Today’s Most Important, Under Reported Stories:
Today we have three (3) and they are:
1. The Arrest of Anastasia Vashukevich;
2. Mueller’s Secret Court Case in SCOTUS; and
3. House Vote on Russia/Deripaska Sanctions.
Before I get into to discussing these 3 Important Stories, let me just say that trying to get all the important News in the Age of Trump is like drinking from a fire hose. Its hard for us to keep up and its easy for important stuff to fall through the cracks. So, when I have time, I try to catch some of these stories before they fall through and bring them to your attention. So without further delay, here are today’s three:
1. The Arrest of Anastasia Vashukevich — Anastasia Vashukevich is a young Belarusian model/escort whose claim to fame is she shot a video of Olig Deripaska talking to other Russians about the upcoming 2016 US elections on an ocean going yacht. She also claimed at the time to having other tapes of the men talking specifically about interfering in US elections and their ties to the Trump Campaign. For the last several months she has been in jail in Thailand on prostitution charges. All the while pleading with the US (Trump’s State Department) to intervene in her case so she can come to the US and provide US investigators with the information she claims to have on the Trump/Russia case. But help never came (Gee, I wonder why Trump didn’t want to help her possibly bring incriminating evidence on him to the US?). So yesterday she was convicted of prostitution in a Thai court and sentenced to time served and deportation. Her friend told reporters that she was willing to go anywhere on earth, except to Russia (for obvious reasons). So she was put on a plane and told it would take her home to Belarus. She was also told the plane would have to make a stop in Moscow, but she was assured by “officials” that she would be allowed to proceed to Belarus. Well, guess what! Ms. Vashukevich was arrested when she got to Moscow and has not been heard from since. So Surprising! You can get more details from this NY Times Story.
2. Mueller’s Secret Court Case in SCOTUS — There has been a SECRET case floating around the Federal Courts for months involving enforcement of a Grand Jury subpoena (reportedly a Mueller Grand Jury) for information from an UKNOWN Corporation owned by an UNKNOWN Country (aka “Country A”). If you need background on this case, you can go to my earlier comment on it here. A week or so ago, SCOTUS denied the Corporations appeal to stay a $50,000 per day penalty imposed by the Federal Appeals Court in D.C. for not complying with the subpoena. However, they did not rule on the merits of the case itself. But, it is reported that the Supreme Court will meet behind closed doors on Friday (TODAY) to discuss a mystery case related to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, as reported in this CNN Story. Stay Tuned!
3. House Vote on Russia/Deripaska Sanctions — Yesterday, the House voted by a margin of 362 to 53 with 136 Republicans voting “yes” with Democrats, to block the Trump administrations lifting of Russian sanctions on a Russian Aluminum company owned by Oligarch, Olig Deripaska. However, since a similar measure failed to get the 60 votes needed to end debate (57 “yes” to 42 “no”), it is uncertain whether the House vote by itself would block the lifting of these sanctions. For more details on this story and the possible future ramifications of the Bipartisan House vote, you can go to my previous Diary on this Story which I have updated today.
Well that’s it for the important under-reported stories for today. I am sure there will be more in the days to come.