Let’s start with Donald Trump’s own statements about his relationship with Vladimir Putin. Watch this short clip and see how many different positions Trump takes on whether he knows Putin:
DMITRY RYBOLOVLEV AND THE INCREDIBLE, TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE REAL ESTATE FLIP
That in and of itself should be investigated. Under oath. But, comrades, here is where things get even more murky. Donald Trump appears to have a number of people around him that have extremely close ties to Russian billionaires and Vladimir Putin. Let’s start with the curious real estate deal between Donald Trump and shadowy Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev. In 2006, Donald Trump purchased a Florida mansion and estate for $40 million. Only two years later, along comes Dmitry Rybolovlev to buy the estate for 250% more than Trump paid for it. It was the most expensive home in America. This week it was completely torn down and it appears Rybolovlev never set foot in it. Why? Read this transcript from the Rachel Maddow Show on 2/27/17 and then jump below to see the full segment.
And Dmitry Rybolovlev turns around in 2008 and pays Donald Trump $100 million for that house, 2 1/2 times what Trump had bought it for two years earlier. Why did this guy spend $100 million on that property? I don’t know. We know he never moved in. In fact, some reporting on the sale indicates he never once set foot in it and it’s now being torn down.
Trump and Rybolovlev have commented publicly that they never dealt with each other publicly throughout that sale. They only worked through intermediaries, which is interesting for a financial transaction that big, right? That was the single highest priced paid for a single American house at the time of that transaction. That record actually may still hold. That may be the single most expensive house transaction ever in the United States.
And they never met? They only went through intermediaries? Who were the intermediaries?
Well, the “King of Fertilizer,” Dmitry Rybolovlev, who popped $60 million neatly into Donald Trump’s pocket during this transaction, he doesn’t have much of an American profile but he does have one very important American connection. Remember I said that he’s one of the major shareholders in that Bank of Cyprus? The chairman of that bank, as I said, is the former chairman of Deutsch Bank, which just paid $630 million fine for laundering illegal Russian money.
He was installed as chairman at the Bank of Cyprus by the two vice chairman of the bank. One of the vice chairman of that bank is, as I mentioned, Vladimir Putin`s close associate. But the other vice chairman of that bank is an American. The American is in fact the single largest shareholder in that bank, that bank that includes the guy whose firm was just done for the Russian money laundering and Vladimir Putin’s very close associate. I should tell you, the vice chairman who that guy replaced was not only also a close Vladimir Putin associate, he was a guy who Putin was in the KGB with before he became Vladimir Putin.
Curious, right? But, wait….there’s more.
DONALD TRUMP’S SECRETARY OF COMMERCE WILBUR ROSS
In the same Maddow segment, she makes the highly unusual connection between Rybolovlev and Wilbur Ross, Trump’s recently confirmed Sectary of Commerce. These two, it seems, were thick as thieves. In fact, Ross is the majority shareholder of the above-mentioned Bank of Cyrus. Seriously.
This bank is also owned in part by the Russian “King of Fertilizer” who did this inexplicable deal that Donald Trump miraculously stumbled into, that netted him $60 million for doing basically nothing. There is one American who was in the middle of that bank, who was the single largest shareholder in that bank. There’s one American in that bank. And tonight, that American was just confirmed as our nation’s new secretary of commerce.
His name is Wilbur Ross. He’s an American businessman, long-time friend of Donald Trump. Not much experience in international banking but inexplicably ended up the majority shareholder in a Cypriot bank with all sorts of ties to Vladimir Putin and to a Russian oligarch who somehow through some intermediary, we don`t know who, ended up stuffing $60 million into Donald Trump`s wallet, paying him $100 million for something that Trump had just bought for $40 million, and that the oligarch apparently had no personal interest in whatsoever, he never even bothered living in it and maybe never even visited.
I highly encourage you to watch the full 20-minute Maddow segment at the end of this article.
PAUL MANAFORT AND THE UKRAINIAN LEDGER OF CORRUPTION
Then there is Trump’s original campaign manager, Paul Manafort. He was forced to resign from the campaign in August after revelations he illegally did work for pro-Russian officials in the Ukraine:
The sudden resignation Friday of Donald Trump's campaign chairman put renewed emphasis on revelations about his past work on behalf of Ukraine's pro-Russian political leaders, including his firm's role directing a covert Washington lobbying operation that would have required him under federal law to disclose his efforts to the Justice Department.
Manafort resigned from the Trump campaign amid scrutiny of his Ukrainian work — but others involved in the once-secret influence campaign remain working for Trump in senior roles, including Manafort's deputy Rick Gates.
Manafort was alleged to have taken $12.7 million in cash:
Meanwhile, new documents released by Ukrainian anti-corruption investigators appear to link the lobbying work the men directed in the U.S. to handwritten entries in ledgers listing $12.7 million in cash payments alongside Manafort's name. Some of that money was listed as paid to Manafort through two founding members of the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine, a Brussels-based nonprofit whose lobbying efforts Manafort and Gates oversaw.
Paul Manafort has a close relationship with Donald Trump. In fact, he’s lived in Trump Tower since 2006. Before he resigned as Trump’s campaign chief, Paul Manafort was asked if Donald Trump had any relationships with Russian oligarchs. See Paul Manafort’s stumbling response:
Curious and curiouser, no? It’s clear he and Donald Trump need to be asked this question again, this time under oath.
JEFF SESSIONS AND CARTER PAGE
Jeff Sessions was an early Trump supporter, eventually joining the campaign as the head of Trump’s foreign policy advisory team. Also named to the small team of foreign policy advisors was Carter Page, a relatively unknown man who had been working to secure “energy” (oil) deals:
What I did find, however, is that while Page might not be helping Trump, Trump has been a significant help to Page. Since being named by Trump as an adviser, Page, who has spent his career trying to put together energy deals in Russia and the former Soviet Union, has finally begun to be noticed in the region. He is being treated in Russia as a person with potentially important ties in America. “He’s an extremely well-informed, authoritative expert on Russia,” says Mikhail Leontiev, a pro-Kremlin talking head and spokesman for Rosneft, Russia’s state oil giant. “People really respect him in this industry. He’s a very serious guy, and he has a good reputation.” According to the Yahoo report, U.S. intelligence believes Page had an audience with top Russian officials—including Rosneft head Igor Sechin—during a summer trip to Moscow. From what I could find about him, it’s hard to imagine he could have secured those meetings without that mention by Trump.
According to that Politico report, Carter Page was introduced to Donald Trump by Jeff Sessions and/or his staff. He eventually left the campaign, but not before he took a trip to Moscow:
According to a congressional leadership staffer familiar with the intelligence briefings on Page’s trip to Russia, “the meetings did happen and that’s been established as a fact. I think the investigation is more what happened in them.” But it remained unclear, the staffer told me unprompted, what this even meant. “It’s not just did he met with them or not, but now looking into the bigger question of what the hell is going on?” said the staffer. “Is he acting as a conduit in ways that are against America’s national security interests? Wittingly or un-, I should add. It’s what’s hard to parse about this. Is he doing this with nefarious intent or is this just about guys who are thrilled to be living in a John le Carré novel? Or are they being played by much smarter people in the Kremlin?”
Although he was no longer with the campaign—and allegedly no longer working with Team Trump—Page returned to Moscow almost immediately after the election and refused to say why he traveled there:
Carter Page, an early foreign policy adviser to Donald J. Trump who was scrutinized by the F.B.I. on suspicion of private communications with senior Russian officials over the summer, was back in Moscow on Thursday.
Mr. Page was closelipped about the purpose of his visit, telling RIA Novosti, a Russian state-run news agency, that he would stay in Moscow until Tuesday and would meet with “business leaders and thought leaders.”
Mr. Page, who founded an investment company in New York called Global Energy Capital, drew attention during the summer for a speech that criticized the United States and other Western nations for a “hypocritical focus on ideas such as democratization, inequality, corruption and regime change” in Russia and in other parts of the former Soviet Union.
Team Trump denied he was there on his behalf. Still . . . curious, no?
TRUMP ATTORNEY MICHAEL “SAYS WHO” COHEN
Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, tried to deliver a secret “peace” deal to Donald Trump that would've been very friendly to Russia:
In a CNN interview, Ukrainian lawmaker Andrii Artemenko said he discussed his left-field proposal for Ukraine in January with US President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, who offered to deliver the plan to the Trump administration.
The exact details of the plan are unclear, yet reports have suggested it revolves around leasing Crimea -- annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014 -- to Moscow for 50 to 100 years. In exchange, Russia would withdraw its troops from the separatist regions in Ukraine's war-torn east.
…….
Any suggestion that the White House might consider a plan that formalizes Russia's control of Crimea would cause consternation in Kiev and among its allies in Europe. The White House has flatly denied any knowledge of the proposal.
Again, why are Trump associates working so hard on behalf of Russian interests?
MICHAEL FLYNN, TRUMP’S NOW FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR
Donald Trump’s now disgraced National Security Advisor resigned after only 23 days amid serious allegations of illegal discussions with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. He’s not only the Russian ambassador to the U.S., top intelligence officials say Kislyak is also the "top spy and recruiter of spies" for Russia.
Former national security adviser Michael Flynn denied to FBI agents in an interview last month that he had discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with that country’s ambassador to the United States before President Trump took office, contradicting the contents of intercepted communications collected by intelligence agencies, current and former U.S. officials said.
The Jan. 24 interview potentially puts Flynn in legal jeopardy. Lying to the FBI is a felony offense. But several officials said it is unclear whether prosecutors would attempt to bring a case, in part because Flynn may parse the definition of the word “sanctions.” He also followed his denial to the FBI by saying he couldn’t recall all of the conversation, officials said.
Any decision to prosecute would ultimately lie with the Justice Department.
Flynn also appears to have violated the Emoluments Clause when he accepted a trip to Russia and payment from the Ruskies in December 2015:
"Since his retirement in 2014, General Flynn has made regular appearances on Russia Today (RT), that country's state-sponsored propaganda outlet," the lawmakers wrote. "He has admitted to being paid on at least one of these occasions — at an RT gala in Moscow where he dined with Russian President Vladimir Putin."
Flynn told The Washington Post last year that he had been paid to speak at the event, but would not disclose the amount.
It appeared this was a direct violation of the Emolument’s Clause:
"As a retired army officer, General Flynn was prohibited from accepting direct or indirect payments from foreign governments," the members wrote, citing the Defense Department's warning to military officers that they are still subject to the Emoluments Clause even after they retire.
Furthermore, Flynn did not report the payment to the Pentagon, as required by law.
JEFF SESSIONS AND RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR SERGEY KISLYAK
Michael Flynn wasn’t the only Trump campaign official meeting with Ambassador Kislyak. We now know that Attorney General Jeff Sessions also met with Kislyak twice during the campaign and failed to disclose it under oath in his Senate confirmation hearing.
Sessions met with Kislyak twice, in July on the sidelines of the Republican convention, and in September in his office when Sessions was a member of the Senate Armed Services committee. Sessions was an early Trump backer and regular surrogate for him as a candidate.
That July meeting at the Republican National Convention is very, very important and here’s why:
TEAMP TRUMP INTERFERES IN THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION PLATFORM ON BEHALF OF RUSSIA
Now, let’s examine another inexplicable Trump-Russia connection. During the Republican National Convention, members were voting to add language to the official Republican platform that would back the independent Ukrainian government against Russian invasion. Donald Trump and his campaign intervened and forced members to pull the language from the platform. It was purportedly the one and only thing they interfered with during RNC meetings. The one and only. RNC delegate Dianne Denman was floored by the interference:
Trump staffers in the room, who are not delegates but are there to oversee the process, intervened. By working with pro-Trump delegates, they were able to get the issue tabled while they devised a method to roll back the language.
On the sideline, Denman tried to persuade the Trump staffers not to change the language, but failed. “I was troubled when they put aside my amendment and then watered it down,” Denman told me. “I said, ‘What is your problem with a country that wants to remain free?’ It seems like a simple thing.”
Finally, Trump staffers wrote an amendment to Denman’s amendment that stripped out the platform’s call for “providing lethal defensive weapons” and replaced it with softer language calling for “appropriate assistance.”
Mere days after Trump’s team interfered with the RNC’s platform on Ukraine, Donald Trump made this curious public plea:
Donald Trump invited Russia to hack Hillary Clinton's emails on Wednesday, asking one of America’s longstanding geopolitical adversaries to find “the 30,000 emails that are missing” from the personal server she used during her time as secretary of state.
“I will tell you this, Russia: If you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” the Republican nominee said at a news conference in Florida. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
And just like that, the Russians delivered those hacked emails via Wikileaks. Seventeen separate U.S. intelligence agencies confirmed the Russians were behind the attack.
SECRETARY OF STATE REX TILLERSON AND THE $500 BILLION DEAL WITH PUTIN
As CEO of ExxonMobil, Rex Tillerson was working with Vladmir Putin on a deal to drill for oil in the Artic. The plan was unveiled in 2012:
Oil major ExxonMobil (XOM.N) and Russia's Rosneft ROSN.M unveiled an offshore exploration partnership on Wednesday that could invest upward of $500 billion in developing Russia's vast energy reserves in the Arctic and Black Sea.
The deal, between the world's largest listed oil firm and the world's top oil producing nation, was the product of nearly a year of talks and came about despite a history of mutual distrust between Washington and Moscow dating back to the Cold War and recent difficulties for other Western firms in Russia.
"Experts say that this project, in terms of its ambitions, exceeds sending man into outer space or flying to the moon," Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, a key architect of the partnership, told a briefing for analysts in New York.
Sanctions imposed by the Obama administration (and would presumably have been carried forward by President Hillary Clinton) blocked the massive oil deal:
One of the enormous deals that Vladimir Putin and Rex Tillerson worked on was a $500 billion oil exploration partnership between Exxon and the Russian government’s oil company, Rosneft. The Obama administration blocked the deal when it imposed sanctions against Russia for its intervention in the Ukraine. In a recent column for ThinkProgress titled "Trump, Putin, and ExxonMobil team up to destroy the planet," Joe Romm, founding editor of Climate Progress, writes, "This deal could explain why Putin appears to have interfered in U.S. elections in favor of a Trump victory." Romm goes on to say, "if the sanctions are lifted—something a new Secretary of State could help make happen—it would pay off big time for Exxon. … Imagine … if the oil giant is freed to produce and sell oil on the staggering 63.7 million acres of Russian land it leases, which is over 5 times the amount of land it leases in this country. Happy days are here again, for Exxon."
The happy days would be here again for Exxon AND Vladmir Putin, who needs a big shot in the arm for the Russian economy. Is this the real reason former KGB Chief Putin and his Russian network of spies went to work to elect Donald Trump? It seems like everywhere you turn in the Trump administration there is a Putin-friendly ally. The only thing they all have in common is Donald Trump and pure, unadulterated greed.
If that doesn’t make the case that we need a full, independent investigation with a special prosecutor, I don’t know what will. There is more smoke here than a Kuwati oil field during the Gulf War.
Now here’s the amazing clip of Rachel Maddow connecting the dots. I highly recommend you watch and share:
Thursday, Mar 2, 2017 · 7:37:42 PM +00:00 · Jen Hayden
My colleague Mark Sumner has previously written about the fact Donald Trump was bailed out of bankruptcy by Russia crime bosses. Here is a snippet, but be sure to read the whole piece:
Millian helped arrange for Trump to visit Moscow in 2007, and had other outings with Trump in the states, including a visit to horse races in Miami. Millian claims that he had the right to market Trump properties in Russia.
“You could say I was their exclusive broker,” he told Ria. “Then, in 2007-2008, dozens of Russians bought apartments in Trump properties in the US.” He later told ABC television that the Trump Organisation had received “hundreds of millions of dollars” through deals with Russian businessmen.