Tag: Rumor Mill

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.

img_5419

 

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 04/25/2018

Wednesday, April 25th.

 

COHEN:  COHEN TO PLEAD FIFTH IN STORMY DANIELS CIVIL SUIT

Michael Cohen, the personal attorney to President Donald Trump, has declared his intention to plead his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination in regards to nearly every question he could be asked in his civil lawsuit against Stormy Daniels.

What is the Fifth Amendment?

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

There are several parts of the Fifth Amendment, including the basis of Eminent Domain, Double Jeopardy, establishment of military courts, and use of indictments from a Grand Jury, but when most people talk about the Fifth, they’re referring to the protections against self-incrimination.  In a criminal case, a defendant cannot be forced to testify against themselves.

Notice how I said a criminal case.  Civil cases do not have this type of protection, under normal circumstances. In a civil case, a defendant can be compelled to answer questions regarding their actions.  They cannot claim this protection, under normal circumstances.

The main exception to that is if there is a current criminal investigation, since testimony in a civil case can be used as evidence in a criminal case.

Here is the official filing.

What has Trump said on the record about the Fifth Amendment?

“The mob takes the Fifth Amendment,” Trump said at a campaign event in Iowa later that month. “If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?”

That’s a one-off, right?

“Why do u take the 5th if you have done nothing wrong and have nothing to hide?” – Sean Spicer

Wow, it’s almost history is coming back to bite them in the ass.

 

HANNITY MAY HAVE BENEFITTED FROM FRAUDULENT AUCTIONS

Oh, this is getting good…

“Brock did not use his own money to pay Doughty and Sullivan for not bidding competitively at the December 6, 2011 auctions; rather, he used money that outside investors had given him to acquire foreclosed properties,” the memorandum says, “To keep his investors informed, Brock instructed an employee to send them invoices documenting the payments that he made.”

The employee dutifully prepared an invoice documenting a $3,770 payoff for the Lakewood house. The sum seems altogether reasonable considering that county records show Brock paid only $21,130 for a house that had been purchased back in 1999 for $95,000 and subsequently carried a mortgage of $155,000.

The memorandum does not identify the investor who provided the payoff funds. Property records show that title to the house did pass from Brock to a Cobb County entity called The First Real Estate Corporation, though no purchase price is recorded and the property passed that very same day to one of Sean Hannity’s shell myriad companies, SPMKX GA LL.

Wow. This guy, Jeffrey Wayne Brock, would show up at the courthouse with a couple buddies for a property auction, and they conspired to bid low, keeping the house value down. Then, after purchasing the house for his investment company, he sold it to one of Sean Hannity’s shell companies THE VERY SAME DAY.

Think back to shows like Flip or Flop, where they buy a property from a government auction. For the auction to take place, many places require pre-registration, and a minimum number of participants, likely 3. That way, the government will get a fair number of bids. But, what if those three people were all working for the same common goal? That is a conspiracy to commit fraud, and is illegal in most places.

They misrepresented themselves to get in the auction in the first place. Brock’s buddies lied about wanting to bid on the house, and took the spot of an active bidder. Then, after a tiny battle back and forth, they’d let Brock win the auction at a very low price, far lower than anyone expected. Brock would then pay his buddies out of the money he received from his investor, and likely included that money in the transaction cost of the property back to the investor.

This reeks to high heaven, and is shady AF. What could make it illegal activity for Hannity is if he had prior knowledge of this scheme, and possibly what the purchase price of the property was. If it was very low, like just a small profit for Brock, this could be evidence that Hannity was in on the conspiracy.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

The documents filed late Monday by prosecutors in the office of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign, show that the FBI had interviewed Manafort in March 2013 and again in July 2014. Manafort’s deputy, Rick Gates, who also held a top role with Trump’s campaign, was interviewed by the FBI in July 2014, the documents show.

I wish I could be surprised, and say that maybe this was a one-off, but who am I kidding?  Manafort being a criminal is why he was hired.

The Cohen investigation is being run by the US Attorney; the Justice Department’s Tax Division and the National Security Devision at DOJ both also signed off on the charges to Manafort, so separate and apart from the Special Prosecutor, those charges exist, ensuring the investigations will persist separate and aside from the role of the Special Counsel’s office.

The Manafort search warrants came from the FBI’s International Corruption department, signed off by the US Attorney’s office in the Eastern District of Virginia. The Special Counsel’s team has already rooted their investigation in all these other offices which will survive and presumably sprout new trees.

I talked before (Daily Check-In 04/03/2018) about Mueller’s dead man switch, and this is another way to short circuit any advantage Trump thinks he would get by firing Mueller.  He can’t stop this part of the investigation because it originates from the International Corruption Department in the FBI.  The Special Counselor’s Office is simply coordinating matters.

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS:  PAY FOR PLAY, EPA, AND DUI IN THE VA

Seriously, what the fuck is going on with this timeline?  The head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the government organization that is supposed to protect us from corporate corruption, just admitted to accepting bribes while in Congress.  In any normal universe, this would the top story of the month.  This timeline, it’s not even in the top five of the day.

Pruitt’s Plan: Blame others.  Scott Pruitt has two interviews before Congress tomorrow, and I’m wondering how bad this could be.

Gee, what a surprise.  The doctor that said Trump was healthy (Daily Check-In 02/08/2018) has poor judgement.

 

TRUMP ORG AND CORRUPTION, FROM THE WATER IS WET DEPARTMENT

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA AND FACEBOOK

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

GOP:  THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

SAY GOODBYE TO THE ECONOMY

 

BLUE WAVE

 

TRUMP HATES BROWN PEOPLE, THE IMMIGRANTS EDITION

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

Lincoln’s Bible on Mob Myths

This thread is definitely worth checking out.

 

That’s it for today.  I think this weekend I’ll update the Cast of Characters.  I didn’t get to that this past weekend, and I don’t like leaving things hanging.

 

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

 

 

 

 

Daily Check-In 04/23/2018

Monday, April 23rd and the weekend.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

So, here’s the short version:

Took off from Asheville, 9:15PM Thursday Nov 7.

Landed Moscow 6:15AM Friday, Nov 8.

Saturday, Nov 9, Trump was pictured at the Ritz, tweeted he got a tour of Moscow. This is the next day, so he must have spent Friday night in Moscow, right?

Sunday, 1AM, November 10- Trump attends Miss Universe Pageant After Party.

Take off from Moscow, 3:58AM, Sunday, November 10.

Land at Newark 4:11AM Sunday, November 10.

Trump claims the allegation can’t be true, because he never even spent a night in Russia, but the travel shows otherwise.

Trump told James Comey multiple times that he wasn’t in Russia long enough to sleep.  While it’s possible that he didn’t sleep in the hotel, it strains credulity.

Trump notoriously sleeps only a few hours a night, typically about 4-6.  Assuming he slept on the plane right up to landing, and didn’t succumb to jet lag, he’s trying to push the tale that he was up for two days straight.  Not a lot of senior citizens can stay awake without assistance for that long.  And by assistance, I mean drugs.  Lots of drugs.  Coke and other uppers.

So, he took enough drugs to kill a small horse to stay awake and party for two days, or he slept in Russia, thus leading credence to the pee pee tape rumors.

Here’s an old article from last summer, where Bloomberg recreates Trump’s Two Nights of Parties in Moscow Echo Years Later.

I mentioned this for the first time on Daily Check-In 04/18/2018.  Looks like New York is working fast.

Two words:  Sealed Indictments.

Flynn Jr. is now saying his father never lied to Pence about his interactions with Kisylak. Which, if he is telling the truth, would mean:
  1. Pence, who has said he had no knowledge of the conversations Flynn was having with Kisylak and other Russian officials, actually did know.
  2. Trump’s reason for firing Flynn doesn’t hold water since the former national security adviser didn’t lie to Pence.
  3. Flynn chose to lie to the FBI about his dealings with the Russians during the transition but told the truth to the incoming vice president about those same interactions.

Flynn Jr. is not a very bright man.  This time, his stupidity may have accidentally tripped over the truth and shone a light on how much Mike Pence knows.

Flipping Flynn lays out how much trouble both Mike Flynn’s are in.

UPDATE: Just as I was finishing up, I ran across This article showing that Flynn Jr. is a subject of the Russian Investigation.  This leads credence to the standing hypothesis that Daddy Flynn flipped to protect his son.

Might have something to do with the fact that she’s a Russian spy.  Natalia Veselnitskaya is a cut-out for Russian Intelligence.  Even the Swiss called her a spy (Daily Check-In 01/29/2018).  If Mueller’s team or the FBI show up to interview her, they’re taking her back with them into custody.

 

COHEN: SEAN HANNITY’S REAL ESTATE EMPIRE

The records link Hannity to a group of shell companies that spent at least $90m on more than 870 homes in seven states over the past decade. The properties range from luxurious mansions to rentals for low-income families. Hannity is the hidden owner behind some of the shell companies and his attorney did not dispute that he owns all of them.

Sean Hannity, the man who sang about the evils of Obama’s government, built a real estate empire based off of government loans.

On the surface, this looks shady, but might not be illegal.  If everything was done above the board, then he’s just a rich old white guy benefiting off of the pain and misery of poor people.

Thanks to this post from Reddit /u/Diosjenin for tying the threads together:

You’re still missing it. It’s right at the end.

In footage unearthed this week that was broadcast on Fox News in January last year, Hannity mentioned having discussed an unidentified $2bn property venture in Dubai with Cohen.

“I said, ‘I’m interested in that deal myself,’” said Hannity.

It just so happens that Donald Trump also dabbled in a $2b property venture in Dubai with Michael Cohen.

It also just so happens that Donald Trump habitually uses large construction projects as a means of money laundering for shady friends (such as this project here).

It also just so happens that the United Arab Emirates, the country where Dubai is located, has served as a facilitator for back-channel Trump-Russia communications, and has used unregistered agents to influence US foreign policy up to and including pushing to fire Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State.

Which means Sean Hannity has probably partnered with Russia to launder money through real estate, in exchange for… something.

Wonder if that has anything to do with Julian Assange accidentally contacting the wrong Sean Hannity to offer dirt on ranking Senate Intelligence Committe Democrat Mark Warner via “other channels”.

So, we have Sean Hannity, Michael Cohen, and Donald Trump all involved in the same Dubai deal, likely as payoff for his work with the Russians.

By the way, Sean Hannity has been under an FBI Counterintelligence investigation since at least last August (Daily Check-In 8/3/2017).

 

#NEVERAGAIN

Reinking threatened someone with an AR-15 then drove to a public pool and exposed himself to others, said the USA TODAY Network’s Tennessean, citing police records. He has also threatened to kill himself and said he thought singer Taylor Swift was stalking him, according to the Associated Press.

Another case of White, Right-Wing, Domestic Terrorism.  This guy was crazy enough that law enforcement took his guns from him and gave them to his father, his next of kin.  His father then gave his son back his guns, and four people are dead because of it.

 

COLD WAR 2.0

Two words:  Magnitsky Act.  Freeze and seize their assets around the world.  Freeze the accounts of everyone they hang out with, they’re related to, and they know in passing.

Remember when Republicans gave a shit about using unsecured communication methods to relay classified information?  Something something buttery males.

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE/TECH WOLRD PROBLEMS

 

STORMYGATE

Jessica Drake, an adult-film star who claims she refused a $10,000 offer to have sex with Donald Trump after meeting him at a Lake Tahoe golf event in 2006, says Stormy Daniels told her Daniels was threatened by someone to stay silent about Daniels’ alleged sexual tryst with Trump.

…

“She actually told me about the threat twice,” Drake said. “So the first time she told me about the threat was shortly after it happened. She relayed the experience to me. I said something like, ‘I’m so sorry, I can’t even imagine. What are you going to do?'”

Know what’s more trustworthy than one porn star accusing Trump of using his goons to threaten her?  Another porn star backing it up from years ago.

 

RED STATE TEACHER STRIKES

 

SAY GOODBYE TO THE ECONOMY

 

GOP:  THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

BLUE WAVE

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

73 years of marriage, and less than a day after her funeral, George HW Bush is in intensive care in the hospital.  It’s like The Notebook, but in this case Ryan Gosling ran the CIA for a couple years.  Still a better story than Drive.

 

RUMOR MILL

 

 

 

That’s it for today.  Quite a few things happened over the weekend, but I still don’t think we’ve gotten to the bottom of the Sean Hannity story.  Until and unless Cohen’s emails show that his is all he worked with Sean on, I’m waiting for even worse stuff to come out about him.  The rumors floating around him involved quite a bit of SIGINT on him, as well as some sexual kompromat.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur