The New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow talks to an anonymous whistle blower who suspects the Treasury Department is spiking financial documents that are harmful to Trump lawyer Michael Cohen:
“I have never seen something pulled off the system,” the official said. “That system is a safeguard. … It’s a stockpile of information. When something’s not there that should be, I immediately became concerned. That’s why I came forward.”
speaking of money mysteries, this from
rolling stone:
Donald Trump and the Case of the $107,000,000
No one seems to know how Team Trump managed to spend $107 million in donations for his inauguration
Donald Trump spent far less on his presidential campaign than Hillary Clinton did, but the eye-popping money surrounding his inauguration weekend raises a few questions. The president’s inaugural committee, which is supposed to be a nonprofit organization, brought in $107 million in donations and used nearly all of it, far exceeding the money spent by Barack Obama in 2009 ($55 million) and in 2013 ($43 million). As has been revealed across several reports stemming from the release of the Trump Inaugural Committee’s tax return, the excess of funds may have been used for more than just trying and failing to convince Paul Anka to perform “My Way” at the Inaugural Ball.
Interest in the inauguration money was reinvigorated last Friday, when ABC News revealed that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating foreign donations to Trump’s inaugural fund, particularly those coming from individuals with ties to Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Those questioned by investigators – including billionaire Thomas Barrack, who chaired the inaugural committee – were reportedly asked about specific donors, including Andrew Intrater, the CEO of Columbus Nova, one of the companies that paid Michael Cohen’s LLC for “consulting” advice in 2017. Columbus Nova is an affiliate of a larger company owned by Intrater’s cousin, Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian oligarch with close ties to Vladimir Putin. Intrater donated $250,000 to Trump’s inauguration, and both he and Vekselberg were in attendance, as were several other figures with close ties to Russia.On Monday, MSNBC’s Ari Melber discussed the news with Steve Kerrigan, the president and CEO of Obama’s 2013 inaugural committee. Kerrigan explained that because, unlike with campaign finances, there is very little oversight of inaugural funds, the committee could have been used to funnel money. “They either totally mismanaged the $107 million they raised, or they treated it as it can be treated because of the loose transparency requirements around it: as an opportunity to have a slush fund,” Kerrigan explained.
Greg Jenkins, who oversaw George W. Bush’s 2005 inaugural committee, was similarly perplexed about how Trump’s committee could have spent $107 million on inaugural events. “It’s inexplicable to me,” he told ProPublica. “I literally don’t know. They had a third of the staff and a quarter of the events and they raise at least twice as much as we did. So there’s the obvious question: Where did it go? I don’t know.”[….continues….]
craig, a phrase from the article you linked about an “official, worried that the information was being withheld from law enforcement,” makes me wonder if the twit’s income tax records are also being kept from Mueller’s perusal.
Former FBI guy sez it could be Mueller who has pulled those documents to keep them from being disclosed outside his investigation. Regardless, the disappearance of a document doesn’t make the underlying information disappear.
Pogo, good point.
Or …. alternative facts? ?
Patd,
Gotta give Thomas Barrack credit for the fundraising. Those 600,000 attendees ( or was it 6,000,000 -? ) must have been treated like valuable guests, with gold plated porta-potties.
All that Arabian oil money donated to a guy who promises a future based on coal. Quite the sales job. Bravo!
I don’t get the “Mueller did it” scenario, Pogo. Next, FOXies will put him on the grassy knoll.
How does one submit a post? I get lost in the weeds sometimes.
Craig… I heard what Pogo heard on O’Donnell’s show last night. The agent didn’t say Mueller took the documents… he said it was “possible” that he took them.
And bravo for Ronan Farrow. When he first surfaced at MSNBC, I took him for a lightweight. Glad to know he’s proven me wrong and is a serious journalist.
Flatus… my comment that you are a gentleman stands. My personal experience with VN vets and drugs is vastly different from yours. My best high school friend used to babysit on Fort Devens in Central Massachusetts back when we were 17-18 yrs old in ’72 and ’73. I would frequently accompany her. Those vets used to leave all kinds of drugs for us with instructions not to take them while we were watching their kids. The pot was fantastic. The harder stuff we flushed down the toilet. You could get anything very easily on that base.
How much money is now in the Caymans
The Trump people know but won’t tell
A long held tradition of monetary fiction
With truth & transparency withheld.
When Donald Trump leaves
Americans won’t grieve
For the man, but will for the nation.
A camera obscura
Magnifying a formula
Of hate & polarization.
How will we explain
This Era of the Insane
To future Americans is a puzzlement.
Beware your vote
Overcome silly pettiness
Or you too may have a Trump government.
Mr Crawford,
May I add Ted Cruz’ Dad was standing next to Robert Mueller on the grassy knoll. They took turns opening/closing umbrellas as signals to the assassins while wearing stylish polka dot dresses.
Alternative facts are handy. We should devote a day to this. Have fun, destroying truth, justice, the American way …
Sturg, you can just email your post to me if you like, and I’ll get it done no prob. Leaving now with Dad for a day of VA appts, no time to hunt for the instructions.
sjwny, bravo! well put poem
pogo & craig & sjwny, perhaps if muller has sequestered the original documents it’s to insure they are not tampered with — IOW altered to morph to as kellyanne would assure us an alternate reality
Roger dat
Dealy Plaza, March 1964
i think I see something.
ronan and rachel last night on topic
renee, like you I initially underestimated him. not the proverbial hollywood brat type. so far his work looks solid.
here’s more info from wiki than you may want to know about ronan:
Farrow attended Bard College at Simon’s Rock, later transferring to Bard College for a B.A. in philosophy and becoming the youngest graduate of that institution at age 15. In 2009, he received a J.D. from Yale Law School, and was later admitted to the New York Bar.
[….]
From 2001 to 2009, he was a UNICEF Spokesperson for Youth, acting as an “advocate” for children and women caught up in the ongoing crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region and assisting in fundraising and addressing United Nations affiliated groups in the United States…..
In 2009, Farrow joined the Obama administration as Special Adviser for Humanitarian and NGO Affairs in the Office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. He was part of a team of officials recruited by the diplomat Richard Holbrooke, for whom Farrow had previously worked as a speechwriter. For the next two years, Farrow was responsible for “overseeing the U.S. Government’s relationships with civil society and nongovernmental actors” in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In 2011, Farrow was appointed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as her Special Adviser for Global Youth Issues and Director of the State Department’s Office of Global Youth Issues. The office’s creation was the outcome of a multi-year task-force appointed by Clinton to review the United States’ economic and social policies on youth, for which Farrow co-chaired the working group with senior United States Agency for International Development staff member David Barth beginning in 2010……
[….]
After leaving government, Farrow began a Rhodes Scholarship at Magdalen College, Oxford. He studied toward a Doctor of Philosophy, researching the exploitation of the poor in developing countries, but did not complete his degree.
[…continues on about journalism efforts….]
nytimes:
Mueller Won’t Indict Trump if He Finds Wrongdoing, Giuliani Says
WASHINGTON — The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, will not indict President Trump if he finds wrongdoing in his investigation of Trump campaign links to Russia, according to the president’s lawyers. They said Wednesday that Mr. Mueller’s investigators told them that he would adhere to the Justice Department’s view that the Constitution bars prosecuting sitting presidents.
The disclosure provides the greatest clarity to date about how Mr. Mueller, who is also investigating whether Mr. Trump tried to obstruct the inquiry itself, may proceed. If he concludes that he has evidence that the president broke the law, experts say, he now has only two main options while Mr. Trump remains in office: He could write a report about the president’s conduct that Congress might use as part of any impeachment proceedings, or he could deem the president as an unindicted co-conspirator in court documents.
Mr. Mueller’s stance could serve as political relief for Mr. Trump, whose presidency has been under the cloud of the investigation. Mr. Trump has repeatedly called it a “witch hunt.” A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to a question about how the president reacted to Mr. Mueller’s viewpoint on indictment.
[…]
But the question of whether the president can be indicted is unsettled. Many legal experts and current and former Justice Department officials believed that Mr. Mueller would follow the conclusions of Justice Department lawyers, who argued during both the Nixon and Clinton administrations that an indictment would interfere with the president’s constitutional responsibilities and powers to run the executive branch.
Mr. Trump’s lead lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, said the special counsel’s office displayed uncertainty about whether Mr. Trump could be indicted. “When I met with Mueller’s team, they seemed to be in a little bit of confusion about whether they could indict,” Mr. Giuliani said. “We said, ‘It’s pretty clear that you have to follow D.O.J. policy.’”
Mr. Giuliani said that one member of Mr. Mueller’s office acknowledged that the president could not be indicted. Two or three days later, Mr. Giuliani said, Mr. Mueller’s office called another of the president’s lawyers, Jay Sekulow, to say that prosecutors would adhere to the Justice Department view.
“They can’t indict,” Mr. Giuliani said. “They can’t indict. Because if they did, it would be dismissed quickly. There’s no precedent for a president being indicted.”
It is not clear why Mr. Mueller has decided that he will not seek Mr. Trump’s indictment. A spokesman for the special counsel declined to offer clarity about the assertions of Mr. Giuliani, who since being hired last month by Mr. Trump has repeatedly made statements that were later clarified….
[….]
Mr. Mueller’s apparent willingness to follow the department’s view that sitting presidents may not be indicted may have a direct effect on the most pressing decision facing Mr. Trump about the investigation: whether to sit for an interview with investigators. For months, Mr. Trump’s lawyers and Mr. Mueller have been negotiating the terms of an interview.
[…lengthy discussion continues….]
Renee, I’m saddened to hear personal recollections such as yours. It sounds to me like a dreadful lack of leadership in those soldiers’ unit and at the installation level. Surely drug problems were spreading into the wider community, where was their involvement? I was trying to think if I spent a night there during that time-frame–no, wasn’t Devins but Westover.
It’s always the cover up.
I wonder if Jared & Ivanker used any of that money for their art collection?
When this is over & Trumpsky is out & democracy is safe, someone should create a board game out of this nightmare the use as a teaching tool.
Maybe the assurance to Judy that Trumpsky is (probably) safe from indictment gives cover to Bobby III.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office notified a federal court in Virginia on Thursday it had filed under seal an unredacted memorandum that is expected to shed light on the scope of his wide-ranging probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The filing, made as part of Mueller’s criminal case against President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was requested by the judge, who told prosecutors earlier this month he wanted to see an unredacted copy of an August 2017 memo written by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein which fleshed out Mueller’s investigative mandate.
In a court hearing two weeks ago in the Eastern District of Virginia, Judge T.S. Ellis told Mueller’s office to turn over a copy of the memo under seal to him by this Friday so he could review it before deciding whether or not to dismiss the charges against Manafort.
[…..continues…]
also Bloomberg on above filing had this to say:
Special Counsel Robert Mueller gave a judge the complete three-page memo that the prosecutor overseeing the Russia investigation wrote to justify the probe of Paul Manafort, chairman of the Donald Trump presidential campaign.
[…]
Prosecutors filed the full memo under seal and directly to the judge through the classified security officer. Such a designation suggests it involves national security information.
Flatus… my girlfriend and I used to drive to the next town over, Harvard, and sit on the top of a hill overlooking the Fruitlands Museum… the view was spectacular. We’d watch the sunset there while sharing a joint. The cops would occasionally stop and ask “how are you ladies doing tonight?” We always said “fine and how are you?” Just pleasantries exchanged and then they’d leave us alone… they knew what we were doing. But remember… those were the days when they didn’t arrest people for drunk driving… they just made sure the town drunk got home safely.
U.S. Senate confirms Haspel to be first woman CIA director
patd… the only thing I knew about Ronan was that he was Mia Farrow’s kid and looks just like her. That is some impressive bio… thanks for posting that.
Trump fails to halt ‘Apprentice’ contestant’s defamation lawsuit
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A New York state appeals court on Thursday denied U.S. President Donald Trump’s bid to halt a defamation lawsuit by a former contestant on his reality TV show “The Apprentice” who accused him of making unwanted sexual advances.
In a one-page order, the Appellate Division in Manhattan did not explain why it refused to stay the lawsuit by Summer Zervos while the president appeals a March 20 lower court ruling that allowed the California restaurateur to pursue her case.
[….continues…]
reuters :
Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, which oversaw the nomination, supported Haspel.
“I believe she is someone who can and will stand up to the president, who will speak truth to power if this president orders her to do something illegal or immoral, like a return to torture,” he said in a Senate speech before the vote.
early report by cbs:
According to an agency document obtained by CBS News, Haspel had “some fluency” in Spanish and French before her work began, and learned Turkish and Russian on the job. She also received, the document says, “extensive training” as an operations officer. The first 13 years of her career, according to those familiar with it, were spent in field assignments working largely on Russian targets; she completed seven field tours in total.
in her testimony before the senate she affirmed the intelligence community’s position on Russia meddling with election.
add the above bits together (particularly that she will stand up to the twit) there is hope…. or a glimmer of hope
The biggest problem with the pot laws is they are used to harass minority communities
Mr Cracker and I have been stopped by the police but have been saved by our ages and skin color.
The originator of the pot laws, Mr Harry Ainslinger looking for something to do after prohibition started the American government’s war on pot.
People like to get high. Michael Pollen in his book Botany of Desire talks about how all but one or two cultures get high.
The government in this country choose to criminalize it because of the impact on “Negros and Mexicans”
Poobah, re “Mueller did it” – I don’t get it either – I report, you decide (to steal the olden slogan of the alternative news kings).
Staying a lawsuit generally requires a showing that the litigant seeking the stay is likely to prevail in the action. IN SFB’s Zervos suit the article notes that “Trump is appealing a ruling by Justice Jennifer Schecter of the State Supreme Court in Manhattan, which rejected his claim that as president he was immune from lawsuits over private conduct predating his entering the White House.” I guess his lawyers missed the review of Clinton v. Jones in Constitutional Law 101 – or weren’t paying attention in 1996 – 97 when it was in all the papers and all over teh evening news.
Jones sued in 1994 for Clinton’s actions when he was governor of Arkansas. Clinton tried that “can’t sue a sitting pres for acts that occurred before he took office” jazz and lost and was impeached for lying in his deposition in the Jones case. The district court ruled in Clinton’s favor and the Circuit Court reversed, When Clinton appealed that decision to the Supreme Court, WiKi)in the unanimous opinion by Justice John Paul Stevens, the Court ruled that separation of powers does not mandate that federal courts delay all private civil lawsuits against the President until the end of his term of office. (Wiki). That dealt with a federal court action but there is no reason the same principles aren’t applicable to state court actions. After all, the state courts aren’t even bound by separation of powers and they have that 10th amendment thing on their side. And that, as they say, is that.
today from Buzzfeed:
The Definitive Story Of How Trump’s Team Worked The Trump Moscow Deal During The Campaign
On the day of the third Republican presidential debate, Trump personally signed the letter of intent.
All through the hot summer campaign of 2016, as Donald Trump and his aides dismissed talk of unseemly ties to Moscow, two of his key business partners were working furiously on a secret track: negotiations to build what would have been the tallest building in Europe and an icon of the Trump empire — the Trump World Tower Moscow.
Talks to construct the 100-story building continued even as the presidential candidate alternately bragged about his relationship with Vladimir Putin and rejected suggestions of Russian influence, and as Russian agents worked to sway US public opinion on Trump’s behalf.
While fragments of the Trump Moscow venture have trickled out — most recently in a report last night by Yahoo News — this is the definitive story of the Moscow tower, told from a trove of emails, text messages, congressional testimony, architectural renderings, and other documents obtained exclusively by BuzzFeed News, as well as interviews with key players and investigators. The documents reveal a detailed and plausible plan, well-connected Russian counterparts, and an effort that extended from spearfishing with a Russian developer on a private island to planning for a mid-campaign trip to Moscow for the presidential candidate himself.
[….]
Michael Cohen, the president’s embattled personal fixer, and Felix Sater, who helped negotiate deals around the world for Trump, led the effort. Working quietly behind the scenes, they tried to arrange a sit-down between Trump and Putin, the documents show. Those efforts ultimately fizzled. But the audacious venture has been a keen focus of federal investigators trying to determine if the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin.
Last month, Senate Intelligence Committee staffers peppered Sater for hours with questions about the Trump Moscow project. Sater testified that Cohen acted as the “intermediary” for Trump Moscow and was eager to see the deal through because he wanted to “score points with Trump.”
Sater also testified that Trump would regularly receive “short updates about the process of the deal.” Cohen has said that he briefed Trump three times on the deal, all before the end of January 2016. Cohen, the White House, and the Trump Organization did not return messages seeking comment.
[….]
In public statements, Cohen has said that he informed Trump the deal was dead in January 2016, but new records show he was still working on it with Sater at least into June. In May, six weeks before the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Sater asked Cohen when he and Trump would go to Moscow. In a text message, Cohen replied: “MY trip before Cleveland. Trump once he becomes the nominee after the convention.”
Throughout the nine-month effort, Sater, who was born in the Soviet Union and worked for years as an undercover source for US intelligence agencies and the FBI, told Cohen he had connections to top Russian officials and businessmen: Arkady and Boris Rotenberg, brothers who grew up with Putin and were considered his “shadow cabinet”; Andrey Molchanov, a billionaire Russian politician Sater was introduced to by a close personal friend, who proposed building the tower on his property; and a former member of Russia’s military intelligence to whom Sater passed photographs of Cohen’s passport to obtain a visa.
Whatever the significance of the negotiations to the election, the men took measures to keep the plans secret. Text messages often ended with a simple “call me.” They communicated, at times, via Dust, a secure, encrypted messaging application. Sater once warned that they “gotta keep this quiet.”
But now, the story can be told.
[….continues…]
the above Buzzfeed story is quite detailed re cohen sater communications, but very very long. hang in there tho’
drip drip drip
the guardian: Manafort’s ex-son-in-law reaches plea deal to cooperate in investigations
The former son-in-law of Paul Manafort, the onetime chairman of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, has cut a plea deal with the justice department that requires him to cooperate with other criminal investigations, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
The guilty plea agreement, which is under seal and has not been previously reported, could add to the legal pressure on Manafort, who is facing two indictments brought by the special counsel Robert Mueller in his inquiry into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
[….]
s a close business partner, Yohai was privy to many of Manafort’s financial dealings, according to two people familiar with the matter and court filings in the bankruptcies of four Los Angeles properties in 2016. In addition to co-investing in California real estate, the two cooperated in getting loans for property deals in New York, Manafort’s indictments show.
Mueller sent a team of prosecutors to interview Yohai last June, asking him about Manafort’s relationship with Trump, his ties to Russian oligarchs, and his borrowing of tens of millions of dollars against properties in New York, Reuters reported in February, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
Pot schmott
it’s an early Tylenol PM night for me. Yesterday’s PT and rolling around the VA for six hours today knocked me out. If anyone posts a thread I’ll probably be up early to publish it
Nice piece of writing SJW
Hi – I did not disappear again. Just looks like it. Working for a living an being an active volunteer takes up a lot of one’s day. However. I do try to take a peek on the Trail every now and then.
Fine dining – grilled fish, rice, kimchi and pickled cucumber chips. Yeah, life is good.
It’s amazing you’re up & about, Mr Crawford, considering what you went through. Don’t do too much too soon – sorry to sound like a nag; just concern & caring coming through.
Katherine Graham Cracker,
Right on with the Marijuana comments.
Remembering when hippies were the bogeymen, especially in areas of low minority population ( like where I grew up. We had 1 (one) African American family. They belonged to the same Lutheran Church I did. ) Allegany County did have an active hippie scene, especially around Alfred. Long haired young adults living together! Cultivating an active arts scene! Progressive thought & teaching! The pervasive smell of pot! Oh, the humanity! We were doomed. To hell in a handbasket.
The infamous Dragnet episode about the young babysitter who left baby in the bathtub while she smoked pot with her friends explained the older generation’s outlook perfectly. Oh my god, the baby drowned. Because. You. Smoked. Pot.
What a powerful life lesson. 😉
craig, just sent you a suggested thread topic plus tried on the dashboard to submit it for review but looks like video didn’t come thru there. hope it did in the email.
Rudy, Rudy, Rudy. Watergate didn’t focus on Nixon and did not result in an indictment of Nixon. Nor was Nixon impeached. It, like the Comey, then Mueller investigation, resulted in indictments and convictions of the president’s inner circle of advisors and implicated the president’s knowledge and consent to the criminal activity of that inner circle. The difference in this case is that trumps inner circle includes his family. Every new indictment and every new conviction casts shade on the 2016 election and gets one step closer to his kids. That is what he’s concerned about, and that is why he keeps railing against the investigation. It’s moving in on his kids and reveals the possibility that his election was indeed thanks to his kids’ and advisers’ criminality. And you know it.