It’s becoming more and more obvious that Trump’s big boast during the campaign that he and his big business friends who had no government experience or knowledge were going to come riding into a one-horse Washington and clean the town up lickety-split was a giant crock.
That was little more than an arrogant delusion.
But what’s worse is that nearly all of them have shown themselves to be grossly incompetent and corrupt beyond belief. They treat our nation and our resources like a big bowl of candy to be raided and shoved into their pockets a quickly as they can grab handfuls and shove them into every pocket.
In short, they’re a pack of crooks. A criminal syndicate.
And now they’re the people at the levers of power in the most prosperous and powerful country on the planet.
God help us all.
Continuing from my first installment in this series where I discussed the corruption of VP Mike Pence, Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon we now move on to the long list of others who all fail to fit anywhere near what Trump used to claim were “The Best People.”
Donald Trump Jr.
Don Jr. is of course a consummate spoiled brat diletant. [Or “dilettante” if you don’t prefer the Russian spelling...] He grew up with a silver spoon crammed right up his tight ass. During his college years he grew his hair long, began obsessively drinking and started to rebel against being part of the family real estate business. But the real problem stared when Donald had an affair with Marla Maples.
As a preteen, Trump Jr.’s relationship with his father was fraught following Trump’s separation from his first wife, Ivana Trump, the mother of eldest children Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric.
Trump Jr. was 12 at the time and didn’t speak to his father for a year after the highly publicized split, New York magazine reported in a 2004 article about the Trump children.
Trump Jr. told the magazine that at the time he blamed the divorce on his father, who had been having an affair with model Marla Maples. But he added that in retrospect he may have been “manipulated” into that belief by his mother.
Donald Sr. really didn’t put up with Junior’s wavering for very long.
Donald Trump is mighty proud of his temperament. Just yesterday, he told a Florida crowd that he's "honored to have the greatest temperament that anybody has.”
But Scott Melker, a DJ and realtor who lives in Miami Beach, says a great temperament isn't exactly what the Donald showed when he encountered him back in college at the University of Pennsylvania.
The way Melker tells it in a lengthy Facebook story posted last night, he lived in the same freshman dorm at UPenn as Donald Trump Jr., who attended the Wharton School. One day, the elder Trump showed up to pick up his son for a baseball game and flat-out slapped the crap out of his kid when he wasn't dressed for the occasion.
"Don Jr. opened the door, wearing a Yankee jersey. Without saying a word, his father slapped him across the face, knocking him to the floor in front of all of his classmates," Melker writes on Facebook. "He simply said 'put on a suit and meet me outside,' and closed the door."
So basically since what Donald Sr. wants, he gets, Junior joined the family business working with his father at promoting the global brand during the early 90’s by which point Donald had suffered quite a few embarrassing set-backs after delving into the casino business and instead of actually making things had begun largely just to put the family name on them.
Those problems began in 1990 when Trump’s Taj Mahal casino, which was a favorite gambling spot for Russian mobsters living in Brooklyn, is cited 106 times in 18 months for violating money laundering rules, particular failing to report when someone wins and withdraws more then $10,000.
Not being able to borrow from U.S. banks after multiple bankruptcy filings — the Trump organization had to look for funding elsewhere including working with the Bayrock Group to fund project such as Trump Soho and Russian banks such as VTB to fund Trump Tower Toronto.
Starting in the late 90’s ownership of a Chromium Mine in Kazahkstan may have been an elaborate money laundering scheme that shifted funds from their employees, who were forced to sell their shares to a shell company in the British Virgin Islands, into the hands of Trump properties such as Trump Soho through Refik Arif and his brother Terif who is the owner of Bayrock LLC. More funds came also from Mukhtar Ablyazov the former head of a Kazahkstan’s BTA Bank who also embezzled over $2 Billion by shady loans to himself via shell companies he himself created and bought three condos in Trump Soho through his family and son-in-law Iliyas Khrapunov, who’d had previous deals with Bayrock’s Felix Sater, and a Troika of metals billionaires including Alexander Mashkevich and his two partners —Patokh Chodiev and Alijan Ibragimov — who also supplied Bayrock with cash through their holding company Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation Plc, (ENRC) which was forced off the European Stock Exchange by England’s Serious Fraud Office due to their rampant corruption. [All of this is apparently now part of Mueller’s investigation into money-laundering associated with Trump properties.]
According to Buzzfeed’s Thomas Frank over 1,300 real estate transactions involving Trump Properties that were purchased by shell companies in cash which have the hallmarks of money-laundering as outlined by Treasury’s FinCen financial crimes unit — all of which could have generated as much as $1.5 Billion in profits for TrumpCo accounting for 21% of their U.S. property sales.
Between 2001-2007 at least 63 Russian Oligarchs leased, rented or bought various Trump properties in South Florida spending upwards of $98.5 Million on them, many of these deals with Russian nationals in Manhattan reportedly are arranged through Bayrock Group LLC whose offices were located on the 24th floor of Trump Tower. Iliyas Khrapunov son-in-law of former BTA Bank Chairman Mukhtar Ablyazov purchased 3 condos in Trump Soho Tower, funds for this purchase may have come from $2 Billion embezzled by Ablayzov from the bank, as well as a shady deal involving a Chromium mine funded to the brother of Bayrocks’ Founder and the Troika of Metal magnates in Kazahkstan.
in 2008 Don jr publicaly stated “We get a lot to money from Russia.” [Really? No kiddin’!]
In 2010 Manhattan’s Major Economic Crimes Bureau of the D.A began investigation the Bayrock/Trump Soho project for fraudulent claims exaggerating it’s value and sales by as much as 4 times. Emails belonging to Don Jr, Kushner and Ivanka showed they were all aware of the fraud and discussed keeping it secret. Also 77% of Trump Soho properties have been purchased in cash by secretive shell companies which again is a potential indication of money laundering.
Trump biographer Tim O’Brien published a report in Bloomberg on his shady financial ties to Mafia and Russian Mob money through Felix Sater and Bayrock LLC between 2002-2011 including $33 Million in properties sales & rentals of luxury condos in New York, Vegas and Los Angeles to mysterious LLCs since the election. Don Jr. and Ivanka’s involvement in these deals makes them potential targets for Mueller’s investigations.
In 2012 Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance overruled his offices plans to file criminal fraud charges against Jared and Ivanka for false claims made about Trump’s Soho property. The case is dropped after attorney Marc Kasowitz donates $25,000 to the office, Vance claims it is closed “on the merits.”
in 2013 Trump decided to stage his Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow and to use his Pagant partner Arms Agalarov to help build a Trump Tower in Moscow.
Video shot before the pageant shows Trump at dinner with Emin and Aras Agalarov, as well as Rob Goldstone Emin’s promoter. Yahoo News’ Michael Isakoff talked to Goldstone and confirmed Trump had plans to license a new Trump Tower in Russia with Arms Agalarov as the local builder/owner. Don jr. is in charge of the project and Ivanka goes on location scouting trips with Emin.
As President Obama and the EU enacted financial sanctions against Russia for the annexation of Crimea in 2014 business deals such as Trump Tower Moscow became impossible since they were only likely to be funded by Russian banks which were now under those sanctions.
In 2015 Trump Hotels which are managed by Don Jr. were attacked by hackers potentially exposing the credit card numbers of customers to being stolen and cloned, the hotel chain covered up the intrusion and failed to update their software.
Also in 2015 Junior joined his fathers campaign as a senior advisor as did Eric, Jared and Ivanka. Not long after announcing his foreign policy advisory group which included Carter Page and George Papadopoulos — Trump Sr. and George sat down for a private one-on-one interview where George divulged that he intended to reach out to the Russia government and setup a face to face meeting between Trump and Putin.
Marianna Kakaounaki, an investigative reporter for the Greek newspaper Kathimerini, said Papadopoulos told her that Trump called him personally after he was hired to the campaign in March 2016. Trump later met with Papadopoulos one-on-one, when the aide told Trump about his ongoing efforts to set up a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kakaounaki said.
During his efforts to reach out to the Russians Papadopoulos encountered a Professor Alexander Mifsud who eventually told him that Russia had “thousand of Hillary’s emails” in their possession. According to recent reports Papadopoulos had told this to Trump’s lead Foreign Policy advisor Jeff Session and that Session heavily encouraged him to get a hold of those emails.
Papadopoulos, according to this new acquaintance, said that Sessions was well aware of the contact between Papadopoulos and Joseph Mifsud, an academic from Malta with high-level connections in Russia. Papadopoulos’ indictment revealed that Mifsud had told Papadopoulos that the Russians had “‘dirt’ on then-candidate Hillary Clinton in the form of ‘thousands of emails.'”
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Jason Wilson, a computer engineer who lives in Chicago, told ThinkProgress that Papadopoulos said during their conversation that “Sessions encouraged me” to find out anything he could about the hacked Hillary Clinton emails that Mifsud had mentioned.
There’s hasn’t yet been reports that Papadopoulos told anyone else but Sessions [and a girl he met in a bar who contacted Australian Diplomat Alexander Downer who took Papadopoulos to a wine bar and confirmed it] however it’s also hasn’t been proven that he didn’t also tell others like Manafort, Lewandowski and Donald Jr. And if Don Jr. already knew this when the next set of things happened — his subsequent actions make a lot more sense.
In March of 2016 the Trump Hotels payment systems got hacked again since they hadn’t implemented better security measures after the first attack in 2015. Customers weren't notified for another 3 months.
In May of 2016 Kushner had rejected an emailed meeting request from Russian banker and reported gangster Aleksander Torshin which was relayed by a contact of Jeff Sessions staffer Rick Dearborn’s who had requested a “Backdoor overture and dinner invite” to an NRA event with senior Trump officials and hints at possibly providing a message for Trump from Putin. However Don Jr. did meet and briefly chat with Torshin about guns at an NRA event, even though Kushner had turned it down. Torshin is now suspected of having helped funnel Russian Money into the NRA, which they may have then transferred to the U.S. accounts and used during the election in support of Trump.
On June 3, 2016 Music Promoter Rob Goldstone emailed Don Jr, and said he has information from the Russian Government about shady dealings by Hillary and DNC. Don Jr. said “I Love it” and planned to discuss it further on a phone call and eventually a meeting.
On June 9, 2016 Donald Jr, Kushner and Manafort secretly met with a prominent Russia lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and GRU linked lobbyist Rinat Ahkmetshin at Trump Tower after (again) being offered “dirt” about the Clinton Campaign and the DNC being funded illegally by a Russia who had supposedly dodged taxes [info which seem to have originated with Fusion GPS, likely when they were under contract to Washington Free Bacon and also sounds exactly like how Torshin may have been funneling Russian money into the election via the NRA].
The information reportedly came through their former Miss Universe Moscow partner Aras Agalarov via his son’s Emin’s promoter Rob Goldstone who had received it directly from the “Crown Prosecutor” of Russia [actually the Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika who had previously been Veselnitskaya’s boss] because the Russian Government “supports Trump.” They also discuss the Russian adoption program which had been cancelled in the wake of the Magnitski Act, which is a law that blacklists Russian Human Rights violators linked to corruption and graft.
Don Jr. alleged said to Veselnitskaya “Looking ahead, if we come to power, we can return to this issue and think what to do about it,” Junior then ask for financial documents to prove the illegal contributions to Clinton but Veselnitskaya says she doesn’t have those, so Junior abruptly ends the meeting.
Junior didn’t get the “dirt” on Hillary in that meeting but he did discover what the Russians wanted in exchange for it — the end of sanctions. In time they did still got the dirt, it just came from a different place, Wikileaks. And afterward the Trump administration went miles and miles out of their way to scuttle or limit sanctions on Russia.
On July 22nd — the day that Wikileaks released the first set of DNC emails Clinton Campaign Manager Robby Mook pointed the finger at Russia for the DNC hackson Meet the Press based on information they had received from IT experts at Crowdsrike and Don Jr. argues “It just shows you their exact moral compass. I mean, they’ll say anything to be able to win this. I mean, this is time and time again and lie after lie.” He responds to Mook “I can’t think of bigger lies.”
Why exactly would he think Russia being involved in the hack of Hillary and DNC emails couldn’t be “a bigger lie” unless he already knew that it was TRUE thanks to what Papadopoulos was told by Mifsud and later shared with Sessions?
About this time Don Jr. also decided to do a little Instagraming.
Just two months after the Trump campaign got into trouble for tweeting an image that was widely seen as anti-Semitic, a member of the Republican nominee’s family is at it again. On Sunday, Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of Donald Trump, proudly promoted the above Instagram post, which includes a meme frequently shared by white supremacists. “Apparently I made the cut as one of the Deplorables,” he wrote, referring to a series of controversial comments Hillary Clintonrecently made about Trump’s supporters. “All kidding aside I am honored to be grouped with the hard working men and women of this great nation that have supported@realdonaldtrump [sic] and know that he can fix the mess created by politicians in Washington.”
The image, which plays off Sylvester Stallone’s geriatric action movie The Expendables, shows Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his sons alongside such “hard working men” as prominent conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, Breitbart commentator Milo Yiannopoulos—who was banned from Twitter for inciting hateful rhetoric—and Pepe the Frog, an amphibian meme that has been appropriated by Trump’s “alt-right” followers, some of whom use the image to peddle racism, anti-Semitism, and white nationalism.
Roger Stone, a longtime Trump ally, tweeted the same image on Saturday, while former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, who is running for Senator in Louisiana, tweeted his own version of the meme, boasting the tagline: “Anti-Racist is a code word for anti-white.”
Of course later Junior claimed he didn’t know anything about Pepe the Frog or that it was a Alt-Right Supremacist meme. Yeah, sure he didn’t, just like he didn’t know who Alex jones, Milo Yiannopoulos or David Duke were either.
Anyway it was after the Vesenitskaya meeting that he started getting direct messages from Wikileaks.
On September 20th Wikileaks sent a DM to Trump Junior about the website PutinTrump.org founded by Rob Glaser and gave him what they think is the password and asks him to check it out — He says “Thanks” and emailed Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, Brad Parscale, and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, telling them WikiLeaks had made contact. Kushner forwarded a copy to Hope Hicks [which is the quickest way to have the information shared with Trump]
On October 3, 2016 Wikileaks DMs Junior again “Hiya, it’d be great if you guys could comment on/push this story,” WikiLeaks suggested, attaching a quote which is questionably sourced from then-Democratic by Hillary Clinton about wanting to “just drone” WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange.
Junior responded 90 minutes later “Already did that earlier today, It’s amazing what she can get away with.” 2 mins later he asked “What’s behind this Wednesday leak I keep reading about?” that Roger Stone and others had mentioned — so they’re providing him information, asking him for help, giving him suggestion and now he’s trying to get more specific info directly?
On October 12, 2016 Wikileaks DMs Junior “Hey Donald, great to see you and your dad talking about our publications! Strongly suggest your dad tweets this link if he mentions us.” And gave him a link to wlsearch.tk where their info can be easily searched. They also mentioned that part 4 of the Podesta emails had dropped. 15 minutes later Trump tweeted “Very little pick-up by the dishonest media of incredible information provided by WikiLeaks. So dishonest! Rigged system!”
ON October 14, 2016 right after Pence went on Fox and Friends and denied that the Trump campaign is “in cohoots” with Wikileaks Junior tweeted out the link Wikileaks gave him “For those who have the time to read about all the corruption and hypocrisy all the @wikileaks emails are right here: http://wlsearch.tk/.” Yes, “in cohoots” as in doing PR for them would apply here.
On October 21, 2016 Wikileaks DMs Junior “Leak us one or more of your father’s tax returns.” arguing that it would make them look more “credible” if they provided info on Trump like the NYTimes as well as on Hillary. “What we’ve published about Hillary will have more impact if it’s not seen as coming from pro-Trump, pro-Russian sources.” [Which means they’re a pro-Trump and pro-Russian source but would like to pretend not to be.]
On November 8, 2016 Wikileaks DMs Junior and suggests that if Trump loses he shouldn’t concede and instead contest the Election as being “rigged.” Trump tweeted during the day and makes exactly that suggestion several times.
On December 16, 2016 Wikileaks DMs Junior and suggested that the incoming Trump Admin make Julian Assange — who has been trapped in an embassy in Britain for 5 years due to his outstanding rape case in Sweden — Australian ambassador to the U.S. That would give him diplomatic immunity, the ultimate get me out of the Ecuadorian embassy card.
Since the election Junior has been running daddy’s businesses along with his brother Eric and even though they claimed they “wouldn't take any more foreign business” — they have.
In February 2017 Don Jr. traveled to India for a business deal even when Trump promised that they wouldn't do any foreign deals.’
He’s also kept up the push supporting his dad on Twitter
In March 2017 Donald Jr. attacked London Mayor Khan after misquoting one of his comments about terrorism.
In May 2017 Don Trump Jr. falsely criticized “the left” and Kathy Griffin over her “blood coming out of his where-ever” prank head by saying Conservatives “Weren’t rude to Obama.” [Yeah, like they never burned and hung him in effigy, dressed him as a fictional mass murdering clown, as a marxist witch doctor or said he didn’t earn his slot into Harvard, was a secret illegal immigrant born in another country who falsified his birth certificate and wasn’t smart enough to actually write his own books. Unlike Donald Sr. or Jared Kushner, of course.]
In June 2017 Don Jr. suggested London needed to take a pre-crime approach to anti-Terrorism, because Civil Liberties and probable cause are obviously for chumps. He also lashed out after James Comey’s testimony calling his testimony “BS” on twitter — which was under oath — and then kept ranting ultimately firing off over 80 tweets. Nicole Wallace on MSNBC responded to Jr. “A guy who kills baby elephants for kicks can’t bash Comey’s character” but he kept tweeting and essentially confirms part of Comey’s testimony that Trump talked to him about Flynn. [Whoops!] Don Jr. also retweeted an article that blamed a modern day Julius Caesar reenactment for the Congressional Baseball practice shooting that wounded Rep. Steve Scalise which was just Hella Stupid.
While flying back from the G20 Summit on July 8th aboard Air Force One WH staffers began to craft an “accurate” statement of response to the Time report about Junior and Veselniskaya, Trump himself intervened and dictated a false story for them to release that the meeting was primarily about “Adoption”. Jared who later claims he was only at the meeting long enough to hear about the adoption portion and had left early before the Magnitski act came up is present on AF1 at this time, Junior isn’t, but he did text information about the meeting to Hope Hicks as they crafted the statement.
For some shady reason Trump’s re-election campaign paid $50,000 to Donald Jr.’s lawyer Alan Futerfas after he was contacted by the NYTimes for a comment when they discovered that Kushner’s attorneys had updated his SF-86 form to include the Veselnitskaya meeting called by Don Jr.
In July 2017 Don Jr. complained “It was only a matter of time” when CNN reported the Anti-Defamation League statement that the anti-CNN meme by Reddit user HanAssholeSolo may be racist and anti-semitic, claiming they’re “Bullying a 15 year old”, but CNN having found his Facebook page countered that claim “He’s not 15.” Never the less, Jr. persisted “If only @CNN spent as much time tracking down info on IRS targeting, Fast & Furious, Iran deal etc as they did a meme writer! #CNNBlackmail” but there aren’t any outstanding questions on any of those issues, except for Wingnut conspiracies about them.
On September 7, 2017 Don Jr testified before the Senate Intel Committee. According to the NYTimes Don Jr. in his written statement to Senate interviewers said that he wanted dirt from Russia about Hillary in order to help determine her “fitness for office.” He said he felt he should hear them out, and that he intended to meet with counsel if he received anything. [He should have mer with counsel before he agreed to the meeting actually because they would have told him trying to accept anything of value from Russia during a campaign is an FEC violation and also being informed of a felony — like say a massive criminal cyber hack — and not telling the police or the FBI can potentially make you an accessory to the original crime]
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His statement completely disproves the initial claim — dictated by his father on Air Force One — that the meeting was primarily about “adoption” because it just plain wasn't.
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He gets asked if he informed his father about this meeting either before or after it occurred, he says “No”.
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He’s asked then if that’s the case why did Donald make an announcement that he would have a major speech about the misdeeds of Clinton the very next day? He says “That’s just the way his dad talks.”
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He’s asked if he had any further contact with Veselnitskaya or anyone else from the meeting, he says “No.”’
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He says that he had 3 phone conversation with Emin Agalarov between the time of Goldstone’s initial email and the Veselnitskaya meeting, and that the said he didn’t recall the content of those calls.
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He also didn’t know anything about the White House involvement in crafting his original statement for him which claimed the meeting was about “adoption.”
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Sen Chris Coons writes Jr. a letter which includes the federal statutes against lying to Congress just “in case” he’s not familiar with the law.
In February of 2018 Don Jr. said his father can’t be racist because of ‘all the rappers’ who have taken photos with him” which is very nutty nonsense because they simply didn’t realize it fully until Charlottesville despite his previous crappy treatment of the Central Park 5 which was largely a local New York story. They liked him because he acts just like a Gangsta Rapper, but that was then, just ask Snoop Dogg or Eminem what they think of him now, why don’t cha?
In response to the attack on Youtube headquarters Don Jr. sent a hamfisted tweet accusing social media platforms of favoring mass shooters who are “liberal Vegan PETA activists” over NRA-supporting mass shooters because he claimed Nasim Aghdam’s Youtube and Instagram accounts hadn’t been pulled yet. [Which was him completely missing the point about why those accounts with hateful threats vs Vegan recipes were pulled down.] Also Aghdam’s primary beef with Youtube was the fact that they’d already yanked some of her videos long before the shooting, and then they quickly pulled entire channel after the shooting so his complaint makes no sense.
Former Breitbart editor Kurt Bardella told Politico recently that Don Jr. is Trump’s “ambassador to the fringe.”
Speaking with Politico, former Breitbart exec Kurt Bardella said that Don Jr’s Twitter account serves the purpose of amplifying extremist rhetoric by way of retweets of Twitter comments that might be too out there, even for the normally untrammeled president.
“Empowering conspiracy theorists and fringe voices with an endorsement from the president of the United States’ son will only amplify the ignorant at the expense of everybody else,” explained Bardella before adding, “A retweet or like is an explicit endorsement by Donald Trump Jr.”
More recently Don Jr. is apparently getting a divorce from the mother of his five children since he decided to start a second family with a former Apprentice Contestant. So that’s classy.
Ivanka Trump
In 2008 Ivanka Trump headed up a project to build a Trump Tower in Azerbaijan which was partially funded by government officials with links to the Iranian Republican Guard who are regarded as a terrrorist organization.
Newsweek‘s Kurt Eichenwald reported in September that Trump’s financial filings show he’s partners in the Baku deal with the son of Azerbaijan’s transportation minister.
U.S. officials believe that official, Ziya Mammadov, laundered money for the Iranian military, although no formal charges were brought against him or his son, Anar Mammadov — who is Trump’s partner in the Baku hotel venture.
The New Yorker examined Trump’s ties to Ziya Mammadov — one of the wealthiest and most powerful oligarchs in one of the world’s most corrupt nations — and his brother, Elton Mammadov, an influential member of the Azerbaijani parliament, who signed contracts for the project and founded Baku XXI Century, which owns the tower.
The Mammadov family, described by Foreign Policy magazine as “The Corleones of the Caspian,” has a reputation for using their government positions to enrich themselves and their partners — which includes construction firms tied to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
Like her brother and husband Ivanka was part of the email chain discussing the exaggeration of sales for Trump Soho in 2010 which was investigated by the Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance and then dropped in 2012 not long after Trump’s attorney Mark Kasowitz donated $25,000 to their office.
Ivanka has been tied to Felix Sater who partnered with the Trump organization on their Trump Soho project and had pleaded guilty to a $40-million stock fraud scheme orchestrated by Russian mobsters, and the late Tamir Sapir, who was tied to a racketeering conspiracy with the Gambino crime family.
In 2013 Ivanka accompanied her dad and brothers to Moscow for the Miss Universe Pageant. When Trump arranged with the Agalarov’s to build Trump Tower Moscow Ivanka went along with Don Jr. to help scout locations for the project.
In November 2016 just days after the election Ivanka pulled General Mike Flynn into a transition meeting and praised his “loyalty to Donald" then essentially offers him any job he wants despite then-transition head Chris Christie’s opposition. Hours later Christie who years previously as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey had prosecuted Jared’s father for campaign finance violations was dropped as transition chief, VP Pence immediately took his place.
Once Christie was let go there was a veritable blood letting inside the transition team as anyone associated with him was purged, but that presented a problem because Christie had arrange a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the outgoing administration and that became null and void with his departure.
Donald Trump’s presidential transition has virtually stopped while the president-elect’s team haggles with the White House over the paperwork required to officially begin the transfer of power.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie had already negotiated and signed this paperwork while leading Trump’s transition, but after his abrupt replacement Friday, the Trump team has refused to sign the paperwork again. As reported by the New York Times, the President-elect’s advisors are attempting to alter and update the agreement that Christie signed.
And just what was the hold up? Apparently the ability of Jared and Ivanka to keep making private deals for profit while working in the White House which is normally against federal rules.
The potential problem? According to the terms of the 2008 MOU, transition team members are required to sign a statement that “he or she has no financial interest or imputed financial interest that would be directly and predictably affected by a particular matter to which the information is pertinent.” And the federal government has a lot of information that could be “pertinent” to Trump’s business empire.
After the inauguration Jared and Ivanka were given positions in the White House although they were being paid for their positions and technically are required to abide by normal ethics rules because they aren’t Federal employees.
Three new Ivanka Trump-brand trademarks were approved in China on the same day she and husband Jared Kushner sat next to Chinese President Xi Jinping and wife Peng Liyuan earlier this month at a Mar-a-Lago state dinner, The Associated Press reported early Tuesday.
Xi visited Mar-a-Lago, President Trump's luxury resort in Palm Beach, Fla., on April 6. Trump and Kushner attended the state dinner that evening, sitting next to the world leader. The AP found that three trademarks that confer monopoly rights to sell Ivanka brand jewelry, bags and spa services were approved in China on the same day as the dinner.
Wow, that is just such a lucky amazing coincidence isn’t it?
Just like when Ivanka sat in on a meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe which happened just as she was finalizing some business deals in Japan.
The New York Times reports that at the same time as the meeting Ivanka attended, another meeting was going on in Tokyo as her clothing company worked to reach a licensing agreement with Sanei International, whose largest shareholder is wholly owned by the Japanese government.
The Times reported that the deal has been in the works for two years. There are no reports that the discussion at Trump Tower included mention of Ivanka's business venture. The Times noted, however, that the circumstances illustrate the potential conflicts of interest facing the Trump family once their father is sworn in.
In June 2017 Ivanka did a “Why I disagree with my dad” cover story on US magazine. And the Internet erupted.
The Guardian reported that workers who make Ivanka Trump’s clothing line at a factory in Indonesia endure degrading conditions for “poverty wages”.
More than a dozen workers at the fashion label’s factory in Subang complained about one of the lowest minimum wages in Asia, along with impossible production targets, intimidation and verbal abuse,
The Associated Press reported in June 2016 that...
The Ganzhou Huajian International Shoe City Co., the company that manufactures Ivanka’s shoes, a story about a worker being left bloody after being struck in the head with a high-heeled shoe by an angry manager. This particular company has been repeatedly slammed by human rights advocates in China, and two labor activists earlier this year were arrested for trying to document conditions at the plant.
Ivanka was part of the conversation on Air Force One flying back from the G20 summit when Trump put out the completely false statement that Don Jr. meeting with Russian Lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya was “mostly about adoptions.” Also Ivanka had an additional conversation herself with Veselnitskaya while she was at the elevator inside Trump Tower.
Ivanka once said she supported the Trump tax reform plan so other parents can have a Mandarin Chinese tutor like her kids have, because sure you can afford that with the same amount of money that you’d need to renew your CostCo membership.
Despite her claim that she supports women in the workplace, Ivanka instead supported Trump’s plan to scrap Obama era rules against gender pay discrimination.
On Sept. 24, Politico reported Kushner …
...used a non-government email account—set up during the transition in tandem with his official White House email—to communicate with Trump associates. In a statement, Kushner’s lawyer Abbe Lowell confirmed “fewer than 100 emails from January through August were either sent to or returned by Mr. Kushner to colleagues in the White House from his personal email account.”
Ivanka also used a private email account to conduct government business.
In October 2017 USA Today reported that...
Jared and Ivanka moved their personal email accounts—which the pair had used to conduct government business—onto servers run by the Trump Organization just days after reports revealed the existence of Kushner’s private email. As USA Today noted, Kushner and Ivanka Trump moved their private email accounts to a Trump Organization server on “Sept. 26 or 27”
All which may have been an effort to avoid a request from the Mueller investigation for “all documents related to the 2016 campaign.”
Newsweek reported that Ivanka Trump left the Trump Foundation — which is under investigation by NYAG Eric Schneiderman for self-dealing — off her financial disclosure forms.
In November Reuters and NBC News reported that...
Ivanka Trump had helped make her father’s first Trump Ocean Club International Hotel and Tower in Panama venture a success with the help of an alleged international fraudster with ties to money launderers and criminals from the former Soviet Union.
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When putting together the project she had worked with Alexandre Ventura Nogueira, a 43-year-old Brazilian who was arrested three years later by Panamanian authorities on charges of fraud and forgery unrelated to the Trump project.
Since that time all Trump employees in the Panama Hotel have been fired and evicted from the property and the Trump name has been removed.
In December 2017 Ivanka went on Fox and Friends to proclaim her father was the first elected White House Resident to make a National Security Speech to the American People. Yes, seriously.
That month Trump decided to blame Ivanka for Roy Moore’s losing bid for the Senate after she stated there was a “special place in hell” for those who harm children, still she hasn’t said anything about any of his own sexual harassment and assault allegations or for that matter nothing about Harvey Weinstein.
in January 2018 the Wall Street Journal — which is owned by Rupert Murdock — reported that Counter-intelligence officials had warned Jared Kushner that Ivanka Trump’s best friend, Wendi Deng Murdoch — Rupert’s ex-wife — might be using her friendship with them to benefit China’s government as an intelligence operative.
Former government ethics chief Walter Shaub warned the White House and President Donald Trump’s family that they were coming alarmingly close to ethics violations by profiting off of their brand while in working in the executive branch. Still, Ivanka Trump continues to sell clothing she wears to political events so that while doing the business of the nation, she’s a walking billboard for her own brand of products.
In February 2018 CNN reported that Chief of Staff Kelly had grown frustrated that Ivanka seems to swap roles between White House adviser and the president’s daughter when it suits her needs, and the retired Marine Corps general has said privately that she’s just “playing government.”
Also in February MSNBC noted that Ivanka Trump wasn’t just in South Korea during the Olympics to throw shade at snowboarders. She also “briefed” the president of South Korea on plans for sanctions against North Korea, which is a problem because just like Jared she doesn’t have a permanent security clearance
CNN also reported that Ivanka Trump is reportedly under investigation by FBI counterintelligence officials for her role in a brokering a deal for a Trump Tower Vancouver hotel in Canada.
Additional reports are that Ivanka is also under counterintelligence investigation came the same week as a Washington Post exposé revealed that Jared Kushner, Ivanka’s husband and fellow senior White House adviser, held meetings inside the West Wing with bankers prior to receiving half a billion dollars in loans.
The Post also revealed that Kushner was considered an easy target for manipulation by at least four foreign governments due to a $1.2 billion debt his family business owns that will come due in January 2019.
In March 2018 it was reported that Jared and Ivanka attempted to offer Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards a bribe to stop providing abortions.
Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards is accusing Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump of offering what she says felt like a “bribe,” in return for the women’s health organization to stop performing abortions.
...
Richards says in her book, Make Trouble, “If it wasn’t crystal clear before, it was now. Jared and Ivanka were there for one reason: to deliver a political win,” she wrote.
“In their eyes, if they could stop Planned Parenthood from providing abortions, it would confirm their reputation as savvy dealmakers. It was surreal, essentially being asked to barter away women’s rights for more money.”
Also in March McClathy reported that while serving in the White House Ivanka is still earning $1.5 Million per year from her various Trump businesses many of which include produces sewn or assembled by children in Chinese sweat shops. And which — coincidentally — happen to be completely exempt from the $150 Billion in tariffs on China that her father has recently announced.
The Intercept has reported that Ivanka has been a “ghost” constantly in the background of all of Trump’s most shady deals and relationships.
Eric Trump
Like his brother Eric is a hunter, a total idiot and a whining little punk.
But since Eric isn’t in the government he’s mostly been commenting from the sidelines: Usually On Fox.
In 2014 Eric Trump said in an interview when discussing the funding of Trump Golf courses “Well, we don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.” Eric later denies making this statement.
After the Election on March 24th Forbes reported that Eric Trump admitted to continuing to share quarterly financial reports on his father’s business with Trump in the White House in a direct violation of ethics rules and potentially the emoluments clause.
But outside of all that there’s the story also from Forbes that when Trump discovered that Eric’s Celebrity Golf charity for Cancer was using Trump owned properties for free — he put a quick stop to that and immediately began charging the charity for use of the property which netted Trump co. a profit of $150,000 on the backs of the charities donors and then re-donated over $500,000 to other charities that in turned booked events at Trump properties.
In June New York Atty Gen. Scheiderman began an investigation of the Eric Trump Foundation inspired by the Forbes article.
In August 2017 Eric Trump — who still seems completely alive — now whines that “he gets killed for raising money for dying children” ignoring the fact that the media was really criticizing his father for stuffing bags of that money into his own pockets. He also claims CNN won't report Trump’s $1 Million pledge to Hurricane Harvey victims, even though they already had reported it meanwhile Trump still owes Sandy Victims and $5 Million for Obama’s Long Form Birth certificate being revealed back in 2011. Besides Trump and Eric can’t use their foundations to donate to anything to anyone anymore because both are under investigation by NYAG Scheiderman.
Also keeping with their totally classy and not-at-all racist gentrification vibe Eric Trump and Don Jr. have begun planning to open ‘plantation-style’ luxury hotels in poor black areas.
Micheal Flynn
General Michael Flynn had been an up-and-comer during the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, particularly at implementing the aggressive “take and hold” strategy of General Patreaus. He was eventually promoted and became head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, but then things started to go a bit off the rails as he began espousing increasingly inflammatory anti-Islamacist rhetoric which led to his being fired from the DIA by the Obama Administration in 2014.
In 2015 Michael Flynn went to Russia, mets and sat with Putin for dinner and was paid $45,000 for a speech at RT's 10th Anniversary Gala. He also received $11,250 from Kaspersky Government Security Solutions, and another $11,250 from Volga-Dnepr Airlines. He didn’t get prior permission from the Pentagon for this trip or the payments. He also brokered a $100 Billion deal between Saudi Arabia and a state-owned Russian Nuclear power company Rosatom — who had bought Uranium One back in 2010 — pocketing another $25,000 from it that he didn’t disclose.
He eventually joined the Trump campaign and he comes up again in May of 2016 when U.S. foreign surveillance picks up his name, They had detected the GRU bragging that they have good ties to Michael Flynn and may be able to use him to “influence" Trump. At which point the Obama admin reportedly attempted to limit classified information to Flynn.
In July Flynn delivered a speech at the Republican convention, joining in the crowd’s “Lock her up!” chant. “If I, a guy who knows this business, if I did a tenth of what she did, I would be in jail today”
Hm, that’s kinda ironic now isn't it?
During the convention Flynn re-applied to activate his security clearance and filled out his SF-86 form, but that he had taken $67,000 from Russia in 2015, or the $25,000 he received in Saudi Arabia.
In August of 2016 Flynn Intel Group, a consulting firm founded by Flynn, signed a contract with Inovo BV, a firm run by a Turkish businessman close to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for more than $530,000 to lobby in the U.S. on their behalf. One of Erdogan goals is retrieve a Turkish expat named Gulen whose living in Pennsylvania who he blames for a recent failed coup attempt. Flynn didn’t disclose these either.
On August 17, 2016 Trump received his first classified briefing. Flynn was with him.
In September Trump transition chair Chris Christie began to recommend that Flynn be fired after his erratic behavior during a national security briefing.
Also at that time Kellyanne Conway, Flynn and Don Jr. all began to retweets posts from fake Russian Troll account @TEN_GOP. Trump tweets @Ten_GOP a personal "Thank you”. Later in September Flynn and former CIA Chief James Woolsey attend a secret meeting with others who discuss “a covert step in the dead of night to whisk this guy [Gulen] away.” and send him back to Turkey.
On Election Day November 8th, 2016 Michael Flynn wrote an Op-Ed arguing that the U.S. should arrest and extradite Cleric Fettulah Gulen to Turkey. This seems to be in exchange for the $530,000 that was paid to his consulting firm, money which originated with yet another Russian oligarch and that Flynn didn’t disclose on his SF-86 forms or register as a foreign agent.
On November 10th, two days after the election Trump and Obama met at the WH, where Obama warned him not to hire Flynn.
The very next day Ivanka pulled Mike Flynn into a transition meeting even though neither of them were invited and praised his “loyalty to Donald" then essentially offered him any job he wants despite Chris Christie’s opposition. Flynn chose either Secretary of Defense or National Security Advisor. Hours later Christie was dropped as transition chief, Pence then took his place.
On November 30, 2016 The Justice Department informed Flynn that he is under investigation for his unreported lobbying on behalf of Turkey. Also House oversight ranking member Rep. Cummings sent a letter to VP Pence who was now transition head about Flynn’s Op-Ed and his lobbying for Turkey. Flynn stated during a transition meeting that he planned to schedule a meeting with Russian Ambassador Kislyak former Bush Pentagon Official Michael Billingslea warned him that any such communications with Kislyak are likely to be picked up by U.S. surveillance
He didn’t listen to that advice.
In December the Trump transition did a background check on Flynn but didn’t fully vet him for his all his dealings with Russia, they are also specifically informed by Flynn’s lawyers that he may have to register as a “Foreign Agent” because of his work for Turkey even though the Pentagon had previously warned him to get permission for such work and he never did. Flynn and his son met with Turkish government officials at the 21 Club in New York and allegedly discuss a deal to kidnap and deliver Fethullah Gulen to Turkish custody as well as transfer Turkish-Iranian gold-trader Reza Zarrab to Turkey in exchange for $15 Million.
On December 1st Flynn met with Kislyak at Trump Tower along with Jared Kushner. Kushner suggested setting up a secure back-channel back to the Kremlin using Russian facilities that could “bypass the U.S. national security bureaucracy.”. Kislyak was reportedly “taken aback” and instead suggested having an overseas meeting but Flynn is considered too high profile to attend.
Both Flynn and Kushner didn’t include this meeting on their security clearances forms and are at risk of Logan Act violations if these meetings are intended to undermine current U.S Foreign policy as both are private citizens at this point. Kushner later includes the meetings on future updates.
The NSA discovered the details of this meeting while surveilling Kislyak as he communicated with Moscow, just as Billingsley had warned.
On December 13th Steve Bannon joined Flynn and Kushner for a separate meeting with the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, who made an undisclosed visit to New York. This meeting was also tracked by U.S. surveillance and later unmasked by Susan Rice.
On December 22nd Flynn discussed an upcoming UN vote condemning Israeli settlements — like the ones that Jared and his family illegally fund — with Kislyak and informed him that Trump’s incoming administration opposed it [Logan Act again!] The next day Kisylak informed Flynn that Russia would not vote against the resolution.
On December 29th Obama hit Russia with Sanctions for their hacking and involvement in the Election. Flynn talked to Russian Ambassador Kislyak and mentioned “We’ll review everything” and “we’ll rip them up” when Obama’s new sanctions are brought up. This conversation is recorded by the NSA/FBI. Flynn then called Mar-A-Lago and discusses his contacts with Kislyak with “senior Trump transition officials” [Kushner] who encourage him to continue and that they “did not want to escalate the Russia situation.” Flynn Deputy KT McFarland wrote an email that says the Obama’s new sanctions could also make it much harder for Mr. Trump to ease tensions with Russia, “which had just thrown the election to him.”
On January 5th Flynn, Kushner and Bannon secretly met with King Abdullah of Jordan at the Four Seasons in NYC to discuss Flynn’s Saudi/US/Russia Nuclear-Power Plant “Marshall Plan.”
On January 10th Flynn met with outgoing National Security Advisor Susan Rice over a plan to arm the Kurds against ISIS, Flynn vetoes the plan as the Kurds are considered terrorists by one of his financial benefactors Turkey. The following day Erik Prince has a secret meeting with the UAE on the Seychelles islands to establish a back channel to Putin which is noticed by FBI. That meeting is chaired by the Crown Prince of the UAE who had previously met with Bannon, Flynn & Kushner secretly in New York and seems to be a follow-on to Kushner’s meeting with Kislyak at Trump Tower. Prince also met with sanctioned Russian investment CEO Kirill Dimitriev during the trip and UAE representative George Nadler.
On January 18th, Micheal Flynn and House Intel Chair Devin Nunes met secretly with the Turkish Foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.
On January 20th — Inauguration day — Flynn texted his business partners on the Saudi Nuclear Power Plant deal with Rosatom that “we’re good to go” several minutes into the ceremony and that it’s priority of the Trump administration to dump sanctions on Russia. [His partners have since claimed this text was never sent.]
Almost immediately after the Inauguration things started going off the rails.
On January 21st, just one day after the inauguration Trump WH officials soon began pushing State Dept to remove all Russian sanctions. Alarmed State Officials Melinowski and Fried begin to contact congress this ultimately resulted in the new congressional sanctions that Trump ultimately signed but still hasn’t fully implemented.
“There was serious consideration by the White House to unilaterally rescind the sanctions,” said Dan Fried, a veteran State Department official who served as chief U.S. coordinator for sanctions policy until he retired in late February. He said in the first few weeks of the administration, he received several “panicky” calls from U.S. government officials who told him they had been directed to develop a sanctions-lifting package and imploring him, “Please, my God, can’t you stop this?”
Fried said he grew so concerned that he contacted Capitol Hill allies — including Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., the ranking minority member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — to urge them to move quickly to pass legislation that would “codify” the sanctions in place, making it difficult for President Trump to remove them.
On January 23rd Sean Spicer claimed Flynn didn’t talk to Kislyak about sanctions, even though he did. He says their discussion was a “Holiday Call.” Later Mike Pence went on Meet the Press after talking personally to Flynn and claims “Flynn told me he didn’t talk to Russia about sanctions.”
The days later on January 26th, Acting Attorney General Sally Yates went to the White House personally and warned WH Counsel Don McGahn that Flynn may be vulnerable to “blackmail by the Russians” because he’d lied to the FBI & Pence about his contacts with Kislyak. Trump was immediately briefed by McGahn after he looks up the laws connected to lying to the FBI and violating the Logan Act but they do nothing about Flynn. The next day McGahn called Yates, she returned to the WH where he asked “why does it matter to the DOJ if Flynn lied to Pence?” [Because it does, man.]
Later that same day the Kremlin arrested FSB officials Sergei Mikhailov, his deputy Dmitry Dokucheav, and Ruslan Stoyanov, the head of cybercrime investigations at Kaspersky Labs (who had paid Flynn $11,500 in 2015) for treason and illegal hacking apparently for sharing intel information with the CIA.
Dokucheav has since pleaded guilty to these charges, but other reports indicate that rather than being a source for the CIA he was actually the chief mastermind and recruiter for the DNC and other hacks which were run by the FSB.
On January 31st Yates is fired by Trump allegedly for refusing to defend his Muslim ban executive order. Flynn Stays.
On February 6th Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen and his Bayrock associate Felix Sater negotiate a deal to end sanctions against Russia by stopping the violence in Crimea with a Ukranian named Andrii V. Artemenko. They supposedly deliver a copy of this plan to Michael Flynn’s desk, but there is no evidence he ever reviewed it or passed it on to anyone.
On February 8th the Washington posts asked Flynn if he discussed sanctions with Russia, he says “No” twice. The next day Flynn’s spokesman issued a correction to Wapo that he “doesn’t remember” if he did or didn’t discuss sanctions. And Trump talked to Putin by phone and criticizes Obama’s Start II Nuclear deal with Russia. Flynn was there for the call.
On February 10th Trump was asked about Flynn talking to Russians about sanctions and says “This is the first time I’ve heard that.” Note: He had already been personally told about this by White House Counsel McGahn immediately after he was told by Yates on Jan 26th.
On February 13th Flynn was fired immediate after Wapo issues a report proving that he lied, allegedly he’s let go because he lied to Vice President Pence and caused him to be embarrassed about what he said on Meet the Press.
The next day on February 14th Comey & Sessions met Trump in the Oval for a counter-terrorism briefing. Trump cleared the room and got Comey alone to complain about leaks asking him to prosecute some reporters over it and ask if he can just “Let Flynn go” Comey interpreted the request to only be about Flynn not the Russia investigation, Comey noted this and discusses it with FBI leadership including his deputy Andrew McCabe. Later that day The NYTimes reported that Trump aides (including Flynn, Manafort and Page) had repeated contacts with Russian Intelligence according to the NSA and that the FBI had requested they “collect as much information as possible about the Russian operatives on the phone calls” and go through their archives for more information.
On March 8th Flynn finally registered as a foreign agent.
On March 10 Sean Spicer confirmed that they were informed about Flynn’s ties to Turkey downplaying it as “not a question of it raising a red flag.” Pence — who was head of the Trump Transition Team who were informed about this by Rep. Cummings and Flynn’s lawyers specifically — was also asked about Flynn receiving payments from Turkey and answered “This is the first I’ve heard of it...” (Uh, then how did Spicey know about it?
On March 17th even with Flynn fired for lying about discussing sanctions sometime during the later part of the month members of the NSC emailed the State dept asking if sanctions on Russian Oil could be lifted which would allow the Exxon/Rosneft and Trump Tower Moscow deals to go forward, State informed them this would be bad of U.S. oil companies and also bad to drop the sanctions without getting anything in return.
On March 21st House intel Chair Devin Nunes took a sudden clandestine trip to WH to review data revealed by one of his own former staffers who had been hired by NSC on March 7th and a former Flynn staffer that supposedly supported Trump’s “Obama wiretapped me” claims.
On March 30th Micheal Flynn asked for immunity in order to testify to congress. Congress declined.
On April 25th Trump called Flynn and told him to “Stay Strong.”
On April 27th Spicer and Chaffetz Blame the Obama administration for Flynn being hired by Trump without being “fully vetted” — even though Obama had fired Flynn in 2014 and told him not the hire the guy, plus Pence & Trump had already been fully informed by Yates, Cummings and Flynn’s attorneys about his foreign money and conversations with Kislyak — all of this simply because he was able to renew his security clearance, but only afterlying on the SF-86 renewal form which normally limits the scope of the FBI security investigation. His taking foreign money as a former Military officer without Pentagon permission, violating the Logan Act by undermining U.S. foreign policy, lying on his security forms and also lying to the FBI are felonies.
Eventually after Comey revealed the existence of his memos of his conversations with Trump where he was asked to “Let Flynn Go” Special Counsel Robert Mueller is assigned and after rather lengthy negotiations Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with Kislyak and has since become a cooperating witness against Trump.
In the next installment of “Not the Best People” I’ll finally get to the real problem children in Trump’s orbit — his rapidly growing list of indicted and convicted employees.