This past November Trump tweeted that he was improving the vetting process for immigrants entering the nation as an effort to improve our national security.
"I have just ordered Homeland Security to step up our already Extreme Vetting Program. Being politically correct is fine, but not for this!" the president said in a Twitter post.
In response to that Former U.S. Attorney and CNN Senior Legal correspondent Preet Bharara issued this comment pointing out the yes, Trump needs to do “more vetting” — but not just for immigrants.
Trump and his primary spokes shill Sarah Huckabee-Sanders are both constantly chanting the “No Collusion” mantra, however the fact is that several of his staff have been convicted for lying to the FBI about the links and contacts with Russia.
Jeff Sessions knew about the Russian “Dirt” on Hillary and ordered George Papadopoulos to “get ahold of it” rather than report what he’d heard to the FBI, like Australian Diplomat Alexander Downer did when he found out from Papadopoulos in an English wine bar. Or for that matter the way the Christopher Steele did as he was working on his opposition research project for Fusion GPS, which has now been additionally confirmed since Mueller has proof that Michael Cohen went to Prague in late summer 2016. If any of them done the right thing and alerted the FBI — or not lied to them about it — they’d be just investigating the Russians, not investigating Trump who is the one who personally authorized George to talk to the Russians in the first place.
Papadopoulos has already pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about all this when he claimed that his meetings with these Russians happened before his involvement with the campaign. Just like Michael Flynn pleaded guilty for lying about his conversations with Russian Ambassador Kislyak. And Andrew Van Der Zwaaan pleaded guilty to lying about knowing that Paul Manafort’s partner Rick Gates was in regular communications with a Russian Military Intelligence Officer [Konstantin Kilimnik].
And yet, there’s more.
The various crimes and guilty plea of Michael Flynn were covered in Vol 1 of this series and I’ve previously gone over additional criminal vulnerabilities of many of these persons in another diary but in this case the primary point is the “collusion” which isn’t a criminal issue. It’a a factual issue. Did they communicate, coordinate and cooperate with Russians or not?
If you just look at those who have now pleaded guilty, been indicted or recently been served no-knock warrants, which require and exceedingly high level of probable cause — I think it’s pretty clear that they did all the above. [Yes, this is long — there’s been a whole lot of badness going on here.]
George Papadopoulos and Carter Page
In March 2016 George Papadopoulos was hired by the Trump campaign and during a one-on-one interview with Trump tells him of his intention to setup a direct meeting between Trump and Putin, which means that Trump was personally aware of Papadopoulos efforts to reach out to the Russians and approved of it from the very start. [Some might say this is the first signs of a conspiracy to collude with Russia.] George followed this up and met in Italy with Joseph Mifsud a professor based in London with ties to the Kremlin.
Also that month US Attorney Preet Bharara prosecuted Russian intelligence officer Evgeny Buryakov an employee of sanctioned Russia bank Vnesheconombank (VEB) for conspiracy to commit espionage in recruiting U.S Businessmen in Manhattan including Carter Page. Page had been cooperating in this investigation as an informant.
On March 21st Trump listed Carter Page & George Papadopoulos as part of his foreign policy team along with 3 others to the Washington Post Editorial Board.
On March 24, 2016 Papadopoulos wrote an email to members of the campaign titled “Meeting with Russian Leadership - Including Putin.” to discuss US-Russia ties under President Trump,” telling them his Russian contacts “welcomed the opportunity.” On this same day he met again with Professor Mifsud who introduces him to a Russian female he describes as ‘Putin’s Niece” [later identified as model Olga Vinogradova who isn’t his niece], as well as reportedly the Russian Ambassador to England and sought to setup more meetings between those reps and members of the Trump campaign. Some members of the Trump campaign are alarmed by the email including retired Navy Rear Adm. Charles Kubic, who cites legal concerns, including possible violations of U.S. sanctions against Russia and the Logan Act,
On March 31, 2016 Papadopoulos while introducing himself at a national security meeting in New York sitting along side Trump and Sessions says he has Russian connections that could help foster a meeting between “Trump and Putin”. Reportedly Jeff Sessions shuts this suggestion down — which means he knew full well at that time that “Trump surrogates were talking to Russians.” JD Gordon and Rick Dearborn are also there and some dispute as to what Sessions did and didn’t say has since arisen. 3 Witnesses who were in the room when Papadopoulos proposed Trump meet Putin have told the FBI and Congress that Sessions didn’t object, even though he later testified under oath that he did. JD Gordon has contradicted that and says Session told them “never to speak of it again.”
And they haven’t spoken of it but never the less, they persisted.
In April Papadopoulos sent multiple emails to other members of the campaign about his efforts to “reach out” to the Russians, the responses back were very encouraging. “Great Work, George.” On April 11, 2016 Putin’s “Niece” emailed Papadopoulos that she “would be very please to support the initiatives between our two countries.” He emails the professor “This has been already agreed, I’m flying to Moscow on the 18th for a Valdai meeting, plus other meetings at the Duma [Russian Congress]” Later that month the Professor introduces Papadopoulos to an individual in Moscow with connections to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), some reports allege this is Sergei Milian who will be noted as “Source D” in the Steele memos. Four days later the MFA connection emailed Papadopoulos and thanked him for an extensive talk, and suggested further meetings in London or Moscow, Papadopoulos responds suggesting meeting in London with the Russian Ambassador.
After this Papadopoulos emailed a Trump Senior Policy Advisor that “The Russian government has an open invitation for Putin to meet with Mr. Trump when he’s ready” [Never-minding Sessions I guess.] And the next day Professor Mifsud met with Papadopoulos in London and said that Russia has “thousands of emails” containing “dirt” on Hillary Clinton which indicates he has links to Russian intelligence.
Papadopoulos has since revealed that even though Sessions had objected to having a face-to-face meeting between Trump and Putin, he had still pushed George to “get the dirt” that Mifsud claimed the Russians had on Hillary. [Again, so much for not knowing that “Trump surrogates were talking to Russians.”]
The day after that Papadopoulos wrote in an email to campaign manager Corey Lewandowsk that he had fielded “a lot of calls over the past month” related to a meeting between the Trump campaign and Russia. “Russia has been eager to meet with Mr. Trump for some time and have been reaching out to me to discuss,” Papadopoulos said in a separate email to Paul Manafort. On April 30th Papadopoulos thanked the Professor via email for his “critical help. This is history in the making.”
In May Papadopoulos drunkenly bragged about Russia having “Dirt on Hillary Clinton” to Australia’s top diplomat to Britain, Alexander Downer in a Kensington wine bar. His Russian MFA link (Millian?) emailed Papadopoulos and says he has talked to his colleagues at MFA and that they are “open for cooperation”, George then relates this to a “High Ranking” member of the campaign (Manafort) as “Russia Updates.” They continue communicating during the Month via email and Skype. Some of his emails are forwarded by Manafort to Gates “Let[‘]s discuss, We need someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips. It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal.” This is after Sessions has already vetoed a direct meeting between Trump and Putin so here we have Manafort and Gates doing a work around to continue contacts with Russians anyway.
That same month CNN reported that Russian spies attempted to cultivate Carter Page as an asset, yet again!
CNN is reporting that Russia tried to infiltrate President Donald Trumps campaign using former foreign policy advisor Carter Page as someone assigned to keep an eye on them. However, the officials were not able to say whether or not Page knew Russia was using him.
The information comes from the FBI, which gathered the intelligence on the act in the summer of 2016, around the time Paul Manafort took over the campaign.
The information also revealed that Russia tried to use backdoor channels to communicate with Trump staff and the inner circle of the Trump campaign. Page was just one of many found to have been in contact with Russian officials.
Also in May NRA member Paul Erickson wrote Sessions staffer Rick Dearborn an email about the possibility to setting up a face-to-face meeting between Trump and Putin. This appears to be a request that comes from Russian government Official Alexander Torshin who has direct links to the NRA, Later in the month Rick Dearborn is again contacted via Erickson with a request for 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. Kushner vetoes this request however Don Jr. does eventually meet and briefly chatted with Torshin — or so he said — about guns at an NRA event.
Recently the NRA admitted to taking foreign money and moving it into the accounts used for the election on which they ultimately spent over $30 Million in support of Trump. They also admitted that they had only taken money from one Russian which, of course, was Alexander Torshin who is being investigated by the FBI to see if his NRA contributions were illegal.
On June 12th Julian Assange hinted that he’ll soon release emails linked to Hillary Clinton.
On June 14th the Wapo reported that the DNC has been hacked by the Russian government, the DNC then went public about the cyber intrusion, confirming Assange’s claim from 2 days previously.
On June 15, 2016 Guccifer 2.0 releases the DNC’s opposition research file on Donald Trump which is the first data dump from the hacks.
On June 16th Australian officials pass information about Papadopoulos bragging about having “Dirt on Hillary” to their American counterparts. [Something no one in the Trump campaign has bothered to do, even now.] This allegedly starts the Russia Collusion Investigation and a Kremlin Task Force is formed between NSA, CIA, FBI and Treasury.
On June 19th the Russian MFA connection asks Papadopoulos that if Trump is unable to meet in Moscow “that perhaps that he or another campaign rep could attend.” That very same day Corey Lewandowski approves a trip by Carter Page to Moscow via email supposedly requiring that it “not involve the campaign”, but there aren’t specific discussions of what he would be doing.
The Republican Convention took place between July 18-21 during which Russian ambassador Kislyak attended a Heritage Foundation event where he briefly meets Sessions again as well as Carter Page and J.D. Gordon.
During the convention on July 18th Carter Page traveled to Moscow, approved by Trump Natsec advisor JD Gordon and Corey Lewandowski to give several paid speeches. He informed Jeff Sessions of his trip before he went. While there he later admits he met Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich and Andrey Baranov, Rosneft's head of investor relations who tells him of an impending sale of large portion of their stock. Since they are sanctioned, this is odd since Page can’t legally do anything with this information. [Christopher Steele’s dossier alleges that Page was offered brokerage fees on the sale of this stock in exchange for lobbying Trump to drop sanctions against Russia, but Page denies this.] Page was also informed by Kremlin Official Igor Divyekin that “Russia had compromising materials on Hillary Clinton” making him the 3rd person in the Trump campaign after Papadopoulos & Don Jr. to be informed of this — yet none of them informed the FBI.
Three days later on July 22nd one day after the end of the Republican Convention Wikileaks revealed their first set of DNC emails confirming what Divyekin told Page in Moscow. Page, just like Papadopoulos and Sessions — again — does not inform the FBI about what he was told.
On August 15, 2016 Papadopoulos was advised by his Trump Campaign Supervisor to “Make the Trip” to Moscow, but he never does. He leaves the campaign not long afterward, which for him and them may have been a good thing because he would soon very likely be under surveillance by the FBI and NSA.
In September Jeff Sessions met privately with Kislyak at his Senate Offices, they allegedly discuss sanctions on Russia and argue because Sessions had also just met with the ambassador from Ukraine.
In October Christopher Steele alarmed by what his research on Trump has turned up along with his parter Chris Burrows reached out to their old boss former British Ambassador to Russia Sir Richard Dearlove for advice. He also meets with DOJ official Bruce Ohr and 4 FBI Officials in Rome who inform him that his data confirms other reports they have including contacts made by Papadopoulos whom he hadn’t yet heard of. The Kremlin investigation task force, now armed with Steele’s additional information, files their third application for a FISA Warrant looking at Russian banks, Carter Page, Manafort who has also has a residence inside Trump Tower NY and one other Trump associate [likely Papadopoulos]. This one is approved.
On November 7, 2016 just one day before the election 19.5% of Rosneft stock is sold to unknown buyers. [This seem to be consistent with the Steele memos which had predicted this sale as an payoff to Trump for lifting sanctions on Russia]
In January 2017 Jeff Sessions testified during his confirmation hearing for Attorney General that he doesn’t know “any Trump surrogates who were in contact with the Russians” ignoring the question he was asked by Senator Franken which was “What would you do if you discover surrogates coordinating with Russians?” Apparently his honest answer is “Nothing”, because he was told exactly that by both George Papadopoulos and his own Chief of Staff Rick Dearborn months previously.
On January 27th, four days after they talked to Michael Flynn the FBI interviewed Papadopoulos about his contacts with Russians. He falsely stated the professor is “unimportant” when in fact he has close ties to the Kremlin, and falsely claimed that their conversations took place before he was part of the campaign. He also lied about the MFA connection and Putin’s “Niece”. Reportedly he does this because “Trump denied all contacts with Russians” and George didn't want him to look bad.
On February 16th Papadopoulos was interviewed for the second time by the FBI with a lawyer present and repeated all of his previous misstatements from his previous interview. The next day he deletes his Facebook account which had mentions of all his contacts with Russians and creates a brand new account. [The internet never forgets!]
On October 30, 2017 Mueller indicted Papadopoulos who pleaded guilty and reached a deal regarding his lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians.
In February of 2018 it was revealed that Professor Joseph Mifsud who had told Papadopoulos about Russia having “Thousands of Hillary’s emails” had completely disappeared. Even his fiancee can’t find him.
Paul Manafort and Rick Gates
In 2005 Konstantin Kilimnik — who was trained in english by the Russian Military Intelligence [GRU] — went to work for longtime GOP operative, and close ally of Roger Stone, Paul Manafort and his partner Rich Gates in Ukraine. The AP has reported that Manafort then wrote a strategy memo to Russian Aluminum Billionaire Oleg Deripaska saying that he’d developed a plan that could “greatly benefit the Putin Government,” The next year Paul Manafort secretly went to work for Deripaska — who couldn’t get a Visa to visit the U.S. because of reported links to Russian organized crime — promoting Putin’s interests in the U.S. and former soviet states for $10 Million per year. At that time he didn’t register as a foreign agent as required by law. He continued working for Deripaska until 2009.
By 2011 Manafort was working as a consultant for Ukraine’s despotic Putin Friendly President Viktor Yanakovych and signed off on the stealth media “fake news” project to place articles in the Wall Street Journal and smear then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton through briefings to websites such as Breitbart News. Also during this year Oleg Deripaska obtained a diplomatic passport from Russia allowing him to travel to America bypassing the fact he’s banned from the US due to allegations of his connection to Russian mobsters. This makes him officially an agent of the Russian government.
In 2014 Manafort and his partner Rick Gates were named in a racketeering lawsuit involving oligarch Dmitry Firtash, who also has ties to Putin. That suit, which was later dismissed, claimed Manafort and Gates helped Firtash launder ill-gotten gains as part of an $850 million deal to build luxury housing at the site of the Drake Hotel in New York City, Later that year the FBI requested a FISA Warrant for Manafort due to his involvement with the Ukrainian government and Putin friendly officials such as Deripaska, this warrant ultimately lapsed in early 2016.
In 2015 Deripaska transfered $18.9 million to a private equity fund set up by Manafort to acquire a Ukrainian telecommunications company Black Sea Cable, but then he sued Manafort and his partner, Rick Gates, after they “simply disappeared” with the money.
On March 28, 2016 Trump hired Paul Manafort to handle the delegate process on his campaign. By April he had become Trump’s campaign chairman. At this point in time Manafort owed approximate $17 Million to pro-Russia shell companies based in Cyprus.
That month Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos wrote in an email to campaign manager Corey Lewandowsk that he had fielded “a lot of calls over the past month” related to a meeting between the Trump campaign and Russia. “Russia has been eager to meet with Mr. Trump for some time and have been reaching out to me to discuss,” Papadopoulos said in a separate email to Paul Manafort.
In May Manafort met in New York with his allegedly ex-GRU assistant from the Ukraine Konstantin Kilimnik, they reportedly discuss how much Deripaska approves of his work with the Trump campaign. Papadoplous Russian MFA connection (who is suspected of being Sergei Millian) emailed him and said he has talked to his colleagues at MFA and that they are “open for cooperation”, George then relates this to a “High Ranking” member of the campaign (Manafort) as “Russia Updates.” They continue communicating during the Month via email and Skype. Some of his emails are forwarded by Manafort to Gates “Let[‘]s discuss, We need someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips. It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal.”
On June 6th Donald Jr, Kushner and Manafort secretly met with a prominent Russia lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower after (again) being offered “dirt” about the Clinton Campaign and the DNC being funded illegally by a Russia who dodged taxes. They 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. Don Jr. alleged says “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. Manafort had claimed that he basically slept through this meeting and made no note of it. Sometime around this point Goldstone also emailed Trump digital communications director Dan Scavino about creating a page on the Russian social networking site VK, telling him that "Don [Jr.] and Paul [Manafort]" were on board with the idea.
In July U.S. intel intercepted Russian Operatives discussing a request for “Help damaging Clinton’s campaign” from the Trump campaign which mentions Manafort. FBI began an investigation into this with their Kremlin Investigation task force and applied again for a FISA Warrant which at that time was rejected. Later in the month Manafort sent an email through Kilimnik offering to give his previous Putin supporting benefactor and official Russia government agent — as a diplomatic passport holder — Oleg Deripaska a personal status briefing on the Trump campaign in exchange to “get whole” on his outstanding $18-50 Million debt.
At the end of the month Manafort denied that the Trump campaign made any changes to the RNC platform. Various Trump affiliates repeated these denials 20 more times before finally admitting the truth; Donald personally ordered the change in a meeting with JD Gordon during the RNC in which Sessions attended. Kilimnik bragged that he engineered this change. [Note: If this was done as a pay off to Russia to ensure their continued support in their hacking/propaganda efforts, it again proves Donald’s direct involvement in a criminal conspiracy.]
Immediately after the convention where this change is made, Wikileaks began releasing the hacked DNC emails.
On August 2, 2016 Kilimnik again traveled to the U.S. and met with Manafort where they allegedly discuss the DNC hack. That same day Oleg Deripaska’s Gulfstream G550 is spotted on the tarmac in Newark New Jersey. It arrived after midnight and left the next day, supposedly he made no contact with Manafort that day. Later in August Manafort pushed a false RT/Sputnik News story about terrorist sabotage at a NATO base in Turkey. Trump also pushed the same false story. On August 19th Manafort left the Trump campaign amidst allegations that he accepted a $12 Million under-the-table cash payment from his former Putin friendly client, ex-Ukraine President Yanakovych. Pollster Kellyanne Conway, who is a Mercer employee, then took over as campaign manager. Gates stayed on with the campaign through the transition.
In October the Kremlin investigation task force filed their third application for a FISA Warrant looking at Russian banks, Carter Page, Manafort who has a residence in Trump Tower and one other Trump associate [likely Papadopoulos]. This one was approved.
On January 10, 2017 the Steele Dossier was published by Buzzfeed, Manafort called then Chief of Staff Reince Preibus to deny allegations in the dossier about him which include allegations that he sent Carter Page to Russia as his “go between”. The following day Politico issued a report indicating that Ukrainian-American Alexandra Chalupa who consulted for the DNC had gone to the Ukrainian embassy to gain information about Paul Manafort’s links to Yanakovych.
On February 14th the NYTimes reported that Trump aids (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. Not long after this FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe broke DOJ protocol to tell Reince Preibus that this NYTimes report is “bullshit.” [But is that because it is bullshit, or they want the WH to think it’s bullshit?]
In July the Wapo reported that Manafort had (finally) registered as a foreign agent and declared $17 million in profits from Ukrainian groups. This “finally getting right with the law” act fuels rumors that he has or soon intends to flip for Mueller.
On July 25th Manafort was subpeoned by Senate Judiciary. The very next day FBI executed a “No Knock” pre-dawn search warrant on Manafort’s residence looking for financial documents some of which he was supposed to have turned over to Senate Intel specifically because they’re concerned he might destroy evidence. Manafort had been scheduled to meet with Senate Judiciary on the 27th, but negotiates a later date.
In August the National Enquirer published a hit piece on Manafort (one hour after the Wapo report on the search warrant raid) that alleges that he was involved in a “sick sex scandal” with women much younger than his wife. [And it’s not like we’ve seen the Enquirer pulls some dirty F-ing tricks on behalf of Trump before AmIrite?] Reports are also that Mueller had issued subpeonas for grand jury testimony from 6 PR firms which had worked for Michael Flynn and Manafort to determine if they were really trying to accomplish their stated goal of supporting Ukraine’s entry into the EU or if they were really implementing a covert/false-flag effort in support of Putin. Later that month Mueller’s grand jury issues subpoenas for testimony and documents from Manafort’s attorney Melissa Laurenza and his spokesman Jason Maloni.
Also in August Politico reported that prosecutors were concerned the likelihood of a pardon by Trump may limit their ability to obtain Manafort’s cooperation, so apparently they are coordinating with NYAG Schniederman, who had obtained a $25 Million settlement in the fraudulent TrumpU case in November, to apply state based pressure on him that can’t be affected by Trump. Former Watergate prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks states “I think it’s a brilliant idea, I think it absolutely could work because I believe that the abuse of the pardon power could actually amount to an obstruction of justice,”
In September Ukrainian Billionaire Dmitry Firtash, who was then free on a $175 Million Bond in Austria, and is reportedly linked to the Russian Mob and dealings with Paul Manafort, was fighting extradition back to the U.S. to face trial. Manafort had denied he ever did any deals with Firtash, only admitting that “opportunities were explored.” The Chicago Tribune reported that prosecutors said they had “thousands of intercepts” involving Firtash. Also that month Manafort spokesman Jason Maloni testified for two hours before the Mueller Grand Jury, but was completely tight-lipped afterward declining to answer any questions from reporters.
CNN reported that Manafort was wire-tapped under a FISA warrant before and after the election, and that Prosecutors have told him he will be indicted. In response Manafort complained to the DOJ Inspector General about the release that he was under FISA surveillance. He also demanded that all of his intercepted transcripts be released to the public. [Exactly how is that a good idea?]
Also in September the NYTimes reported that Manafort had been lobbying for Kurdish independence in Iraq. On the 21st, Manafort made plans to leave the U.S. to continue his lobbying work for Kurdish independence in Iraq for a vote scheduled for the 26th. Mueller obtained IRS records for Manafort after some negotiating including his taxes going back 11 years to when he was working for Deripaska and Yanakovych.
In October NBC News revealed two loans, valued at $26 million and $7 million, from Oleg Deripaska to Cyprus-based companies tied to Manafort — all part of $60 Million that passed between the two. This is in addition to the $18 Million Derapaska provided for a private equity fund in 2015 and the $30 Million he was paid to support Putin’s agenda overseas by Derapaska between 2006 and 2009. Manafort spokeman Jason Maloni — who was under subpoena from Mueller and had testified to the Grand Jury — responded to NBC at first by saying “Mr. Manafort did not have any outstanding debts to clients at the time he began working on the campaign” , he then offers a revision which removes that sentence. [IMO This may be why Manafort offered to give Derapaska a “person briefing” on the Trump campaign last June in order to “get whole.”]
The WSJ reported that the Manhattan U.S Attorney’s Office is investigating money laundering ties by Paul Manafort in conjunction with the Mueller investigation, while the Brooklyn US Attorney is apparently investigating Kushner’s business dealings.
On October 30th, Mueller’s indictment were unsealed, they charged Paul Manafort and his associate Rick Gates for 12 counts of conspiracy, false statements, failure to register as a foreign agent and money laundering over $75 Million from the Ukraine and Russia which was funneled through offshore accounts largely in Cyprus. — Manafort and Gates are arranged and plead “Not Guilty”. Bail is set for $10 Million for Manafort and $5 Million for Gates, both are placed under house arrest.
In response to the indictment Manafort’s attorney Kevin Downey complains that FARA has only been charged 6 times and only obtained one conviction and he claims the charges of holding his money offshore to avoid paying U.S. taxes as “ridiculous” then storms off. Lowendowski whined that the FBI should have warned Trump not to hire Manafort — yeah, but Obama directly warned him not to hire Flynn in the first place and we all know how that turned out, right?
In November the Daily Beast linked Manafort one degree away from Russian Mobster Simion Mogilevich due to his tendency to wire his funds through Lucicle Consultants Limited which is tied to Ukrainian Parliamentarian Ivan Fursin, who has ties to Mogilevich. Manafort’s lawyers demand he be taken off House Arrest: “He’s not Jason Bourne” [Right, he only uses the password “Bond007” and has got 3 passports, but Jason Bourne had 7. Big difference.] The Magistrate Judge in the Manafort/Gates cases expresses skepticism that they should forego GPS monitoring for them as flight risks and placed a gag order on everyone involved. The WSJ reported that the DOJ was seeking a plea deal with Manafort’s ex-son in law Jeffrey Yohai over a shady real estate deals he made using shell companies.
Oleg Deripaska calls CNN “Fake News” when they ask him about his connections with Manafort.
Also the Daily Beast reported that another Russian, Roman Benajaminov was involved in setting up the Don Jr. meeting with Manafort and Kushner and had been told it involved “dirt” on Hillary Clinton, not adoption.
Flight records show that Manafort visited Kiev 19 times between 2014 and 2016 when he supposedly was no longer working for Yanakovych who had been deposed, but still had ties to Oleg Derapaska fueling concerns that he was active Russian agent.
In january 2018 Oleg Derapaska sued Manafort and Gates for fraud, gross negligence, disloyalty and self-dealing regarding the Ukrainian telecom company Black Sea Cable that he had worked with them to purchase, but they had instead disappeared with the money. He had sued over this before, but then dropped the suit during the 2016 campaign while Manafort used Kilimnik to negotiate with him while trying to “get whole.” Derapaska’s evidence is the financial details contained in Mueller’s indictment.
In February Rick Gates agreed to a plea deal with Mueller for fraud charges and promised to testify against Manafort.
Politico reported that Trump’s attorneys — well, what’s left of them — are very concerned about what Rick Gates has been telling Mueller since he pleaded guilty.
“They’ve been very concerned about it,” said a defense attorney working on the Russia case. “It’s something they’re worried about.” “He saw everything,” said a Republican consultant who worked with Gates during the campaign.
“He saw everything” — and that makes them worried? What, pray tell, could there have been to see?
In April Bloomberg has reported that Mueller has requested 35 blank subpoenas — with names to be filled in later — for witnesses he plans to call in the June 10 Manafort trial.
Richard Pinedo Jr.
On February 16, 2018 Mueller announced the guilty plea and indictment of Richard Pinedo Jr. for identity fraud in attacking online digital payment companies where “hundreds of bank account numbers” where involved and Pinedo personally collected tens of thousands of dollars. His Lawyer Jeremy Lessem claims he “made a mistake” but had “no knowledge” of who was paying for the information he stole. [Could it be, Russia?]
Alex Van Der Zwaan
On February 20, 2018 Mueller indicts lawyer Alex van Der Zwaan for lying about contacts involving Rick Gates and Konstantin Kilminik who has current links to the GRU. In a report last year, The Kyiv Post described Zwaan as “the Russian-speaking son-in-law of Russian oligarch German Khan.” Khan was included in a State Department list of oligarchs that have close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Manafort while working for Yanakovych had commissioned Zwaan’s law firm to produce a report justifying the prosecution of Yanakovych’s political opponent former Ukraine Prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
More details on this plea are available from Rawstory.
The 30-page sentencing memorandum filed by the special counsel alleges that Gates was communicating with “Person A,” who is described as “a former Russian Intelligence Officer with the GRU”—the foreign military intelligence agency of the Russia federation. According to the document, Gates was aware of “Person A’s” connection to Russian intelligence services.
Van der Zwaan—the son-in-law of Russian oligarch German Khan, who is suing BuzzFeed News over its publication of the Trump-Russia dossier—pleaded guilty in February to lying to the special counsel. According to the sentencing motion filed Tuesday, van der Zwaan’s lies “were material” to the special counsel’s investigation, and directly involved communications with Gates and “Person A,” a former GRU officer.
“That Gates and Person A were directly communicating in September and October 2016 was pertinent to the investigation,” the special counsel argued in its sentencing memo. ”Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agents assisting the Special Counsel’s Office assess that Person A has ties to a Russian intelligence service and had such ties in 2016.”
It should be noted that Van Der Zwaan’s father-in-law being Russian oligarch German Khan is not a small thing. Khan is an owner of the Alfa Group which includes Alfa Bank which was mentioned in the Steele memos as follows:
- Key intermediary in relationship identified as Oleg GOVORUN, currently Head Ofa Presidential Administration department but throughout the 1990s, the Alpha executive who delivered illicit cashd irectly to PUTIN
PUTIN personally unbothered about Alpha?s current lack Of investment in Russia but under pressure from colleagues over this and able to exploit it’s lever over Alpha interlocutorsDetail1. Speaking to a trusted compatriot in mid-September 2016, a top level Russian government Official commented on the history and current state Of relations between President PUTIN and the Alpha Group Of businesses led by oligarchs Mikhail RIDMAN, Petr AVEN and German KHAN.
The Russian government figure reported that although they had had their ups and downs, the leading figures in Alpha currently were on very good terms with PUTIN. Significant favours continued to be done in both directions, primarily political ones for PUTIN and business/legal ones for Alpha.
Also, RIDMAN and AVEN continued to give informal advice tO PUTIN on foreign policy, and especially about the US where he distrusted advice being given to him by officials. 2. Although RIDMAN recently had met directly with PUTIN in Russia, much Of the dialogue and business between them was mediated through a senior Presidential Administration Official, Oleg GOVORUN, who currently headed the department therein responsible for Social CO-operation Withthe CIS.
GOVORUN was trusted by PUTIN and recently had accompanied him to Uzbekistan to pay respects at the tomb of former president KARIMOV. However according to the top level Russian government official, during the 1990’s GOVORUN had been Head Of Government Relations at Alpha Group and in reality, the ?driver? and ?bag carrier?
Steele alleged that Ridman, Aven and Khan the heads of Alfa Group were buddy buddy with Putin and tend to share political and business favors back and forth with him — as if this is a surprise or a shock for any Russian oligarch — and in retaliation Khan and the others sued Buzzfeed.
The owners of a Russian bank are suing BuzzFeed for publishing a dossier containing unproven claims that the businessmen were involved in bribing Russian President Vladimir Putin years ago and took part in an alleged Russian government scheme to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven and German Khan of Alfa Bank filed the defamation lawsuit Friday in state court in Manhattan, seeking unspecified damages from BuzzFeed as well as editor-in-chief Ben Smith, reporter Ken Bensinger and editors Miriam Elder and Mark Schoofs.
The suit seized on Smith admitting that at the time BuzzFeed published the dossier in January he knew aspects of the dossier were wrong and that other aspects of it were unproven. That admission indicates BuzzFeed had knowledge sufficient to meet the legal standard for libel, the court complaint says.
Alfa Bank also has a server which has been in contact with a Trump server for reasons no one has been able to figure out.
The following day after his indictment of Van de Zwaan Mueller filed additional charges in a sealed indictment against Manafort and Gates — which could be a reflection of Gates guilty plea or could be related to the charges again Zwaan.
Soon afterward MSNBC’s Stephanie Rhule mapped out how Manafort and Zwaan are linked to Yanakovych on behalf of various Russian Oligarchs with ties to Putin, and how Papadopoulos interacted with Prof. Mifsud who had contacts in the Russian Foreign Ministry & the Russian Ambassador to England, plus Flynn's various contacts with Kislyak. [She doesn't mention Kushner’s participation with Flynn’s Russian contacts, and Don Jr. Russian contacts, or that Flynn was trying to setup a Saudi deal to build Nuclear Power plants using sanctioned Russian contractors, and Trump’s attorney Michael Flynn with Felix Sater were trying to get Trump Tower Moscow built with Putin’s help — but she’s not wrong.]
On February 23rd Mueller unsealed a third indictment against Paul Manafort immediately after his last set and Gates guilty plea which include charges that they hid tens of $Millions that they received from lobbying for Ukraine, and that he had conspired in 2012 with law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom which included attorney Alex van Der Zwaan who has also pleaded guilty [That’s the 5th guilty plea] to lying about being aware of contacts between Gates and Kilminik as part of secret plan to lobby for Yanakovych’s pro-Russian party in Ukraine and support the prosecution of one of his political rivals without officially registering as foreign agents.
Felix Sater and Michael Cohen
Michael Cohen is of course Donald Trump’s personal attorney and long time “Fixer” who has not yet been indicted or convicted yet, but clearly that’s only a matter of time since he’s clearly “under the screws” of Justice these days.
According TPM Cohen has many long time family based links to the Italian and Russian mob, starting with this life-long friend Felix Sater who father was a a reported capo in the Mogilevich crime syndicate one of Russia’s largest and most dangerous crime syndicates, Morton Levine, who owned and ran a Brooklyn social club, El Caribe, which was a well-known meeting spot for members of Italian and Russian organized crime families in the 1970s and 1980s, The Russian mobs top boss during the 70-80s was Evsei Agron, who was gunned down in 1985, after which the organization was taken over by Marat Balagula, who was suspected of being behind Agron’s killing but never charged and ran things until ‘91 when he was charged with bootlegging gasoline. Both Aaron and Balagula — heads of the Russian mob int the U.S. — had run their operations out of an office in the Cohen’s uncles club, El Caribe at least until the 90’s which Cohen had owned a partial stake in until Trump became President at which point he sold it.
Newsweek has reported that Cohen has had a 10 car pile-up of former and current associates who been convicted of insurance and tax fraud, assault and criminal mischief including his former law partner Melvyn Estrin, the landlord for the taxi garage where he had a law office Simon Barber, and his Ukranian father-in-law Fima Shusterman.
His father-in-law Shusterman is the one who introduced Cohen to Donald Trump as he began using the money from his collection of taxi medallions he had collected along with his Soviet Ukraine born wife into real estate ultimately purchasing properties in Trump Palace, Trump Park Ave, and Trump World Center while still operating his law office from inside a Simon Barber’s Queens taxi garage. Cohen soon began working for Trump as his “fixer” and deal maker along with his childhood friend Felix Sater
So who is Felix Sater? Let me let Fortune describe him.
Felix Sater, a Russian-born managing director at Bayrock, was convicted of assault in 1991. Then, in 1998, federal prosecutors convicted Sater of fraud, for running a $40 million penny stock fraud in collaboration with the New York and Russian Mafia. In return for a guilty plea, Sater reportedly agreed to work as a government informant.
So basically Felix Sater is a Russian born violent convict with ties to the Russian Mob — who are frequently used by Russian intelligence to do their dirty work and fund blackbag operations — got caught up in a $40 Million stock fraud case but is only fined $35,000 in exchange for becoming an FBI informant and then eventually went to work for Real Estate investment firm Bayrock. He's also since claimed that he’s been a covert asset for U.S. intelligence with the Russians.
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 are 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 by the brother of Bayrocks’ Founder Tefvik Arif and a Troika of Metal magnates in Kazahkstan. Felix Sater becomes Bayrock’s managing director in 2003, where he has dealings with Khrapunov. Their first joint project together with Trump, also in 2003, is building a Trump Tower in Phoenix. They later work with them on the Trump International in Fort Lauterdale, Trump Camelback in Phoenix and Trump Soho in New York.
In 2005 TrumpCo put together it’s first proposal for Trump Tower Moscow in coordination with BayRock LLC. That project failed.
In 2008 Felix Sater left Bayrock after his criminal record was revealed and went to work for Trump.
in 2010 a racketeering case was filed against Bayrock, Sater and Arif alleging they had been “substantially and covertly mob-owned and operated.” 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 4 times. Emails belonging to Don Jr, Kushner and Ivanka show they are all aware of the fraud and discuss keeping it secret. Also 77% of Trump Soho properties have been purchased in cash by secretive shell companies which is a potential indication of money laundering. Mysteriously in 2012 Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance has this case dropped after Trump attorney Marc Kasowitz donates $25,000 to his re-election campaign.
In 2013 Trump had the Miss Universe pagent take place in Moscow with his business partners Aras and Emin Agalarov. He also attempted yet another Trump Tower Moscow deal with them but it ultimately fell though after Obama implemented sanctions against Russia in 2014 for their illegal annexation of Crimea. Trump’s bodyguard Keith Schiller later testifies that Emin sent a pack of hookers to Trump’s Moscow Hotel room.
Keith Schiller — longtime bodyguard to President Donald Trump — said this week that after a meeting about the 2013 Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow, a Russian associate offered to send “five women” to Trump’s hotel room, but Schiller declined the offer on his boss’ behalf.
NBC News said that Schiller made the remarks in his testimony to Congress about Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion between that country’s government and the Trump 2016 campaign.
Two sources who were present for the interview said that Schiller initially thought the offer by a Russian present at the meeting was a joke and responded, “We don’t do that type of stuff.”
Schiller did not claim that he stayed there all night and did not confirm that he knew for sure that these alleged hookers did not return later. The Steele dossier alleges that they did eventually get into the room and well — partied. Former NSA Analyst John Schindler says that multiple intel agencies have copies of “Trump Sex Tapes” although he also says several of them are likely fakes.
In his latest column at the Observer, Schindler writes that Trump’s notorious sexual habits over the years have left him wide open to potential blackmail, and that intelligence agencies around the world possess what they believe to be compromising material on him.
“As many as a dozen intelligence services worldwide, on four continents, are in possession of some sort of ‘Trump tape’ featuring sexual escapades of a controversial nature,” he writes. “Some of these tapes have been shared with the Mueller investigation.”
However, Schindler also warns that many of these tapes are either crude or sophisticated forgeries seemingly designed to discredit any news organization or politician who brings them to light. Schindler suspects that these fraudulent tapes are the work of Russian counterintelligence operatives and were created to protect Trump in case real sex videos of the president were to leak.
So that’s a thing there. Also since the Russian Troll Farm generated a fake Obama and Hillary sex tape and Alexander Nix formerly of Cambridge Analytica has bragged about doing that kind of thing it’s really not that far out of whack to suspect they might have also produced a fake video with a phony Trump lookalike and some prostitutes like Belarusian “sex guru” Anastasia Vashukevich — who also goes by “Nastya Rybka” — who had threatened to do exactly that to embarrass Putin opposition leader Alexander Navalny. [Well, actually they threatened to set a trap to really fuck him and get it on film, not fake fuck him — she’s a pro and has her standards after all.] She has since been arrested in Thailand for sex work without a license — I know, shocker right? — and since she’s been in jail she says that she has information linking Oleg Deripaska — who she previously had an affair with — to the Kremlin and their efforts to affect the election in favor to Trump. She’s offering this information in exchange for asylum in the U.S. but the Thai officials have blocked access to her by the FBI saying she can only be visited by family even though they had previously let CNN talk to her in jail.
So they could have faked it, or then again considering the timbre of Trump’s moral fiber he might have really done it just to desecrate a spot that Barack and Michelle Obama had slept once. He is pretty petty like that.
Anyway, Comey has said to George Stephanopoulos that when he briefed Trump personally on the Steele Dossier and the Russian hookers allegation he had an “out of body experience.” [I’ll bet.] Trump kept denying that it happened saying “Do I look like I need hookers?” while Comey said that he didn’t have confirmation of whether the allegation was true or not, he was just telling him because Russia might be making these claims. Trump later brought up the “Pee Tape” portion of the allegation, which Comey hadn’t briefed him own directly, at least four times saying it jus wasn’t possible because he a “germophobe” — although it’s not like the allegation was that he didn’t anything other than watch, touching wasn’t required — while Comey felt it was still possible because of the size of the Moscow Ritz Carlton Presidential Suite [Which is 1390 Sq Ft and can host 3 adults with a roll away bed available upon request, a Living and Dining area for 6 people, a Dressing and Bathroom as well as the default King Size Bed in a separate Bed Room.]
Besides being an admitted germophobe, Trump is also pretty much a Islamophobe, Negrophobe, Mexophobe, maybe a Homophobe and definitely a Factophobe — however I digress.
Rachel Maddow has recently reported that Trump was only in his Moscow hotel room for a few short hours before an early morning meeting the next day and there likely wasn’t enough time for all that Steele alleges, or to get any sleep, but also that months earlier he had attended a live performance in Las Vegas with Emin Agalarov that closely matches what Steele describes happening in Moscow. So perhaps we’re dealing with some confusion about dates and places as well as a bit of Russian disinformation or faked tapes — as Schindler suggests.
Anyhoo….
Jump ahead to November 2015 when Felix Sater emailed Michael Cohen about a new Trump Tower Moscow project saying “I will get Putin on this program and we will get Donald elected... I know how to play it and how to get this done. Buddy, our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it... I will get all of Putin’s team to buy in on this, I will manage this process.”
In January of 2016 Michael Cohen sent an email to Putin deputy Dmitry Peskov trying to get talks regarding Trump Tower Moscow restarted.
Over the past few months I have been working with a company based in Russia regarding the development of a Trump Tower - Moscow project in Moscow City,” Cohen wrote Peskov, according to a person familiar with the email. “Without getting into lengthy specifics, the communication between our two sides has stalled.”
They ignored him and didn’t respond. I suspect part of the reason he doesn’t get a response is because Sater funding arrangement for this project happens to include sanctioned Russian bank VTB.
Mr. Sater, a Russian immigrant, said he had lined up financing for the Trump Tower deal with VTB Bank, a Russian bank that was under American sanctions for involvement in Moscow’s efforts to undermine democracy in Ukraine. In another email, Mr. Sater envisioned a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Moscow.
“I will get Putin on this program and we will get Donald elected,” Mr. Sater wrote.
Doing business with sanctioned entities can be considered a violation of the Trading With the Enemy Act.
Most Americans are probably aware that they may not engage in business dealings with nations with which the United States has an antagonistic relationship, such as Cuba, Iraq and North Korea. But many people may not be aware that the United States aggressively enforces a broad range of economic sanctions against 12 countries or geographic areas and more than 3,500 organizations and individuals. These sanctions prohibit individuals and companies from conducting any type of business with the targeted entities and subject violators to heavy civil and criminal penalties.
…
Punishment for violations of the sanctions can be severe. Civil fines range from $11,000 to $1 million for each violation. Civil fines may be imposed even if the violation was committed unknowingly and with innocent intent. The majority of the fines imposed are most likely the result of corporations simply failing to recognize trade transactions involving a targeted country or SDN. Additionally, criminal penalties may be levied for willful violations and include fines from $50,000 to $10 million and imprisonment from 10 to 30 years.
Apparently Cohen, Sater and Trump discussed this deal at least three times, and Trump personally signed a letter of intent for it.
Four months into his campaign for President of the United States, Donald Trump signed a “letter of intent” to pursue a Trump Tower-style building development in Moscow, according to a statement from the then-Trump Organization chief counsel, Michael Cohen.
The proposal would have involved construction of the world’s tallest building in Moscow, according to developers of the project.
The involvement of then-candidate Trump in a proposed Russian skyscraper deal contradicts repeated statements Trump made during the campaign, including telling ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that his business had “no relationship to Russia whatsoever.”
Eventually the deal feel through, Cohen claims it was because he “lost confidence” in the investors, but the fact that he got no response from Peskov and that their funding source was sanctioned just might have had something to do with it too.
At some point during the late summer of 2016 Michael Cohen took a trip to Prague in the Czech Republic entering the nation after flying to Germany. Later Cohen vehemently denied this trip and filed a defamation suit when it is mentioned in the Steele Dossier which also alleges that he met prominent Russians while there [such as Russian foreign affairs committee member Konstantin Kosachev] and arranged for a payoff for Romanian hackers [or those such as Russian hacker Yevgenly Nikulin who was arrested in Prague on October 5th just days before the Obama Administration announced that Russian Hackers had attacked the DNC emails system] who may have been involved in the DNC hack. The exact details and reasons for this trip remain unconfirmed.
Later that year Cohen was involved in negotiating “hush payoffs” with porn star Stormy Daniels for $130,000, and playboy playmate Karen McDougal for $150,000 via the National Enquirer who both alleged that they had affairs with Donald Trump dating back to 2006 the same year that the Access Hollywood video of Trump claiming he liked to “grab women by the pussy” was recorded, as well as for RNC Fundraiser Elliot Broidy who had allegedly also had an affair with a playboy playmate which led to a pregnancy and abortion as well as a payment of $1.6 Million. All of these deals where negotiated with attorney Keith Davidson who had represented all three women.
The WH has said Trump knew nothing of the Daniels payoff, which was allegedly financed through Michael Cohen;s personal mortgage account, this IMO puts Cohen as risk for ethics charges for making a deal without the knowledge of one of the participants, possible bank and wire fraud charges as well as criminal campaign finance violations.
After the election in February 2017 Trump attorney Michael Cohen and Felix Sater negotiate a deal to end sanctions against Russia by stopping the violence in Crimea with a Ukranian parliament member 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. When this is revealed Artemenko is looked at for possible Treason charges by Ukraine. [Exactly who came up with this idea and tasked them with this? Does anyone believe they went rogue?]
Later in February Artemenko talked to a Ukrainian News outlet and revealed that he’s known Michael Cohen for some time since Cohen has an ethanol business in the country, which is also where his wife was born, and that his meeting with Cohen and Sater on Feb 6 wasn’t their first. According to Artemenko, he discussed the “peace-plan” with Cohen and Sater “at the time of the primaries, when no one believed that Trump would even be nominated.”
In May 2017 Cohen became the target of Congressional probe, and turned down their request for documents and testimony for being “poorly worded.” In response the House Intel committee issued a subpoena to Michael Cohen.
In June 2017 Michael Isikoff reported that Trump attempted to have all Russian sanctions lifted as soon as he took office, but he was thwarted by Obama Officials and Congress. This of course puts the Cohen/Sater/Artemenko “Peace Plan” in greater perspective. Later in June Cohen Lawyered up for Russia probe.
Still later that month CNN’s Jeffrey Lord said Mueller should hire Michael Cohen — yes, seriously — ignoring the fact that he’s actually been investigating Cohen who has since lawyered up.
In August Michael Cohen’s atty wrote a letter to Congress vehemently denying his involvement in colluding between Trump and Russia as described in the Steele dossier — even though he had been directly involved in writing to the Russian government during the campaign to restart the Trump Tower Moscow project, and as we now know DID GO TO PRAGUE. Later in August reports surfaced that besides Bayrock’s Tefvik Arik Trump had financial links to post-Soviet era oligarch Mukhtar Ablyazov, who had been charged with stealing between $4-$10 Billion from Kazakhstan’s largest banks through loans and shell companies and had been working with Trump on two Tower projects in (former Soviet) Georgia through a company run by Michael Cohen. The same report also notes the connection of oligarch Alexander Shnaider, who has mob ties, and had been involved in the Toronto Trump Tower deal.
Michael Cohen was scheduled to testify before the Senate on Tuesday Sep, 19th in a closed door hearin, however he releases a public statement which goes against their arrangement, so the interview is changed to an open hearing. Eventually that hearing does occur, but behind closed doors.
In October the WaPo reported that Michael Cohen even after his private interview with Senate Intel staff just a week previously had two more unreported contacts with Russian nationals during the campaign. Weeks before the RNC he had exchanged emails with a “business associate” to attend a conference that would have including a personal appearance by Putin. The other was in 2015 he received a proposal for a Trump branded residential project in Moscow from a billionaire who used to be a member of Russian Senate.
In January 2018 Jack Kingston claimed no one in the Trump campaign would be “stupid enough to collude with Russia [Except obviously for Papadopoulos, Manafort, Gates, Page, Flynn, Don Jr., Kushner, Cohen and Sater who all tried to multiple times.] Also in January Buzzfeed’s Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith penned an Op-ed defending their publication of the Steele Dossier just before Michael Cohen sued both Buzzfeed and Fusion GPS for defamation over it.
Then the Wall Street Journal reported that Cohen had created Essential Consultants, LLC. on October 17, 2016, and “used a bank account linked to the entity to send the payment to the client-trust account of a lawyer representing” Daniels, while the payment itself was written to “Peggy Peterson” who doesn’t exist — in a plot that looks amazingly like Money Laundering and Fraud. It also may have violated Federal elections laws because paying Daniels to be silenced was essentially an in-kind corporate donation to the Trump Campaign.
In February 2018 Stormy Daniels said she’s now “Free to Talk” after Michael Cohen breached their contract. [Ruh Roh!]
Then in March Mueller subpoenaed personal documents phone and email records going all the way back to 2015 for Trump campaign associations including Steve Bannon, Michael Cohen to Hope Hicks, Paul Manafort and Roger Stone. TheWSJ reported that Citi National Bank had flagged Michael Cohen’s payment to Stormy Daniels as suspicious to Treasury, and Cohen had complained that he “wasn’t re-imbursed for it” which is something I think the FEC would like to know about. He also missed two deadlines for the payment supposedly because he couldn’t contact Trump — who he had previously claimed had “nothing to do with the payment.” [So why did he need to contact him about it first exactly?]
Also in March The Daily Beast reported that the House Intel Committee had leaked information about the Steele Dossier to Trump attorney Michael Cohen. Former John McCain staffer David Kramer had acted as a go between in delivering a copy of the dossier from the British Ambassador ultimately to James Comey in October of 2016. Days after his testimony in late December 2017 Kramer’s lawyer received a call from Cohen’s lawyers asking about the dossier. Kramer’s lawyer then complained to the committee about the leak. [Yeah, ya think?]
And then WaPo reported that Mueller has requested documents related to Michael Cohen’s attempt to broker a Trump Tower Moscow deal and the attempted Ukrainian “Peace Deal” which would have ended Russian Sanctions. While that was going on Stormy Daniels sued Trump to invalidate her NDA over their affair because he forgot to SIGN IT! Her filing indicates Trump knew about the payment meaning it could have violated FEC laws. She claims she was coerced into signing a false statement by Cohen, and he had even tried to pressure her in February by filing an arbitration motion against her.
The next day NBC News reported Cohen had recently obtained a ‘secret restraining order’ to stop Stormy Daniels from talking — which is weird because if it’s a secret, how’s she supposed to know about it? Then Stormy Daniel’s lawyer Mike Avenatti called out Michael Cohen’s ‘ludicrous’ claim he paid her without Trump’s knowledge — which if true, would've been an ethics violation and could get his ass disbarred. The day after that Michael Cohen inked a deal for a “Tell-All” book which is weird since really telling all would clearly violate attorney-client privilege. Then it’s discovered that Cohen used a trumporg.com email address to negotiate his deal with Daniels which doesn’t really validate Huckabee-Sanders claim that the payment had “nothing to do with Trump, the Trump organization or the campaign.” Michael Avanetti then wrote to the Trump Org requesting they preserve all documents and bank records related to the Michael Cohen’s payments to Daniels.
On March 25th Stormy Daniels was interviewed on 60 Minutes and detailed that she only had sex with Trump once, largely on the chance that he'd repay her with a spot on Celebrity Apprentice. He never fulfilled that offer, so she grabbed her purse and left on further meetings. She notes that Trump’s bodyguard Keith Schiller was the one who had escorted her to Trump’s room. She said she was physically threatened in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011 with her infant daughter and eventually signed the NDA on recommendation from lawyer Keith Davidson who happened to be a friend of Michael Cohen’s and also represented Karen McDougal in her eventual deal with the Enquirer. At the end of the broadcast a former FEC chairman said that timing of the $130k payment by Cohen is a strong indication it was an illegal in kind campaign contribution. CBS reported that Trump had dinner with Cohen the night 60 Minutes aired of the Daniels interview.
The following day Cohen’s lawyer Brent Blakley sent Daniels a “cease and desist” letter claiming she made “false and defamatory” remarks during her interview. And then WH deputy spokes shill Raj Shah stated Trump doesn’t believe Daniels was threatened in 2011, and claims payments like Cohen’s to her are “nothing out of the ordinary” although they continued to deny there was an affair. [But if there wasn’t an affair — why’d she get paid?] At which point Daniels’ lawyer sued Cohen for Defamation adding it to their previous suit against the NDA.
That same day former homicide prosecutor Katie Phang explained why Cohen may be facing felony charges during an interview with MSNBC’s Katy Tur. ”“By all accounts, a $130,000 hush money payment on the eve of the presidential election in 2016 could constitute an in-kind contribution made to influence the outcome of that election,” the MSNBC legal analyst continued. “And if so, then Michael Cohen is going to be looking at felony charges for having done that.”
On March 27th FEC Chairman Trevor Potter said it would be impossible for the FEC to finish an inquiry into the Cohen/Daniels payment before next year as they’re still analyzing other 2015-2016 election issues. That would put it right in the start of Trump’s 2020 campaign.
On March 29th Cohen’s lawyer said Trump was never aware of the Daniels NDA agreement and Meghan Kelly tell him “no one believes that” — which is because they don’t. And Cohen better hope it isn’t because legal experts state that if this is true it could open Cohen up to fraud charges, if one party in an agreement doesn’t even know about the agreement.
On April 5th Trump finally answered a question about Stormy Daniels and claims he didn’t know about the NDA of the $130,000 payment by Michael Cohen. This means that Cohen committed fraud by setting up a deal without informing his own client. That same day McClathy reported that Mueller’s investigators had shown up on the doorsteps of Trump businesses associates armed with subpoenas and asking questions about Michael Cohen. [RUH FRACKING ROH!]
On April 9th Michael Cohen had his office, home and hotel room raided by the FBI using a no-knock warrant. Documents involving his communications between Cohen and his clients — which include Trump — are seized, but it appears the warrant is mostly in reference to the Stormy Daniels case and is executed through the Southern District of New York after being referred by Robert Mueller and approved by Rosenstein which indicates that this portion of the investigation is new compared to the Russia and money laundering issues and will be handled by the NY U.S. attorney Geoffrey Berman not Mueller. THAT SAME DAY Stormy Daniels attorney Mike Avenatti announces that he ha had a sketch artist recreate the image of the person who threatened his client in 2011and that he’ll be releasing it next day [Which he didn't actually]. He also renews his request to depose Cohen and Trump. Later that day WaPo reported that Cohen is being investigated for Bank Fraud, Wire Fraud and Campaign Finance violations in relation to his payments to Daniels. [What did I tell you?]
In response to all this TRUMP EXPLODES, then whines and complains during a National Security Meeting about the Cohen Warrant claiming that they “broke into” his office, [Yeah, I’m thinking that’s what the No-Knock part of the warrant was about] and that it’s a “disgrace” and it’s “an attack on America” and “Mueller Office is the most biased and conflicted group of people” but in fact this raid was setup by Preet Bharara’s successor Geoffrey Berman the current Acting U.S. Attorney for Southern New York. Even if Trump fires Mueller or Berman, this investigation will still go on. “This is a pure and simple Witch Hunt” Trump claims. [Really, totally it’s not.] Axios reported WH Sources say Cohen’s raid ignited Trump’s ‘untethered’ rage: ‘I’ve never seen him like this before’.
Rawstory then reported some of the greatest hits of Michael Cohen besides the Daniels and McDougal cases.
On April 10th Huckabee-Sanders was asked “How is an FBI raid on Michael Cohen an ‘attack on our country.” and responds “The [Resident] has been very clear that this has gone on too far, and I have nothing else to add on that.]
When one reporter questions the “Witch Hunt” claims noting that some of the Russians that were indicted by Mueller are the same ones who were recently sanctioned “So don’t you agree that some part of the Mueller investigation is legitimate?” — Sanders says that it’s “It’s insane to think the Trump campaign had anything to do with those Russians” However one of them is Oleg Deripaska who had paid Tens of $Millions to Paul Manafort and had been in communications with him through former GRU operative Konstantin Kilimnik who took credit for changing the Pro-Ukraine plank during the RNC so yeah those same Russians had something with the Campaign. Also Andrew Van Der Zwaan pleaded guilty to lying about Manaforts partner Gates communicating with Kilimnick — which I think is called “covering up collusion.”
The next day the NYTimes reported that the search warrant for the Cohen raid also included records linked to the Access Hollywood tape from 2006, which was released on October 7, 2016 the same day that the Intel Community laid the blame for the DNC hack on Russia Officially, and also the Podesta Emails began to be dumped.
And then yesterday April 13th ABC news reported that the FBI has Cohen recordings of conversations he had with his clients and business partners including Keith Davidson who had represented by Porn Star Stormy Daniels, Playmate Karen McDougal and also the Playboy Playmate who had been impregnated by RNC Fundraiser Elliot Broidy who was paid $1.6 Million in a deal orchestrated by Cohen. In New York it’s legal to record a conversation when only one person has connected, but in California where Davidson is located it’s NOT and he has since vowed to seek “all legal remedies” at his disposal over it.
Citing “several” people close to President Trump, the NYTimes reported his “advisers have concluded that a wide-ranging corruption investigation in New York of Michael Cohen poses a greater and more imminent threat than even the special counsel’s investigation.” [Yep, could be]. CNN reported that the FBI had a current criminal investigation of Michael Cohen which has lasted for months and had previously gone thru his emails via warrant and revealed that he only has one client — Trump — whom he hardly does any legal work for meaning just about none of the seized materials are protected by attorney-client privilege. Also In court Cohen’s attorney couldn’t name any other clients of his besides Trump.
And finally McClatchy reported that Mueller’s investigators have information about Cohen taking a trip in the summer of 2016 to Prague — an allegation about Trump’s attorney included in Steele’s controversial dossier. [This allegation is connected to Cohen supposed paying off some of the Romanian Hackers [such as hacker Yevgeniy Nikulin who was arrested in Prague in 2016 just three days before the Obama administration officially accused Russia of hacking the DNC] to help relocate them to avoid the FBI before the election.
Besides the “pee tape” portion this was one of the key items that Trump had claimed was “FALSE” about the Steele Dossier, with this confirmed we are now closer to confirming nearly everything.] Apparently Cohen entered through Germany which allows transportation the Czech Republic without a passport, whether he met with Russian foreign affairs committee member Konstantin Kosachev while there or negotiated the hacker payment still remains unconfirmed. Exactly where this leave the defamation lawsuit Cohen filed against Buzzfeeed and his “point by point” refutation of the Steele Dossiers allegations remains in question.
But I have to finish with one final thing about Sater — he had apparently stated to friends and family back in August of 2017 that he and Trump are going to Prison.
Sources told The Spectator‘s Paul Wood that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s deep dive into Trump’s business practices may be yielding results.
...
And according to Wood’s sources, Sater may have already flipped and given prosecutors the evidence they need to make a case against Trump.
For several weeks there have been rumours that Sater is ready to rat again, agreeing to help Mueller. ‘He has told family and friends he knows he and POTUS are going to prison,’ someone talking to Mueller’s investigators informed me.
Sater hinted in an interview earlier this month that he may be cooperating with both Mueller’s investigation and congressional probes of Trump.
“In about the next 30 to 35 days, I will be the most colourful character you have ever talked about,” Sater told New York Magazine. “Unfortunately, I can’t talk about it now, before it happens. And believe me, it ain’t anything as small as whether or not they’re gonna call me to the Senate committee.”
Whew….
Rachel Maddow has reported that Meuller’s report on Trump and Obstruction will cover four major areas and will soon be ready for release:
- The Intent to fire FBI Director James Comey.
- His role in crafting the public statement about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting.
- Talk of pardoning witness who might testify against him.
- Pressuring AG Sessions not to recuse himself from the Russia investigation.
So in summation the Mueller investigation has so far generated five guilty pleas, from Michael Flynn, to George Papadopoulos, Rick Gates, Andrew Van Der Zwaan and Richard Pinedo Jr while pressure on Micheal Cohen is rapidly reaching Coal to Diamond levels. All of them except for Pinedo Jr. relate directly to Russia, covert communications with Russia, money being received from Russia and ultimately the relationship between Russians and the Trump campaign and other sorts of assorted badness.
Repeatedly these people have lied about their communications with Russians. If there was nothing to hide, if there was “no collusion” — why are so many of these people getting caught lying about it?