 10, 2016 “Donald wants to defeat terrorism … Hillary wants to sponsor it”

May 19, 2016 “Vote Republican, vote Trump, and support the Second Amendment!”

May 24, 2016 “Hillary Clinton Doesn’t Deserve the Black Vote”

June 7, 2016 “Trump is our only hope for a better future!”

June 30, 2016 “#Never Hillary #Hillary F orPrison #Hillary4 Prison #HillaryForPrison2016 #Trump2016 #Trump #Trump4President”

July 20, 2016 “Ohio Wants Hillary 4 Prison”

August 4, 2016 “Hillary Clinton has already committed voter fraud during the Democrat Iowa Caucus.”

August 10, 2016 “We cannot trust Hillary to take care of our veterans!”

October 14, 2016 “Among all the candidates Donald Trump is the one and only who can defend the police from terrorists.”

October 19, 2016 “Hillary is a Satan, and her crimes and lies had proved just how evil she is.”

I have personally seen several of those ads on Facebook. Plus, this mentions that coconspirators helped pay for these ads. The Russians had help.

To pay for the political advertisements, Defendants and their co-conspirators established various Russian bank accounts and credit cards, often registered in the names of fictitious U.S. personas created and used by the ORGANIZATION on social media. Defendants and their coconspirators also paid for other political advertisements using PayPal accounts.

PayPal. This is the first time I’ve talked about PayPal, but it won’t be the last. EBay announced that they’ll be cutting ties with PayPal in 2020. Not only that, but PayPal co-founder and Trump enabler Peter Theil is leaving Silicon Valley.

Beginning in at least 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators used, without lawful authority, the social security numbers, home addresses, and birth dates of real U.S. persons without their knowledge or consent. Using these means of stolen identification, Defendants and their coconspirators opened accounts at a federally insured U.S. financial institution (“Bank I”)

Louise Mensch reported last may about Silicon Valley Bank, a subsidiary of Alfa Bank, being under FISA investigation. They could have used any bank in the United States, but there’s this little thing called the Patriot Act. Part of it requires that all new bank accounts created require proof of human beingness and a physical presence. This prevents rampant fraud and money laundering. The Russians would need feet on the ground to pull this off, and there’s just enough here to make me think SVB was used to set up the American Accounts.

Defendants and their co-conspirators purchased credit card and bank account numbers from online sellers for the unlawful purpose of evading security measures at PayPal, which used account numbers to verify a user’s identity. Many of the bank account numbers purchased by Defendants and their co-conspirators were created using the stolen identities of real U.S. persons. After purchasing the accounts, Defendants and their co-conspirators submitted these bank account numbers to PayPal.

See “California Man” below.

On or about August 18, 2016, the real “Florida for Trump” Facebook account responded to
the false U.S. persona “Matt Skiber” account with instructions to contact a member of the Trump
Campaign (“Campaign Official l “) involved in the campaign’s Florida operations and provided Campaign Official 1’s email address at the campaign domain donaldtrump.com. On approximately the same day, Defendants and their co-conspirators used the email address of a false U.S. persona, joshmilton024@gmail.com, to send an email to Campaign Official 1 at that donaldtrump.com email account, which read in part:

“Hello [Campaign Official l], [w]e are organizing a state-wide event in Florida on August, 20 to support Mr. Trump. Let us introduce ourselves first. “Being Patriotic” is a grassroots conservative online movement trying to unite people offline. . . . [W]e gained a huge lot of followers and decided to somehow help Mr. Trump get elected. You know, simple yelling on the Internet is not enough. There should be real action. We organized rallies in New York before. Now we’re focusing on purple states such as Florida.” The email also identified thirteen “confirmed locations” in Florida for the rallies and requested the campaign provide “assistance in each location.”

Here’s more proof that the Russians were trying to coordinate their events with Trump’s campaign. The group asked Florida for Trump for help in location scouting.

On or about August 24, 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators updated an internal ORGANIZATION list of over 100 real U.S. persons contacted through ORGANIZATION controlled false U.S. persona accounts and tracked to monitor recruitment efforts and requests. The list included contact information for the U.S. persons, a summary of their political views, and activities they had been asked to perform by Defendants and their co-conspirators.

If some random person in the Summer of 2016 reached out from Heart of Texas, Blacktivists, or one of the other groups mentioned, and asked you to recruit for their cause, congratulations. You’ve been had by the Russians. And, you’re probably under surveillance by the USIC as well.

Use of U.S. Computer Infrastructure

To hide their Russian identities and ORGANIZATION affiliation, Defendants and their co- conspirators—particularly POLOZOV and the ORGANIZATION’s IT department—purchased space on computer servers located inside the United States in order to set up virtual private networks (“VPNs”). Defendants and their co-conspirators connected from Russia to the U.S.-based infrastructure by way of these VPNs and conducted activity inside the United States— including accessing online social media accounts, opening new accounts, and communicating with real U.S. persons—while masking the Russian origin and control of the activity.

Defendants and their co-conspirators also registered and controlled hundreds of web-based email accounts hosted by U.S. email providers under false names so as to appear to be U.S. persons and groups. From these accounts, Defendants and their co-conspirators registered or linked to online social media accounts in order to monitor them; posed as U.S. persons when requesting assistance from real U.S. persons; contacted media outlets in order to promote activities inside the United States; and conducted other operations, such as those set forth below.

Now we get to the IT side of things. The Russians, with help here in the United States, purchased server space here, as well as a VPN connection that terminates in this country. My guess is that these servers were located out west, like Arizona or California. I’ve seen quite a few suspicious “news” sites on Facebook that Whois’ed to the same server farms out there. They looked identical to sites from St. Petersburg, Moscow, or Crimea. On top of this, they also used email services based in the United States to make these social media platforms.

Destruction of Evidence

In order to avoid detection and impede investigation by U.S. authorities of Defendants’ operations, Defendants and their co-conspirators deleted and destroyed data, including emails, social media accounts, and other evidence of their activities.

Beginning in or around June 2014, and continuing into June 2015, public reporting began to identify operations conducted by the ORGANIZATION in the United States. In response, Defendants and their co-conspirators deleted email accounts used to conduct their operations.

Beginning in or around September 2017, U.S. social media companies, starting with Facebook, publicly reported that they had identified Russian expenditures on their platforms to fund political and social advertisements. Facebook’s initial disclosure of the Russian purchases occurred on or about September 6, 2017, and included a statement that Facebook had “shared [its] findings with US authorities investigating these issues.”

Media reporting on or about the same day as Facebook’s disclosure referred to Facebook working with investigators for the Special Counsel’s Office of the U.S. Department of Justice, which had been charged with investigating the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

Defendants and their co-conspirators thereafter destroyed evidence for the purpose of impeding the investigation. On or about September 13, 2017, KAVERZINA wrote in an email to a family member: “We had a slight crisis here at work: the FBI busted our activity (not a joke). So, I got preoccupied with covering tracks together with the colleagues.” KAVERZINA further wrote, “I created all these pictures and posts, and the Americans believed that it was written by their people.”

As soon as Facebook shared their findings on the activity came out, they were literally destroying the evidence of their activities when one of them emailed a family member saying that she was busy with that. That also says that we somehow had eyes on them.

Daily Check-In 10/17/2017 has a write-up of the boss of the Internet Research Agency. He’s been called “Putin’s Chef”, so the use of Concord Catering in the indictment kind of makes sense now.

These indictments are important for several reasons.

They establish specific crimes against the United States performed by Russian nationals.
This shows directly that the Russians wanted Trump to win the election.
It shows that Americans helped in this matter.
Any action taken against the Special Counselor or Rod Rosenstein will be seen as helping Russia AND Obstruction of Justice.
The timing comes right after the IC heads told Congress that Russia attacked us and will attack us again.
It gives Congress time to either put election reforms and protections in place, or show their true colors.

Are these Russians going to get extradited to the United States? Not unless they leave Russia. Remember a few weeks ago when a a Russian hacker was captured on vacation in Spain and sent here? If any of them try to leave Russia, they stand a good chance of getting stopped, detained, and shipped here to face trial.

Now, the Americans that helped them are a different story.

“CALIFORNIA MAN” RICHARD PINEDO PLEADS GUILTY

About an hour after the indictments dropped and the Trump supporters twisted themselves into knots saying “See, no Americans were involved!”, Mueller busts out a guilty plea for Richard Pinedo.

Richard ran a company called Auction Essentials, where he would sell bank account numbers on the dark web to anyone who had the money. He would either set up the accounts himself, or buy them from someone else. Richard would sell these accounts, and ask no questions.

It turns out that he sold some of these bank accounts to the Russians in the indictment, and they were used to bypass the PayPal verification system. Anyone can set up an account with them, but to have it listed in the U.S., they require it being linked to a U.S. bank account.

I’ve never liked PayPal, and never will. It’s too easy to scam people with it by reversing charges without proof, and the fraud protection sucked. But they were the first “Internet Currency”, and without them, Elon Musk wouldn’t have launched an electric car into space.

There is a Richard Pinedo, of Ventura County, California that belongs to the Ventura County Tea Party. I do not know yet if this is the same person or not, but I would not be surprised in the slightest at this point.

HOW TRUMP USED INTERMEDIARIES TO PAY OFF HIS AFFAIRS

Now that I’ve spent a lot of time talking about Russia fucking America, let me talk about Trump fucking young women. More to the point, how his friends covered it up.

Ronan Farrow of the New Yorker broke one hell of a story about a young woman in the Adult Entertainment Industry that allegedly had an affair with Donald Trump just a few months after his wife gave birth to their son Barron, and how about a decade later, this woman was paid into silence.

No, it’s not Stormy Daniels.

It’s former Playmate of the Year Karen McDougall.

Their stories are almost the exact same. They fucked Trump, he offered to pay them, they said no, it went on for a while, then they split up. Years later, right before the election, a surrogate for Trump offers to pay the women if they’ll keep their mouth shut.

For Karen, that surrogate is David Pecker, owner of American Media, which owns the National Enquirer. He bought her story for $150,000, promised her a platform for articles, and a couple other things.

Instead of publishing, Pecker buried the story.

Karen told her story, even at the risk of legal action, because she doesn’t want other women to go through what she’s gone through.

If you’re wondering who Ronan Farrow is, Ask Harvey Weinstein.

IN OTHER NEWS…

FCC CHAIRMAN AJIT PAI UNDER INVESTIGATION FOR POSSIBLY COLLUDING WITH SINCLAIR BROADCASTING

FACEBOOK TAKES DOWN NALVANY VIDEO

SCHIFF: HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE HAS PROOF OF RUSSIAN COLLUSION

RUMOR MILL: THE MEDIA CONSPIRACY

While most of Twitter and Reddit are talking about what’s going on today, I ran across a very interesting thread by Lincoln’s Bible. He’s the one who mentioned a few weeks back about a lot of Anti-Trump movies in the pipeline in Hollywood. This came out earlier in the day, right after the Ronan Farrow story broke. It answered a question I had a while back during the election.

We know that Trump is an asshole, a misogynist and a racist. The Billy Bush Pussygate tape showed the first two definitively, and there are strong rumors of the last from several people that worked on The Apprentice. Among these include Tom Arnold and George Takei. Before the election, there was a large outcry for the behind-the-scenes tapes to leak out showing Trump dropping the N-word. But the owner of that show, Mark Burnett, refused to release anything.

Why? Why would he not do what was being seen as a patriotic duty and release information vital to the fate of the country?

Lincoln’s Bible answered that question…they be mobbed up.

Burnett and Pecker hold power over Trump, and are both fond of Vladimir Putin. They hold undue leverage over Trump, and others in society. Burnett made half the country think Donald Trump was what a good boss should be, and Pecker has been running Pro-Trump or Anti-Democrat stories on his tabloid rag for about two years.

I’m not sure where this is leading, but it’ll be interesting. Not necessarily good, but interesting.

That’s it for today, I think.

So, what happens now? I don’t know. I still haven’t heard a confirmation that Rick Gates has signed his flipping paperwork, but that’ll probably happen Tuesday when the courts open. There’s a reason the Russian Indictments came out today. As I said, this makes it nearly impossible to fire Robert Mueller before he lays out Obstruction of Justice charges. The end game is not Obstruction, but it will be the low-hanging fruit that gets Trump and Pence out of office. Once they’re out, the Mueller can go for the kill.

Corruption. Abuse of Power. RICO. Human Trafficking. Money Laundering. Espionage. Treason.

I don’t how fast things will go from here on out. I think these just bought several months, but I think things will accelerate from here on out.

Why? I don’t know, I just got a feeling that things will go on a little faster from here on out, until we get to indictments against Trump for Obstruction of Justice.

Also, I’ve learned over the past couple years to always bet on stupid when Trump is involved. Rule 45: Out of all possible outcomes, pick the dumbest one available.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur