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As revealed recently, Paul Manafort had the presence of mind to jot down a “few notes” when he chaperoned that quid-pro-quo meeting, that Trump Jr took with Russian envoys, promising “Dirt on Hillary Clinton”. Those Notes:
• RNC
• Donations
I guess it pays to have a To Do List, sometimes ...
Trump’s inaugural committee took $1 million from a Russian-American whose money the GOP rejected
[...]
The [Trump Inaugural] committee also took $1 million from Access Industries, which is owned by oligarch Len Blavatnik, an American citizen who was born in the USSR and made his fortune investing in commodities in post-Soviet Russia. In 2015, Oxford University came under heavy pressure to reject tens of millions of pounds donated by Blavatnik, over his alleged “corporate abuses” in Russia; it took the money.
[...] [emphasis added]
according to Forbes.com
$19.9 B
- Born in Ukraine, raised in Moscow, Blavatnik emigrated to the U.S. in 1978 for school.
- He made a fortune selling his stake in Russian oil company TNK-BP for $7 billion in 2013.
Once again, according to Forbes.com, when Blavatnik sold his Russian oil-stake — destined to become part of the nation’s Rosneft Oil company — he quote made “Putin ecstatic” ...
Putin was ecstatic. "This is a good big deal, which is important not only for Russia's energy sector but for the entire Russian economy," he said as the deal was being announced. Rosneft's $55 billion TNK-BP purchase transformed it into the world's biggest publicly traded oil company and cemented Sechin's position as a global energy czar, with Putin presumably pulling the strings.
So if he was asked to do a few “disruptive” favors for his old benefactor, who was Len to say No …
GOP campaigns took $7.35 million from oligarch linked to Russia
by Ruth May, dallasnews.com — Aug 3, 2017
[...]
During the 2015-2016 election season, Ukrainian-born billionaire Leonard "Len" Blavatnik contributed $6.35 million to leading Republican candidates and incumbent senators. Mitch McConnell was the top recipient of Blavatnik's donations, collecting $2.5 million for his GOP Senate Leadership Fund under the names of two of Blavatnik's holding companies, Access Industries and AI Altep Holdings, according to Federal Election Commission documents and OpenSecrets.org.
Marco Rubio's Conservative Solutions PAC and his Florida First Project received $1.5 million through Blavatnik's two holding companies. Other high dollar recipients of funding from Blavatnik were PACS representing Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker at $1.1 million, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham at $800,000, Ohio Governor John Kasich at $250,000 and Arizona Senator John McCain at $200,000.
[...]
Len Blavatnik, considered to be one of the richest men in Great Britain, holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and the U.K. He is known for his business savvy and generous philanthropy, but not without controversy.
[...] [emphasis added]
OpenSecrets: Access Industries
OpenSecrets: AI Altep Holdings
[...] McCarthy laughed while offering another apparent joke about Russia having hacked the Democratic National Committee (The Washington Post had reported on that hack the day before):
“I’ll guarantee you that’s what it is. … The Russians hacked the DNC and got the opp [opposition] research that they had on Trump,” McCarthy said with a laugh.
Ryan asked who the Russians “delivered” the opposition research to.
“There’s … there’s two people, I think, Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” McCarthy said, drawing some laughter. “Swear to God,” McCarthy added.
At that point, with some levity still apparent in their conversation, Ryan cut it off:
“This is an off the record,” Ryan said.
Some lawmakers laughed at that.
“No leaks, all right?” Ryan said, adding: “This is how we know we’re a real family here.”
“That’s how you know that we’re tight,” Scalise said.
“What’s said in the family stays in the family,” Ryan added.
[...]
And it's pretty clear why Ryan wanted to shut this discussion down and asked participants not to leak it. Even joking about such things could one day come back to bite them. And now it has.
The 2016 conversation Paul Ryan wanted to keep private
As theGuardian.com also reported on May 17, 2017:
The McCarthy conversation came shortly after both McCarthy and Ryan had been briefed by the Ukrainian prime minister, Volodymyr Groysman, about Russian attempts to undermine democratic institutions in eastern Europe, and a day after it was reported that Russia had successfully hacked the DNC.
Hmmm, So why all the secrecy then ... about those supposedly “on Putin’s payroll” ???
As far as Jokes go, this one’s not very funny.
Neither are the Mega-Donations the RNC and Republican PACs raked in — No Questions asked.
“No leaks, all right?” — Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House.
May Manafort’s Notes, result in the day when Ryan and company finally ‘get bit’. What other “holding companies” are out there, with a foot in two-worlds, who are underwriting some non-American agenda?
George Soros has nothing over these strongman Oligarchs, made by Vlad. Forever indebted to him, in fact. Hmmm, whom does that remind us of ….