….and not everyone has profited from it.
In the case of Wilbur Ross, there’s the possibility that he knows about money laundering performed by his bank particularly in reference to #TrumpRussia. But in this case, he got caught making a profit from the inattention or natural delay of the federal bureaucracy. And we are shocked, shocked that this seems to be a feature rather than a bug in the conduct of WH officials.
The admission came after Ross received a letter from OGE general counsel and acting Director David Apol that admonished him for failing to divest from some stocks by Jan 15, 2017, as he had indicated and more recently engaging in stock market activity that appeared aimed at belatedly correcting that error.
Apol told Ross his discrepancies “can undermine public trust in both you and the overall ethics program,” and that his positions and short sale could lead to legal jeopardy. The OGE letter contradicts what Ross has said in the past regarding the ethical and legal nature of the trades in question.
According to the independent ethics office, Ross failed to consult with them about his trades. The office called his attempts to follow ethics guidelines for avoiding conflicts of interest “ineffective.”
www.politico.com/...
Because the Russian “meddling” aside from a general predisposition to the use of active measures, shows there were criminal reasons that were more about financial sanctions and political power than orphans or being lazy about using secure email.
Democrats raised questions about Ross’s tenure at the Bank of Cyprus before his confirmation, but Ross has said the White House has refused to allow him to respond to the queries. Senator Cory Booker and other Democrats recently sent a third letter to Ross with more questions, including whether Ross had ever done business with companies that were under US sanctions.
Ross, who had made billions of dollars years earlier by betting on bankrupt steel mills, was known for taking risky bets. But his decision to inject €400m into the bank with other investors encompassed a different kind of risk. It put him at the centre of the biggest financial institution in a country that was widely considered to be a tax haven for Russian oligarchs, even as the US and EU were imposing sanctions on Russia. In 2014, the year he made his investment, the US State Department considered Cyprus an area of “primary concern” for money laundering (pdf), according to its official assessment.
www.theguardian.com/...
First Trump tweet of the morning is pimping Matt Gaetz, but why?
Itz da “deep state”, yo!
Large-headed psychopath Matt Gaetz, a junior congressman from Florida, is the latest to rush to Jim Jordan’s defense. His theory: these former wrestlers can’t be trusted because they are associated with the “deep state”:
The derangement of thoughts such as these will not prevent them from achieving their goal of discrediting victims of abuse. There’s no need to ever actually engage with any issue in anything approaching a sane manner anymore. You can just say shit.
The president of the United States is out there constantly babbling about “fake news” and the “deep state,” and so all you have to do ride on the back of his political success is scream “fake news” and “deep state” as often as possible.
In a year, when Trump’s mind has degenerated to the point that he is blaming the “very unfair hog farmers” for all of his problems, there will be some congressman taking cues and dismissing someone who has credibly accused him of a crime as an “agent of the hog lobby.”
deadspin.com/...