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And surely it’s just out of the “kindness of his heart” …
Stink Of Collusion Reeks Off Of GOP As Russia Connected Billionaire Pays Trump Legal Fees
Trump's legal fees to deal with his Russia-collusion scandal are being paid for by a Russian connected billionaire.
by Sarah Jones, politicususa.com — Sept 22, 2017
You know that “hoax” President Trump keeps referring to? That is, the agreement among rational people that Russia interfered in the election Trump won? Trump’s legal fees to deal with his Russia-collusion scandal are being paid for by a Russian connected billionaire.
The RNC is just straight up taking money now from a Ukrainian-born American who is connected to Russian oligarchs, according to a new report in The Wall Street Journal.
[...]
Now the RNC is just openly taking money from Russian affiliated billionaire to fund Trump’s legal fees for the Russia-collusion scandal.
This just reeks of collusion. [...]
If like most of us, you can’t get past WSJ paywall, boingboing.net does us a favor, and tells us that Russian-connect Billionaire footing Trump’s legal bill’s is Len Blavatnik.
Previously, Len has been known for his out sized generosity, by giving $1,000,000 to Trump’s inaugural … moneys which the RNC decided in part to return last year. Given all the Russia-rocks being flipped over every-other-day — the RNC apparently no longer has those “high standards” … of whose money to use ...
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]
Len Blavatnik earned his Putin-cred by selling him what he wanted — Len’s stake in a Russian oil-company — a company which would eventually become Russia’s national Oil company, Rosneft.
Rosneft has long been suspected as a major source of Putin’s billions (earned on a president’s salary).
GOP campaigns took $7.35 million from oligarch linked to Russia
by Ruth May, dallasnews.com — Aug 3, 2017
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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.
[...]
Blavatnik's relationships with Russian oligarchs close to Putin, particularly Oleg Deripaska, should be worrisome for Trump and the six GOP leaders who took Blavatnik's money during the 2016 presidential campaign. Lucky for them no one has noticed. Yet.
Len’s associate Oleg Deripaska … Hmmm where have I heard that name before?
Deripaska, Deripaska? — oh yeah here:
Paul Manafort's offer to brief a Putin ally about the campaign sheds new light on Russia's election interference
by Natasha Bertrand, businessinsider.com — Sept 21, 2017
[...]
Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, a top ally of President Vladimir Putin, reportedly stopped trying to recover money he said had been taken from him in 2014 by Paul Manafort after President Donald Trump won the GOP nomination last year.
But the contact between Manafort and Deripaska — Manafort's email, "if he needs private briefings we can accomodate," suggests it was not the first time the subject had been raised — had all of the hallmarks of a "classic intelligence operation being run by the Russians," said former CIA operative Glenn Carle.
"This is how it is done," said Carle, who served 23 years in the CIA as the deputy national intelligence officer for transnational threats.
[...]
The New York Times reported in July that Manafort was in debt to pro-Russian interests by as much as $17 million by the time he joined the Trump campaign. His emails are being examined as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference and whether the Trump campaign played any part.
Does it matter that Trump’s Campaign Manager Paul Manafort used his campaign email address — ie. to “openly contact” Oleg, for a “power talk”? There was not much effort “to hide” this, was there?
Or does it matter that these "private briefings" overtures, came just before the GOP platform language was changed, again reported by businessinsider.com:
Manafort's email that mentioned "private briefings" for Deripaska came roughly 10 days before Trump campaign representatives lobbied to alter the language of an amendment to the GOP's draft policy on Ukraine that denounced Russia's "ongoing military aggression" in Ukraine.
It would not be surprising if Deripaska recently reached out to Blavatnik, on behave of their common benefactor — asking:
“Len buddy, time to do your American thing AGAIN — for the Team. Hopefully Mueller goes the way of Comey any day now — and we can all get back to doing our Mega-business, as previously planned. Ponimayet? “
Stranger (coincidental) things have happened in this “No Russians, No Russians” Campaign, and very far-from Excellent adventure.