The Russian Connection 3: Mueller is Coming

[Cartmann99]

3 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Oh, yeah!

No wonder twitler had a meltdown today!

Tomorrow is probably going to be one of those days where the crazy starts bright and early. Trump's only one time zone ahead of me, so it's not that much of a hardship for me to get up early and watch his continued descent into madness. Unfortunately, for those who are two or more hours behind Trump, his early morning meltdowns are rough on the old sleep schedule. 

[fraurosena]

I don't think the GOP will stop their ad campaigns, do you?

[fraurosena]

Oh yes! 

It seems it wasn't only Gates' impending plea deal that set off the twitler's tweetstorm this weekend.

Mueller's interest in Kushner grows to include foreign financing efforts

Quote

Special counsel Robert Mueller's interest in Jared Kushner has expanded beyond his contacts with Russia and now includes his efforts to secure financing for his company from foreign investors during the presidential transition, according to people familiar with the inquiry.

This is the first indication that Mueller is exploring Kushner's discussions with potential non-Russian foreign investors, including in China.

US officials briefed on the probe had told CNN in May that points of focus related to Kushner, the White House senior adviser and son-in-law of President Donald Trump, included the Trump campaign's 2016 data analytics operation, his relationship with former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and Kushner's own contacts with Russians.

Mueller's investigators have been asking questions, including during interviews in January and February, about Kushner's conversations during the transition to shore up financing for 666 Fifth Avenue, a Kushner Companies-backed New York City office building reeling from financial troubles, according to people familiar with the special counsel investigation.

It's not clear what's behind Mueller's specific interest in the financing discussions. Mueller's team has not contacted Kushner Companies for information or requested interviews with its executives, according to a person familiar with the matter.

During the presidential transition, Kushner was a lead contact for foreign governments, speaking to "over fifty contacts with people from over fifteen countries," according to a statement he gave to congressional investigators.

Before joining the administration, Kushner was also working to divest his interests in Kushner Companies, the family company founded by his father. In early 2017, Kushner also divested from the 666 Fifth Avenue property that his family's company purchased in 2007 for $1.8 billion. The interests were sold to a family trust that Kushner does not benefit from, a spokesperson said at the time.

Kushner's contacts with Chinese investors

One line of questioning from Mueller's team involves discussions Kushner had with Chinese investors during the transition, according to the sources familiar with the inquiry.

A week after Trump's election, Kushner met with the chairman and other executives of Anbang Insurance, the Chinese conglomerate that also owns the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York, according to The New York Times.

At the time, Kushner and Anbang's chairman, Wu Xiaohui, were close to finishing a deal for the Chinese insurer to invest in the flagship Kushner Companies property, 666 Fifth Avenue. Talks between the two companies collapsed in March, according to the Times.

Mueller's team has also asked about Kushner's dealings with a Qatari investor regarding the same property, according to one of the sources. Kushner and his company were negotiating for financing from a prominent Qatari investor, former prime minister Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani, according to The Intercept. But as with Anbang, these efforts stalled.

Kushner had bought the property in 2007 in a mostly debt deal valued at a record $1.8 billion. The building came under financial pressure during the housing crisis, and in 2011 Vornado Realty Trust stepped in with financing, taking on a 49.5% stake in the building. The office tower shoulders more than $1.4 billion in debt, according to a report Vornado released in March.

Vornado last week disclosed its intention to sell its stake in a regulatory filing, saying, "We do not intend to hold this asset on a long-term basis."

Representatives for Kushner and Anbang declined to comment. Al Thani could not be reached for comment. A spokesman for the special counsel declined to comment.

Also during the transition, Kushner met with Sergey Gorkov, chairman of Russian state-run Vnesheconombank. Kushner testified on Capitol Hill that the meeting was for official US government purposes. But the Russian bank maintains that the sit-down in New York was part of their "roadshow of business meetings" and that Gorkov met Kushner because he ran Kushner Companies. The Washington Post reported that Mueller's investigators are scrutinizing this meeting.

Investigators' interest in Kushner

Last fall, Kushner turned over documents pertaining to the campaign and transition to both Mueller and congressional investigators, sources told CNN in November. Kushner spoke to investigators in November for less than two hours, and the dominant topic was Michael Flynn, according to two people familiar with the meeting who spoke to CNN at the time.

Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and is cooperating with the investigation, attended some of Kushner's meetings with foreign nationals. Under his plea deal, Flynn is obligated to tell Mueller's investigators everything he knows about these meetings.

Last year, Trump said he would view any investigation of his or his family's personal finances as a "violation" by Mueller that crosses a red line. A personal familiar with the investigation who supports Trump suggested that the expanded inquiry falls outside of Mueller's purview. Mueller is authorized to investigate links between Trump associates and Russia as well as "any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation."

It looks like Flynn's flipping is even more devastating than we suspected.

[GreyhoundFan]

"Conservatives urge Trump to grant pardons in Russia probe"

Spoiler

After months of criticizing special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, President Donald Trump’s supporters are issuing increasingly bold calls for presidential pardons to limit the investigation’s impact.

“I think he should be pardoning anybody who’s been indicted and make it clear that anybody else who gets indicted would be pardoned immediately,” said Frederick Fleitz, a former CIA analyst and senior vice president at the conservative Center for Security Policy.

The pleas for mercy mainly extend to the four former Trump aides who have already been swept up in the Russia probe: former campaign manager Paul Manafort, former deputy campaign manager Rick Gates, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos. But they don’t stop there.

“It’s kind of cruel what’s going on right now and the president should put these defendants out of their misery,” said Larry Klayman, a conservative legal activist. “I think he should pardon everybody — and pardon himself.”

Klayman and Fleitz spoke before Mueller indicted thirteen Russian nationals on Friday for staging an elaborate 2016 election interference operation in the United States. Democratic leaders said the hard evidence of Russian meddling underscores the importance of letting Mueller’s investigation run its course.

But many conservatives note that the new indictment shows no evidence of collusion between Trump associates and the Kremlin. That reinforces their view that Mueller’s real target, if any, should be Russian President Vladimir Putin — not Trump’s circle. “[H]ow long will the leftist witch hunt against @RealDonaldTrump continue,” the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., tweeted hours after the indictment’s release.

And while the latest indictment could make it harder than ever for Trump to fire Mueller, as he has sought to before, mass pardons would be another means of defying the special counsel.

A president has the Constitutional power to pardon any citizen convicted of a federal crime, ending any prison sentence and clearing his or her record with the stroke of a pen. Pardons face no judicial or Congressional review, and the president is not obliged to explain his decision. The act of a president pardoning himself, however, has never been tested.

Some Democrats are taking all the possibilities seriously.

“Doling out presidential pardons to try to cover up any collusion or obstruction of justice is unacceptable and will be met with furious resistance across the country,” Patty Murray, the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate, said during a floor speech earlier this month.

Last fall, several dozen House Democrats co-sponsored a largely symbolic resolution expressing disapproval for the prospect of Trump pardoning himself or any of his family members. They’ve also been asking without success for Judiciary Committee oversight hearings on the issue.

So far, the talk of pardons has mostly centered around Flynn, whose clemency Trump did not rule out in a brief mid-December exchange with reporters. “I don’t want to talk about pardons with Michael Flynn yet. We’ll see what happens,” Trump said.

That “yet” was music to the ears of Flynn’s supporters and family members, many of whom have taken to social media to build support for pardoning the retired Army lieutenant general who pleaded guilty in December to Mueller’s team for lying to the FBI.

“About time you pardoned General Flynn who has taken the biggest fall for all of you given the illegitimacy of this confessed crime in the wake of all this corruption,” Flynn’s brother, Joseph Flynn, wrote in a mid-December tweet. “Pardon Flynn NOW!” he added in a later message.

During a video interview with the prominent alt-right activist Jack Posobiec at the Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C., last week, Flynn’s outspoken adult son, Michael Flynn Jr., encouraged viewers to promote online messages calling for his father’s exoneration and pardon.

“Just keep pushing out those hashtags, the ‘#ClearFlynnNow’ and the ‘#PardonFlynnNow,” Flynn Jr., said.

Tom Fitton, president of the conservative activist group Judicial Watch, said that allegations of anti-Trump bias among Justice Department and FBI officials circulated by conservatives would justify granting clemency to Trump associates like Flynn.

“The whole super structure of the Russia investigation is compromised,” Fitton said. “Those caught up in it deserve some protection. Rather than just let the virus run its course, it’d be appropriate for the president to consider pardons for people who are caught up in the prosecution.”

Trump’s lawyers and aides insist it’s premature to discuss even the possibility of pardons. “There have been no pardon discussions at the White House,” Ty Cobb, the White House attorney who leads the president’s official response to the Russia investigation, told POLITICO on Friday just hours before Mueller’s latest indictment was released.

After the Washington Post reported in July that Trump had tasked his aides with researching his pardon powers, Trump dismissed the story — while also making clear his view of the law.

“While all agree the U. S. President has the complete power to pardon, why think of that when only crime so far is LEAKS against us. FAKE NEWS,” Trump tweeted.

Attorneys for Flynn, Flynn Jr. and Gates declined comment. Lawyers for Manafort and Papadopoulos did not respond to requests for comment.

Presidential pardons or other acts of mercy can be highly controversial — and typically occur at the end of a president’s term.

President Barack Obama was criticized for commuting the 35-year prison sentence of Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning, who was convicted of leaking hundreds of thousands of sensitive diplomatic cables and military reports to WikiLeaks.

Siding against his own vice president, President George W. Bush denied a pardon for former White House staffer I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who was convicted for obstructing a federal investigation into the leaked identity of a CIA operative, though Bush did commute Libby’s prison sentence.

Perhaps most famously, in September 1974, President Gerald Ford pre-emptively pardoned the man he replaced in the Oval Office, Richard Nixon, who resigned rather than face impeachment over the Watergate scandal. Nixon had also stepped down just days after an opinion from his acting attorney general, Mary C. Lawton, found that “under the fundamental rule that no one may be a judge in his own case, the President cannot pardon himself.”

Explaining the Nixon pardon, Ford cited a need for the country to avoid “prolonged and divisive debate” that would accompany the criminal trial of the former Republican president that many expected. He also decreed that his pardon would cover all federal crimes that Nixon "committed or may have committed or taken part in” as president.

Critics were furious at the move, which a New York Times editorial declared a "profoundly unwise, divisive, and unjust act.”

A federal district court rejected a constitutional challenge to Ford’s pardon the next year, citing an 1867 Supreme Court decision during the Andrew Johnson administration which held that presidents have “unlimited” pardoning power. “It extends to every offense known to the law, and may be exercised at any time after its commission, either before legal proceedings are taken, or during their pendency, or after conviction and judgment,” the justice writing for the 5-4 majority wrote.

Some conservatives want Trump to heed those words. In an Oct. 29 Wall Street Journal op-ed column — published on the eve of Mueller’s first indictments against Manafort and Gates and the release of the Papadopoulos guilty plea — two conservative lawyers called on Trump to “end this madness by immediately issuing a blanket presidential pardon to anyone involved in supposed collusion with Russia or Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign… and to anyone for any offense that has been investigated by Mr. Mueller’s office.”

“The president himself would be covered by the blanket pardon we recommend,” wrote the lawyers, David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey, veterans of the White House counsel’s office and Justice Department in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations. They argued that Russian election interference is a matter for a Congressional investigation, not a criminal one.

At a mid-November hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) grilled Attorney General Jeff Sessions on whether he thinks Trump can pardon former aides and family members even before they might be convicted of — or even charged with — crimes. Sessions declined to answer beyond saying that “the president has the power to pardon, no doubt about that.”

"We should be worried if you are telling us the president should be able to pardon in advance all of those being investigated," Deutch replied.

Trump has issued one pardon since taking office, to the controversial Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was facing criminal contempt of court charges for defying a court order to stop profiling Latinos.

That August action, in the face of strong political opposition, makes some conservatives think that Trump would be willing to defy his critics again. “He did it for Sheriff Joe, so I’m thinking he would do it for other circumstances as well,” Fitton said.

There has been little sign of Congressional Republican support for the idea of pardons. In the days after Flynn pleaded guilty, South Carolina Senators Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott both urged Trump not to pardon Flynn. Scott said it is important to have accountability and “a process that is clear and transparent.”

Pardons would also come at a high political cost, former George W. Bush White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. “It’d just raise even more questions about Donald Trump if he pardons those closest to him because people will think he’s trying to protect himself.”

“You should let justice run its course,” he added.

Even some conservatives who support pardons in principle are wary of the severe political backlash they are certain to trigger. Mike Cernovich, a prominent alt-right activist, said he believes the moment for pardons has passed and that Trump needs to wait until after the November mid-term elections.

“If the Democrats take over, pardon everyone,” Cernovich said. “They’re coming for you anyway. They have their nuke with impeachment. You have your nuke with pardons. And then settle in for an interesting two years.”

 

[fraurosena]

Manafort is in even biglier doo-doo than previously thought.

Manafort Under Scrutiny For $40 Million In “Suspicious” Transactions

Quote

As the special counsel investigated President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, authorities obtained details on “suspicious” banking activity that was first unearthed in 2014 and 2015. Those records were part of an FBI operation to track international kleptocracy that ultimately failed, but which Robert Mueller’s team resurrected.

Federal law enforcement officials have identified more than $40 million in “suspicious” financial transactions to and from companies controlled by President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort — a much larger sum than was cited in his October indictment on money laundering charges.

The vast web of transactions was unraveled mainly in 2014 and 2015 during an FBI operation to fight international kleptocracy that ultimately fizzled. The story of that failed effort — and its resurrection by special counsel Robert Mueller as he investigated whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to interfere with the 2016 election — has never been fully told.

But it explains how the special counsel was able to swiftly bring charges against Manafort for complex financial crimes dating as far back as 2008 — and it shows that Mueller could still wield immense leverage as he seeks to compel Manafort to cooperate in the ongoing investigation.

Last week, Mueller’s team told a judge that it had evidence Manafort committed bank fraud, and news organizations have reported that the special counsel may be preparing additional charges.

Manafort’s spokesperson declined to comment for this story, but Manafort pleaded not guilty to all charges in the October indictment. In the past, Manafort has maintained that his financial dealings have all been above board and proper. Manafort is also suing the Justice Department, seeking to overturn the appointment of the special counsel on grounds that Mueller’s mandate is too broad and gives him “carte blanche to investigate and pursue criminal charges in connection with anything he stumbles across.”

The kleptocracy squad

In 2014, then–attorney general Eric Holder announced an FBI team that would tackle international kleptocracy — and its first target would be ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, Manafort’s longtime client and a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

To find the hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars Yanukovych and his aides were suspected of stealing, the task force scoured the globe, working with governments in Cyprus, Latvia, Ukraine, and elsewhere, said two former federal law enforcement officials with direct knowledge of the effort. In doing so, the team stumbled across Manafort. As one of the former officials recalled, agents were told that he might have leads on where Yanukovych had stashed his money.

As a political consultant, Manafort buffed the image of Yanukovych and autocrats across the world, including Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines and Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). He earned a fortune and spent millions on art, clothes, home theaters, even antique rugs. As the task force heightened its scrutiny of Manafort, the US Treasury Department’s financial crimes unit unearthed a mountain of evidence about him.

Eight banks filed 23 “suspicious activity reports” between 2004 and 2014, which includes the years that Manafort and his consulting company, Davis Manafort Partners, worked for Yanukovych. These reports, reviewed by BuzzFeed News, show that between October 2008 and July 2013, Manafort’s personal and business accounts received about $30 million from banks in offshore havens such as Cyprus, Kyrgyzstan, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

By law, banks must file suspicious activity reports with the Treasury Department when they spot transactions that bear hallmarks of money laundering or other financial misconduct. Such reports can support investigations and intelligence gathering — but by themselves they are not evidence of a crime.

Throughout 2014, the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, conducted further investigation into the transactions flagged in the bank’s suspicious activity reports. Treasury officials requested additional information from law enforcement agencies in other countries, and they prepared numerous and extensive reports about Manafort's financial dealings. Those reports — sent to FBI agents and federal prosecutors, and reviewed by BuzzFeed News — stated that Manafort appeared to be running shell companies and that his transactions often lacked a clear business purpose and showed signs of “layering,” meaning that they seemed designed to obscure the original source of the money.

In the summer of 2014, an FBI special agent questioned Manafort at his attorney’s office in Washington, DC. Manafort denied knowing anything about money reportedly stolen by the Yanukovych government, according to internal FBI emails reviewed by BuzzFeed News, and promised to turn over documents to the Bureau. He never did, according to the two officials.

“We had him in 2014,” one of the former officials said. “In hindsight, we could have nailed him then.”

The FBI’s top brass, both of the former officials said, deemed Manafort’s suspected financial crimes as too petty: They amounted to only tens of millions of dollars — small potatoes compared to what Manafort’s boss, Yanukovych, was suspected of stealing.

But the task force didn’t get Yanukovych either. The US government, the former officials said, devoted far too few resources to build a case of the scale and complexity needed to prosecute the former Ukrainian president, and agents assigned to the task force left because they felt they were unable to properly do their jobs.

When the investigation petered out, the reports on Manafort and the detailed financial records that supported them were all shelved, two former law enforcement officials who worked on his case told BuzzFeed News. But banks continued to send in suspicious activity reports on transactions involving Manafort or his companies all the way through 2016. For instance, in April and September 2015, PNC Bank flagged two transactions for a total of about $75,000.

The special counsel’s investigation

In May 2017, Mueller was appointed to investigate “any links and/or coordination” between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. In late July, FBI agents raided Manafort’s home, seizing financial and tax documents. In September, according to the two former law enforcement officials, Mueller’s team dusted off the FBI’s investigative files on Manafort and used them to help indict him the following month, in late October.

But the $18 million cited in that indictment leaves millions more in transactions flagged as suspicious, and three current and former law enforcement officials said that Mueller’s team is poring over them as it considers leveling new charges against Manafort. On Sunday, the Los Angeles Times reported that Manafort's business partner, Rick Gates, intends to plead guilty to fraud charges and will testify against Manafort.

Among the transactions not in Manafort’s October indictment are $5 million in suspicious transfers to and from Maho Films Investment Company, based in Puerto Rico. Bank officials flagged the transactions, made in 2003 and 2004, as suspicious because Manafort refused to provide invoices and payment documents showing what the money was to be used for. The company was registered at an office building in San Juan, and its principal business was “investing in film industry projects and other lawful activity,” according to a 2003 certificatefrom the Puerto Rican government.

Manafort and his friend, tech entrepreneur Hector Hoyos, were the directors. Hoyos told BuzzFeed News that he and Manafort established the company to obtain film-related tax credits from the Puerto Rican government and that he left the company “in 2004 or 2005.” During his time as a director, he said, he was unaware that any funds came into Maho.

“As far as I knew there was no activity,” Hoyos said. “It’s news to me that there was money moving into the company.”

While Manafort managed Yanukovych’s affairs, he also sent $1.2 million to a group of political consultants close to Russia. Bank officials said the transactions were suspicious because the funds came from financial institutions based in offshore havens, and it was unclear to bankers what the money was specifically to be used for.

Among those recipients was someone Manafort worked with for years: Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian Army–trained linguist on whom US intelligence agencies have collected information. The Washington Post reported that during the US presidential campaign, Manafort emailed Kilimnik, offering to give “private briefings” about the race to a Russian oligarch close to Putin. Manafort’s spokesperson told the Post that no briefings ever took place and that Manafort was merely offering to give a “routine” update on the campaign.

Between 2009 and 2013, Manafort's companies sent Kilimnik more than $325,000 in wire transfers that banks flagged as suspicious, citing reasons such as the money came from offshore companies or the transfers might have been connected to Yanukovych's 2010 presidential election victory. In a report to the FBI, the Treasury’s financial crimes unit said the wire transfers seemed to serve no legitimate business purpose or could be related to “political corruption.” Kilimnik did not return phone calls over the weekend.

The records also show banks tracked much smaller transactions made by Manafort. Some of these were flagged because they showed suspected debit card fraud or structuring, which means money was withdrawn or deposited in amounts below the threshold that would trigger an automatic alert by the bank.

For instance, in June 2006, Wachovia Bank officials noted that a Manafort company account registered two cash withdrawals of $7,500 apiece about four hours apart and at different branches.

Wachovia officials also flagged $25,000 in “fraudulent charges” at Duane Reade stores in New York City in September 2007. Bank officials said the debit card was in Manafort’s possession during that time.

 

[PraiseDog]

There's been a lot of talk on different sites, about whether the indicted Russians can actually be tried (doubtful, if they're still in Russia) but that at least these indictments will curtail their travel to countries that have extradition treaties with the US, and possibly any assets they might have in other countries could be frozen, as well.  Also, lots of amazement about the level of detail in these indictments, how much more Mueller knows than we thought, including names and dates, etc.  And the fact that even if these indictments can't be acted upon, they set up the definition of the underlying crime so there is a framework under which to indict any co-conspirators.

But I had a weird thought - let me know if anyone else thinks this is possible:

Remember about a month or two ago (not sure exactly, since we all live in dog years now with this "administration") when four Russians traveled to the US, and one of them was even under sanctions?  At the time, nobody in the news media could figure out why they were here, who they came to see, whether the guy under sanctions had a waiver or not, and if so, who gave him the waiver?

As far as I heard, this was just dropped by the media; I never heard any explanation or anything more about it. (If any of you have, please point me to a link - the news travels too fast for me to keep up, though I try to.)

Anyway, I'm wondering if these people were here to talk to Mueller.  Did Mueller give the waiver for Sanctions Guy ?  Did they do something to piss off Putin (like, talk to Steele? make an off-the-cuff comment to someone wearing a wire?) then become afraid they were next in line for a Polonium cocktail?  Do we know for sure they went back to Russia, or are they now managing a Cinnabon in South Dakota under the Witness Protection program?   

[PraiseDog]

10 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

The company was registered at an office building in San Juan, and its principal business was “investing in film industry projects and other lawful activity,” according to a 2003 certificatefrom the Puerto Rican government.

Manafort and his friend, tech entrepreneur Hector Hoyos, were the directors. Hoyos told BuzzFeed News that he and Manafort established the company to obtain film-related tax credits from the Puerto Rican government and that he left the company “in 2004 or 2005.” During his time as a director, he said, he was unaware that any funds came into Maho.

“As far as I knew there was no activity,” Hoyos said. “It’s news to me that there was money moving into the company.”

Yet another way to screw Puerto Rico.  Taxpayer dollars that should have been creating jobs in Puerto Rico, instead were funneled to these crooks.

  

[fraurosena]

10 minutes ago, PraiseDog said:

There's been a lot of talk on different sites, about whether the indicted Russians can actually be tried (doubtful, if they're still in Russia) but that at least these indictments will curtail their travel to countries that have extradition treaties with the US, and possibly any assets they might have in other countries could be frozen, as well.  Also, lots of amazement about the level of detail in these indictments, how much more Mueller knows than we thought, including names and dates, etc.  And the fact that even if these indictments can't be acted upon, they set up the definition of the underlying crime so there is a framework under which to indict any co-conspirators.

But I had a weird thought - let me know if anyone else thinks this is possible:

Remember about a month or two ago (not sure exactly, since we all live in dog years now with this "administration") when four Russians traveled to the US, and one of them was even under sanctions?  At the time, nobody in the news media could figure out why they were here, who they came to see, whether the guy under sanctions had a waiver or not, and if so, who gave him the waiver?

As far as I heard, this was just dropped by the media; I never heard any explanation or anything more about it. (If any of you have, please point me to a link - the news travels too fast for me to keep up, though I try to.)

Anyway, I'm wondering if these people were here to talk to Mueller.  Did Mueller give the waiver for Sanctions Guy ?  Did they do something to piss off Putin (like, talk to Steele? make an off-the-cuff comment to someone wearing a wire?) then become afraid they were next in line for a Polonium cocktail?  Do we know for sure they went back to Russia, or are they now managing a Cinnabon in South Dakota under the Witness Protection program?   

Good questions, @PraiseDog. 

As far as I could gather from the MSM and from social media, the four Russians met with top WH officials, if I remember correctly all to do with national security, but I'll have to look it up to be sure. I don't think they also met up with Mueller, but I'm going to go digging to see if I can find more info on what they did in America. 

[PraiseDog]

Yeah, I remember speculation that they talked to WH officials about National Security, but I don't remember anything about their trip being confirmed.  I only did a preliminary dig though, I'll see what I can find too.

[PraiseDog]

OK, the most definitive discussion I found about this was here:

http://www.businessinsider.com/sergei-naryshkin-bortnikov-korobov-visit-us-sanctions-russia-2018-1

Lots of squishy facts and unnamed sources with little confirmation, but the fact that Russia tweeted their visit, most likely refutes my conspiracy theory (and runs rings around me logically!)

[fraurosena]

A new name from Mueller's investigation: Alex van der Zwaan.

Want to bet this is because of Gates' cooperation with the investigation?

Also: Want to bet 'Person A' is Manafort?

Also, also: There are tapes!

[fraurosena]

Apparently Alex van der Zwaan is up for a plea hearing today.

Note that he spoke with the investigators last November, which is just an indication of just how little the public knows, and just how much more Robert Mueller knows. 

[fraurosena]

A little more info on Alex van der Zwaan, who reportedly is a Dutch citizen. Although his name certainly suggests it, this hasn't been confirmed as of yet. What is known, is that he's the son in law of Russian oligarch German Khan. He works/worked for an English law firm, Skadden, Arps, Meagher & Flom.

Mueller’s office just unsealed a charge against a new player in the Russia investigation

Quote

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s office has charged a wealthy Russian lawyer with making false statements to the FBI, according to a court filing unsealed on Tuesday.

Alex van der Zwaan, the lawyer, is well-connected and represents the interests of a number of Russian oligarchs. He is also the son-in-law of German Khan, a Ukrainian-Russian billionaire and businessman.

Van der Zwaan was charged with “willfully and knowingly” making “false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements and representations” to federal investigators about his work for the law firm Skadden, Arps, Meagher, & Flom LLP and Associates in 2012. The firm was employed by the Ukraine Ministry of Justice to compile a report about the trial of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Tymoshenko was jailed in 2011 after being convicted by the Ukrainian government of abuse of power. Tymoshenko’s trial and subsequent conviction were criticized by human-rights groups and deemed politically motivated by the US, the UK, German, Italy, Spain, and other European countries.

Skadden was roped into the controversy when it emerged that Ukraine’s former Justice Minister, Oleksandr Lavrynovych, embezzled over $1 million in order to pay the law firm. Viktor Yanukovych, the former Ukrainian president and pro-Russian strongman, ordered the government to hire Skadden following the proceedings against Tymoshenko, who was his political opponent during the country’s 2010 election. After being pressured by US and Ukrainian prosecutors, Skadden refunded about half the amount it was paid to the Ukrainian government. Mueller’s focus on the Skadden case was first reported last September.

Tuesday’s filing also mentions Rick Gates, the former deputy manager of President Donald Trump’s campaign.

According to the document, Van der Zwaan misled FBI investigators about his last communication with Gates, which took place in mid-August 2016 and consisted of “an innocuous text message.”

Side note: for those of you who want to know the Dutch pronunciation of his name, the closest English way of saying it is...

Alex: sounds like Ah-lex

van: sounds like vun (and not the vehicle as many English speakers pronounce it)

der: sounds like 'there' with a d instead of th

Zwaan:  the vowel sound 'aa' sounds like the vowel sound in Khan,

Oh, and if you don't want to sound like you're from Amsterdam, pronounce the Z as a z not an S 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

1 hour ago, fraurosena said:

Side note: for those of you who want to know the Dutch pronunciation of his name, the closest English way of saying it is...

Alex: sounds like Ah-lex

van: sounds like vun (and not the vehicle as many English speakers pronounce it)

der: sounds like 'there' with a d instead of th

Zwaan:  the vowel sound 'aa' sounds like the vowel sound in Khan,

Oh, and if you don't want to sound like you're from Amsterdam, pronounce the Z as a z not an S 

 

You mean I've been saying Alex Van Halen wrong since 1978? Wow. I learned something new today.

[AmazonGrace]

6 hours ago, fraurosena said:

A new name from Mueller's investigation: Alex van der Zwaan.

Want to bet this is because of Gates' cooperation with the investigation?

Also: Want to bet 'Person A' is Manafort?

Also, also: There are tapes!

Twitter tells me Person A is someone in Ukraine.

[fraurosena]

I wonder what made Jeff Sessions go along with this? Is it a 'fake' task force, set up as a ruse to give semblance to an inquiry so they can say that they're taking it seriously? Or did the Keebler Elf run out of excuses and so he finally had to acquiesce to the demand for a real investigation?

Sessions creates cyber task force to study election interference

Quote

The Justice Department is creating a Cyber-Digital Task Force to examine outside attempts to interfere with U.S. elections, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Tuesday.

“At the Department of Justice, we take these threats seriously. That is why today I am ordering the creation of a Cyber-Digital Task Force to advise me on the most effective ways that this Department can confront these threats and keep the American people safe,” Sessions said in a statement.

Sessions said Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will name a senior Department official to chair the task force.

The effort will seek to "canvass the many ways that the Department is combatting the global cyber threat" as well as "identify how federal law enforcement can more effectively accomplish its mission in this vital and evolving area," according to the press release. 

The task force will be in charge of looking into a broad range of efforts in which outside actors sought to interfere. It is tasked with providing a report on its findings at the end of June.

The new task force comes shortly after special counsel Robert Muellercharged 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies on Friday with attempting to sow discord and interfere in the country's presidential election by waging "information warfare." 

President Trump spent the weekend tweeting that the grand jury's indictment vindicates him in the federal Russia probe because this particular set of charges did not point to collusion between Trump campaign aides and Russians.

“The Internet has given us amazing new tools that help us work, communicate, and participate in our economy, but these tools can also be exploited by criminals, terrorists, and enemy governments,” Sessions added.

 

[AmazonGrace]

He just found out about the internet

[fraurosena]

WaPo has a more in depth article on the Van der Zwaan guilty plea.

In Mueller probe, son-in-law of Russian businessman pleads guilty to false statements

Quote

The Dutch son-in-law of one of Russia’s wealthiest men pleaded guilty Tuesday in Washington to making false statements in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe of alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, according to a new court filing.

Alex van der Zwaan was charged with lying to the FBI about his contacts with Rick Gates, a former staffer on President Trump’s campaign and a longtime business partner of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

Based in London, van der Zwaan worked for the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, which did work with Manafort and Gates while they served as political consultants in Ukraine, before joining Trump’s campaign in 2016. Van der Zwaan is the son-in-law of German Khan, a billionaire and an owner of Alfa Group, Russia’s largest financial and industrial investment group.

Mueller charged Manafort and Gates in October with conspiracy, fraud and money laundering charges related to lobbying work they did for a Russian-friendly political party in Ukraine and former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

They have pleaded not guilty. A person familiar with Gates’s situation said he has recently been in plea talks with Mueller’s team.

The van der Zwaan plea deal is a new front of Mueller’s sprawling probe, which has so far netted three other guilty pleas, including one from former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

On Friday, Mueller’s team also indicted 13 Russians and three Russian companies with meddling in the 2016 election through a social media campaign in which they falsely posed as Americans to promote Trump, disparage Democrat Hillary Clinton and sow discord among voters.

Like the early Manafort and Gates charges, van der Zwaan’s case appears rooted in Ukraine, where Manafort had worked as an international political consultant starting in 2005.

In a two-page information document, prosecutors alleged that van der Zwaan falsely told the FBI and Mueller’s office that his last communication with Gates was in mid-August 2016, in an innocuous text message, and his last communication with another, unnamed person was in 2014 when van der Zwaan discussed that person’s family.

In fact, prosecutors alleged van der Zwaan spoke with Gates and the second person in September 2016 and recorded the calls. He then allegedly “deleted and otherwise did not produce emails,” prosecutors alleged.

He pleaded guilty to one count of making a false statement to investigators, a felony. A Dutch citizen, van der Zwaan, 33, will face a recommended sentence ranging from zero to six months in prison when he is sentenced April 3.

The calls from van der Zwaan to Gates came shortly after Manafort resigned from Trump’s campaign in the wake of a New York Times report that alleged Manafort had accepted off the books cash payments for his work in Ukraine. Gates continued to work for the campaign through the election and later worked for Trump’s inaugural committee.

Prosecutor Andrew Weissmann told the court Tuesday that van der Zwaan spoke with investigators on Nov. 3 and Dec. 1, and has been in the United States since arriving for the November interview under travel limits after giving up his passport to U.S. investigators pending resolution of the case.

Weissman said van der Zwaan had entered a plea agreement, but not a cooperation agreement, with prosecutors who agreed not to charge him with any other false statements on Nov. 3 and Dec. 1, or in connection with any destruction or withholding of records related to any violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

The subject of the 2016 recorded phone call, prosecutors said, was a 2012 report prepared by van der Zwaan’s law firm about the jailing of former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Yanukovych had imprisoned Tymoshenko, a political rival, after a controversial gas supply deal in 2009 with Russia.

The Skadden Arps report has been controversial in Ukraine in part because its findings seemed to contradict the international community’s conclusion that Tymoshenko had been unjustly jailed.

In addition, the Ukrainian government claimed to have paid only $12,000 for the report, an amount that put it just below the limit that would have required competitive bidding for the project under Ukrainian law.

Subsequent investigations found the Ukrainian government spent as much as $1 million on the report and emails found after Yanukovych fled Ukraine to Moscow in 2014 showed that Manafort had been intimately involved in the effort.

In a statement Tuesday, Skadden said van der Zwaan had worked at the firm since 2007 but was terminated in 2017. Skadden said the firm was “cooperating with authorities in connection with this matter.”

Kenneth McCallion, a lawyer who unsuccessfully sued Manafort in New York on Tymoshenko’s behalf, said he was pleased that Mueller’s team appears to have taken on the issue of Manafort’s work in Ukraine, including in the jailing of his former client. “I’m relieved that this matter did not fall through the cracks,” he said.

Khan, van der Zwaan’s father-in-law, is a Kiev native. Along with two other Alfa Bank owners, Khan has filed a $75,000 defamation suit against Fusion GPS, the Washington private intelligence firm that hired former British spy Christopher Steele to research Trump’s ties to Russia during the campaign. Steele’s reports had included allegations about Alfa Bank and its ties to Russian President Vladi­mir Putin.

Khan and other Alfa Bank owners have also sued BuzzFeed, which published the dossier in January 2017.

My guess is that they went after this dude precisely because his father-in-law is the owner of Alfa Bank, which Steele alleged has ties to Vladimir Putin.

[Cartmann99]

1 hour ago, AmazonGrace said:

He just found out about the internet

Getting the cable company to come out and run lines to your hollow tree is a pain.

[fraurosena]

I need an eye-massage. My eyes hurt from rolling so hard after reading this.

Sarah Sanders claims Russia doesn’t deserve sanctions

Quote

Trump’s refusal to impose sanctions on Russia has been a consistent source of embarrassment for the administration, and it got even more embarrassing on Tuesday.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivered her first press briefing in over a week, and faced a raft of questions on Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election following Friday’s indictments of 13 Russian nationals accused of election interference.

But when NBC News’ Kristen Welker asked Sanders why Trump “hasn’t implemented the sanctions that Congress passed last year,” Sanders said Russia had not done anything to merit such action.

“Well, there’s a process that has to take place, and we’re going through that process,” Sanders said. “That law also says that the countries have to violate something in order for those sanctions to go in place, and that hasn’t necessarily happened.”

[video]

Sanders’ response is ridiculous on its face but consistent with an administration that has resisted efforts to punish Russia every step of the way. Even before taking office, Trump personally reassured Putin after President Obama took action against the Russians.

Since then, Congress has done what it could to force Trump into punishing the Russians, but Trump has done only the bare minimum. He publicly groused when he finally signed a veto-proof sanctions bill, missed one deadline to impose sanctions by three weeks, and publicly complained about Russia being too “heavily sanctioned” in November.

Most recently, Trump refused to impose sanctions again when faced with a January deadline.

Trump’s weakness on Russia is an obvious political problem for him, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ alternative facts aren’t going to make it go away.

I wonder if she has a good laugh behind the scenes when they're making this stuff up to troll the press, or if she really thinks people will buy into this bullshit. I'm rather afraid it's the latter.

[GreyhoundFan]

A good one from Dana Milbank: "Putin’s useful idiots"

Spoiler

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s indictment of 13 Russians over their alleged efforts to elect Donald Trump set off a presidential paroxysm of self-exoneration.

“The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong — no collusion!” President Trump proclaimed in one of his saner tweets of the past four days.

In fact, the Mueller investigation is ongoing and has offered no such conclusions. But what Mueller did expose last week should sicken us all: Vladimir Putin has played Americans across the political spectrum for suckers. In particular, the Russian dictator has turned Trump supporters into the useful idiots of the 21st century.

The phrase “useful idiots,” often attributed to an earlier Vladimir, referred to Westerners who had been successfully manipulated by Soviet propaganda. But even Lenin would have to smile at the way Putin exploited Americans in 2016 to support Trump, or at least to oppose Hillary Clinton. Mueller’s indictment is full of nauseating detail about how Putin made fools of Americans.

Using Facebook groups such as “Being Patriotic,” they organized “March for Trump” and “Down with Hillary” rallies in New York, “Florida Goes Trump” rallies in Florida and “Miners for Trump” rallies in Pennsylvania, among others.

They attracted more than 100,000 followers to a Twitter account falsely claiming to be controlled by the Tennessee Republican Party, @TEN_GOP, and got hundreds of thousands of online followers for groups they created such as “Army of Jesus” and “South United.”

They paid Americans to build a cage on a flatbed truck and to wear a Clinton-in-prison-garb costume. To whip up anti-Muslim fervor to Trump’s benefit, they created a Facebook group called “United Muslims of America” and promoted a rally called “Support Hillary. Save American Muslims,” at which they recruited an actual American to hold a sign saying, “I think Sharia Law will be a powerful new direction of freedom.”

They promoted Trump-friendly hashtags (#MAGA, #Hillary4Prison), created pro-Trump accounts (“Trumpsters United”) and paid for election ads saying, among other things, “Vote Republican, vote Trump, and support the Second Amendment!” and “Hillary is a Satan, and her crimes and lies had proved just how evil she is.”

Putin’s meddling, now exposed, should shame us and unify us in a response. But that won’t happen, because the most useful idiot of all happens to be the president, who is focused only on himself.

In his fit of self-absolution over the holiday weekend, Trump pointed fingers in every direction except Moscow. He went after Barack Obama, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), Clinton, his own national security adviser, the FBI, CNN — even Oprah Winfrey. He used foul language. He made up facts. He retweeted a cartoon from a now-suspended account already famous for a racist cartoon during the election.

Rather than condemning or countering what the Russians themselves called “information warfare against the United States,” Trump decided to respond with his own pro-Trump information warfare. Upon hearing that there had been a Russian “troll farm” sowing crops in America, he reacted by reminding everybody that he is the Cargill of troll farming.

Perhaps, given the president’s level of intellectual curiosity, he heard Russian “troll farm” on cable news and assumed these trolls were similar to those gentle creatures in the 2016 DreamWorks animated film “Trolls.” But these Russian trolls are not adorable figurines with colorful hair, and their attack on the United States cannot be answered with hugs. These trolls paid actual Americans to attend rallies. They bought ads to allege that Clinton “committed voter fraud.” They manipulated the Black Lives Matter movement by creating groups and accounts such as “Blacktivist” and “Woke Blacks,” attempting to persuade African Americans to support the Green Party’s Jill Stein or not to vote rather than “to vote Killary.” The Russians even had the nerve to charge real Americans to post promotional material on the phony accounts.

The Russians also used fake identities “to communicate with unwitting members, volunteers, and supporters of the Trump Campaign involved in local community outreach, as well as grassroots groups that supported then-candidate Trump.”

“Unwitting.” Trump and his defenders take that as exoneration, even though it is limited to just this aspect of the probe. But it’s another way of saying they were useful idiots.

Thanks to Mueller, they are now witting. Trump, in his refusal to respond to this Russian attack, continues to play the useful idiot, because it suits his selfish purposes. Will his supporters also continue to let Putin play them for fools?

The one statement I take issue with is in the last paragraph. I don't think the BTs are now "witting". I think they believe Donnie Dumbfuck and think Mueller is lying. They'll continue to do the work given them by Putin's troll farm.

[fraurosena]

6 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

A good one from Dana Milbank: "Putin’s useful idiots"

  Hide contents

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s indictment of 13 Russians over their alleged efforts to elect Donald Trump set off a presidential paroxysm of self-exoneration.

“The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong — no collusion!” President Trump proclaimed in one of his saner tweets of the past four days.

In fact, the Mueller investigation is ongoing and has offered no such conclusions. But what Mueller did expose last week should sicken us all: Vladimir Putin has played Americans across the political spectrum for suckers. In particular, the Russian dictator has turned Trump supporters into the useful idiots of the 21st century.

The phrase “useful idiots,” often attributed to an earlier Vladimir, referred to Westerners who had been successfully manipulated by Soviet propaganda. But even Lenin would have to smile at the way Putin exploited Americans in 2016 to support Trump, or at least to oppose Hillary Clinton. Mueller’s indictment is full of nauseating detail about how Putin made fools of Americans.

Using Facebook groups such as “Being Patriotic,” they organized “March for Trump” and “Down with Hillary” rallies in New York, “Florida Goes Trump” rallies in Florida and “Miners for Trump” rallies in Pennsylvania, among others.

They attracted more than 100,000 followers to a Twitter account falsely claiming to be controlled by the Tennessee Republican Party, @TEN_GOP, and got hundreds of thousands of online followers for groups they created such as “Army of Jesus” and “South United.”

They paid Americans to build a cage on a flatbed truck and to wear a Clinton-in-prison-garb costume. To whip up anti-Muslim fervor to Trump’s benefit, they created a Facebook group called “United Muslims of America” and promoted a rally called “Support Hillary. Save American Muslims,” at which they recruited an actual American to hold a sign saying, “I think Sharia Law will be a powerful new direction of freedom.”

They promoted Trump-friendly hashtags (#MAGA, #Hillary4Prison), created pro-Trump accounts (“Trumpsters United”) and paid for election ads saying, among other things, “Vote Republican, vote Trump, and support the Second Amendment!” and “Hillary is a Satan, and her crimes and lies had proved just how evil she is.”

Putin’s meddling, now exposed, should shame us and unify us in a response. But that won’t happen, because the most useful idiot of all happens to be the president, who is focused only on himself.

In his fit of self-absolution over the holiday weekend, Trump pointed fingers in every direction except Moscow. He went after Barack Obama, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), Clinton, his own national security adviser, the FBI, CNN — even Oprah Winfrey. He used foul language. He made up facts. He retweeted a cartoon from a now-suspended account already famous for a racist cartoon during the election.

Rather than condemning or countering what the Russians themselves called “information warfare against the United States,” Trump decided to respond with his own pro-Trump information warfare. Upon hearing that there had been a Russian “troll farm” sowing crops in America, he reacted by reminding everybody that he is the Cargill of troll farming.

Perhaps, given the president’s level of intellectual curiosity, he heard Russian “troll farm” on cable news and assumed these trolls were similar to those gentle creatures in the 2016 DreamWorks animated film “Trolls.” But these Russian trolls are not adorable figurines with colorful hair, and their attack on the United States cannot be answered with hugs. These trolls paid actual Americans to attend rallies. They bought ads to allege that Clinton “committed voter fraud.” They manipulated the Black Lives Matter movement by creating groups and accounts such as “Blacktivist” and “Woke Blacks,” attempting to persuade African Americans to support the Green Party’s Jill Stein or not to vote rather than “to vote Killary.” The Russians even had the nerve to charge real Americans to post promotional material on the phony accounts.

The Russians also used fake identities “to communicate with unwitting members, volunteers, and supporters of the Trump Campaign involved in local community outreach, as well as grassroots groups that supported then-candidate Trump.”

“Unwitting.” Trump and his defenders take that as exoneration, even though it is limited to just this aspect of the probe. But it’s another way of saying they were useful idiots.

Thanks to Mueller, they are now witting. Trump, in his refusal to respond to this Russian attack, continues to play the useful idiot, because it suits his selfish purposes. Will his supporters also continue to let Putin play them for fools?

The one statement I take issue with is in the last paragraph. I don't think the BTs are now "witting". I think they believe Donnie Dumbfuck and think Mueller is lying. They'll continue to do the work given them by Putin's troll farm.

I agree with your assessment. However, they will never be able to say that nobody told them what was happening. They can’t hide behind the “We didn’t know” argument anymore. They can continue to choose to believe the lie, but it’s a conscious (i.e. witting) choice to do so now.

[fraurosena]

@GreyhoundFan, speaking of BT's...

When confronted with the truth: run away and hide!

[Howl]

On 2/19/2018 at 6:14 PM, GreyhoundFan said:

"Conservatives urge Trump to grant pardons in Russia probe"

These times call for an entirely new set of hybrid emoticons, like the one I need right now combining epic facepalm, WTAF, Oh Lord why us? and How much more of this utterly insane shit can we actually take?.

And dammit, the pardons issue had totally escaped me.  But the bright light is the NY AG's office, which hopefully has back-up indictments waiting in the Out box on someone's desk.  

[GreyhoundFan]

1 hour ago, Howl said:

And dammit, the pardons issue had totally escaped me.  But the bright light is the NY AG's office, which hopefully has back-up indictments waiting in the Out box on someone's desk.  

That is my big hope as well. I think Mueller's team is smart enough to ensure there is at least one backup plan.