By definition, the fifth column is the English translation of the Spanish phrase, quinta columna, a term that arose during the Spanish Civil War to mean a secret 5th column of sympathizers that would arise within Madrid to aid the four columns of rebel troops marching on the city. We understand it as a political term meaning any group of people whose agenda is to subvert a larger group from within, especially in favor of an enemy group or nation.
Let me state my case below
Trump is and has been since he entered office, executing a power grab to usurp the separation of powers and concentrate total power in his person so that our entire government can more easily be controlled for his personal financial gain and to allow Russian influence to dominate America’s political functions to their advantage in geopolitical terms.
PART I: Trump is Compromised by the Russians
Trump began his assault on our government and Constitution by compromising himself to the Russian oligarchs and betraying his integrity in financial fraud by the time he declared his candidacy. His entanglement reached the attention of the FBI over his private server within Trump Tower that was "oddly” linked between his business, The Trump Organization, and a Russian bank, Alfa Bank.
The questionable linkage came to light when a group of scientists, some with links to “three-letter government agencies,” combing their banker client’s computer system for malware, raised the alarm. In late May, early June 2016, America and the self-styled “Union of Concerned Nerds,” learned DNC servers had been hacked by Russians. The scientists formulated a hypothesis that the malware and bots they’d “captured” when investigating for their clients might be related to this revelation. In July, they determined malware originating in Russia was destined for Trump’s private server, pinging it at irregular intervals. The destination domain had Trump in its name. Trump, remember, publicly invited the Russians to hack Hillary. Little did he know that he was to be hoist on his own petard. Read more here.
Former FBI Director James Comey has confirmed he has been heading a counter-intelligence investigation into the Trump campaign and Trump associates since July.
Today, Trump is meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the very man understood to be Vladimir Putin’s leader of his hacking operations into foreign elections.
Since March of last year, Trump failed to secure loans from major American banks to keep his real estate interests afloat. He turned to foreign banks. Deutsche Bank was the only major bank willing to lend to him, when it was a financially troubled institution at that time. Trump also sought financing from smaller institutions as he moved from being a real estate developer to a licensor of a brand, “Trump.”
Because The Trump Organization is a private company, its financial records are not open. But real estate financing of major buildings is relatively transparent in the business world and the New York high rollers in real estate knew that Trump sought loans from lenders with direct ties to Russian financial interests who were questionable.
Raising more question were Trump’s direct overtures to Russian oligarchs. He solicited them to purchase expensive properties owned by him, including his Palm Beach mansion which was bought in 2008 by billionaire, Dmitry Rybolovlev who vastly overpaid for no explicable reason since the property hadn’t appreciably increased in value from the time Trump had bought it. Rybolovlev never inspected the property and later denied owning it.
Other Trump business involvement includes his partnership with shady characters heading and involved with the Bayrock Group, Tevfik Arif and Felix Sater (son of Russian organized crime boss and with ties to the Mafia). Read more here. And here. Especially here.
Trump entered the campaign and the presidency compromised by hundreds of millions of dollars of indebtedness. In fact, the total is pegged at $1.8 billion to more than 150 institutions worldwide, making him vulnerable to financiers and liable to illegal influence from both domestic (Wells Fargo, MetLife, Inc.) and foreign (Bank of China) entities should he no longer be able to keep all the juggled balls in the air. Read more here. And here. And Daily Kos here.
Trump surrounded himself with campaign aides and presidential advisors who possibly owe more allegiance to the Russians than America. $10 MILLION buys considerable loyalty in some individuals. $10 million is what Putin’s valued oligarch and aluminum tycoon ally, Oleg Deripaska, paid to Paul Manafort for what can fairly be described as “co-operative ventures” (my phrase).
Deripaska is just one of a cadre of oligarchs that Putin uses in a variety of ways to advance his causes around the world, analysts familiar with Russian politics told VICE News. “Russian oligarchs have dazzled the Western imagination,” said Natalya Antonova, a commentator on Russian and Ukrainian affairs, “and the Kremlin will leverage that when it can.”
The oligarchs and the Kremlin have a mutually beneficial relationship, Antonova said. “The Kremlin allows the oligarchs to thrive financially, and the oligarchs are willing to support the Kremlin in its interests.”
Manafort agreed to peddle a lot of influence benefiting the Russians from as far back as 2005. . .
. . .when he advised Rinat Akhmetov* — the country’s richest man — on strategic communications for one of the billionaire’s many companies.
. . .and signed a contract in 2006, lasting to at least 2009. His pitch to Deripaska:
Manafort proposed in a confidential strategy plan as early as June 2005 that he would influence politics, business dealings and news coverage inside the United States, Europe and former Soviet republics to benefit President Vladimir Putin's government. . .
In Manafort’s own words from that pitch:
"We are now of the belief that this model can greatly benefit the Putin Government if employed at the correct levels with the appropriate commitment to success,"
[snip]
The effort, Manafort wrote, "will be offering a great service that can re-focus, both internally and externally, the policies of the Putin government."
The Russians could not have recruited a better hire. Manafort has been a lobbyist, a deputy director of the RNC, an advisor to Republican presidential campaigns since 1976, as well as White House Associate Director of the Presidential Personnel Office at the White House under Reagan.
If there was a Russian plot to make Trump president, arguably it may have begun in 2012 when Manafort allegedly was paid by the Kremlin to get Russian puppet Viktor Yanukovych elected in the Ukraine. (It was *Akhmetov who led Manafort to his friend, Yanukovych.) Part of accomplishing that plan apparently required Manafort to “set up a meeting between Yanukovych’s close associate Serhiy Tulub and Donald Trump,” which led to Manafort being blackmailed.
Manafort has claimed that his daughter received a blackmail e-mail from one Serhiy Leshchenko, a journalist and Ukrainian parliamentarian. Leshchenko denies that the typo-ridden e-mail is from him. The e-mail threatened to release. . .
. . .“bulletproof” evidence related to Manafort’s financial arrangement with Ukraine’s former president, the pro-Russian strongman Viktor Yanukovych, as well as an alleged 2012 meeting between Trump and a close Yanukovych associate named Serhiy Tulub.
. . .to Ukranian anti-corruption officials, the press, and the FBI.
Of course, that leaves the question on the table: Who did? Since Manafort admits receiving e-mails of a similar nature from the same address, who sent them to him? Is this a question former director Comey had an answer to?
In 2016 Manafort inserted himself once more into a Republican presidential campaign, becoming, a month after associating himself to Trump, his replacement campaign manager.
No one on either side of the aisle denies that Manafort’s ties to Russia are dangerous and a threat to American democracy. What some deny is whether or not Trump knew about those ties and kept Manafort (and other questionable associates) as part of his own collusion with the Russians to undermine our democracy and turn himself into an American oligarch prepared to favor Putin’s bidding in the same way Russia’s oligarchs do.
It is difficult to entertain the contention from Sean Spicer that Trump knew nothing about Manafort’s contacts with Russians in light of the fact that Trump was himself embroiled with the same “set” and in a near congruent time-frame. Instead, is highly likely that Trump’s involvement with oligarchs and Manafort’s, too, were taken advantage of by Putin whose control over the range of operations these billionaires are allowed to indulge in is carefully monitored.
It is difficult to escape the logical simplicity that lies in front of us as it then did Putin. Let’s put Manafort — who is compromised — in Trump’s circle because Trump is also compromised — see the Steele Dossier. It’s a win win for Putin and Russia. And it explains a lot of Trump behaviors, such as his call for the Russian hackers to go after Clinton, his promotion of “Lock her up!”, the softening of the RNC platform toward Russia, and Trump’s reneging on his campaign promise that he would release his taxes.
Putin tolerates the mega-rich and powerful in his country as long as they serve his own interests and those of the Russian government in the areas of economics, geopolitics, development, and even the last Winter Olympics event which was financed by these 21st century vassals. The Russian leader also has his ways and means for quashing “loose ends” (public servants, i.e.) that can prove embarrassing to his methods and goals as a politician. They are nothing like Trump’s, who can only fire people who do — Yates, Bharara, Comey.
This diary is long enough. I am not going to explore Manafort’s ties to players in the Panama Papers, another related scandal that has had too little attention paid it by American media. Read more here. You know the names of other problematic individuals associated with Trump presently and recently who have tenuous status as honorable individuals who put America first. I have not brought up the Cyprus Bank details likely associated with probable Trump-Russian money laundering. Nor have I laid out the supportive example to my case for Trump being a Fifth Columnist vis a vis Michael Flynn. There simply is too much material for a diary on this aspect of Trump’s character and activities for a diary. I would need a book. As it is, I need a Part II in order to finish what I want to say to support my contention that we don’t have a legitimate President of the United States but a Fifth Columnist in the Oval Office. But let me say a few words about the current star of the FBI counter-intelligence probe, Michael Flynn.
I am convinced that the allegations developed around him by former Director Comey is the reason for Comey’s firing, especially in light of Sarah Huckabee Sander's statement to the press today that Trump had been losing confidence in Director Comey since he became president. Flynn represents the greatest threat to Trump because he is a man devoid of loyalty to any boss once he’s been fired. Flynn is the dog who bites the hand that fed him.
As soon as Obama fired him in 2014, Flynn’s rogue tendencies became uncontrolled. He publicly trashed President Obama when testifying in 2015 before the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on the president’s Middle East Policy. Flynn testified that the Obama Administration had no policy to combat ISIS. During the 2016 campaign as a Trump lackey, Flynn again trashed a member of the Administration that he despised for firing him. He led the chants of “Lock her up!” referring to Hillary Clinton.
I think there is little doubt that he will, as he faces Federal criminal indictments for taking Russian and Turkish money while an unregistered foreign agent (among other things), turn on Trump. Trump is the last boss who fired him. Flynn always talks in order to harm his former bosses. He has this trait in common with Trump. They both are vengeance driven operators. I believe that then Director Comey intended and perhaps already had offered Flynn a deal to give evidence against Trump that would lead to his (Trump’s) indictment for high crimes and misdemeanors in exchange for reduced charges and punishment if found guilty. And I believe Flynn would cooperate if it meant he could bring down the man who fired him.
As Comey came closer and closer to doing such a thing, week over week, so did Trump’s “lack of confidence” in Comey build. That is the source of today’s rationale repeated over and over by Trump, his spokespeople, the VP, and other sycophants. That is why we are where we are today as Trump continues to march his Fifth Column over our precarious democracy.
In a future diary I will discuss Trump's creation of a Fake 5th Column to divert the nation’s attention from his real one.