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For your consideration — with minimal editorial comment. Hopefully someone, like the Lincoln Project, can give these little-known Facts the light-of-day exposure they deserve …
by Brennan Weiss, BusinessInsider.com -- Feb. 21, 2018
[...]
A 2008 quote from President Donald Trump's eldest son about his family's assets resurfaced on Sunday in a New York Times op-ed article.
"In terms of high-end product influx into the US, Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets," Donald Trump Jr. said at a New York real-estate conference that year. "Say, in Dubai, and certainly with our project in SoHo, and anywhere in New York. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia."
by Paulina Firozi , theHill.com -- 05/07/17
[...]
[James] Dodson said he then questioned Eric Trump, who was along for the day.
"I said, 'Eric, who’s funding? I know no banks — because of the recession, the Great Recession — have touched a golf course. You know, no one’s funding any kind of golf construction. It’s dead in the water the last four or five years,'” the writers told WBUR [in Boston].
"And this is what he said. He said, 'Well, we don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.' I said, 'Really?' And he said, 'Oh, yeah. We’ve got some guys that really, really love golf, and they’re really invested in our programs. We just go there all the time.’"
Buyers tied to Russia, former Soviet republics paid $109 million cash for Trump properties
by Anita Kumar, mcclatchydc.com -- June 19, 2018
[...]
Buyers connected to Russia or former Soviet republics made 86 all-cash sales — totaling nearly $109 million — at 10 Trump-branded properties in South Florida and New York City, according to a new analysis shared with McClatchy. Many of them made purchases using shell companies designed to obscure their identities.
“The size and scope of these cash purchases are deeply troubling as they can often signal money laundering activity," said Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and a former federal prosecutor. "There have long been credible allegations of money laundering by the Trump Organization which, if true, would pose a real threat to the United States in the event that Russia were able to leverage evidence of illicit financial transactions against the president."
TRUMP: Saudi Arabia - and I get along great with all of them. They buy apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million. Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much.
www.npr.org
[...]
Russia also provided many of the buyers for Trump-branded real estate. According to a Bloomberg investigation into Trump World Tower, which broke ground in 1998, “a third of units sold on floors 76 through 83 by 2004 involved people or limited liability companies connected to Russia and neighboring states.” Reuters, meanwhile, has reported that “at least 63 individuals with Russian passports or addresses have bought at least $98.4 million worth of property in seven Trump-branded luxury towers in southern Florida.”
[...] The New Republic has also extensively documented how the Trump Organization actively sought Russian buyers, so much so that the area around Trump Sunny Isles in Florida became known as “Little Moscow.” Though these transactions are not inherently suspect, they demonstrate that the Trump Organization was sufficiently aware of its reliance on Russian money to actively cultivate relationships with Russian clients.
Some of the individual deals have attracted attention, most notably the Russian fertilizer magnate Dmitry Rybolovlev’s 2008 purchase of one of Trump’s mansions in Palm Beach. He paid a reported $95 million for it—$53 million more than Trump paid for it four years earlier. The transaction has received scrutiny from investigators, particularly because, though Trump justified the price increase by claiming he had “gutted the house” and spent $25 million on renovations, there were few apparent alterations. Such rapid and unexplained increases in price are frequently cited as red flags for money laundering through real estate. According to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), the transaction is one of several special counsel Robert Mueller and his team are investigating for “potential money laundering or other illicit financial dealings between the president, his associates, and Russia.”
themoscowproject.org
CNN — August 18, 2020, PDFs of Vol. 1-5: www.intelligence.senate.gov
The PDF of Vol. 5 from this Bipartisan report: www.intelligence.senate.gov
[Emphasis added]
[vii]
The Committee found that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian effort to hack computer networks and accounts affiliated with the Democratic Party and leak information damaging to Hillary Clinton and her campaign for president. Moscow's intent was to harm the Clinton Campaign, tarnish an expected Clinton presidential administration, help the Trump Campaign after Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee, and undermine the U.S. democratic process.
WikiLeaks actively sought, and played, a key role in the Russian influence likely knew it was assisting a Russian intelligence influence effort. The Committee found significant indications that [REDACTED]. At the time of the first WikiLeaks releases, the U.S. Government had not yet declared WikiLeaks a hostile organization and many treated it as a journalistic entity.
While the GRU and WikiLeaks were releasing hacked documents, the Trump Campaign sought to maximize the impact of those leaks to aid Trump's electoral prospects. Staff on the Trump Campaign sought advance notice about WikiLeaks releases, created messaging strategies to promote and share the materials in anticipation of and following their release, and encouraged further leaks. The Trump Campaign publicly undermined the attribution of the hack-and-leak campaign to Russia and was indifferent to whether it and WikiLeaks were furthering a Russian election interference effort.
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[172]
While the GRU and WikiLeaks were releasing hacked documents, the Trump Campaign sought to maximize the impact of those materials to aid Trump's electoral prospects. To do so, the Trump Campaign took actions to obtain advance notice about WikiLeaks releases of Clinton emails; took steps to obtain inside information about the content of releases once WikiLeaks began to publish stolen information; created messaging strategies to promote and share the materials in anticipation of and following their release; and encouraged further theft of information and continued leaks.
Trump and senior Campaign officials sought to obtain advance information about WikiLeaks through Roger Stone. In spring 2016, prior to Assange's public announcements, Stone advised the Campaign that WikiLeaks would be releasing materials harmful to Clinton. Following the July 22 DNC release, Trump and the Campaign believed that Roger Stone had known of the release and had inside access to WikiLeaks, and repeatedly communicated with Stone about WikiLeaks throughout the summer and fall of 2016. Trump and other senior Campaign officials specifically directed Stone to obtain information about upcoming document releases relating to Clinton and report back. At their direction, Stone took action to gain inside knowledge for the Campaign and shared his purported knowledge directly with Trump and senior Campaign officials on multiple occasions. Trump and the Campaign believed that Stone had inside information and expressed satisfaction that Stone's information suggested more releases would be forthcoming.
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Trump Believed Putin Was Behind His $50M Profit In Sale Of Mansion
That is why IMPOTUS will not release his Tax Returns. Not now. Not ever.
And the reformed Lawyer-fixer who spent a decade trying to cover-up for Trump, says Yes the Trump Tower Moscow was actively being pursued, even as Trump was crashing his way into Office:
[...]
Cohen asserts that another reason that Trump consistently praised Putin was to fulfill his long-held desire to slap his name on a proposed Trump Tower project in Moscow.
Cohen says the Trump Tower plans called for a 120-story building in Red Square, including 30 floors devoted to a five-star hotel with an Ivanka Trump-branded spa and Trump restaurants, and 230 high-end condominiums for Russian oligarchs and leaders.
The plan, Cohen adds, was to give the penthouse apartment to the Russian president for free, in part “as a way to suck up to Putin.”
“The whole idea of patriotism and treason became irrelevant in his mind,” Cohen writes. “Trump was using the campaign to make money for himself: of course he was.”
Trump would later publicly insist that he had no business dealings with Russia. But Cohen writes extensively of his own efforts beginning in the fall of 2015 — several months after Trump had declared his candidacy — to make the Moscow project a reality.
Anchorage Daily News — Sept 6, 2020
by Jonathan Stempel, reuters.com — Feb 11, 2015
Feb 11 The parent of Trump Taj Mahal, one of Atlantic City, New Jersey's struggling casinos, has settled U.S. government charges that it violated federal laws designed to thwart money laundering, court filings show.
Trump Taj Mahal Associates LLC agreed to the assessment of a $10 million civil penalty by the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, according to a proposed consent order filed on Tuesday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware.
[...]
These violations included many that had been previously revealed by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service as far back as 2003.
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If you want to know a person’s core values, look at what they DO — not what they SAY.
by Bill Conroy, narcosphere.narconews.com — October 23, 2016
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Trump, as an owner and a top executive overseeing Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, however, flouted U.S. money laundering laws for years, contributing to a decision last year by the federal Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, to fine the casino $10 million for “willful and repeated violations” of U.S. law. Those violations involved transgressions of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA, also known as the Currency and Foreign Transaction Reporting Act), which, in part, is designed to prevent money laundering by terrorist groups, corrupt foreign leaders and criminal organizations.
“Trump Taj Mahal has a long history of prior, repeated BSA violations cited by examiners dating back to 2003,” states a FinCEN press release announcing the $10 million fine against Trump Taj Mahal last March. “Additionally, in 1998, FinCEN assessed a $477,700 civil money penalty against Trump Taj Mahal for currency-transaction reporting violations.”
The Guardian reported on “$20B Deutsche Bank-Russia Laundromat” story. And CNBC’s connected a few more of those Rubles-dots: Trump’s reliance on Deutsche Bank’s “assets” — as investigated by the New York Times:
Yen Nee Lee, CNBC — Mar 19, 2019
Deutsche Bank loaned more than $2 billion to Donald Trump before he became president — despite multiple red flags surrounding his business dealings, The New York Times reported Monday.
The Times interviewed more than 20 former and current executives and board members at Deutsche Bank for the report, which outlined how Trump managed to secure financing from the German bank for nearly two decades despite his bankruptcies and being considered a risky client by other lenders.
[...]
According to the newspaper, in some instances, Trump exaggerated his wealth and promised to reward bankers with a weekend at Mar-a-Lago — his private club in Palm Beach, Florida — in order to get loans.
Over the years, Trump used loans provided by Deutsche Bank to build skyscrapers and other high-end properties, the Times reported. For the German bank, its relationship with Trump was key in building its investment-banking business, the report said.
[...]
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Fast-forward to today’s over-looked news …
Trump could be facing criminal tax probe, Manhattan DA suggests in new court filing
CNBC -- Sept 21 2020
- President Donald Trump and his business could be facing a criminal tax probe by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, prosecutors suggested Monday in a court filing.
- Prosecutors from Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance’s office raised that possibility as they said that a grand jury subpoena seeking eight years of Trump’s tax returns and other records from the president’s accountants should be allowed by a federal appeals court.
- The Supreme Court this summer ruled that Trump did not have an absolute right to avoid having his tax returns and other financial records subpoenaed by a state prosecutor while serving in the White House.
No wonder Trumps wants to steal a 2nd SCOTUS seat, as quickly as possible.
Or put more plainly — in a “language” that even Donald Trump can understand:
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