"âŚa January 2018 Washington Post story documenting all of the high-powered Russians who flew to Washington, D.C. to attend Trumpâs inaugural festivities."
Well, with the millions of people at the inauguration, of course there would be a few folks from Russia in attendance. Plus, Obama was so ill-mannered that he didnât invite any Russians at all.
Please , somebody explain why this activity would stop?The traitorous GOP nor the president have lifted a finger to adequetely address the obvious torrent of influence money pouring in to the system. We can only hope Muellar is able to pursue his findings to conclusion.Cohen and everyone associated with these crimes must be exposed completely and face the legal consequences.
Columbus Nova wasnât just an âaffiliateâ Renova â it was described on the website (in the bio information of one of the partners) as âthe US investment vehicle for the Renova Groupâ
Mr. Epstein is a Managing Partner of Columbus Nova, the US investment vehicle for the Renova Group, which is a multi-national, Zurich-based industrial holding.,
and then thereâs this, from Forbes
[Paul] Lipari, a former executive at Columbus Nova, suggests on his web site that Vekselberg is the only material clientâŚ
Columbus Nova is not currently registered as an investment adviser with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which requires U.S. firms that manage more than $100 million for outside clients to register with the securities regulator. Its SEC registration terminated in 2012.
Will this eventually lead to another hearing about the danger of corporate money influencing elections? A Citizens United revisit?
I indicated this when Rudy made his comments about over 400k being âfunneledâ through Cohen. Because Rudy was unable to acknowledge or document more than the 130k to Stormy Daniels, it indicated that money for other, unknown purposes was being sent through Cohen. It also raised questions about whether Essential Consultants was one of probably several conduits for money laundering or slush fund activity, which would be in violation of federal banking laws. Avenatti hit on this immediately in his memo. There are also tax evasion laws in question here. In essence, the easiest and most likely way to get Cohen is to indict him on similar charges to those of Manafort and Gates.
Where Cohen and Trump took risks is in using the same process for laundering Russian money as they did for the Daniels payment. Thatâs why an investigation into the Stormy Daniels matter has turned this up.
All that said, Mueller has known about the payments from large corporations to Cohen for several months. He has identified activity relating to Cohen that is within his mandate. That suggests to me that he has known about the Stormy Daniels payment for months as well. If he followed the money that led him to Essential Consultants, he wouldâve known about all other major payments and deposits.
That Avenatti has found a separate and independent path to break open the Trump-Cohen gravy train of money helps Mueller sell his case to the American public when he reveals it.
The decision to refer the Cohen matter to SDNY is a bit of a mystery, because if Mueller interviewed AT&T and Novartis, he already concluded that Cohenâs various money âfunnelingâ schemes are tied to Russia. The best answer I can come up with is that it was a tactical and political decision by Rosenstein and Mueller to get another investigative source involved to weaken Trumpâs attempts to influence the investigations. In addition, it avoids the types of suits that Manafort has thrown up there challenging the OSC mandate. That said, itâs quite possible that the OSC and SDNY indict Cohen on separate charges in different jurisdictions. I suppose Cohen could be indicted in DC as well as NY at this point.
At dinner with Jewish friends last Friday, there was much discussion about how it was the Russian immigrants who have ruined Israeli politics and turned it to a racist, apartheid state. Ironic that Russian immigrants have also come so close to ruining America, and heightened racism here too. The immigrants both nations might, in retrospect, most regret welcoming are pale white as can be. This is not to find any racial fault in Russians â who after all are quite mixed genetically; itâs Russian culture which is brute and vicious, after centuries under tyrants like Putin and Stalin.
I would additionally note that this article should cause many others to revisit the Dallas Morning News piece linking Vekselberg and other oligarchs to multiple, million dollar donations to the Trump campaign, GOP, Trump Victory Committee and Trump inauguration. Vekselbergâs long time business partner, Len Blavatnik, his cousin, Intrater, and Simon Kukes, another Russian oil guy and US immigrant with prior working/investment relationships with TNK-BP (once owned by Vekselberg/Blavatnik and then âsoldâ to Rosneft after they worked with Putin to manipulate/harass/force BP to sell its stake where all 3 became personally wealthier) and a few others have over 10 mill in direct contributions to these orgs.
The way I see it, based on reviews of other articles on the subject, is that Manafort/Gates struck a bargain with Russian representatives over different meetings, but key events would include the Trump Tower meeting and the outreach to Oleg Deripaska.
The essence of the discussions is this: Russia would step up its efforts to aid the Trump campaign in the form of social media campaigns, theft and use of stolen emails, and also financial support in exchange for policy changes that were favorable to Russia (Syria, Ukraine, NATO) and favorable for Putin and the oligarchs personally (sanctions). Manafort/Gates then proceeded to reach out to their contacts in the oligarch world, Deripaska, with the support of Russian intelligence (Konstantin Kilimnick) and Putin. Once they won Deripaska over, that represented a big step to shaking the trees and getting Vekselberg (who is a co-owner of RUSAL, Deripaskaâs majority owned Russian oil co) and his network to go big. Some of these contributions had started previously, but you may recall that during 2016, Trump had no money and then suddenly he did. I think the Russians played a role in juicing his fundraising and all of that happened contemporaneously or following the Trump Tower meeting.
On top of this, there was additional slush fund type activity full of incentive payments, clean up payments and vehicles to accept bribes. Thatâs where Cohen comes in, particularly after Manafort was outed and was force to leave the campaign. I suspect we will find that Cohenâs slush fund stream includes the payments identified in the Steele Dossier for hackers, and perhaps even the cut of the Rosneft oil sale that was offered as an incentive to Trump.
I like that prospect. His bluster is going to look like the proverbial fart in a whirlwind under those circumstances.
Itâs all going to come down to 20 years of money laundering for the Russians.
Thereâs lots of stuff in side issues that could put folks in jail, but for Trump and Cohen, itâs money launderingâa hell of a lot of it, too.
Much of the core information in the new document, which was compiled by Michael Avenatti, Stormy Danielsâ lawyer, and released Tuesday, has since been confirmed by THE COMPANIES THEMSELVES.
Given that Avenatti claims to have known about, but did not disclose, additional payments from AT&T and Novartis, donât be surprised if the totals received from Columbus Nova and Korea Aerospace Industries are also greater than initially reported. Avenatti has claimed that they are just beginning to reveal what theyâve uncovered, including where the money went.
Then thereâs this. https://twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/994257432485486592
âThe Russia-linked company that paid Michael Cohen $500,000 also created websites for young white supremacistsâ
No collusion! No collusion!
Ahem⌠Yes collusion, if not serious corruption and campaign finance violations.
It was the biggest inauguration in all of history, if you only count Russians in the crowd.
By which I think you mean: âThe most consequential inauguration in American history, when you count the Russians in the crowd.â
The sooner the Grand Old Politburo burns to the ground, the better. All the sweeter irony, given the locker-room culture of entitled frat pigs who The Rump embodies in spades, that the porn star holding the torch is a Louisiana Republican who half-tried to primary David Vitter.
Well put together, thanks. But I think Donnie just assumed that EVERYTHING his personal lawyer did for him was âsecretâ by law (client/attorney privilege).
He wasnât risking, he was justâŚstupid. No doubt Cohen kept telling Donny it was all secret and âprotected by the Constitution,â or some such crap. Which is why after the raids on Cohen, first words out of Donnyâs tiny thumbs were âThe Attorney/Client privilege is dead!!!â
Wouldnât that be some sweet irony - bringing multiple charges from the SDNY, OSC, NY A.G., etc all on the same day. How do you like that collusion, trump?
Letâs please not scapegoat an entire nationâs problems on one group of people, shall we? Sounds too, too much like Trump.