Russian Connection 5: In Which We Plan Sleepovers

[fraurosena]

@Cleopatra7, thanks for your explanation. It turns out our thoughts are more aligned than I previously supposed. 

31 minutes ago, Cleopatra7 said:

because there's no morality in international relations

I couldn't agree more. Every country is in it for themselves, and within each country they're actually for the faction in power, not necessarily the good of the country, as you say here:

33 minutes ago, Cleopatra7 said:

that what is good for a state's national interests do not necessarily translate into what is good for ordinary citizens, either at the domestic level or the international level.

Countries, unions, states, non of them are all good or all bad. The world isn't black and white. There are no good guys and bad guys. And we shouldn't forget that they are not the only entities that are players on the world stage. The big multinational industries hold most of the power, if you ask me. And they are completely and utterly in it to win it, at any cost.

34 minutes ago, Cleopatra7 said:

The rub in all this is that these dire conditions would still be present even if Trump hadn't been elected, because they're features not bugs of the system.

Sadly true. I am continuously amazed and appalled at the extreme poverty levels that exist in the so-called richest country in the world. And to be honest, before I joined FJ, I had no idea of the insidious pervasiveness of racism and misogyny in American society. That this is a result of the system itself has become clear to me in these threads in the past couple of years. That means that the system is obsolete needs to be changed. No easy feat, but the current climate in America right now has laid bare most of the things that need to be fixed, and that offers a chance to do so. People are becoming more aware of everything that's wrong, and the current animus has injected a sense of urgency into the voting public. It could well be that if America choses to ride that wave, they can at least start to challenge the system and begin to make the necessary changes. 

49 minutes ago, Cleopatra7 said:

but rather that they don't like unquestioned American unipolarity

Well duh. Would America like unquestioned unipolarity from another nation? Personally speaking, I view the fact that America has the greatest military might on Earth to be extremely frightening, especially with their current move towards authoritarianism. If America can't or won't be Europe's ally any longer, then it's only common sense to pull the ties that bond the member states just that much tighter and stronger. Do they wish to be a counterbalance? Perhaps. But the way things are now, I think it's more prudent self-preservation than anything else.

1 hour ago, Cleopatra7 said:

I don't think a multipolar world would be much of an improvement, especially with the hard swing to the right that we're seeing worldwide combined with the effects of climate change.

It depends. A multipolar world, where all factions are equal and fairly balanced, could work really well. If everybody tries to get along, plays to their own strengths and appreciates the other factions, then it could be a good thing to the benefit of all. I don't think such a utopian world would come to fruition any time soon, but as I said in my previous post, if you don't strive for it, you'll never achieve it either. 

The swing to the right is indeed a scary thing to behold. But these extremists are not the majority. They tend to be the loudest and most vociferous in society, but they are in the minority. There is a simple solution to get them back to the sidelines where they belong: vote them out (or don't vote them in, whatever happens to be the case). 

Climate change is real, and it is a danger such as the world as we know it has never faced before. I don't think there is much difference between unipolarity or multipolarity on combatting that though. The real problem is the big (multinational) companies and industries that refuse to stop their pollution because of short term monetary gains. They need to be forced to comply with new rules and regulations aimed at combatting climate change and the effects thereof. A lot can be done politically to force those companies to comply. But as consumers of those industries, there is much that people can do individually. Stop using polluting products. Don't buy goods or products or services that contribute to climate change. Go vegan. Look at your carbon footprint and try and reduce it where possible. Educate yourself and those around you about the effects of climate change and what it could mean for you personally.

There is a multitude of actions anyone can take to make the world a better place. All it takes is the will to do it.

 

[47of74]

What the Russians have been up to lately

Quote

Russians who were linked to interference in the 2016 U.S. election discussed ambitious plans to stoke unrest and even violence inside the U.S. as recently as 2018, according to documents reviewed by NBC News.

The documents — communications between associates of Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Kremlin-linked oligarch indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller for previous influence operations against the U.S. — laid out a new plot to manipulate and radicalize African-Americans. The plans show that Prigozhin’s circle has sought to exploit racial tensions well beyond Russia’s social media and misinformation efforts tied to the 2016 election.

The documents contained proposals for several ways to further exacerbate racial discord in the future, including a suggestion to recruit African-Americans and transport them to camps in Africa “for combat prep and training in sabotage.” Those recruits would then be sent back to America to foment violence and work to establish a pan-African state in the Southern U.S., including South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.

There is no indication that the plan — which is light on details — was ever put into action, but it offers a fresh example of the mindset around Russian efforts to sow discord in the U.S.

Yeah and I'm not holding my breath waiting for Fuck Head or Moscow Mitch to do a goddamn thing to stop these people.

[GreyhoundFan]

"Why was Franklin Graham schmoozing with a sanctioned Russian official this month?"

Spoiler

Franklin Graham, America’s most prominent evangelical leader, says Vice President Mike Pence signed off on his trip to Russia earlier this month. While there, Graham met with sanctioned Kremlin officials — even as U.S. investigations ramped up into Moscow’s election interference efforts. One official Russian governmental social media account touted the meeting as a way to “[intensify] contacts between the State Duma and the U.S. Congress.”

In an interview with RIA Novosti, a major Russian state-run outlet, Graham said he called Pence directly to tell him of the trip. “He was very happy to hear the news,” Graham said. “And he admitted that he fully supported my decision.”

A spokesperson for Graham told ThinkProgress that he is currently traveling and unavailable for an interview. Pence’s office did not respond to ThinkProgress’s requests for comment.

According to interviews in Russian media and photos on his own social media accounts, Graham, currently the chair of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, traveled to Moscow earlier this month to meet with a number of prominent Russian figures. Most notably, Graham had a sit-down meeting with Russian Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, who is close to President Vladimir Putin and who has been sanctioned by the U.S. since 2014 for his role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Per a captioned photo re-posted from the Duma Instagram account to Graham’s own Instagram account, the meeting with Volodin focused “on the current state of U.S.-Russia relations,” including “the possibility of intensifying contacts between the State Duma and the U.S. Congress.”

Graham added in a separate post that it was an “honor” to meet Volodin, whom Graham described as “a very gracious man.” That meeting was also promoted on the official Instagram account of the Russian Duma.

Graham also posed in front of a map of Russia and next to a portrait of Putin.

While in Russia, Graham also met with a number of Russian religious figures. One of those figures included Patriarch Kirill, allegedly a former KGB agent.

On Twitter, Graham described the meetings with Russian officials as a “blessing.”

Graham directly addressed the tensions between the Kremlin and Washington in his first post from Russia, writing, “#Collusion? I’m in Russia right now — Moscow to be exact — and I’m meeting with the Russian churches on how we can share with more young people about faith in Jesus Christ! That’s not ‘collusion,’ but it is collaboration for the sake of souls. #GoodNews”

Graham, the son of arch-evangelical Billy Graham, is arguably America’s most prominent evangelical figure, and often defends President Donald Trump against concerns that the thrice-married president isn’t sufficiently Christian.

Partners in Moscow

Though American evangelicals have been building ties with Russia for years — Graham even met with Putin himself, in 2015 — no one of Graham’s stature in the evangelical community has ever crossed American sanctions to meet face-to-face with a Russian official sanctioned by the U.S. The White House has personally identified Volodin as one of the key figures responsible for Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea, the first forced annexation in Europe since World War II — a fact that seemed to matter little to Graham.

Far-right Christian groups have other ties to sanctioned Russians: Later this month the U.S.-based World Congress of Families (WCF) — a Christian fundamentalist group that has previously been linked to sanctioned Russian oligarchs like Vladimir Yakunin and Konstantin Malofeev — will be hosting its annual conference in Italy. Just last year, the WCF hosted sanctioned Russian official Elena Mizulina as one of its featured speakers at its 2018 conference. The WCF’s Russian representative is also Alexey Komov, who works directly for Malofeev.

Graham himself has a track record of praising the Kremlin, such as when he lauded Putin for “protecting Russian young people” via Moscow’s virulently anti-LGBTQ policies. He has previously called for the U.S. to “ally” with Russia in the “fight against Islamic terrorism,” and, in 2015, traveled to Russia to complain about former President Barack Obama “promot[ing] atheism.”

During that 2015 trip, Graham met directly with Putin. It was around the same time that Russia began launching its social media interference operations, that Russian agent Maria Butina began infiltrating the highest ranks of the National Rifle Association (NRA), and shortly before Russian hackers stole Democratic emails that were then funneled to Wikileaks for public dissemination.

As Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar noted in All the Kremlin’s Men, his 2016 book examining Putin’s inner circle, Volodin — described as the Kremlin’s “gray cardinal” — has also played a seminal role in attempting to unwind Washington’s Magnitsky Act, which sanctioned Russian officials responsible for the death of Russian accountant Sergei Magnitsky. Those sanctions, according to Zygar, left Volodin “livid.” Volodin helped craft the Russian response, which included specifically banning U.S. citizens from adopting Russian children.

The participants in the infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting — including Donald Trump, Jr., as well as Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort — used Russian adoptions and the Magnitsky Act as pretext for that face-to-face meeting.

But Magnitsky-related sanctions aren’t the only pieces of American legislation in which Volodin has taken a special interest. In 2014, America targeted Volodin with sanctions for his role in Russia’s invasion of Crimea. Per the Treasury Department, “Putin’s decision to move into Crimea is believed to have been based on consultations with his closest advisors, including Volodin.”

Volodin, bending Putin’s ear, has also played an outsized role in crafting the Kremlin’s hard-right turn following Putin’s return to the presidency in 2012. From pushing to target civil society groups as “foreign agents” to defending the rollback of protections for victims of domestic violence, Volodin has grown his influence over Russian domestic policy as much as he’s cultivated a hardline, anti-democratic view. Russian anticorruption activists like Alexey Navalny have accused Volodin of massive graft along the way.

None of this information about Volodin — including even American sanctions — seemed to give Graham pause. As Graham wrote on Instagram, “Remember to keep [Volodin] in your prayers.”

It's scary how many people are in Putin's pocket. And color me unsurprised that Pence was happy about the contacts.

[fraurosena]

I think we'd be quicker if we were to sum up who doesn't have Russian connections.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

It's sad that this is true:

 

[fraurosena]

How convenient for her. 

Russian Official Linked to Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Trump Tower Lawyer, Is Dead

Quote

A Russian official accused of directing the foreign operations of Natalia Veselnitskaya, the lawyer who met senior Trump campaign officials in 2016, has plummeted to his death in a helicopter crash.

Russian Deputy Attorney General Saak Albertovich Karapetyan was exposed in a Swiss court this year for a plot to enlist another nation’s law-enforcement official as a double-agent for the Kremlin.

Media reports in Russia say he died Wednesday night when his helicopter crashed into a forest during an unauthorized flight in the Kostroma region, northeast of Moscow.

Karapetyan, 58, was intimately familiar with some of the most notorious operations carried out under the orders of Vladimir Putin. He worked closely with Veselnitskaya as well as running some of Moscow’s most high-profile efforts to thwart international investigations into Russia’s alleged crimes.

It was Karapetyan who signed a letter from the Russian government refusing to help the U.S. in a civil case it was pursuing linked to the death of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who was trying to expose a $230 million fraud in Russia. Leaked emails have since shown that Veselnitskaya helped to draft the document sent with that letter.   

Karapetyan has been involved in efforts to foil international investigations for more than a decade. The Daily Beast reported that he was present for a meeting in Moscow where British detectives claim they were poisoned during efforts to track down the killers of Alexander Litvinenko, who died after a dose of radioactive poison in London in 2006.

Despite claims that they were trying to help, the general prosecutor’s office did everything it could to block the Scotland Yard investigation.

Earlier this year, Karapetyan lashed out at Britain in the aftermath of the Novichok attack against former Russian spy Sergei Skripal. He linked Skripal, Litvinenko, and Boris Berezovsky, a high-profile critic of Putin who died of suspected suicide in 2013.

“The British authorities have based the anti-Russian campaign surrounding the poisoning of former GRU officer Skripal and his daughter on a provocative scenario. A similar scenario was used in baseless allegations of Russia’s attempt on the life of Boris Berezovsky in London in summer 2003 and the circumstances surrounding the death of Alexander Litvinenko in the U.K. in November 2006,” Karapetyan said, according to Interfax.

On Wednesday night, the wreckage of a helicopter believed to have been carrying Karapetyan was found near the village of Vonyshevo. Video purported to be from the scene shows the chopper mangled and burnt out amid twisted tree trunks.

It is not known why experienced pilot Stanislav Mikhnov, 54, reportedly decided to take off after nightfall in adverse conditions without authorities’ approval. A third man, Arek Harutyunyan, was also killed, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.

Karapetyan’s links to Veselnitskaya emerged this year, when a case in Switzerland exposed the pair’s operation to recruit a high-level law-enforcement official who was supposed to be investigating the Swiss bank accounts of Russian oligarchs and mobsters.

The top investigator was fired for “unauthorized clandestine behavior,” and allegations of bribery and breaching secrecy laws. The Swiss authorities discovered that the officer—who was identified only as Victor K.—had met Karapetyan in Geneva and Zurich. Before Christmas 2016, Karapetyan telephoned the official and invited him to Moscow, where he was put up in a luxury hotel and asked to attend a meeting with Veselnitskaya.

It is likely that the meeting with Veselnitskaya concerned the fallout from the death of Magnitsky, who had been working to expose a massive fraud that implicated the Kremlin when he was incarcerated, beaten, and left to die.

In the aftermath of his death, the lawyer’s client, Bill Browder, campaigned to enact a series of anti-corruption laws all over the world in his name. The U.S. Magnitsky Act was passed in 2012.

Veselnitskaya was one of the top advocates lobbying to overturn these global Magnitsky laws, which have reportedly absolutely infuriated Putin.

When she arranged to meet Paul Manafort, Donald Trump Jr., and Jared Kushner at the infamous Trump Tower meeting in 2016, she was offering dirt on Hillary Clinton allegedly given to her by Karapetyan’s general prosecutor’s office, according to the emails of introduction, which have since been leaked. Once inside, we now know that she attempted to lobby the senior Trump officials on the Magnitsky case.

Karapetyan and Veselnitskaya also worked together on another job linked to Magnitsky. The U.S. authorities brought a civil case against a company called Prevezon for its alleged links to laundering proceeds of the fraud that Magnitsky uncovered.

In April, emails obtained by Dossier, an anti-Putin campaign set up by former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and published by The New York Times, showed that Veselnitskaya had helped to draft a document on behalf of the Russian government that explained why Moscow would not help with the fraud case against Prevezon.

Rather than engage with the allegations against Prevezon, much of the document was a personal attack on Browder. The cover letter that accompanied the document was signed by Karapetyan.

The refusal to help provide documents from inside Russia—orchestrated by Karapetyan and Veselnitskaya—likely contributed to the authorities’ ultimate decision to settle the case. Prevezon agreed to pay $5.9 million, but it did not admit any role in laundering the proceeds of the fraud.   

 

[Howl]

I think this crash happened almost a year ago, in Oct. 2018.  But yes, the number of Russian state assassinations is quite shocking. 

[fraurosena]

How long before the attacks on the IG begin?

 

[fraurosena]

This is a blueprint of what happened with the GOP and Trump.

This article is very long and the link contains audio fragments and a link to a complete transcript of the recording. For those of you who don't have the time or inclination to read the whole article, I've highlighted the most salient parts. 

Revealed: The Explosive Secret Recording That Shows How Russia Tried To Funnel Millions To The “European Trump”

Quote

Six men sat down for a business meeting on the morning of October 18 last year, amid the hubbub and marble-columned opulence of Moscow’s iconic Metropol Hotel, to discuss plans for a “great alliance.”

A century earlier, the grand institution was the scene of events that helped change the face of Europe and the world: Czarist forces fought from inside the hotel as they tried and failed to hold the Bolsheviks back from the Kremlin in 1917, and it was here, in suite 217, that the first Soviet Constitution was drafted after the revolution succeeded.

The six men — three Russians, three Italians — gathered beneath the spectacular painted glass ceiling in the hotel lobby last October had their eyes on history too. Their nominal purpose was an oil deal; their real goal was to undermine liberal democracies and shape a new, nationalist Europe aligned with Moscow.

BuzzFeed News has obtained an explosive audio recording of the Metropol meeting in which a close aide of Europe’s most powerful far-right leader — Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini — and the other five men can be heard negotiating the terms of a deal to covertly channel tens of millions of dollars of Russian oil money to Salvini’s Lega party.

The recording reveals the elaborate lengths the two sides were willing to go to conceal the fact that the true beneficiary of the deal would be Salvini’s party — a breach of Italian electoral law, which bans political parties from accepting large foreign donations — despite the comfort with which he and Europe’s other far-right leaders publicly parade their pro-Kremlin political sympathies.

“We want to change Europe,” said longtime Salvini aide Gianluca Savoini — who dined alongside Vladimir Putin at a government banquet to celebrate the Russian president’s visit to Rome last week. “A new Europe has to be close to Russia as before because we want to have our sovereignty,” he continued over the clinking of coffee cups and buzz of conversation around the lobby.

As well as releasing excerpts of the Metropol tape — the existence of which is being revealed for the first time today — BuzzFeed News is also publishing a transcript of the entire recording.

Salvini — described enthusiastically by the Russians on the tape as the “European Trump” — did not attend the meeting himself, but he was in Moscow at the time. The previous day he gave a speech in which he denounced sanctions against Russia as “economic, social, and cultural folly” before reportedly meeting with the Russian deputy prime minister, Dmitry Kozak, and a powerful member of Putin’s United Russia party named Vladimir Pligin.

Although BuzzFeed News has been unable to identify the Russians at the Metropol meeting, the tape contains clear indications that high-level government figures in Moscow were aware of the negotiations — including those with whom Salvini had reportedly met the previous evening. The Russian negotiators can be heard referring to “yesterday’s meeting” without specifying the attendees, saying twice that they would have to feed details back to the “deputy prime minister,” and explaining they were hoping to get the “green light” from “Mr. Pligin” the following week.

The Lega leader has vehemently denied ever receiving any foreign money to fund his party.

But the Metropol tape provides the first hard evidence of Russia’s clandestine attempts to fund Europe’s nationalist movements, and the apparent complicity of some senior figures from the far right in those attempts.

While it’s unclear whether the agreement negotiated at the Metropol hotel was ever executed, or if Lega received any funding, the existence of the recording of a detailed negotiation raises serious questions about whether Italian laws were broken, the links between Moscow and Salvini’s Lega party, and the integrity of May’s European elections.

European politics has been shadowed for years by the suggestion that Russian commercial transactions with far-right leaders had a hidden political purpose.

French National Rally leader Marine Le Pen took €11 million in loans from Russian banks, including one close to the Kremlin, in 2014 — a year after she publicly backed Putin’s annexation of Crimea — but insisted the deal was commercial, not political.

Ahead of Britain’s EU referendum in 2016, Brexit’s biggest financial backer, Arron Banks, discussed gold and diamond investment deals offered via the Russian Embassy in London that promised vast profits. Banks, who is currently being investigated by the UK’s National Crime Agency over the “true source” of £8 million he donated to the Leave.EU campaign, has said he ultimately declined the offers and repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

The leader of Austria's far-right FPÖ party, Heinz-Christian Strache, was forced to resign in May after being caught in a sting in which he was filmed discussing the exchange of public contracts for Russian campaign support. The leaked video was published by the German news outlets Süddeutsche Zeitung and Spiegel, though it remains unclear who set up the sting.

The Metropol meeting bears all the hallmarks of a real negotiation rather than a sting. And while questions remain unanswered about Russia’s previous financial maneuvers with nationalist figures, the recording offers X-ray clarity on the Kremlin’s relationship with the powerful Italian Lega party, and a clear model for how exactly Russia uses commerce to mask naked exchanges of money and power.

Opening the discussion in faltering English, Savoini, who has been described in the Italian media as Salvini’s “sherpa to Russia” and who uses a picture of himself shaking hands with Putin as his WhatsApp avatar, was explicit about the grand political ambition behind the proposed deal.

“Salvini is the first man that want to change all of Europe,” he declared. Victory at the European elections taking place the following May would be just the start.

Listing nationalist “allies” across the continent like France’s Le Pen and Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, the 55-year-old Italian, who can be heard later on the tape describing himself as the “connection” between the Italian and Russian political sides, concluded: “We really want to begin to have a great alliance with these parties that are pro-Russia.”

The Russian response was positive. They can be heard describing Salvini, who is also Italy’s interior minister, as the “head” of Europe’s resurgent ultra-right nationalist movements, stretching from Italy in the south to Sweden and Finland in the north.

The negotiation — which lasted for an hour and 15 minutes, interspersed with cigarette breaks and fueled by espressos — would involve a major Russian oil company selling at least 3 million metric tons of fuel over the course of a year to Italian oil company Eni for a value of around $1.5 billion. The buying and selling would be done through intermediaries, with the sellers applying a discounted rate to these transactions.

The discount would be worth around $65 million, based on fuel prices at the time, according to calculations provided to BuzzFeed News by industry analysts, and it is this money that would be secretly funneled to the Italian party via the intermediaries.

The participants were clear that the purpose of the deal and the discount mechanism at its heart was to support Lega, in particular its European election campaign.

“It’s very simple,” one of the two other Italian men said some 25 minutes into the meeting. “The planning made by our political guys was that given a 4% discount, 250,000 [metric tons] plus 250,000 per month per one year, they can sustain a campaign.”

At the time of the meeting, a loophole in Italian law meant that it was legal for parties to accept money from foreign donors. But the maximum amount that could be taken by a party was €100,000 — a fraction of the tens of millions Lega stood to receive under this covert arrangement.

In January this year, new legislation closed the loophole, making it illegal for Italian parties to receive any funding or support from foreign governments or entities.

Savoini can be heard telling the other Italian participants that he had a “good feeling” about a deal materializing.

He and the other Italians repeatedly emphasized to the Russians that “quickness is of the utmost importance because elections are just around the corner” as they pushed for the first shipment to be in November.

Savoini can also be heard underlining to the other Italians the importance of keeping their relationship a tightly held secret. Describing the three of them as “a triumvirate,” he said they needed to be a “watertight compartment” and “more than prudent.”

The Italians were explicit that they were “not counting to make money” from the deal for themselves. The purpose was “not professional, it’s just a political issue,” one of the men told the Russians. “We count on sustaining a political campaign which is of benefit, I would say of mutual benefit, for the two countries.”

And in response to the Russians asking about extra “commission” for themselves — later euphemistically described as “an amount to be returned” to the Russians — Savoini made clear he was fine with them taking that cut. “They take even 400 or whatever the fuck they need to take,” he told his Italian colleagues later. “It doesn’t matter. It’s a guarantee. It means they will always do that and for us it’s OK.”

The recording blows apart statements issued by Salvini and Savoini after the meeting and some details of the negotiation at the Metropol were first reported in February by two Italian journalists, Stefano Vergine and Giovanni Tizian, in L’Espresso magazine.

At the time, Salvini’s spokesperson declined to answer questions about the Metropol meeting, dismissing them as “fantasies,” while Savoini told the Kremlin-backed news outlet Sputnik that he had not taken part in any negotiation. In a message to BuzzFeed News at the time, he described the story as “the plot of a fiction.”

On the recording, however, Savoini can be heard telling his colleagues that he was the “total connection” between the Italian and Russian sides, and that the other Italians were his partners. He said he’d been told this by “Aleksandr” — a possible reference to Aleksandr Dugin, a high-profile Russian far-right ideologue and political analyst, with whom Savoini had been photographed the previous day.

Approached by BuzzFeed News on Monday with a detailed set of questions about the Metropol meeting, Savoini wrote back: “Sorry but I don't have time to waste on these things,” adding that his lawyer would comment “if necessary.” No further response was received from Savoini or his lawyer.

The Italian journalists, who previewed excerpts from their book The Black Book of Legain L’Espresso, also reported that Salvini met Russian Deputy Prime Minister Kozak on the evening of October 17 at Pligin’s office. The meeting did not appear on Salvini’s official schedule, which listed no engagements for that evening.

Asked in February about the reported meeting with Kozak, Salvini did not deny it took place. “I can’t remember what I did the day before yesterday,” he said in an Italian television interview. “It’s hard to remember what I did on October 17.”

He added: “If the meeting did take place, it would be absolutely legitimate, and indeed proper.”

BuzzFeed News made multiple attempts to get Salvini’s response to the Metropol recording and the suggestion that he was involved in setting out the terms of the deal. He did not respond.

On Monday, Kozak denied that he met with Salvini at Pligin’s office on October 17. Brushing aside detailed questions from BuzzFeed News, his spokesperson Ilya Dzhus said in a WhatsApp message, “We have already commented on the so-called ‘investigation’ of the Italian edition of Espresso, it is built on unsubstantiated speculation…”

He continued: “Kozak was never personally acquainted with Mr. Salvini, they did not hold any official or ‘secret’ meetings. ... Russia and Italy have a large block of bilateral economic cooperation, including in the energy and industrial sphere. Kozak, as the relevant deputy prime minister, is focused only on this agenda.”

In response to a letter sent on Monday morning, followed by multiple phone calls, Pligin's office told BuzzFeed News that he was traveling and they had been unable to reach him.

Vladimir Putin has been able to count on Matteo Salvini’s unswerving and vocal support for years.

The Lega leader has repeatedly called for European Union sanctions against Russia to be dropped; he has described the annexation of Crimea as legitimate, even visiting the illegally occupied region in 2016.

He has also criticized NATO and the coordinated EU response to the Salisbury nerve agent attack by Russian military intelligence operatives in March 2018.

But it’s over the last 18 months that Salvini’s value as an ally to Putin has increased exponentially. His reinvention of Lega from a small regional force in the north of Italy to a nationwide, far-right, anti-immigrant party saw it win over 17% of the vote in the Italian general election in March 2018. Three months later, he became deputy prime minister and interior minister when Lega entered into a coalition government with the populist Five Star Movement.

Since then the party has grown to become the country’s dominant political force, doubling its vote to 34.5% in May’s EU parliamentary elections to become the most popular party in the world’s eighth largest economy. The result secured Salvini’s status in the vanguard of Europe’s nationalist far-right movements.

Putin and Salvini’s mutual admiration was on public display again last week during an official visit by the Russian president to Rome, where he praised the Lega leader’s “welcoming attitude towards our country.” After a government dinner for Putin, Salvini described him as “one of those characters who will leave his mark on history.” Also among the guests was Savoini, who tweeted a video of Putin, with Salvini in the shot over his shoulder.

Salvini has been a remarkably frequent flyer to Moscow over the years. There were three trips in quick succession between October 2014 and February 2015, another in January 2017, followed by another two months later, and he has already traveled to the Russian capital twice on official trips since taking office just a year ago. On each occasion he has been accompanied by his unofficial Kremlin fixer, Savoini.

Savoini’s working relationship with Salvini spans two decades. He has been a member of the Lega party since 1991, and served as Salvini’s spokesperson. He helped organize all the Lega leader’s trips to Moscow and was central to enabling a partnership agreementbetween the Italian party and Putin’s United Russia in March 2017.

He is also the president of the Lombardy-Russia Cultural Association, which has consistently pushed pro-Kremlin propaganda since its foundation in 2014. The association’s website says its aim is to reflect Putin’s worldview based on identity, sovereignty, and tradition. Its activities have included contacts with officials and trade missions to Russia, annexed Crimea, and Donetsk, the region in eastern Ukraine under the control of Russia-backed separatists, as well as public events and lobbying to promote Kremlin-friendly policy and oppose sanctions.

Savoini’s precise status and role on official visits to Moscow remains unclear. BuzzFeed News reported in July last year that he had attended official meetings with Russian ministers and officials alongside Salvini, despite not being on the list of ministerial delegates. Savoini, who has no official government role, said he was there as a “member of the minister’s staff” and had known Salvini “since forever.”

The official reason for Salvini’s last trip to Moscow in October was to give a speech on the 17th at a conference organized by an Italian industry group. Savoini was at the event at the Lotte Hotel, where the Lega leader delivered his anti-sanctions message. Beyond this point, no official meetings appear on Salvini’s schedule, but it was that evening, according to L’Espresso, that the meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Kozak took place at Pligin’s office.

Nothing is known about Salvini’s movements the next morning, but just after noon Moscow time, he posted a photo of himself on Twitter and Instagram enjoying a beer and a hamburger at the city’s Sheremetyevo airport — the only public record of what he did that day before flying back to Italy.

The Metropol tape obtained by BuzzFeed News, however, reveals in vivid detail how one of his most trusted aides spent that morning, as Salvini was preparing to leave Moscow.

Over the course of the meeting, Savoini, the other two Italians, and the three Russians discussed in fine detail the technicalities of the deal to channel millions to Lega, from the types of fuel required and the potential ports of delivery to “commission payments,” currency, and how to keep communications secure and transactions below the radar of the authorities.

The negotiations between the two sides were largely conducted in English, with each side repeatedly reverting back to Italian or Russian to confer among themselves because not everyone at the table spoke English.

BuzzFeed News has been unable to identify the five other men. One Italian was referred to as “Luca.” He led much of the technical discussion, described himself as a lawyer, and appeared to be based in London working for an unnamed English investment bank.

The other was called “Francesco,” only spoke Italian, and was at one stage jokingly referred to as “nonno” — granddad. He appeared to be responsible for figuring out the mechanics of getting the funding to Lega via the intermediaries, as well as the potential commissions.

On the Russian side, one of the three didn’t speak English, and mostly engaged through an interpreter. One of the individuals was addressed by Savoini and the others as “Ilya.” The names “Yuri” and “Andrey” can also be heard.

The Russians were clearly answerable to more senior figures outside the room, saying several times that they would have to discuss different aspects of the arrangement with “Mr. Deputy Prime Minister,” while “Mr. Pligin,” "the comrade," and "verkhniy" — Russian for “upper,” which appears here to refer to a higher-ranking official — can also be heard.

From the recording, it is clear that this was not the first time some of the six men had come together to discuss the proposed deal. At several points they referred to previous detailed conversations and meetings, including in Rome.

There was also lighter small talk among the men, such as conversations about holidays in Sicily and Sardinia. At one point, the Italians joked about wanting to send some people to the Russian “gulags” for “mental rehabilitation.” At another there was some banter about giving up smoking, with one of the Russians complaining about the graphic health warning images on cigarette packs in Italy, and an Italian joking that men in his country always ask for the one with the warning about not getting pregnant.

“Let’s close the deal and we stop together,” the Italian said.

“Deal,” the Russian replied.

But on the substance of the plan, both the Russians and the Italians, including Savoini, appeared serious and deeply immersed in the detail.

After his opening remarks about changing Europe, Savoini handed over to what he referred to as his “technical partners.”

"Now our technique papers are already made as they are ready to be given to Mr. Deputy Prime Minister," one of the Russians replied. "But we have to discuss latest decisions maybe," he added.

Most of the ensuing discussion centered on structuring the arrangement to find the right combination of oil companies, intermediaries, port of delivery, product type, payment terms, and timescale.

The proposed transactions would be structured around four firms: Italy’s Eni and a major Russian oil company — Rosneft and Lukoil are suggested — and two intermediaries.

"We have Eni who will be on the Italian side, yes?” one of the Russians said. “We have Russian oil company on our side, and we have two companies in the middle."

An Eni spokesperson told BuzzFeed News in an email: “Eni strongly reiterates that [it] in no way took part [in] transactions aimed at financing political parties. Moreover, the described supply operation never took place.”

The men explicitly discussed how to choose a second intermediary so that the deal did not come to the attention of European authorities by tripping “know your client” procedures and anti–money laundering laws.

The Italian referred to as Luca advised that it should be “a well-known company.” When one of the Russians asked whether it was better for the company to be in Russia or Europe, he replied: “Europe, definitely.”

They also discussed using the Russian arm of the Italian bank Intesa. An advantage of this option, one of the Italians explained to the Russians, was that Lega had "a man in there called Mascetti.”

The individual can then be heard telling the other two Italians: "We need to after this meeting talk to the guy who begins with ‘Ma’ and ends with ‘etti’ so that they meet after the fundamentals are closed. Why am I interested? Because Eni already has accounts with Intesa, and they [the Russian oil companies] do too probably."

One of the board directors of Intesa Russia is named Andrea Mascetti. He is a former senior member of the Lega party.

There is no suggestion in the recording that Mascetti or anyone else at Intesa was aware of the discussions that were taking place; nor is it known whether any officer of Intesa was contacted by any of the three Italians after the meeting at the Metropol.

In response to a request for comment from Mascetti, his lawyer told BuzzFeed News in an email that he strongly denied any knowledge whatsoever of the events as described and was “totally extraneous” to these.

The technical discussions covered the best ports of delivery, with Rotterdam, Novorossiysk in the Black Sea, and the Baltic route as the options put forward, though the Russians pointed out that there was limited capacity via the Baltic.

They also discussed the type of fuel to be sold under the deal, with the Russian acting as an interpreter inviting the Italians to provide options, which included aviation fuel and diesel, in a list. “We will give [the list] to the deputy prime minister," he said.

BuzzFeed News approached oil analysts to obtain an approximate valuation for the deal using one of the fuel options discussed, ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD). Between November 1 and November 30 last year, the wholesale value of ULSD delivered into Rotterdam, for example, ranged between $693.25 to $556.25 per metric ton, based on the industry-standard Platts benchmark used by oil companies.

That means 250,000 metric tons — the proposed first shipment — of ULSD would have been worth $173 million on November 1 and $139 million on November 30, so Lega’s 4% cut that month would have been worth at least $5.5 million. Over the course of 12 months, assuming similar prices, the party stood to receive about $65 million.

At one point, the Russians discussed among themselves how they needed to wait for Pligin, the lawyer who reportedly had hosted the meeting between Salvini and the Russian deputy prime minister the previous night, to give them the go-ahead to proceed.

“We need to tell them that we are expecting Vladimir Nikolaevich’s return. We are waiting for him. Hopefully we’ll get the green light next week,” one of the Russians told his colleague who was interpreting into English.

“We are waiting for Mr. Pligin to return when to discuss,” the interpreter then told the Italians.

The Italian lawyer said he had checked whether Pligin could fly to Italy and he believed it would be OK as he was “not on red alert in Interpol,” despite the fact that the Russian was named on an EU sanctions list.

One of the Russian men can then be heard saying — in Russian — that he had talked to Pligin and he didn't want to go to Italy. "We have to explain that to our Italian colleagues," one of the others said, but the information was not passed on.

The Russians were keen to generate extra “commission” payments for themselves, raising the possibility of future contracts beyond the one-year political arrangement.

Reiterating that the motivation for this deal was purely political, the Italian lawyer said only the 4% discount was required to fund the election campaign — so the Russians could take anything above that. "I would say they have made their plans on 4% net. So if you now say it’s 10% discount, I would say 6% is yours,” he said.

The Italians were far more concerned throughout the discussion with making sure the money was flowing to Lega in time for May’s elections. The man referred to as Francesco said to his Italian colleagues at one point: “I want to say how important it is to us to do this by December even if it is then delayed two, three months. June, July — we don’t care."

That message was underlined repeatedly in English to the Russians by the Italian lawyer. “If we are very quick — but we need to be very, very quick — then I think [the] first delivery might be in November," he said.

"I agree with you because we have to act very quickly," a Russian responded.

The Italian lawyer later reassured Savoini that the Russians had got the message. “Everything is OK. I told and Andrey agreed quickness is of utmost importance.”

But there was still concern that the first shipment could be delayed into late January. “If we are quick — now maybe first delivery in November. If we are not quick then — maybe it’s December. And then December, we know in Italy it’s Christmas and everybody is very lazy.”

Savoini replied: “In Russia too. In Russia, Christmas in January. Holiday Italian then Russian, we have one month of holidays — 15 December, 15 January, Italy and Russia together is holidays.”

He also voiced concern about not being able to do the deal in US dollars because of Russian currency restrictions, but was told by the Russians: “We can work in any currency.” It would only be a problem if the deal were between two Russian companies, they said, prompting the Italian lawyer to say that the deal could be done in euros and converted into dollars anyway.

Savoini seemed unconvinced, suggesting a smaller initial shipment if that was less risky, and repeating his concerns about dollar transactions.

“He is saying to put some attention on the financial transaction not to incur any problems," the Italian lawyer told the Russians. “Can I say yes, we will work on it?" the lawyer asked.

The Russian responded: “If we make it in one bank, for example Intesa, it will not be a problem.”

In another exchange, Savoini returned to the reason for the deal: the nationalist political project. “We are changing really the situation in Europe,” he said. “And it’s impossible to stop. The history is marching, so it’s impossible. It’s really a new deal, a new situation, a new future for us. We are in the center of this process.

“But we have a lot of enemies. We are in a dangerous situation because our government is attacked from Brussels, from the globalist men — not Trump but the establishment of Obama is very, very strong and inside in Italy too. We are in dangerous [territory]. It is not so simple, but we want to fight because we are in truth.”

As the meeting drew to a close, both sides appeared to be optimistic about closing the deal. “Concerning the future contract, I think we have all the information,” one of the Russian men said in English. “I understand the urgency,” he added.

A few minutes later, the Italian lawyer listed all the follow-up items as he noted them down and promised to share a screenshot with the Russians.

“OK, gentlemen, I think it’s going in the right direction,” he said.

“And it’s my luck to make them act quickly and immediately,” his Russian counterpart replied.

“You will,” said the Italian.

By the time the bill arrived, the six men were in a buoyant mood. They can be heard joking over who should pay for the coffees. “This is not Rome,” one of the Russians said.

Savoini’s response was telling. Turning to one of his favorite slogans — based on a 16th-century doctrine that held the Russian Empire to be the successor to ancient Rome and Constantinople as the ultimate center of true Christianity — he replied: “Moscow is the third Rome.”

 

[Smash!]

[mention]fraurosena[/mention] what the freaking hell. I suspected something like this going on but to read it in print is... Scary. So I have several questions: when will the European press pick this up? And when will a global movement be formed to fight those fucking plans of Russia who wants to increase their influence all over the world? And lastly why the hell don't take our governments in Europe this more serious? This is one hell of a treat, I would go as far as call this an asymmetrical war, and no one is going to something about this. Fighting Russia should be top priority. I really fear Trump was only the beginning of this.

 

[fraurosena]

45 minutes ago, Smash! said:

[mention]fraurosena[/mention] what the freaking hell. I suspected something like this going on but to read it in print is... Scary. So I have several questions: when will the European press pick this up? And when will a global movement be formed to fight those fucking plans of Russia who wants to increase their influence all over the world? And lastly why the hell don't take our governments in Europe this more serious? This is one hell of a treat, I would go as far as call this an asymmetrical war, and no one is going to something about this. Fighting Russia should be top priority. I really fear Trump was only the beginning of this.

 

To answer your questions:

1. The European press has picked it up, but it hasn't gotten much traction. At least not in my country.

2. I have no idea if there is a global movement that is fighting against Russia. If there is, and they are smart, we won't find out either. Let them work secretly behind the scenes and thwart these Russian attempts at ruling the world.

3. I can't say that the European governments are taking this seriously, or not. They aren't vocal about it, that's for sure. To be honest, I don't know that they should be. I know that the Dutch are very active (and at times successful) at hacking the Russians and beating them at their own game, but again, they are not too vocal about it. With reason. Because if we know about it, then so do the Russians...

I'm not sure about your assessment that Trump was the beginning. Putin and his oligarchs have been laying the foundations for this global power grab for decades. The annexation of the Crimea and the fracas in Ukraine was one of the first symptoms that became universally visible. But the flyovers of Russian fighter jets over European territory has been ongoing for years. And remember when Russia threatened to cut off the gas lines to Europe? And what about the horrific downing of MH-17? That happened in 2014.

All of these things pre-dated Trump and the Russian takeover of the GOP. No, Russia has been playing this game for a long, long time. They are now visibly reaping some of the rewards.

Edit:

Well, it seems that some people have been paying attention after all.

 

[Howl]

On 5/22/2019 at 8:23 AM, GreyhoundFan said:

"Why was Franklin Graham schmoozing with a sanctioned Russian official this month?"

The short answer is, Graham hanging out and schmoozing with Russians normalizes Trump's situation with Russia in the minds of fundamentalists.

Putin hates LBTQ people as much as fundies do, so he has to be good, right?

 

[Smash!]

16 hours ago, fraurosena said:

1. The European press has picked it up, but it hasn't gotten much traction. At least not in my country.

I haven't seen much in the German press as well. But to be honest, I don't spend as much time with the European press than with the US-newspapers.

16 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Let them work secretly behind the scenes and thwart these Russian attempts at ruling the world.

I haven't thought about that. But still, in almost every European country the right wing populists are gaining influence. That sometimes leads me to doubt if the efforts of our countries to fight Russia are successful.

16 hours ago, fraurosena said:

'm not sure about your assessment that Trump was the beginning. Putin and his oligarchs have been laying the foundations for this global power grab for decades. The annexation of the Crimea and the fracas in Ukraine was one of the first symptoms that became universally visible. But the flyovers of Russian fighter jets over European territory has been ongoing for years. And remember when Russia threatened to cut off the gas lines to Europe? And what about the horrific downing of MH-17? That happened in 2014.

I remember the MH-17 too well unfortunately. It was not long after MH-370 disappeared from the radars. It's true, it's been going on for years. What I meant was is Putin pursuing a bigger plan? He has Trump in his pocket, the EU shows signs of falling apart and the right wing leaders love him. I'm wondering what comes next.

[Howl]

Jon Huntsman, US ambassador to Russia, is resigning, effective October. 

Hear lots of good things about Huntsman in the past, but don't know much about him. He was Obama's ambassador to China. 

He'll likely run for Utah governor when he returns, a position he has held in the past. 

 

[AmazonGrace]

Putin acting weird. 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Michael Flynn deserves up to six months in prison, U.S. Justice Department says in reversal for former Trump national security adviser"

Spoiler

Federal prosecutors Tuesday recommended that former national security adviser Michael Flynn serve up to six months in prison, reversing their earlier recommendation of probation because of his drawn-out attacks against the FBI and Justice Department.

The dramatic revocation of the Justice Department’s request for leniency came weeks after Flynn’s sentencing judge Dec. 16 categorically rejected Flynn’s claims of prosecutorial misconduct and that he had been duped into pleading guilty to lying to FBI agents about his Russian contacts after the 2016 U.S. election.

“It is within the government’s sole discretion to determine whether the defendant has ‘substantially assisted’ the government,” prosecutor Brandon Van Grack wrote in a 33-page court filing. “In light of the complete record, including actions subsequent to December 18, 2018, that negate the benefits of much of the defendant’s earlier cooperation, the government no longer deems the defendant’s assistance ‘substantial.’ ”

Flynn faces sentencing Jan. 28 before U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in Washington. Flynn defense attorney Sidney Powell is scheduled to file his sentencing request Jan. 22.

The government motion marked the latest twist in the legal saga of the former Army lieutenant general and adviser to President Trump, whose rocky path after his candidate won the White House included serving the shortest tenure of a national security adviser on record — just 24 days. He then became a key witness in a probe into the administration, before breaking with the prosecutors who had credited him for helping them.

Flynn’s actions punctuated the beginning and end of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III‘s probe of Russian election interference, and his latest change of heart came after the investigation formally closed in March. Some Trump allies at that time pushed the president to pardon figures in the probe, particularly for Flynn. A potential prison term could renew such calls.

Flynn, 61, pleaded guilty Dec. 1, 2017, to lying about his communications with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the presidential transition, becoming the highest-ranking Trump official charged and one of the first to cooperate with Mueller’s office.

Flynn faces up to a five-year prison term under the charge, which included his misrepresentation of work advancing the interests of the Turkish government. However, ahead of Flynn’s initially scheduled sentencing in December 2018, prosecutors said he deserved probation for his “substantial assistance” in several ongoing but undisclosed investigations, as well as his disclosure of “firsthand information about the content and context of interactions between the transition team and Russian government officials.”

In a November 2018 filing with specifics redacted, Mueller wrote that Flynn’s guilty plea “likely affected the decisions of related firsthand witnesses to be forthcoming . . . and cooperate,” and some individuals gave additional details “about key events after his cooperation became public.”

And the special counsel noted that Flynn’s “early cooperation was particularly valuable because he was one of the few people with long-term and firsthand insight regarding events and issues under investigation” by Mueller’s office.

Flynn’s plea revealed that he was in touch with senior Trump transition officials before and after his communications with Kislyak. The pre-inauguration communications involved efforts to blunt Obama administration policy decisions on sanctions on Russia and a United Nations resolution on Israel.

Flynn told prosecutors that a “very senior member of the Presidential Transition Team” — Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, according to people familiar with the matter — directed him to contact officials from foreign governments, including Russia, about the U.N. resolution on Israel.

At the time of Flynn’s plea, prosecutors said they probably would seek a prison sentence between zero and six months. But based on his ongoing cooperation, they recommended a term on the low end of that range, “including a sentence that does not impose a term of incarceration.”

Prosecutors singled out Flynn’s “exemplary” public service, including 33 years in the military and combat service, as a mitigating circumstance.

“The defendant’s record of military and public service distinguish him from every other person who has been charged as part [of] the [Mueller] investigation,” prosecutors wrote in 2018. “However, senior government leaders should be held to the highest standards.”

Flynn’s attorneys joined that recommendation.

But at last year’s Dec. 18, 2018, sentencing hearing, Sullivan lambasted Flynn’s attorneys for also suggesting prosecutors overreached and for appearing to play down his offenses. Under questioning by the judge, Flynn repeated under oath that he admitted he was guilty as Sullivan recited at length his misstatements to Vice President Pence, senior White House aides, federal investigators and the news media before and after Trump’s January 2017 inauguration about the nature of his foreign contacts

“Arguably, you sold your country out,” Sullivan told Flynn, warning he might impose prison time. Flynn’s lawyers agreed to postpone the proceeding so that he could continue to show his good-faith cooperation.

In a string of related developments this year, Flynn switched defense lawyers, and his new team asked Sullivan to find prosecutors in contempt, alleging that Flynn had been entrapped into pleading guilty, that he was actually innocent and that prosecutors had wrongfully withheld evidence helpful to his defense.

Over the same period, Flynn broke with prosecutors over assisting them in the Alexandria federal trial of a former business partner in July. Flynn was set to be the star witness against his former business partner Bijan Rafiekian, only to tell prosecutors on the eve of trial that he had not intentionally lied about his firm’s work in Turkey.

A jury convicted Rafiekian of illegal lobbying without Flynn’s testimony, but a judge threw out those convictions in part because he found the evidence of a conspiracy between the two men “insufficient.”

U.S. prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia have received permission to appeal that conviction to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, writing in a motion Tuesday, “This case is significant, in both volume and importance.”

Separately in Flynn’s case, prosecutors cited the events as reasons for reassessing his cooperation at sentencing, which Sullivan scheduled after summarily rejecting the defendant’s 11th-hour allegations.

In Tuesday’s filing, prosecutors in withdrawing their request for leniency highlighted Flynn’s hindering of Rafiekian’s prosecution, the only cooperation they had initially deemed “substantial.”

“Given the serious nature of the defendant’s offense, his apparent failure to accept responsibility, his failure to complete his cooperation in — and his affirmative efforts to undermine — the prosecution of Bijan Rafiekian, and the need to promote respect for the law and adequately deter such criminal conduct, the government recommends that the court sentence the defendant within the applicable Guidelines range of 0 to 6 months of incarceration,” Van Grack wrote.

Prosecutors said Flynn participated in 19 interviews with federal prosecutors and turned over documents and communications, but the substance of his cooperation was initially hidden from view.

Most — but not all — has come out in Mueller’s final report, subsequent trials or public records released in lawsuits news organizations.

Among other things, Flynn told Mueller that Trump and his campaign repeatedly sought to reach out to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks and obtain Hillary Clinton’s private emails, which the government has alleged were hacked by Russia, with Flynn offering to use his “intelligence sources” and contacting multiple people in an attempt to get them.

Flynn also informed the government of “multiple instances” in which he or his attorneys received communications from White House or congressional sources that could have affected his decision to cooperate or cooperate fully, including messages from Trump to “stay strong” and that “the president still cared for him.”

Prosecutors disclosed that it was Flynn himself who told prosecutors of a sensitive voice-mail message that one of Trump’s attorneys left for Flynn’s lawyer, seeking to suss out if he was about to cooperate — and if so, to do so while protecting the president. A transcript of the message was quoted in Mueller’ report and released in full as part of Flynn’s proceedings.

If “there’s information that implicates the President, then we’ve got a national security issue,” says the Trump attorney, whom sources have identified as John Dowd, according to the transcript. “So you know, . . . we need some kind of heads up,” he added. “Um, just for the sake of protecting all our interests if we can, without you having to give up any . . . confidential information . . . remember what we’ve always said about the President and his feelings toward Flynn and, that still remains.”

Flynn resigned from his top White House post in February 2017, after the White House said he misled Pence and other administration officials about his contacts with Kislyak.

Flynn was succeeded by H.R. McMaster, an Army lieutenant general at the time of his hiring by Trump. McMaster was forced out in March 2018 after sparring with conservatives and disagreeing with Trump on key foreign policy strategies including Russia, Iran and North Korea.

Trump’s third national security adviser, John Bolton, was also ousted in September. This week Bolton expressed willingness to testify in a Senate impeachment trial of Trump over the president’s alleged attempt to pressure Ukraine to investigate political rival former vice president Joe Biden, while withholding nearly $400 million in military aid.

 

[fraurosena]

3 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"Michael Flynn deserves up to six months in prison, U.S. Justice Department says in reversal for former Trump national security adviser"

  Reveal hidden contents

Federal prosecutors Tuesday recommended that former national security adviser Michael Flynn serve up to six months in prison, reversing their earlier recommendation of probation because of his drawn-out attacks against the FBI and Justice Department.

The dramatic revocation of the Justice Department’s request for leniency came weeks after Flynn’s sentencing judge Dec. 16 categorically rejected Flynn’s claims of prosecutorial misconduct and that he had been duped into pleading guilty to lying to FBI agents about his Russian contacts after the 2016 U.S. election.

“It is within the government’s sole discretion to determine whether the defendant has ‘substantially assisted’ the government,” prosecutor Brandon Van Grack wrote in a 33-page court filing. “In light of the complete record, including actions subsequent to December 18, 2018, that negate the benefits of much of the defendant’s earlier cooperation, the government no longer deems the defendant’s assistance ‘substantial.’ ”

Flynn faces sentencing Jan. 28 before U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in Washington. Flynn defense attorney Sidney Powell is scheduled to file his sentencing request Jan. 22.

The government motion marked the latest twist in the legal saga of the former Army lieutenant general and adviser to President Trump, whose rocky path after his candidate won the White House included serving the shortest tenure of a national security adviser on record — just 24 days. He then became a key witness in a probe into the administration, before breaking with the prosecutors who had credited him for helping them.

Flynn’s actions punctuated the beginning and end of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III‘s probe of Russian election interference, and his latest change of heart came after the investigation formally closed in March. Some Trump allies at that time pushed the president to pardon figures in the probe, particularly for Flynn. A potential prison term could renew such calls.

Flynn, 61, pleaded guilty Dec. 1, 2017, to lying about his communications with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the presidential transition, becoming the highest-ranking Trump official charged and one of the first to cooperate with Mueller’s office.

Flynn faces up to a five-year prison term under the charge, which included his misrepresentation of work advancing the interests of the Turkish government. However, ahead of Flynn’s initially scheduled sentencing in December 2018, prosecutors said he deserved probation for his “substantial assistance” in several ongoing but undisclosed investigations, as well as his disclosure of “firsthand information about the content and context of interactions between the transition team and Russian government officials.”

In a November 2018 filing with specifics redacted, Mueller wrote that Flynn’s guilty plea “likely affected the decisions of related firsthand witnesses to be forthcoming . . . and cooperate,” and some individuals gave additional details “about key events after his cooperation became public.”

And the special counsel noted that Flynn’s “early cooperation was particularly valuable because he was one of the few people with long-term and firsthand insight regarding events and issues under investigation” by Mueller’s office.

Flynn’s plea revealed that he was in touch with senior Trump transition officials before and after his communications with Kislyak. The pre-inauguration communications involved efforts to blunt Obama administration policy decisions on sanctions on Russia and a United Nations resolution on Israel.

Flynn told prosecutors that a “very senior member of the Presidential Transition Team” — Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, according to people familiar with the matter — directed him to contact officials from foreign governments, including Russia, about the U.N. resolution on Israel.

At the time of Flynn’s plea, prosecutors said they probably would seek a prison sentence between zero and six months. But based on his ongoing cooperation, they recommended a term on the low end of that range, “including a sentence that does not impose a term of incarceration.”

Prosecutors singled out Flynn’s “exemplary” public service, including 33 years in the military and combat service, as a mitigating circumstance.

“The defendant’s record of military and public service distinguish him from every other person who has been charged as part [of] the [Mueller] investigation,” prosecutors wrote in 2018. “However, senior government leaders should be held to the highest standards.”

Flynn’s attorneys joined that recommendation.

But at last year’s Dec. 18, 2018, sentencing hearing, Sullivan lambasted Flynn’s attorneys for also suggesting prosecutors overreached and for appearing to play down his offenses. Under questioning by the judge, Flynn repeated under oath that he admitted he was guilty as Sullivan recited at length his misstatements to Vice President Pence, senior White House aides, federal investigators and the news media before and after Trump’s January 2017 inauguration about the nature of his foreign contacts

“Arguably, you sold your country out,” Sullivan told Flynn, warning he might impose prison time. Flynn’s lawyers agreed to postpone the proceeding so that he could continue to show his good-faith cooperation.

In a string of related developments this year, Flynn switched defense lawyers, and his new team asked Sullivan to find prosecutors in contempt, alleging that Flynn had been entrapped into pleading guilty, that he was actually innocent and that prosecutors had wrongfully withheld evidence helpful to his defense.

Over the same period, Flynn broke with prosecutors over assisting them in the Alexandria federal trial of a former business partner in July. Flynn was set to be the star witness against his former business partner Bijan Rafiekian, only to tell prosecutors on the eve of trial that he had not intentionally lied about his firm’s work in Turkey.

A jury convicted Rafiekian of illegal lobbying without Flynn’s testimony, but a judge threw out those convictions in part because he found the evidence of a conspiracy between the two men “insufficient.”

U.S. prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia have received permission to appeal that conviction to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, writing in a motion Tuesday, “This case is significant, in both volume and importance.”

Separately in Flynn’s case, prosecutors cited the events as reasons for reassessing his cooperation at sentencing, which Sullivan scheduled after summarily rejecting the defendant’s 11th-hour allegations.

In Tuesday’s filing, prosecutors in withdrawing their request for leniency highlighted Flynn’s hindering of Rafiekian’s prosecution, the only cooperation they had initially deemed “substantial.”

“Given the serious nature of the defendant’s offense, his apparent failure to accept responsibility, his failure to complete his cooperation in — and his affirmative efforts to undermine — the prosecution of Bijan Rafiekian, and the need to promote respect for the law and adequately deter such criminal conduct, the government recommends that the court sentence the defendant within the applicable Guidelines range of 0 to 6 months of incarceration,” Van Grack wrote.

Prosecutors said Flynn participated in 19 interviews with federal prosecutors and turned over documents and communications, but the substance of his cooperation was initially hidden from view.

Most — but not all — has come out in Mueller’s final report, subsequent trials or public records released in lawsuits news organizations.

Among other things, Flynn told Mueller that Trump and his campaign repeatedly sought to reach out to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks and obtain Hillary Clinton’s private emails, which the government has alleged were hacked by Russia, with Flynn offering to use his “intelligence sources” and contacting multiple people in an attempt to get them.

Flynn also informed the government of “multiple instances” in which he or his attorneys received communications from White House or congressional sources that could have affected his decision to cooperate or cooperate fully, including messages from Trump to “stay strong” and that “the president still cared for him.”

Prosecutors disclosed that it was Flynn himself who told prosecutors of a sensitive voice-mail message that one of Trump’s attorneys left for Flynn’s lawyer, seeking to suss out if he was about to cooperate — and if so, to do so while protecting the president. A transcript of the message was quoted in Mueller’ report and released in full as part of Flynn’s proceedings.

If “there’s information that implicates the President, then we’ve got a national security issue,” says the Trump attorney, whom sources have identified as John Dowd, according to the transcript. “So you know, . . . we need some kind of heads up,” he added. “Um, just for the sake of protecting all our interests if we can, without you having to give up any . . . confidential information . . . remember what we’ve always said about the President and his feelings toward Flynn and, that still remains.”

Flynn resigned from his top White House post in February 2017, after the White House said he misled Pence and other administration officials about his contacts with Kislyak.

Flynn was succeeded by H.R. McMaster, an Army lieutenant general at the time of his hiring by Trump. McMaster was forced out in March 2018 after sparring with conservatives and disagreeing with Trump on key foreign policy strategies including Russia, Iran and North Korea.

Trump’s third national security adviser, John Bolton, was also ousted in September. This week Bolton expressed willingness to testify in a Senate impeachment trial of Trump over the president’s alleged attempt to pressure Ukraine to investigate political rival former vice president Joe Biden, while withholding nearly $400 million in military aid.

 

Good grief. Six months? It really does pay off to be a foreign asset...

[fraurosena]

Huh. What kind of play is this? ?

By pleading not guilty, does he think a pardon will exonerate him? That’s flawed thinking though. If he’s convicted, then he is guilty in the eyes of the law, no matter how much he protests his innocence. And if he then should accept a pardon, he’ll be admitting guilt— you can’t be pardoned (i.e. forgiven)for something you didn’t do.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Michael Flynn asks for probation, not prison, if he is not allowed to withdraw guilty plea in Mueller probe"

Spoiler

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn asked Wednesday to be sentenced to probation, not prison, if he is not allowed to withdraw his guilty plea of lying to the FBI in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe of Russian election interference.

The request marks a fallback position for the former three-star Army general, who last week asked a federal judge to toss out his earlier plea agreement, claiming that prosecutors breached the deal. Flynn accused prosecutors of demanding he falsely admit to lying to the Justice Department about his lobbying firm’s work for the government of Turkey.

Two weeks ago, U.S. prosecutors recommended that Flynn serve up to six months in prison, reversing their earlier recommendation of probation after Flynn stepped up his attacks against the FBI and the Justice Department.

Flynn 61, pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying about his communications with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the presidential transition, becoming the highest-ranking Trump official charged and one of the first to cooperate with Mueller’s office.

Flynn faces up to a five-year prison term under the charge, which includes his misrepresentation of work advancing the interests of the Turkish government.

Before his initially scheduled sentencing in December 2018, Flynn and federal prosecutors had agreed he deserved probation in return for his “substantial assistance” in several investigations.

But Flynn moved to postpone sentencing after U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of Washington, D.C., warned he might impose prison time and lambasted Flynn’s defense team at the time for appearing to play down his offenses.

The idea behind a delay was for Flynn to continue to show his good-faith cooperation. Since then, however, the case has become entangled in mutual recriminations.

Flynn unsuccessfully raised claims last fall that he had been duped into pleading guilty to lying to FBI agents about his Russian contacts after the 2016 U.S. election. The government then revoked its request for leniency.

Prosecutors cited his “apparent failure to accept responsibility” and alleged he sought to undermine the prosecution of his former lobbying firm business partner, Bijan Rafiekian, over their work involving Turkey — the matter that Flynn’s defense attorney Sidney Powell now disputes.

Last week, in asking to withdraw Flynn’s plea, Powell accused the government of “vindictiveness,” alleging the former general was being punished for telling the truth and asserting he was innocent overall.

“There should be no sentencing,” Powell repeated in Wednesday’s 22-page filing. But if it goes forward, Powell said the government should be punished for allegedly coercing false testimony from Flynn.

If the government’s request for prison time is granted, “it will send a dangerous message to cooperators — give testimony consistent with the government’s theory of the case, regardless of veracity, or pay the price with your freedom,” Powell said.

She added that Flynn dedicated his life to serving his country.

“While the defendants in other cases cited by the government were working to benefit themselves, Mr. Flynn wrote a blank check on his life and put himself in harm’s way for more than five years in foreign deployments and thirty-three years of service to protect all Americans,” Powell wrote.

Flynn is scheduled for sentencing Feb. 27, but there are deadlines before then to litigate his request to revoke his guilty plea. A judge must accept any change in plea.

Flynn has previously admitted under oath that he made misstatements to Vice President Pence, senior White House aides, federal investigators and the news media before and after Trump’s January 2017 inauguration about the nature of his foreign contacts.

Flynn resigned that February after serving 24 days as national security adviser.

To paraphrase Flynn at the RNC convention in 2016: "lock HIM up"

[GreyhoundFan]

[GreyhoundFan]

This is maddening:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I guess it was time for Twitler's performance review. I shudder to think of what "things " will happen in the next few weeks.

 

[GreyhoundFan]