Tag: Crime

Daily Check-In 05/03/2018

Thursday, May 3rd.

 

COHEN:  TO WIRETAP OR NOT TO WIRETAP

I was going to go into this nice, long description of how a wiretap works, but then NBC corrected the story that it wasn’t a wiretap, but a pen register.  Now, I’ve got to explain both, and the difference.

A pen register is when law enforcement sees who calls the target, and who the target calls.  They can’t monitor what the call was about, but can see how long the call lasted, and how often they called.

A wiretap goes a step above the pen register and actively monitors the calls for content.  There are several restrictions on a wiretap.  For example, if the call is privileged communication, or after 30 seconds it the call isn’t about anything criminal, then law enforcement has to hang up.  If the call goes on for a long time, they can check back in to see if the conversation has turned back to illegal stuff.  There’s a scene from Casino where they went through the details.  I tried to find it, but after a half hour of searching and not finding the clip, I give up.

I’m not surprised by this, to be honest.  The Feds were monitoring Cohen’s emails and phone lines for weeks, if not months before they raided his shit.  While checking the phone records, they saw who was calling, and when.  But there are two big takeaways from today.

First, a pen register is used when the Feds suspect that a crime is ongoing.  If there was a past crime, they would just look at the phone records on file.

Second, at least one of the calls they recorded came from the White House.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION:  MUELLER ORDERS 70 BLANK SUBPOENAS, SIDE OF COLE SLAW TO GO

70 blank subpoenas for July.

STORMYGATE/RUDY CROSSOVER CLUSTERFUCK

 

DOCTOR, DOCTOR

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

HAPPY NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA AND FACEBOOK

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

SAY GOODBYE TO THE ECONOMY

 

RUMOR MILL

Here’s an interesting hypothesis:  What if Michael Cohen outranks Donald Trump in the mob?  Is that even possible?

I don’t necessarily buy it right now, but it’s 2018.  This is the year that a porn star’s attorney is bitchslapping the combined legal expertise of the White House.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s it for today.  Today is very light on my information.  Today was a very busy day, and I didn’t spend nearly as much time as I have on the entry recently.  Tomorrow should be back to normal.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

 

 

 

Daily Check-In 04/26/2018

Thursday, April 26th

 

COHEN: FRIENDS DON’T LET FRIENDS GO ON FOX & FRIENDS

WTAF?  What in the actual fuck?

Trump had a phone-in interview with Fox & Friends this morning.  Normally, I would just chalk this up to a planned distraction, but this went off the rails faster than a broken roller coaster.  Trump claimed that Cohen only did a “tiny, tiny little fraction” of his legal work.

Cohen’s legal defense, which Trump’s lawyers were also arguing, was that the two had so much privileged communications that it would be nearly impossible to sort through it all.

Trump just shot that argument like 2Pac.  He fucked Cohen harder than Stormy Daniels was fucked in Lust Connection.

He fucked him so bad that the prosecutors dropped their objections to the idea of having a third party go through his paperwork because there is so little to go through that would be covered by attorney-client privilege.

Cohen’s defense was shot out of the sky.  His hopes and dreams crushed like a can of Pepsi. He’s looking at serious jail time, and the person he’s been loyal to more than anyone else throws him under the bus.

His only out is to flip.  Not only can he deliver the President, but half of the scumbags and wanna be gangsters in New York.

 

STORMYGATE

“So, Mika, you are familiar with the fact that a week ago, Judge (Kimba) Wood ordered Michael Cohen’s attorneys to disclose all of his clients for the last three years,” Avenatti said, “and there were three clients listed — three clients listed. Do you recall which three?”

Brzezinski listed Trump, Fox News host Sean Hannity and Republican donor Elliott Broidy — but Avenatti said she was making the same mistake everyone else had.

“No, no, no,” he said. “Mr. Trump, the Trump organization and Sean Hannity. Mr. Broidy was not disclosed in open court as one of Michael Cohen’s clients.”

Co-host Joe Scarborough asked the attorney what that meant.

“I think at some point we are going to find out, if in fact, the client in connection with the ($1.6 million) settlement was, in fact, Mr. Broidy. I’m going to leave it at that.”

Avenatti wouldn’t say it, but the implication seems clear.

Cohen negotiated a $1.6 million hush money payment to a Playboy model who became pregnant during an affair and then had an abortion.

News reports had identified Broidy as the client who agreed to pay the woman in installments over two years if she agreed to remain silent about the relationship — but Avenatti said Cohen’s lawyers ruled him out in open court.

That would leave Trump, or possibly Hannity, as the likely clients who arranged the payment.

Three clients.  Trump, Hannity, and Trump Organization.  Since it’s kind of difficult for a company to get a model pregnant, that narrows the list down a bit.

I’m not saying that Trump knocked up a model and used Elliot Broidy as a cut-out to pay her, but Michael Avenatti has been Johnny-on-the-Spot with all of his guesses.

“Michael would represent me, and represent me on some things. He represents me, like with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal, he represented me,” Trump said. “And you know from what I see, he did absolutely nothing wrong.”

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

The panel voted 14-7.  All 10 Democrats on the committee, plus Thom Tillis, Lindsey Graham, Jeff Flake, and Chuck Grassley.

This Jill Stein.

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WHITE HOUSE CHAOS: CABINET CORRUPTION

Let’s see if Ronny still has a job when this all said and done.

Somehow, he has a new job.

How the fuck does he still have a job?

This mutha fucka acts like his job was to accept jobs.

Something that most Presidents had:  a person whose job it was to find people who could actually do their jobs.

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

I have no clue who Diamand and Silk are.  When I first heard their names, I thought about Prince’s twin singers/dancers Diamond and Pearl.

DiamondsandPearls

Imagine my confusion when, after rationalizing a possible reason why Prince’s old singers were testifying before Congress, when I clicked on an article and found that not only was I completely wrong, but horribly disappointed.  I had “Sexy MF” ready to roll.

 

CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA/FACEBOOK

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

GOP:  THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Licking the pudding pop takes on a whole different meaning in Cell Block D.

 

RED STATE TEACHER STRIKES

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s it for today.  It’s been a long day, and I’m relaxing by watching the NFL Draft.  At this point, I watch out of tradition and withdraw from football, but I find it ridiculous how much hype and drama is associated with grown genetic freaks playing a children’s game.  But the whole concept of the draft is nuts and completely anti-capitalistic.

Think about it.  Companies from across the country select, in inverse order of their performance from the previous year, from a collection of employees that fill various positions.  Salaries are predetermined, based on what order they were hired.  The new hire has no choice but to relocate to the the city of the company that hired them, and they have no choice in where they work.  If they refuse to sign a 4 year contract with their new company, then they aren’t allowed to work for the next year, and reenter the pool of eligible employees, to go through the process again.  The company gets to choose whether they can exercise an option year on the contract, and if they’re really good, the company can force them into a contract extension for another year or two.  By this point, the person has passed the average career length for their field, and likely will get little to no chance at freedom in choosing where they work.  Meanwhile, the worst people in the hiring pool, the ones that don’t get selected, have some freedom as to where they go.

On top of all that, these new hires are expected to be the saviors of their companies.  In no other field is the new college grad expected to know anything, let alone have the hopes and dreams of the entire company on their shoulders.

It’s funny and nuts at the same time.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

Daily Check-In 04/24/2018

Tuesday, April 24th.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

According to the latest court filing by the Mueller inquiry, which is defending a warrant attached to a raid on Manafort’s home in July 2017, part of what the FBI were hunting for were “communications, records, documents, and other files involving any of the attendees of the June 9, 2016 meeting at Trump Tower, as well as Aras and [Emin] Agalarov.”

Here’s a PDF

They listed among the items seized documents pertaining to bank accounts opened in his wife’s name.

Not their names, or his name, but his wife’s name.

Congratulations, Kathleen Manafort! You are now a subject in the Mueller Investigation, and will be used to get your husband to flip on Donald Trump. If your husband refuses to play ball, you will be charged as an Accessory to Money Laundering, Accessory to Bank Fraud, and as an Accessory to commit Wire Fraud. You will get to spend the rest of your life in prison.

If anyone’s wondering if Mueller or his team would ever go after a spouse to get a witness to turn states evidence, ask Lea Fastow.

 

 

COHEN:  HANNITY’S REAL ESTATE EMPIRE JUST GOT SHADIER

In 2012, a shell company linked to the Fox News host bought 11 homes in Georgia that had been purchased by the dealer, Jeff Brock, following foreclosures. Brock transferred the properties to corporate vehicles that sold them on to the Hannity-linked company at a profit.

Brock pleaded guilty in 2016 to federal charges of bank fraud and conspiracy for his role in an operation to rig foreclosure auctions between 2007 and 2012. He was sentenced to six months in prison and had to pay more than $166,000 in fines and restitution.

Some of the houses sold on to the Hannity-linked firm in 2012 had been acquired by Brock from banks later named by prosecutors among his victims. But the justice department declined to identify specific properties sold in the rigged auctions. Hannity has not been accused of any wrongdoing and there is no evidence he was aware that Brock was involved in fraud.

…

In February 2012, the Hannity-linked company spent about $540,000 buying 10 single-family houses in Georgia’s Fulton, Cobb, Clayton, and DeKalb counties, according to county records. It bought an additional DeKalb county property later that year for about $60,000.

The company was formed in Georgia days before the February purchases by an attorney for Hannity. It was registered to the offices of Henssler Financial, Hannity’s wealth managers. As a limited liability company (LLC), it was not required to report its actual owner to Georgia regulators. Hannity is not mentioned in the company’s publicly available filings.

Brock had bought the 11 Georgia houses in foreclosure auctions in 2011 and 2012, after the previous owners defaulted on mortgages. He transferred the properties to five LLCs. Brock was the registered agent for two of the five LLCs and a colleague at Key Property was the agent for another. Then the Hannity-linked company bought the houses from these five LLCs, paying a total of $600,000.

Where payment information was clear in the records, it indicated that the sales created significant profits. One four-bedroom home in College Park that Brock bought for $14,000 in January 2012 was sold to the Hannity-linked company for $47,000 the following month. Another in Forest Park, for which Brock paid $19,000 in October 2011, was sold on for $55,000.

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

TORONTO ATTACK

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA AND FACEBOOK

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

GOP:  THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

STORMYGATE

 

PUFF, PUFF, PASS

 

TEXAS; GERRYMANDERING AND RACIST JUDGES

 

ARIZONA; SPECIAL ELECTION

 

SAY GOODBYE TO THE ECONOMY

 

RUMOR MILL

 

 

That’s it for today.  Something came up tonight, so I won’t be adding any commentary tonight.  I’ll be back to my normal routine tomorrow.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

 

 

 

Cooperating Witnesses

Cooperating Witnesses are people that help investigators by providing information against others that committed crimes, often times crimes that the witness either took part in directly or personally witnessed.  Usually, they’re cooperating with the prosecution and investigators for consideration of leniency in their own sentencing.

Just as with most other criminal cases, in the Mueller Investigation, a cooperating witness has to be able to offer something more than themselves.  They have to be able to provide evidence on someone or something more important than them.  For example, if a witness robbed a bank, and they can only provide evidence against someone committing petty vandalism, the prosecutor won’t work with them.  However, if the bank robber can implicate the rest of their crew, or provide evidence against the crime boss that ordered and planned the robbery, the prosecution might be willing to make a deal for testimony.  This deal could include a reduced prison sentence, immunity against certain crimes, or other considerations like serving a sentence in a specific prison or getting extra privileges.

This article, which will be updated over time, lists the confirmed, rumored, and disproven cooperating witnesses, and will be updated over time.

 

CONFIRMED

George Papadopoulos:  Member of the Foreign Policy team, he was the first person known to flip.  George was arrested in July 2017, and pled guilty to lying to the FBI in October 2017.  His deal was first reported on Daily Check-In 10/30/2017.  George reported to jail on Daily Check-In 11/26/2018.

George Nader: Assistant and confidant of Erik Prince, with deep ties to the United Arab Emirates.  A convicted pedophile, his deal was reported on Daily Check-In 03/06/2018.

Richard Pinedo: Sold bank account information on the Dark Web to Russians working for the Internet Research Agency so they could spoof PayPal.  First reported on Daily Check-in 02/16/2018.

Rick Gates:  Former business partner of Paul Manafort, was Deputy Campaign Manager of the Trump Presidential Campaign from June 2016 until the end.  Following the campaign, he was the Chief of Staff to the Chairman of the Trump Inaugural Committee chairman Tom Barrack.  His deal took a long time to work out, but was finalized on Daily Check-In 02/23/2018.

Mike Flynn: Former National Security Advisor to President Trump.  Pled guilty to lying to the FBI in exchange for his cooperation in multiple legal affairs on Daily Check-In 12/01/2017.

Jeffrey Yohai:  Paul Manafort’s former son-in-law, his deal became public on May 18, 2018.

Evgeny Freidman: Michael Cohen’s former business partner in Taxi Medallion businesses.  He pleaded guilty to tax evasion and agreed to testify against Donald Trump’s personal attorney on   May 22, 2018.

Sam Patten: A lobbyist that worked with Paul Manafort, he also worked for the Opposition Bloc, arranged a deal to funnel at least $50,000 of Ukrainian money into the Trump Inauguration Committee, and worked at SCL/Cambridge Analytica on messaging for Vladimir Putin.  His deal became public on Daily Check-In 08/31/2018.

Paul Manafort: Former Campaign Chairman for the Trump Presidential Campaign.  He agreed to a plea deal involving a cooperation agreement on Daily Check-In 09/14/2018.  The Special Counselor’s Office broke that deal on Daily Check-In 11/26/2018 after they announced that Manafort had lied repeatedly during the cooperation period.

Michael Cohen: Former attorney for Donald Trump.  He’s rumored to be cooperating with the Mueller Investigation, but as of this time does not have a formal agreement.  UPDATE: Formal update confirmed on Daily Check-In 11/29/2018

 

RUMORED

Steve Bannon:  Former White House Chief Strategist.  He’s rumored to have spilled the beans on Trump, Cambridge Analytica, and the Mercers to avoid espionage and treason charges.

 

DISPROVEN

Alex Van Der Zwan:  Rick Gates’ former attorney.  Convicted of lying to the FBI, serving a 30 day sentence in prison.

 

UPDATE HISTORY

April 15th: Began article and listed names.

May 18th:  Added Jeffrey Yohai.  Fleshed out details of each person.

May 22nd:  Added Evgeny Freidman.

September 3rd:  Added Sam Patten.

September 16th: Added Paul Manafort.

November 27th: Paul Manafort is no longer a cooperating witness.

December 6th: Michael Cohen is officially cooperating with Robert Mueller’s team as of November 29th, 2018.