Russian Connection 4: Do Not Congratulate

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

He seems nice

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Wow, that Lewandowski is a class act. I wonder if "Hopey" will start dating him again.

[AmazonGrace]

 

[fraurosena]

Oh, this could be good! I have no idea if this FOIA lawsuit has any chances, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. 

The Daily Beast, James Madison Project Sue Justice Department

Quote

National security lawyers Mark Zaid and Brad Moss have sued the Department of Justice on behalf of The Daily Beast and The JamesMadison Project over the so-called “Nunes Memo” and its Democratic response. The Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, filed Thursday, demands the expedited release of documents related to the declassification of memos by House Intelligence Committee members Reps. Devin Nunes (R-CA) and Adam Schiff (D-CA). Nunes’ memo alleging FBI surveillance abuses in the investigation of a Trump campaign staffer became a source of tension on the House Intelligence Committee after Democrats alleged that the document’s release “risks public exposure of sensitive sources and methods for no legitimate purpose.” The lawsuit also seeks Justice Department records on the declassification of a memo by Intelligence Committee Democrats rebutting charges against the FBI in Nunes’ memo.

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[formergothardite]

What is Russia planning to do?! This is getting scary. Not that it hasn't been scary, but it is getting even more scary. 

[fraurosena]

Although they're saying otherwise, I hope this unexpected and surprising action on the part of the US administration is a reaction to that news, @formergothardite. 

Trump imposes major sanctions on Russian oligarchs, officials, companies

Quote

The Trump administration took one of its most aggressive actions against Russia on Friday, announcing sweeping sanctions on oligarchs, top officials and several businesses, including a bank and a state-owned weapons trading company.

Senior administration officials said that the sanctions are not aimed to punish Moscow for any particular event, but are instead a broader measure aimed at the "totality of the Russian government's ongoing and increasingly malign activities in the world."

The Treasury Department, in connection with the Department of State, targeted seven Russian oligarchs with ties to Vladimir Putin, and 12 companies they own or control. It also issued sanctions on 17 senior government officials, along with a state-owned weapons trading company and its subsidiary, a Russian bank.

A number of high-profile individuals are targeted in Friday’s action, including the chairman of state-owned Gazprom, Russia’s largest company, the secretary of Russian Security Council, and the director of the national guard troops.

As a result of today’s action, assets are blocked, and U.S. entities are blocked from dealing with them.

As a result of the Trump administration's action, the Russian assets are blocked, and U.S. entities are blocked from dealing with them.

"The Russian government operates for the disproportionate benefit of oligarchs and government elites," Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a statement.

Mnuchin cited a number of Russian activities around the world as support for Friday's U.S. action, including Moscow's ongoing occupation of Crimea and violence in eastern Ukraine, support of Syrian President Bashar Assad's attacks against Syrian civilians, Russia's "ongoing cyber activities" and efforts to "interfere in the democratic processes of the United States and its allies."

"Russian oligarchs and elites who profit from this corrupt system will no longer be insulated from the consequences of their government's destabilizing activities," Mnuchin said.

To date, the Trump administration has issued Russia-related sanctions against 136 individuals and entities.

A senior administration official who briefed reporters on the sanctions said that they had been carefully coordinated with American allies, particularly in Europe.

Tensions between the U.S. and Russia have soared in recent days after the United States and the European Union announced the expulsion of dozens of Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning of ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal on British soil, allegedly orchestrated by the Kremlin.

The U.S. expelled 60 Russian diplomats, identified by officials as intelligence officers, and closed Russia's Seattle consulate. In response, Russia expelled 60 American diplomats and closed the U.S. consulate in St. Petersburg.

The senior administration official, who requested anonymity, said Friday's action is not a direct response to the expulsion of U.S. diplomats or the attack in the United Kingdom.

Contrary to the headline, from the article you can deduce that the presidunce had nothing to do with these sanctions. It's the Treasury Department and the Department of State who initiated them. I wouldn't be surprised if the presidunce knew nothing beforehand, and will probably only hear of them after his Faux briefing.

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[fraurosena]

7 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

 

Ha, it turns out that the facts in this matter are a little different than Manafort is trying to use as reason to suppress.

 

[Howl]

On 4/6/2018 at 9:46 AM, AmazonGrace said:

Just another page out of the Putin playbook.  Much posturing, histrionic threats and fake outrage that will save face for Putin and play well with the folks at home, while messaging that they will continue to terrorize defectors with the very real threat of assassination (smirk, smirk).   

When the incident first happened, the Brits were reluctant to pin it on Russia, at the same time that Russian state TV was gloating over the poisoning: 

Britain Urged to Target Russian Money, Assets in London

Quote

The prime minister’s efforts to restrain a rush to judgment aren’t being helped by Russian state television's coverage, which is often used as a mouthpiece for the Kremlin. It appears eager to fan the political flames in London with a top presenter, Kirill Kleymenov, gloating that “traitors” shouldn’t think they are safe living in Britain. “The profession of traitor is a lot more dangerous than that of a drug courier. It is very rare that those who choose it live out their days in peace and serenity,” he said.

And he cautioned on Russian Channel One’s flagship news show, “Whatever the reasons, whether you’re a professional traitor to the motherland or you just hate your country in your free time, I repeat, no matter, don’t go to England.”

I've read in several places that Britain won't really step up in overtly blaming Russia because of the staggering amounts of dirty Russian money in Britain: 

VOX: The UK could seriously punish Russia for the spy attack. Here’s why it probably won’t.  London benefits too much from corrupt Russian money in the UK to crack down on it.

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

Some good news:

 

[AmazonGrace]

My man Manafort, great guy, hardly know him. 

 

[fraurosena]

Sweet Rufus! It turns out there was more than one clandestine meeting in the Seychelles, and Mueller is investigating them.

The Trump Russia probe is expanding, as Mueller looks into new meetings in Seychelles: exclusive

Quote

Special counsel Robert Mueller's team is examining a series of previously unreported meetings that took place in 2017 in the Seychelles, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, as part of its broader investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, according to two sources briefed on the investigation.

The sources said several of those meetings took place around the same time as another meeting in the Seychelles between Erik Prince, founder of the security company Blackwater, Kirill Dmitriev, the director of one of Russia's sovereign wealth funds, and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the effective ruler of the United Arab Emirates (also known as "MBZ"). Details of that earlier meeting were first reported by the Washington Post last year.

The sources requested to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

The inquiry into the meetings in the Seychelles suggests there is growing interest on the Mueller team in whether foreign financing, specifically from Gulf states, has influenced President Trump and his administration.

The New York Times reported in March that Mueller's team questioned George Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman who helped broker the Seychelles meeting, about whether the Emiratis attempted to buy political influence in the White House. 

Documents obtained by this reporter, and interviews with those familiar with the probe, suggest Mueller is also looking at other foreign influencers, including individuals from Russia and from Saudi Arabia.

The meetings in the Seychelles are a key component of Mueller's investigation, sources familiar with the investigation said. The meetings connect powerful players from Russia, the U.S., the UAE and Saudi Arabia across the political, financial and defense worlds. The details of what was discussed in the meetings in January and in the following months, however, are scarce.

Flight records and financial documents obtained by this reporter over twelve months, as well as interviews with parliamentary and aviation officials in the Seychelles, paint a scene out of a Hollywood thriller.

Wealthy and politically-connected individuals from across the globe -- from Russia, France, Saudi Arabia and South Africa -- land in the Seychelles for meetings that take place as a part of a larger gathering hosted by MBZ, according to an individual briefed on the matter, who also requested anonymity. Many of them fly in on private jets and several do not clear customs.  Some check into the Four Seasons Hotel while others arrive and stay on their yachts.  

Individuals connected to the Saudi financial system, including the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency and the Arab National Bank, flew into the island the second week of January 2017, as did an aircraft purportedly owned by the former deputy minister of defense, Prince Khaled bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz, fight records show. Other individuals on those aircraft held passports from Egypt and Singapore.

Dmitriev flew into the Seychelles Jan. 11, 2017 with his wife Natalia Popova and another woman with the last name Boldovskaia. Six other Russian individuals flew to the island just a few days after Dmitriev. The aircraft's ownership is unclear but it flew between Russia, Geneva and Cyprus in 2017.

Others on the island included Alexander Mashkevitch, an alleged financier of Bayrock, an investment vehicle linked to Trump, and Sheikh Abdulrahman Khalid BinMahfouz, according to flight records. BinMahfouz's father, before his death, was a billionaire and the former chairman of Saudi Arabia's first private bank.

Nader travelled to Seychelles Jan. 7, 2017 and again on March 24 on an aircraft with the tail number VP-CZA, flight records show. The aircraft is registered to Gryphon Asset Management, an aviation consulting company based out of Dubai.

Nader is a well-known advisor to the UAE with links to Dmitriev and members of the Saudi Royal family. He has attended meetings at the White House with Stephen Bannon and Jared Kushner in the past, according to the Times, and has also been linked to Trump fundraiser and deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee Elliot Broidy.

The Associated Press reported last month Nader sent Broidy $2.5 million through a Canadian company. Broidy then began giving donations to members of Congress who were actively supporting legislation critical of Qatar, the AP reported.

The previously reported meeting in the Seychelles between Prince, Dmitriev and MBZ was described as an attempt by the U.S. to set up a backchannel with Russia. The Post reported that Blackwater founder Erik Prince, an informal adviser to the Trump team, acted as a representative of the administration in the meeting with an unnamed Russian individual.

Later, this reporter broke the news in The Intercept that Prince had met with Dmitriev -- the head of the sovereign wealth fund with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Prince admitted in a congressional testimony earlier this year that he had met Dmitriev on the island, but said it was a chance meeting. 

Mueller's team has received evidence challenging Prince's testimony, according to an ABC News report. 

 

[AmazonGrace]

Starring Dana Boente

 

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

Is it just me or does Bannon seem slightly panicked about what they got on him.

[AmazonGrace]

 

[onekidanddone]

2 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

 

Is it just me or does Bannon seem slightly panicked about what they got on him.

Remember the whole "Do not congratulate" TT received when Putin won reelection retained his dictatorship in a sham election. So maybe Trump will take Bannon's advice and go running to Muller to confess everything. 

Umm naaa won't happen. What Trump might do is try his bragging, lying, word salad in front of Muller because he thinks is bully bravado will work as it always has in the past. Oh I'd love to read t hat transcript 

[Howl]

three things: 

@AmazonGrace Perjury trap --Yeah, I'm sure Lord Dampnuts would take his seat and start excoriating Mueller over the disgraceful witch hunt, then Mueller will apologize and say it was all a terrible mistake and Lord Dampnuts will tell him he should be ashamed and he should fire the entire FBI. Yeah, like that. 

@AmazonGrace: The Russian media is quite adept at calling real news fake, while generating a bunch of fake news.  However, there is word that Yulia Skripal and her father, if he recovers sufficiently, will go into witness protection in the US. 

@onekidanddone: Please note that Bannon was concerned enough that he put on a suit, A SUIT! 

[fraurosena]

14 minutes ago, Howl said:

Yeah, I'm sure Lord Dampnuts would take his seat and start excoriating Mueller over the disgraceful witch hunt. 

 

I believe that's what he thinks he will do, and he'll have to be brought to that interview kicking and screaming bloody blue murder. Once he's seated though? He'll be like a guilty little toddler that got caught with his hand in the cookie jar, somewhat defiant at first, but then when he finds out exactly what Mueller has on him, he'll be scared shitless and start snottily ugly-crying. Then he'll be spilling his guts out, implicating himself and pointing at everybody else who was involved, because he sure as hell isn't going down alone, and anyway, they were much worse than him... and he'll tell you all about how bad they all were. Not as bad as him at all, see?

[formergothardite]

2 hours ago, fraurosena said:

he sure as hell isn't going down alone,

Trump is going to attempt to bring down every single person he can. He will not sit by and let Pence become president.