The Russian Connection 3: Mueller is Coming

[GrumpyGran]

2 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

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

This will be a big test. Mueller aside, I'm sure there are several people at the top of the Rethug mob family who are cringing at this. Dumpy issuing blanket pardons will be like firing a rifle with scatter shot in it. He won't just take himself down, he will take down lots of others in the party. It's not going to be just another day if he does this. It sets a horrible precedent, one that they won't want to live with.

Don't forget, there are probably lots in the Rethug mob family who wouldn't mind seeing some in the Trump mob family out of the way so jail would work for them. He's not a leader to them, he's a useful tool. He can easily be replaced, along with his clown posse.

[onekidanddone]

1 hour ago, GrumpyGran said:

This will be a big test. Mueller aside, I'm sure there are several people at the top of the Rethug mob family who are cringing at this. Dumpy issuing blanket pardons will be like firing a rifle with scatter shot in it. He won't just take himself down, he will take down lots of others in the party. It's not going to be just another day if he does this. It sets a horrible precedent, one that they won't want to live with.

Don't forget, there are probably lots in the Rethug mob family who wouldn't mind seeing some in the Trump mob family out of the way so jail would work for them. He's not a leader to them, he's a useful tool. He can easily be replaced, along with his clown posse.

Can he pardon them all? Even people who are't under indictment as of yet? And, if he does pardon some they would have clear sailing to sing like a canary and bring down others. Is he too stupid to figure that out?

[fraurosena]

Mueller is not stingy with information this week!

Mueller asking if Manafort promised banker White House job in return for loans

Quote

Federal investigators are probing whether former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort promised a Chicago banker a job in the Trump White House in return for $16 million in home loans, two people with direct knowledge of the matter told NBC News.

Manafort received three separate loans in December 2016 and January 2017 from Federal Savings Bank for homes in New York City, Virginia and the Hamptons.

The banker, Stephen Calk, president of the Federal Savings Bank, was announced as a member of candidate Trump's Council of Economic Advisers in August 2016.

Special counsel Robert Mueller's team is now investigating whether there was a quid pro quo agreement between Manafort and Calk. Manafort left the Trump campaign in August 2016 after the millions he had earned working for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine drew media scrutiny. Calk did not receive a job in President Donald Trump's cabinet.

The sources say the three loans were questioned by other officials at the bank, and one source said that at least one of the bank employees who felt pressured into approving the deals is cooperating with investigators.

In court filings Friday related to Manafort's bail, federal prosecutors said they have "substantial evidence" that a loan made from the bank to Manafort using the Virginia and Hamptons properties as collateral was secured through false representations made by Manafort, including misstatements of income.

When asked by NBC News if Manafort had lobbied the Trump transition team or the White House for a position for Calk, the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A spokesperson for Calk did not return multiple calls and e-mails over a period of several weeks requesting a response, nor did the CEO of the public relations firm that represents the bank, The Harbinger Group.

Jason Maloni, a spokesperson for Manafort, referred NBC News to his previous statements saying that Manafort's loans were over-collateralized and above-market rate. He would not respond to specific questions regarding the Federal Savings Bank loans.

Mueller's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The existence of a federal probe of Calk and the Federal Savings Bank by the U.S. Attorney's Office was first reported by Bloomberg News.

Manafort's home loans

On Aug. 19, 2016, Manafort left the Trump campaign amid media reports about his previous work for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine, including allegations he received millions of dollars in payments.

That same day, Manafort created a holding company called Summerbreeze LLC. Several weeks later, a document called a UCC filed with the state of New York shows that Summerbreeze took out a $3.5 million loan on Manafort's home in the tony beach enclave of Bridgehampton.

Manafort's name does not appear on the UCC filing, but Summerbreeze LLC gives his Florida address as a contact, and lists his Bridgehampton home as collateral, as NBC News previously reported.

The loan was provided by a company called SC3 capital and according to Manafort's spokesperson the note was meant to be a bridge loan.

Maloni told NBC News last year that the loan was repaid in December.

Manafort's LLC, Summerbreeze, then took out a new $9.5 million loan in December using the Hamptons property and house in Alexandria, Virginia, as part of the collateral. The lender was Federal Savings Bank of Chicago, whose chief executive, Calk, was an economic adviser to the Trump campaign.

In January 2017 Federal Savings Bank also lent Manafort and his wife mortgage loans in the amount of $5.3 million and $1.2 million for a separate property located at 377 Union Street in Brooklyn, New York.

The loans for the 377 Union property totaled 6.5 million and were for a property that Manafort initially bought for less than $3 million.

Between the Hamptons property and the Brooklyn property the Federal Savings Bank loaned Manafort $16 million or 5 percent of all of the bank's loans, according to records kept by the FDIC.

The loans were first examined by investigators and prosecutors working for Mueller, two people familiar with the probe told NBC News.

When there was no immediate nexus between the case and allegations of interference by the Russian government the case was referred to prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, one person familiar with the matter told NBC News.

Friday's filing by prosecutors regarding Manafort's bail indicates that once again Mueller's team has interest in the loans.

Mueller's team told a federal judge in response to the filing that at the next bail hearing, "We can proffer to the Court additional evidence related to this and the other bank frauds and conspiracies, which the Court may find relevant to the bail risk posed by Manafort." 

 

[fraurosena]

We are truly being spoiled! More good news from the Mueller front...

New charges filed in Manafort-Gates case

Quote

New charges have been filed in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's criminal case against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and aide Rick Gates, but the charges were put under seal by the court, obscuring the nature and import of the development.

The new charging document filed in federal court in Washington could be a superseding indictment, adding new charges or even new defendants to the charges filed last October, accusing Manafort and Gates of money laundering and failing to register as foreign agents for their work related to Ukraine, among other crimes.

There was no immediate indication of new charges in the court's online docket, but a public, paper docket book kept in the clerk's office at U.S. District Court in Washington contained an entry showing sealed charges filed recently under the docket number for the Manafort-Gates case. The entry was undated but the sequence suggests the charges were filed Friday or later.

Last week, prosecutors told the court they'd received new evidence that Manafort took part in "a series of bank frauds and bank fraud conspiracies" in connection with a loan he sought in 2016. Mueller's team said Manafort obtained the loan using “doctored profit and loss statements” that overstated "by millions of dollars" the income of his consulting business.

The bank fraud allegations were disclosed in a bail-related court filing made public on Friday that did not contain any indication of what action, if any, Mueller's team planned to take over the alleged fraud.

Manafort and Gates have pleaded not guilty. Their attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

During a court hearing last Wednesday, prosecutors did have a private exchange with Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is handling the case against Manafort and Gates. At the same session, she expressed frustrations with delays in the case, but did not set a trial date.

There have also been persistent media reports in recent weeks that Gates is negotiating with Mueller's office about a potential plea deal. That could involve filing a new charge or charges in the case, but doing so would not be necessary if he agreed to plead to one of the counts in the indictment returned last year.

A spokesman for Mueller's office had no comment on the development, first reported by the Washington Post.

 

[GrumpyGran]

1 hour ago, onekidanddone said:

Can he pardon them all? Even people who are't under indictment as of yet? And, if he does pardon some they would have clear sailing to sing like a canary and bring down others. Is he too stupid to figure that out?

He can pardon after indictment, I believe. Some may be smart enough to decline and take their chances with a trial or turn on the others for immunity, the best case scenario. I think he's still too stupid to realize that accepting a pardon implies guilt. He thinks that by pardoning people, he is making them innocent.

[AmazonGrace]

Trumpians are upset they're losing their Russian bots

[Howl]

Interesting summary of "did they collude or didn't they collude" on the Editor's Blog at Talking Points Memo:

Why The Trump/Russia ‘Skeptics’ Are Wrong

This isn't behind a paywall, so just go there already. I like reading Josh Marshall's editor's blog; he guides you through his thought process while summarizing the current evidence and where there are holes in that evidence, and, what, exactly, can we surmise at this point in time on the collusion issue.  

[Cartmann99]

Forgot to mention this earlier, but CPAC is going on right now in Washington. Marion Le Pen is on the schedule , and of course, Wayne LaPierre from the NRA has to make an appearance:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

@Cartmann99 -- here's a bit more. LaPierre and Loesch are such tools: "NRA goes on the offensive after Parkland shooting, assailing media and calling for more armed school security"

Spoiler

After a week of media silence following the school shooting in Florida, the National Rifle Association went on the offensive in its first public response to the massacre, pushing back against law enforcement officials, the media, gun-control advocates and calls for stricter gun laws made by the teenage survivors of the attack.

The gun rights group — a powerful force in American politics — used a series of statements, speeches and videos sought to try and blunt an emotionally charged wave of calls for new gun restrictions that has mushroomed since a teenager armed with an AR-15 rifle killed 17 people at his former high school. As the teens who escaped the bloodshed in Parkland, Fla., have passionately campaigned for new laws, it appears the politics suffusing the fraught issue of gun control are shifting, with President Trump and some conservative lawmakers expressing a newfound willingness to consider at least modest measures.

While the NRA initially held back from the fray, that changed Wednesday and Thursday, as a spokeswoman debated survivors of the attack during a heated town hall and then Wayne LaPierre, the group’s chief executive, forcefully decried gun-control advocates and the media for its coverage of the shooting.

“They don’t care about our school children,” LaPierre said near the start of the Conservative Political Action Conference, the largest annual gathering of American conservatives. “They want to make all of us less free.”

LaPierre also restated his belief that more armed security would stop school shootings, echoing Trump, while calling on parents and local authorities to beef up security on campuses.

“Evil walks among us,” LaPierre said. “And God help us if we don’t harden our schools and protect our kids.”

LaPierre’s speech came on the heels of the NRA releasing a video claiming that “the mainstream media love mass shootings.” This advertisement argued that members of the media benefit from covering mass shootings and use them “to juice their ratings and push their agenda.”

Since the rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, media coverage has been dominated by the attack’s survivors, who have responded with a push of furious activism unseen after previous mass shootings at schools and other venues. Teenagers who hid in closets and ran for their lives quickly began calling for increased gun control, assailing the NRA and organizing around their message.

The survivors called for new gun restrictions in a rally Wednesday in Tallahassee, the Florida capital; in postings on social media and appearances on news shows; and again Wednesday night at a town hall hosted by CNN and attended by lawmakers and Dana Loesch, an NRA spokeswoman.

Loesch, speaking Thursday before LaPierre, echoed the NRA’s advertisement for castigating the news media for its coverage of the rampage.

“Many in legacy media love mass shootings,” Loesch said. “I’m not saying that you love the tragedy. But I am saying that you love the ratings. Crying white mothers are ratings gold.”

Loesch questioned why there was a nationally televised town hall after one of the deadliest mass shootings in modern American history and no similar event held for “thousands of grieving black mothers in Chicago every weekend.”

During her appearance the previous night, Loesch sought to direct the discussion toward who should be able to obtain firearms, noting the numerous red flags that littered the alleged gunman’s past. School authorities had expressed concerns about the alleged shooter, the FBI failed to investigate a recent warning about him, a state social services agency investigated him and police had received about 20 calls dealing with him in recent years.

Yet none of that would have been enough to stop the alleged shooter, who had no criminal record, from passing background checks and obtain guns. Loesch, appearing beside Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel at the CNN forum, highlighted these red flags, sharply questioned how law enforcement had handled them and criticized what she called “flawed” background check systems.

Israel — who has said his agency is reviewing its prior interactions with the shooter as well as its response to the attack — said more armed officers alone would not solve the problems revealed by the Douglas shooting, but he announced plans to send deputies with rifles to police schools.

“I don’t believe that this insane monster should have ever been able to obtain a firearm,” Loesch said during the forum Wednesday night. “This individual was nuts.”

Speaking the following morning, Loesch also said she condemned those at the FBI who fumbled warnings about the shooter.

“The government has proven it cannot keep you safe,” she said.

Speaking at a news conference Thursday morning, David Bowdich, acting deputy director of the FBI, said Thursday that he is concerned about his agency’s public standing.

“When I look through the prism of risk for our organization, I find the number one risk for our organization is losing the faith and confidence of the American people. Number one,” Bowdich said in response to a question about attacks on the bureau, including those by the NRA. “And I believe we, we are doing everything we can to regain that from those that we lost it from, but also to maintain it from those, the many that we still have that trust and confidence from.”

Much like Loesch’s remarks, LaPierre’s speech went beyond the gun debate to touch on other politically-charged issues, including critical references to the FBI. LaPierre, whose confrontational remarks have become a CPAC tradition, mentioned “rogue leadership” at the FBI, warned of “European socialists,” invoked illegal immigration and referenced the opioid epidemic.

But in his remarks directly responding to Parkland, LaPierre said he was “horrified” by the tragedy and then pivoted to criticizing “the opportunists” who would “exploit tragedy for political gain.”

LaPierre invoked his own comment following the massacre of 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., in 2012, and said that “to stop a bad guy with a gun, it takes a good guy with a gun.”

During his speech, LaPierre decried schools as “gun-free zones,” even though Stoneman Douglas had an armed officer on the campus at the time of the attack. He questioned why more armed protection was afforded to everything from banks and jewelry stores to movie stars, professional sports games and politicians.

Shortly before LaPierre spoke, Trump tweeted a message of support for him and the others working at the NRA as “Great People and Great American Patriots” who he said would “do the right thing.”

In his own responses to the shooting, Trump has also criticized the FBI for its fumbling of the tip. Trump has also echoed the NRA in calling for more armed security at schools, and he has emphasized the idea of arming some teachers as a way to deter future attacks, an idea that was criticized by some law enforcement officers and the National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers lobby. Trump has frequently responded to mass shootings by suggesting that more law-abiding citizens should be armed.

Trump also has publicly and privately floated actions that would be at odds with some positions of the NRA — a group that heavily backed him during his campaign for the presidency — including suggesting that the age for purchasing assault rifles be raised from 18 to 21.

“Legislative proposals that prevent law-abiding adults aged 18-20 years old from acquiring rifles and shotguns effectively prohibits them for purchasing any firearm, thus depriving them of their constitutional right to self-protection,” Jennifer Baker, a spokeswoman for the group, said in a statement.

The alleged shooter in South Florida had purchased at least 10 guns, all rifles and shotguns, including the AR-15 used in the massacre, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the probe. This official said that the shooter was able to purchase them legally and passed all background checks but was unable to purchase handguns because he was not yet 21.

In Florida, a day after high school students swamped the state capital to rally for more firearms restrictions, Republican lawmakers were expected to release legislative language late Thursday or early Friday with proposals responding to Parkland. The bills are expected to include at least one provision increasing in the minimum age for purchasing semi-automatic rifles to 21. Republican Sen. Bill Galvano, the next Senate president who has long supported the NRA’s legislative priorities, is leading the effort in his body, and he said the NRA’s opposition to raising the age limit was unlikely to defeat the bill.

“It doesn’t complicate my efforts,” he said on Thursday. “I think the desire to act and do something meaningful right now seems to be what’s going to win the day.”

 

[GrumpyGran]

40 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

@Cartmann99 -- here's a bit more. LaPierre and Loesch are such tools: "NRA goes on the offensive after Parkland shooting, assailing media and calling for more armed school security"

  Reveal hidden contents

After a week of media silence following the school shooting in Florida, the National Rifle Association went on the offensive in its first public response to the massacre, pushing back against law enforcement officials, the media, gun-control advocates and calls for stricter gun laws made by the teenage survivors of the attack.

The gun rights group — a powerful force in American politics — used a series of statements, speeches and videos sought to try and blunt an emotionally charged wave of calls for new gun restrictions that has mushroomed since a teenager armed with an AR-15 rifle killed 17 people at his former high school. As the teens who escaped the bloodshed in Parkland, Fla., have passionately campaigned for new laws, it appears the politics suffusing the fraught issue of gun control are shifting, with President Trump and some conservative lawmakers expressing a newfound willingness to consider at least modest measures.

While the NRA initially held back from the fray, that changed Wednesday and Thursday, as a spokeswoman debated survivors of the attack during a heated town hall and then Wayne LaPierre, the group’s chief executive, forcefully decried gun-control advocates and the media for its coverage of the shooting.

“They don’t care about our school children,” LaPierre said near the start of the Conservative Political Action Conference, the largest annual gathering of American conservatives. “They want to make all of us less free.”

LaPierre also restated his belief that more armed security would stop school shootings, echoing Trump, while calling on parents and local authorities to beef up security on campuses.

“Evil walks among us,” LaPierre said. “And God help us if we don’t harden our schools and protect our kids.”

LaPierre’s speech came on the heels of the NRA releasing a video claiming that “the mainstream media love mass shootings.” This advertisement argued that members of the media benefit from covering mass shootings and use them “to juice their ratings and push their agenda.”

Since the rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, media coverage has been dominated by the attack’s survivors, who have responded with a push of furious activism unseen after previous mass shootings at schools and other venues. Teenagers who hid in closets and ran for their lives quickly began calling for increased gun control, assailing the NRA and organizing around their message.

The survivors called for new gun restrictions in a rally Wednesday in Tallahassee, the Florida capital; in postings on social media and appearances on news shows; and again Wednesday night at a town hall hosted by CNN and attended by lawmakers and Dana Loesch, an NRA spokeswoman.

Loesch, speaking Thursday before LaPierre, echoed the NRA’s advertisement for castigating the news media for its coverage of the rampage.

“Many in legacy media love mass shootings,” Loesch said. “I’m not saying that you love the tragedy. But I am saying that you love the ratings. Crying white mothers are ratings gold.”

Loesch questioned why there was a nationally televised town hall after one of the deadliest mass shootings in modern American history and no similar event held for “thousands of grieving black mothers in Chicago every weekend.”

During her appearance the previous night, Loesch sought to direct the discussion toward who should be able to obtain firearms, noting the numerous red flags that littered the alleged gunman’s past. School authorities had expressed concerns about the alleged shooter, the FBI failed to investigate a recent warning about him, a state social services agency investigated him and police had received about 20 calls dealing with him in recent years.

Yet none of that would have been enough to stop the alleged shooter, who had no criminal record, from passing background checks and obtain guns. Loesch, appearing beside Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel at the CNN forum, highlighted these red flags, sharply questioned how law enforcement had handled them and criticized what she called “flawed” background check systems.

Israel — who has said his agency is reviewing its prior interactions with the shooter as well as its response to the attack — said more armed officers alone would not solve the problems revealed by the Douglas shooting, but he announced plans to send deputies with rifles to police schools.

“I don’t believe that this insane monster should have ever been able to obtain a firearm,” Loesch said during the forum Wednesday night. “This individual was nuts.”

Speaking the following morning, Loesch also said she condemned those at the FBI who fumbled warnings about the shooter.

“The government has proven it cannot keep you safe,” she said.

Speaking at a news conference Thursday morning, David Bowdich, acting deputy director of the FBI, said Thursday that he is concerned about his agency’s public standing.

“When I look through the prism of risk for our organization, I find the number one risk for our organization is losing the faith and confidence of the American people. Number one,” Bowdich said in response to a question about attacks on the bureau, including those by the NRA. “And I believe we, we are doing everything we can to regain that from those that we lost it from, but also to maintain it from those, the many that we still have that trust and confidence from.”

Much like Loesch’s remarks, LaPierre’s speech went beyond the gun debate to touch on other politically-charged issues, including critical references to the FBI. LaPierre, whose confrontational remarks have become a CPAC tradition, mentioned “rogue leadership” at the FBI, warned of “European socialists,” invoked illegal immigration and referenced the opioid epidemic.

But in his remarks directly responding to Parkland, LaPierre said he was “horrified” by the tragedy and then pivoted to criticizing “the opportunists” who would “exploit tragedy for political gain.”

LaPierre invoked his own comment following the massacre of 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., in 2012, and said that “to stop a bad guy with a gun, it takes a good guy with a gun.”

During his speech, LaPierre decried schools as “gun-free zones,” even though Stoneman Douglas had an armed officer on the campus at the time of the attack. He questioned why more armed protection was afforded to everything from banks and jewelry stores to movie stars, professional sports games and politicians.

Shortly before LaPierre spoke, Trump tweeted a message of support for him and the others working at the NRA as “Great People and Great American Patriots” who he said would “do the right thing.”

In his own responses to the shooting, Trump has also criticized the FBI for its fumbling of the tip. Trump has also echoed the NRA in calling for more armed security at schools, and he has emphasized the idea of arming some teachers as a way to deter future attacks, an idea that was criticized by some law enforcement officers and the National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers lobby. Trump has frequently responded to mass shootings by suggesting that more law-abiding citizens should be armed.

Trump also has publicly and privately floated actions that would be at odds with some positions of the NRA — a group that heavily backed him during his campaign for the presidency — including suggesting that the age for purchasing assault rifles be raised from 18 to 21.

“Legislative proposals that prevent law-abiding adults aged 18-20 years old from acquiring rifles and shotguns effectively prohibits them for purchasing any firearm, thus depriving them of their constitutional right to self-protection,” Jennifer Baker, a spokeswoman for the group, said in a statement.

The alleged shooter in South Florida had purchased at least 10 guns, all rifles and shotguns, including the AR-15 used in the massacre, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the probe. This official said that the shooter was able to purchase them legally and passed all background checks but was unable to purchase handguns because he was not yet 21.

In Florida, a day after high school students swamped the state capital to rally for more firearms restrictions, Republican lawmakers were expected to release legislative language late Thursday or early Friday with proposals responding to Parkland. The bills are expected to include at least one provision increasing in the minimum age for purchasing semi-automatic rifles to 21. Republican Sen. Bill Galvano, the next Senate president who has long supported the NRA’s legislative priorities, is leading the effort in his body, and he said the NRA’s opposition to raising the age limit was unlikely to defeat the bill.

“It doesn’t complicate my efforts,” he said on Thursday. “I think the desire to act and do something meaningful right now seems to be what’s going to win the day.”

 

I've seen some of Wayne's vomit coming out of his mouth today. He's truly the most vile human being on the planet. Why doesn't he just come out and say "I don't give a fuck about dead kids, just make sure you encourage more people to buy more guns. That's all that matters."

It would be refreshing to see him tell the truth.

[fraurosena]

I see Sebastian Gorka was being his fun Nazi zelf at CPAC too:

 

[apple1]

52 minutes ago, GrumpyGran said:

I've seen some of Wayne's vomit coming out of his mouth today. He's truly the most vile human being on the planet. Why doesn't he just come out and say "I don't give a fuck about dead kids, just make sure you encourage more people to buy more guns. That's all that matters."

It would be refreshing to see him tell the truth.

I just can't with all of this right now. Loesch last night and LaPierre today, with Trump interspersed. Plus Faux News and the occasional pundit on other networks.

Pretty obvious to me where the talking points memos are originating.

Disgusting. I feel like I need to double up on my blood pressure medicine.

ETA: Forgot to say - It's terrible that my 1st grade granddaughter needs to have active shooter drills in school (I agree - It is terrible that there is any reason for those) but it would be just fine if her teacher is carrying. Something is way off with that "logic".

[AmazonGrace]

 

[fraurosena]

While I was reading @AmazonGrace's linked article, this incredibly short one suddenly popped up as breaking news. It says the indictment was filed today, so it's something different from yesterday's sealed indictment it seems.

New indictment filed against former Trump campaign aides Manafort and Gates

Quote

Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Thursday filed a new indictment against former Trump campaign aides Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, according to court records.

The indictment, filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, includes tax and bank fraud charges against Manafort and Gates, who had pleaded not guilty to federal criminal charges Mueller initially filed against them last October.

Ooooh, just a little google foo, and here's a link to the indictment itself!

 

[fraurosena]

Oh!

What a delightful thought.

[GreyhoundFan]

"Mueller's team has leveled over 100 criminal charges against 19 people"

Spoiler

With new indictments in the Eastern District of Virginia filed by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s team on Thursday, the scale of alleged wrongdoing by people loosely connected to the campaign of President Trump expanded outward significantly.

To date, Mueller’s team has brought more than 100 criminal counts against 19 different individuals. In four cases, the individuals pleaded guilty before the charges were made public. Thirteen of the individuals are Russian nationals involved in efforts to influence the 2016 election through social media. Four of the individuals facing or pleading to charges worked for or with Trump’s campaign team.

Fifty-eight of the charges are contained in two indictments against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his longtime business partner Rick Gates. Before Thursday, that total was only 17, but a spate of new charges involving bank and tax fraud boosted the total significantly.

None of the charges, it’s important to note, tie Trump’s team to Russian interference directly. But over the past week, 15 new individuals have been accused of criminal behavior by Mueller’s team: the Russians, a businessman alleged to have provided the Russians with bank account numbers and a lawyer who worked with Manafort and Gates.

In many ways, it’s what still might be out there that’s most interesting.

... < chart >

The campaign team

Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign chairman. 27 counts in total.

• Conspiracy against the United States (1 count, contained in October indictment)
• Conspiracy to launder money (1 count, October)
• Bank fraud (4 counts, February indictment)
• Bank fraud conspiracy (5 counts, February)
• Subscribing to false tax returns (5 counts, February)
• Making false statements (1 count, October)
• Failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts (4 in October, 4 in February)
• Unregistered agent of a foreign principal (1 count, October)
• False FARA statements (1 count, October)

Rick Gates, former Trump campaign staffer. 31 counts in total.

• Conspiracy against the United States (1 count, October)
• Conspiracy to launder money (1 count, October)
• Bank fraud (4 counts, February)
• Bank fraud conspiracy (5 counts, February)
• Subscribing to false tax returns (5 counts, February)
• Assisting in preparation of false tax documents (5 counts, February)
• Subscribing to false amended tax returns (1 count, February)
• Making false statements (1 count, October)
• Failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts (3 in October, 3 in February)
• Unregistered agent of a foreign principal (1 count, October)
• False FARA statements (1 count, October)

Michael Flynn, former campaign staffer. 1 charge to which he pleaded guilty.

• Making false statements (1 count, December)

George Papadopoulos, former campaign adviser. 1 charge to which he pleaded guilty.

• Making false statements (1 count, October)

The Russians

Yevgeniy Prigozhin, controlled Concord Management and Consulting. 1 count in total.

• Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)

Mikhail Bystrov, general director of Internet Research Agency. 1 count in total.

• Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)

Mikhail Burchik, executive director of Internet Research Agency. 1 count in total.

• Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)

Aleksandra Krylova, director of Internet Research Agency. 1 count in total.

• Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)

Anna Bogacheva, Internet Research Agency employee. 1 count in total.

• Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)

Sergey Polozov, Internet Research Agency employee. 1 count in total.

• Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)

Maria Bovda, Internet Research Agency employee. 1 count in total.

• Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)

Robert Bovda, Internet Research Agency employee. 1 count in total.

• Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)

Dzheykhun Aslanov, Internet Research Agency employee. 8 counts in total.

• Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)
• Conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud (1 count, February)
• Aggravated identity theft (6 counts, February)

Vadim Podkopaev, Internet Research Agency employee. 1 count in total.

• Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)

Gleb Vasilchenko, Internet Research Agency employee. 8 counts in total.

• Conspiracy to defraud the United States. (1 count, February)

Conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud (1 count, February)

• Aggravated identity theft (6 counts, February)

Irina Kaverzina, Internet Research Agency employee. 7 counts in total.

• Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)
• Aggravated identity theft (6 counts, February)

Vladimir Venkov, Internet Research Agency employee. 7 counts in total.

• Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)
• Aggravated identity theft (6 counts, February)

The other people

Richard Pinedo, businessman who sold bank account numbers allegedly used by the Russians as part of their efforts. 1 charge to which he pleaded guilty.

• Making false statements (1 count, December)

Alex van der Zwaan, attorney who helped develop a report benefiting Manafort’s client in Ukraine. 1 charge to which he pleaded guilty.

• Making false statements (1 count, October)

It really helps to have it all listed out. I hope to see Junior, Jared, Pencey, and others listed soon.

[Cartmann99]

6 hours ago, fraurosena said:

I see Sebastian Gorka was being his fun Nazi zelf at CPAC too:

 

Oh hell, you didn't use his title. You know that he's probably on a plane right now to come and throw a big hissy fit in front of your house, right? 

[fraurosena]

3 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

Oh hell, you didn't use his title. You know that he's probably on a plane right now to come and throw a big hissy fit in front of your house, right? 

Oh, I hope he does!

The county is busy replacing the street light cables over here and the whole street in front of my house has been dug up, so he’ll be hissy fitting in knee deep in mud... 

[fraurosena]

Oh yeah!  

FBI investigating whether Russian money went to NRA to help Trump

Quote

The FBI is investigating whether a top Russian banker with ties to the Kremlin illegally funneled money to the National Rifle Association to help Donald Trump win the presidency, two sources familiar with the matter have told McClatchy.

FBI counterintelligence investigators have focused on the activities of Alexander Torshin, the deputy governor of Russia’s central bank who is known for his close relationships with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and the NRA, the sources said.

It is illegal to use foreign money to influence federal elections.

It’s unclear how long the Torshin inquiry has been ongoing, but the news comes as Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s sweeping investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, including whether the Kremlin colluded with Trump’s campaign, has been heating up.

All of the sources spoke on condition of anonymity because Mueller’s investigation is confidential and mostly involves classified information.

A spokesman for Mueller’s office declined comment.

Disclosure of the Torshin investigation signals a new dimension in the 18-month-old FBI probe of Russia’s interference. McClatchy reported a year ago that a multi-agency U.S. law enforcement and counterintelligence investigation into Russia’s intervention, begun even before the start of the 2016 general election campaign, initially included a focus on whether the Kremlin secretly helped fund efforts to boost Trump, but little has been said about that possibility in recent months.

The extent to which the FBI has evidence of money flowing from Torshin to the NRA, or of the NRA’s participation in the transfer of funds, could not be learned.

However, the NRA reported spending a record $55 million on the 2016 elections, including $30 million to support Trump – triple what the group devoted to backing Republican Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential race. Most of that was money was spent by an arm of the NRA that is not required to disclose its donors.

Two people with close connections to the powerful gun lobby said its total election spending actually approached or exceeded $70 million. The reporting gap could be explained by the fact that independent groups are not required to reveal how much they spend on Internet ads or field operations, including get-out-the-vote efforts.

During the campaign, Trump was an outspoken advocate of the Second Amendment right to bear arms, at one point drawing a hail of criticism by suggesting that, if Clinton were elected, gun rights advocates could stop her from winning confirmation of liberal Supreme Court justices who support gun control laws.

“If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do folks,” Trump said at a rally in August 2016. “Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know.”

Spanish authorities tag Torshin for money laundering

Torshin, a leading figure in Putin’s party, has been implicated in money laundering by judicial authorities in Spain, as Bloomberg News first revealed in 2016. Spanish investigators alleged in an almost 500-page internal report that Torshin, who was then a senator, capitalized on his government role to assist mobsters laundering funds through Spanish properties and banks, Bloomberg reported

A summary obtained by McClatchy of the still-secret report links Torshin to Russian money laundering and describes him as a godfather in a major Russian criminal organization called Taganskaya.

Investigators for three congressional committees probing Russia’s 2016 operations also have shown interest in Torshin, a lifetime NRA member who has attended several of its annual conventions. At the group’s meeting in Kentucky in May 2016, Torshin spoke to Donald Trump Jr. during a gala event at the group’s national gathering in Kentucky in May 2016, when his father won an earlier-than-usual NRA presidential endorsement.

An FBI spokesman declined to comment on the investigation.

"We have not been contacted by the FBI about anything related to Russia," said Steven Hart, an outside attorney for the NRA, in a statement provided to McClatchy five days after publication of this story.

Torshin could not be reached for comment, and emails to the Russian central bank seeking comment from Torshin and the bank elicited no response.

Mueller’s investigation has been edging closer to Trump’s inner circle. This week, The New York Times reported that Mueller had negotiated an agreement under which Steve Bannon, who was recently ousted from his post as a senior White House adviser, would fully respond to questions about the Trump campaign. Bannon headed the campaign over its final weeks.

Since taking over the investigation last May, Mueller has secured guilty pleas from two former Trump aides, former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, both of whom agreed to cooperate with prosecutors; and criminal charges against two other top campaign figures, former campaign Chairman Paul Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates.

A year ago, three U.S. intelligence agencies signed off on a joint assessment that was the basis for the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats and other sanctions against the Kremlin. The intelligence agencies concluded that what began as a sophisticated Russian operation to undermine Americans’ faith in democracy morphed into a drive to help Trump win.

Torshin is among a phalanx of Putin proxies to draw the close attention of U.S. investigators, who also have tracked the activities of several Russian billionaires and pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarchs that have come in contact with Trump or his surrogates.

Torshin was a senior member of the Russian Senate and in recent years helped set up a Moscow gun rights group called Right to Bear Arms. He not only spoke with Trump Jr. at the NRA convention, but he also tried unsuccessfully to broker a meeting between Putin and the presidential candidate in 2016, according to the Times. He further sought to meet privately with the candidate himself near the 2016 NRA convention.

Torshin’s ties with the NRA have flourished in recent years. In late 2015, he hosted two dinners for a high-level NRA delegation during its week-long visit to Moscow that included meetings with influential Russian government and business figures.

In their internal report, Spanish prosecutors revealed a web of covert financial and money-laundering dealings between Torshin and Alexander Romanov, a Russian who pleaded guilty to money-laundering charges in 2016 and was sentenced to nearly four years in prison.

The prosecutors’ evidence included 33 audio recordings of phone conversations from mid-2012 to mid-2013 between Torshin and Romanov, who allegedly laundered funds to buy a hotel on the ritzy island of Mallorca. Torshin had an 80 percent stake in the venture, the Spanish report said.

In the phone conversations, Romanov referred to Torshin as the “godfather” or “boss.” Torshin has denied any links to organized crime and said his dealings with Romanov were purely “social.”

The Madrid-based newspaper El Pais last year reported that Spanish police were on the verge of arresting Torshin in the summer of 2013, when he had planned to attend a birthday party for Romanov, but a Russian prosecutor tipped the banker to plans to nab him if he set foot in Spain, and Torshin canceled his trip.

Congress looking at Torshin, too

The House and Senate Intelligence Committees and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee also have taken an interest in Torshin as part of their parallel inquiries into Russia’s interference in the 2016 elections.

In questioning Donald Trump Jr. at a closed-door hearing in mid-December, investigators for the Senate Intelligence Committee asked about his encounter with Torshin at the NRA convention, according to a source familiar with the hearing.

Alan Futerfas, a lawyer for Trump Jr., said his client and Torshin talked only briefly when they were introduced during a meal.

“It was all gun-related small talk,” Futerfas told McClatchy.

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent letters in November to two senior Trump foreign policy aides, J.D. Gordon and Sam Clovis, seeking copies of any communications they had with or related to Torshin; the NRA; veteran conservative operative Paul Erickson; Maria Butina, a Torshin protege who ran the Russian pro-gun group he helped launch, and others linked to Torshin.

Erickson has raised funds for the NRA and is a friend of Butina’s. Shortly before the NRA’s May 2016 convention, he emailed Trump campaign aide Rick Dearborn about the possibility of setting up a meeting between Putin and Trump during the campaign, according to the Times.

Erickson’s email to Dearborn bore the subject line “Kremlin Connection.” In it, Erickson solicited advice from Dearborn and his boss, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, a top foreign policy adviser to Trump’s campaign, about the best way to connect Putin and Trump.

Both Dearborn and Butina, who has been enrolled as a graduate student at American University since mid 2016, have been asked to appear before the Judiciary Committee, but so far Erickson has not, sources familiar with the matter said.

Bridges LLC, a company that Erickson and Butina established in February 2016 in Erickson’s home state of South Dakota, also is expected to draw scrutiny. Public records don’t reveal any financial transactions involving Bridges. In a phone interview last year, Erickson said the firm was established in case Butina needed any monetary assistance for her graduate studies — an unusual way to use an LLC.

Erickson said he met Butina and Torshin when he and David Keene, a former NRA president, attended a meeting of Right to Bear Arms a few years ago in Moscow. Erickson described the links between Right to Bear Arms and the NRA as a “moral support operation both ways.”

Torshin’s contacts with the NRA and the Trump campaign last year also came to the attention of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and key adviser. When Torshin tried to arrange a personal meeting with Trump near the NRA convention site last May, Kushner scotched the idea, according to emails forwarded to Kushner.

On top of Torshin’s efforts to cozy up to the Trump campaign, the Moscow banker has forged ties with powerful conservatives, including Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, the Californian whom some have deemed Putin’s best friend in Washington. In a phone interview in 2016, Rohrabacher recalled meeting Torshin in Moscow a few years earlier and described him as “a mover and shaker.”

Last February when Torshin visited Washington, Rockefeller heir and conservative patron George O’Neill Jr. hosted a fancy four-hour dinner for the banker on Capitol Hill, an event that drew Rohrabacher, Erickson and other big names on the right. Rohrabacher has labeled Torshin as “conservatives’ favorite Russian,” Torshin was in Washington at the time to lead his country’s delegation to the National Prayer Breakfast, where Trump spoke. The banker also was slated to see the presidentat a meet-and-greet event prior to a White House breakfast, but Torshin’s invitation was canceled after the White House learned of his alleged mob connections, Yahoo News reported.

Torshin’s involvement with the NRA may have begun in 2013 when he attended the group’s convention in Houston. Keene, the ex-NRA leader and an avid hunter, was instrumental in building a relationship with the Russian, according to multiple conservative sources.

Keene also helped lead a high-level NRA delegation to Moscow in December 2015 for a week of lavish meals and meetings with Russian business and political leaders. The week’s festivities included a visit to a Russian gun company and a meeting with a senior Kremlin official and wealthy Russians, according to a member of the delegation, Arnold Goldschlager, a California doctor who has been active in NRA programs to raise large donations.

Others on the trip included Joe Gregory, who runs the NRA’s Ring of Freedom program for elite donors who chip in checks of $1 million and upwards, Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke and Pete Brownell, a chief executive of a gun company and longtime NRA board member.

In a phone interview, Goldschlager described the trip as a “people-to-people mission,” and said he was impressed with Torshin — who, he noted, hosted both a “welcoming” dinner for the NRA contingent and another one.

“They were killing us with vodka and the best Russian food,” Goldschlager said. “The trip exceeded my expectations by logarithmic levels.”

 

[Howl]

Hooo, boy, it's FRIDAY! Hope Mueller throws us at least a few scraps today! 

@fraurosena, do you think that the identities of the indicted employees and managers at Russia's Internet Research Agency were revealed through the efforts of the Dutch hackers or was there a hacker on the inside at the troll farm who decided to come clean?

Here's a good article from VOX summarizing how the Russian troll farm works both domestically and abroad. 

What to know about the Russian troll factory listed in Mueller’s indictment

I need to keep reading articles like this  because my brain has trouble truly processing the level of corrupt cynicism and evil brilliance it takes to implement this project.  I feel sad for the Russian people because it has been used to devastating effect on them. 

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, Howl said:

do you think that the identities of the indicted employees and managers at Russia's Internet Research Agency were revealed through the efforts of the Dutch hackers or was there a hacker on the inside at the troll farm who decided to come clean?

I believe it's probably a combination of both. Among other things, the Dutch hackers gained access to a camera inside the building and so could actually see who was in the room doing the hacking. So I don't think it would have been too hard to identify them. But I also read somewhere that Mueller had a Russian informant. I don't have much time to go looking now (I'm baking pies and cakes and am currently on a little break checking FJ) but maybe later this evening (or afternoon for you guys) I'll try and dig that up.

[fraurosena]

Aaaaaand.... Gates has flipped!

Rick Gates, Trump Campaign Aide, to Plead Guilty in Mueller Inquiry and Cooperate

Quote

A former top adviser to Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign indicted by the special counsel was expected to plead guilty as soon as Friday afternoon, according to two people familiar with his plea agreement, a move that signals he is cooperating with the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

The adviser, Rick Gates, is a longtime political consultant who once served as Mr. Trump’s deputy campaign chairman. The plea deal could be a significant development in the investigation — a sign that Mr. Gates plans to offer incriminating information against his longtime associate and the former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, or other members of the Trump campaign in exchange for a lighter punishment.

The deal comes as the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has been raising pressure on Mr. Gates and Mr. Manafort with dozens of new chargesof money laundering and bank fraud that were unsealed on Thursday. Mr. Mueller first indicted both men in October, and both pleaded not guilty.

Mr. Gates’s primary concern has been protecting his family, both emotionally and financially, from the prospect of a drawn-out trial, according to a person familiar with his defense strategy who was not authorized to publicly discuss the case and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

If Mr. Manafort continues to fight the charges in a trial, testimony from Mr. Gates could give Mr. Mueller’s team a first-person account of the criminal conduct that is claimed in the indictments — a potential blow to Mr. Manafort’s defense strategy.

It was unclear exactly what Mr. Gates might have to offer the special counsel’s team, whether about Mr. Manafort or about other members of the Trump campaign. Neither indictment indicated that either Mr. Gates or Mr. Manafort had information about the central question of Mr. Mueller’s investigation — whether President Trump or his aides coordinated with the Russian government’s efforts to disrupt the 2016 election.

But Mr. Gates was present for the most significant periods of activity of the campaign, as Mr. Trump began developing policy positions and his digital operation engaged with millions of voters on platforms such as Facebook. Even after Mr. Manafort was fired by Mr. Trump in August 2016, Mr. Gates remained on in a different role, as a liaison between the campaign and the Republican National Committee. He traveled aboard the Trump plane through Election Day.

The indictments detailed a wide-ranging scheme by Mr. Gates and Mr. Manafort to hide from American authorities millions of dollars they had earned as political consultants in Ukraine. The men worked in various capacities with Viktor F. Yanukovych, the onetime Ukrainian president and a longtime ally of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

Mr. Mueller’s team found that more than $75 million passed through offshore accounts, and that Mr. Manafort laundered more than $30 million to pay for real estate and luxury goods in the United States. Mr. Gates transferred more than $3 million from the offshore accounts, court documents show.

After their work was disclosed in news reports in August 2016, when the two men were working for the Trump campaign, they “developed a false and misleading cover story” to distance themselves from Ukraine, according Mr. Mueller’s prosecutors.

The court papers unsealed Thursday describe an intricate scheme by Mr. Manafort and Mr. Gates, trying to shield tens of millions of dollars from the American tax authorities by transferring the funds through foreign bank accounts, including in Cyprus and the Seychelles.

“Manafort and Gates hid the existence and ownership of the foreign companies and bank accounts, falsely and repeatedly reporting to their tax preparers and to the United States that they had no foreign bank accounts,” the new indictment said.

The work the two men did for their firm, Davis Manafort, connected them to numerous people with ties to the Kremlin. One was Oleg Deripaska, an aluminum magnate and an ally of Mr. Putin. Mr. Deripaska has been denied a visa to travel to the United States because of allegations that he is linked to organized crime operations, claims he has denied.

In 2008, Mr. Gates took over the firm’s duties in Eastern Europe, where he worked on business development and contract negotiations.

Besides the charges against Mr. Manafort and Mr. Gates, the special counsel’s team has secured guilty pleas from two of Mr. Trump’s advisers. Michael T. Flynn, the president’s first national security adviser, and George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy aide during the campaign, have both pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. and agreed to cooperate with the inquiry.

 

 

 

 

[Cartmann99]

10 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

Aaaaaand.... Gates has flipped!

*Sees that the Gates hearing is set for less than an hour from now. Launches Tune In app, selects the MSNBC audio feed, looks at clock again, taps foot impatiently. *

[AmazonGrace]

 

[onekidanddone]

Gates? Manafort? Naa didn't ever meet him. Manafort brought some Diet Coke once, but gave it to Hope, so yea, Paul who? I mean he may have run my campaign, but how am I expected to know the people who ran my most best campaign ever. You know where I received 507 electoral votes. But I did that all on my own. Nobody worked on my campaign but me..well maybe Putin.. umm no me just me.

Gates? Yes I know all about gates. Most fantastic gates like what I have around my properties.