When you're simultaneously solving the opioid crisis and brokering ME peace, it's easy to forget some emails.
I know most of the political world (and our own Jitty Slitter ) are most concerned with Team Trump and Russia and the election. But here's a very pithy statement about Trump's greatest vulnerability. "This should not be a surprise to anyone. Because the truth is that’s what his business is about. Trump’s real estate “fortune” isn’t about creating landmarks, running hotels, or building homes. It’s about laundering money on an industrial scale." That's why the recent story of the arrest of a Colombian tightly connected to Trump is important. If you were gonna make a list of nations most in need of money laundering, Russia would be #1, but Colombia would be in the top 10. If you're the kind of person who wants facts, here ya go. https://www.globalwitness.org/en/ca...ring/narco-a-lago-panama/#chapter-3/section-1 "On this basis, Global Witness concludes that Murcia Guzmán’s investment in the TOC laundered the proceeds of narcotics trafficking, and that Donald Trump was one of the beneficiaries. If Trump – who as licensor was almost certainly entitled to call for sales information – did any checks into the buyers of TOC units, he either failed to pick up the Murcia Guzmán connection or declined to act on it."
I can't get that article to load beyond the first few paragraphs and the perp-walk pic, so I'm curious to see how this bit of the lede develops: According to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, “Murcia Guzmán… laundered narcotics proceeds through DMG and DMG's affiliated companies” and “wove an intricate web of deception across continents to disguise his dirty drug money and support his lavish lifestyle.”
If you click on the triple bar to the right, you can download the pdf. Really interesting, and has similarities to his business in Biaku.
This is why Presidential candidates are expected to release their taxes. Trump should have been a non-starter for that reason alone.
I believe I posted a comment from Schindler at the beginning of the year to the effect that it was common knowledge at the FBI and in US CI that Trump Org was basically just a mob business One of the validations of the tweet is the story of Trump's business partner Felix Sater who was an FBI informant at the relevant times. Of course knowing it and proving it are different things and the FBI was focussed on the WoT at the time And I agree it's the easiest route to taking Trump Org down - as many of the offences appear to leave him vulnerable at State level - and this is why Preet has gone to work with AG Schneiderman All IMO But twitter etc
There seems to be a lot of interest in Trump Soho coming out, which Sater was involved in helping finance. The big question is, as always, how did 45 know, and when did he know it? I'm starting to believe that 45 doesn't really care who he does business with, doesn't really vet business partners as long as he gets his name on the building/publicity, and can make money. The one think I came across this week was that he was $2B in debt in the early 2000s, but now seems fine. What happened to that debt (how is it/was it paid off)?
This was generally missed in the Franken coverage of Franken's resignation: After watching bits of the GOP line of questioning directed at FBI director Christopher Wray in their hearings, I'm betting that Mueller will be fired on Friday, December 22.
Paging @yossarian and @taosjohn and anyone else who might know the answers to these questions. 1) Is Don McGahn protected by attorney-client privilege? 2) Does McGahn have any obligation to inform Donald Trump about his concerns? 3) Does this mean that Trump and co knew about Flynn even before Sally Yates warned them? Does this verify that Obama warned them about Flynn? What do you make of this story?
Re question 1) - it seems he might not be, which I guess is why he had to hand over the documentation. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...ient-privilege-in-mueller-probe-idUSKCN1BT2MX
My impression is that it represents the Republicans hoist on Ken Starr's petard, but I'm not necessarily the right guy to trust on it. Yoss?
The article does not say what date McGahn did anything. 2) Article says McGahn warned Trump about Flynn, but does not say when. 3) Yates told McGahn about Flynn on Jan 26. Article does not say whether McGahn's research was before or after that. My supposition is that it is McGahn (or someone on his behalf) that leaked these records. Purpose of leak = make McGahn look like he was on the ball, unlike everyione else in WH..
Congressional Republicans are hard at work BENGHAZI-ING! the Russia investigation. So Trump obviously did something. Is it so bad that there's now this orchestrated campaign in Congress & on TNN (Trump News Network)? A group of House Republicans has gathered secretly for weeks in the Capitol in an effort to build a case that senior leaders of the Justice Department and FBI improperly — and perhaps criminally — mishandled the contents of a dossier that describes alleged ties between President Donald Trump and Russia, according to four people familiar with their plans. A subset of the Republican members of the House intelligence committee, led by Chairman Devin Nunes of California, has been quietly working parallel to the committee's high-profile inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. They haven't informed Democrats about their plans, but they have consulted with the House's general counsel. https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/20/house-republicans-quietly-investigate-doj-fbi-310121
There is a bit of legal analysis on twitter now - and this may be more significant than the media realise. Summarising to save posting lots of tweets 1. McGahn is not an idiot (unlike others in the WH). So when he got the tip off from Yates that Flynn had lied to the FBI he did extra research and like any good lawyer, authored contemporaneous memos. So not only did he do his job, he also carefully covered his own arse. 2. Seems McGahn may have voluntarily delivered these dox to Mueller - on a CYA basis. After all, even if you are working in a criminalised WH, there is no reason to put your own body in the way of felonies. The same thing happened in Nixon's White House. His in house lawyers had red lines which included not exposing themselves to criminal liability by lying or becoming involved in obstruction. Part of the way that game is played is wink wink - so they were careful never to find out, and Nixon was careful never to tell them the truth. This is why it because disastrous when they heard actual bad stuff on the oval office tapes, or discovered deletions. 3. This is very very bad because it proves knowledge of Flynn's criminal activity - for instance Reince Reince Baby went on Television and lied about all of this to the nation. 4. The reason that is bad is because it goes to Mueller's obstruction case. Trump's admin knew of Flynn's criminal actions while doing things like lying on television, pressuring Comey etc etc This is the charitable version. The uncharitable version is that McGahn was part of the obstruction, and he and Reince got caught out lying to Mueller. So he dropped the docs to keep his arse out of jail.
Coffee boy Papadopoulos's drunken bragging about Russian dirt on Hillary got the FBI to investigate The coffee boy spilled the beans. The FBI investigation into Russian election interference and possible connections to the Trump campaign was sparked by a campaign adviser’s beer-soaked boasts about Moscow’s claims of dirt on Hillary Clinton. George Papadopoulos, a former foreign policy adviser to President Trump’s campaign who has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, allegedly revealed to Australia’s top diplomat in London that Russian officials were shopping information related to Clinton during a drunken night out in May 2016, according to The New York Times. When Democratic National Committee emails began leaking two months later, the Australians told the FBI about Papadopoulos’ claims. The revelation that a member of the Trump campaign may have had inside information about the hack was the driving factor behind the FBI’s investigation — not, as Trump and his supporters have alleged, a salacious dossier compiled by a former British spy. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/pol...ton-dirt-prompted-fbi-probe-article-1.3727803
While I am not surprised there is HUMINT like this I also doubt that any one incident was the cause of the investigation and especially the approach to the FISA court We know the NSA was getting up in Team Trump and it's simply logical that therefore other foreign agencies also began to do so once Trump became the obvious winner of the GOP primary As they share intel - it is no surprise the FBI was alarmed by summer 2016 However stuff like this Aussie revelation is a good way to protect other SIGINT, shared intel, or human intel. Here’s the @mcclatchy piece that says the IC’s investigation had already begun prior to Australia’s heads up to the US and the dossier. Includes link to critical @BBC report. https://t.co/21UuOplraM— Simon Rosenberg (@SimonWDC) December 30, 2017
Probably just additional heads up from an ally (are the Aussies still allies?) that the Russians were up to no good in the election.
947189321576173568 is not a valid tweet id At least The inevitable fellating of Comey won’t last as long as it has for Kissinger.
Yes. They are part of the "5-Eyes" group: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK, and United States. Closest alliance and highest levels of information sharing.
Did we ever take some refugees? Not sure I heard the conclusion to that infamous phone call. Edit - we did. A Business Insider article from Sept. '17: POLITICS The first group of refugees from what Trump called the 'worst deal ever' with Australia are heading to the US Michelle Mark Sep 28, 2017, 1:19 PM Associated Press/Alex Brandon President Donald Trump speaks on the phone with Prime Minister of Australia Malcolm Turnbull in the Oval Office of the White House on Jan. 28, 2017. A group of roughly 50 refugees formerly held in Australian-run detention centers on two Pacific islands have reportedly departed for the United States, in a major step to fulfill what President Donald Trump once called the "worst deal ever." The group is the first of 1,250 refugees ultimately expected to resettle in the United States, as part of an agreement with the Australian government the Obama administration brokered. In exchange, Australia is accepting refugees held in US-run detention centers in central America.