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plimon

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  1. 28 minutes ago, kevwun said:

    That one is gonna sting because it gives lots of congress critters cover to come out against it.

    The fact that they did the analysis on a state by state basis shows me they are trying to make a link with electoral vote tallies. Should be interesting to see how their data correlates.

  2. We didn't separate everyone, so it wasn't handled? And, again, you are evil. One day you may realize that. 
    That is correct. My mom worked at a women's shelter on the border for 10 years. Refugees and asylum seekers were regularly brought in by the feds. Mom and kids at the women's shelter and dad's at a men's shelter. The families were then reunited once their status was determined. No cages, no guards. In the instances where abuse by the dad was a factor, they were given safety and kept away from the dude. These shelters were a blessing for most.

    Sent from my KFGIWI using Tapatalk

  3. 2 minutes ago, Ted Lange said:

    Sounds like one of the presidents buddies is scripting his tweets, either Alex Jones or Sean Hannity.

    Hannity...you can read the tweet in his voice and it sounds like him.

  4. I used to work there and the hourly and line level staff are good people. They are just hampered with an extremely antiquated, hodge-podge, mashup of a system from different acquisitions. A good majority of the call center folks are contractors so they only know how to follow their scripts. Management, however, can DIAFAEABOD.

  5.  

    I put the timeline in the spoiler below.

     

    Spoiler

     

    Timeline Summary: Possible Qatar Quid Pro Quo

    Russia’s sale of Rosneft Gas is the key event in the Steele Dossier’s quid pro quo allegation (see p. 9 and 30 of Dossier). On June 2016, Russians allegedly offer Trumper associates a massive payout derived from the commissions on its sale of 19% of state energy giant Rosneft ($11 billion), in return for lifting sanctions. A month after the election, Russia sells a 19.5% stake in Rosneft in a concealed deal, eventually revealed to be with Qatar. A Qatari diplomat evidently (from video recording) met with Cohen and Flynn at Trump Tower immediately after the deal.

    January 2017: Payments from Russian oligarch to Michael Cohen begin. But the Dossier is published. Kushner sought money directly from Qatar, because it is possible that Qatar was backing off, wary of its exposure. In April 2017, Kushner reportedly escalated a Gulf state crisis between Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar with a risk of regional war. A few months later, the Qatar-backed Apollo Group delivers $184 million to Kushner, who has been in financial crisis over a disastrous purchase of 666 5th Ave.

    Here is my original June 2, 2017 blogpost on this potential Qatar connection as soon as I read that Qatar was the Rosneft buyer.

    Russian contacts are in red.

    Qatar links are highlighted pink.

    Obstruction of justice events are highlighed yellow.

     

    TIMELINE STARTING WITH 2015 GOP PRIMARY CAMPAIGN

    Late 2015: Michael Cohen and Felix Sater work on developing Trump Tower Moscow in the middle of the campaign leading up to Republican primaries. Felix Sater emails on Nov. 3: “I will get Putin on this program and we will get Donald elected. We both know no one else knows how to pull this off without stupidity or greed getting in the way. I know how to play it and we will get this done. Buddy our boy can become President of the USA and we can engineer it. I will get all of Putins team to buy in on this, I will manage this process.”

    Dec. 2015: Moscow event: Flynn and Putin are seated at the same table, with Vekselberg in the room

    Early 2016: Michael Cohen and Felix Sater put together Russia-Ukraine “peace plan,” which is really a pro-Putin plan to end sanctions.

    March 2016: Paul Manafort joins campaign.

    June 9, 2016: Trump Tower meeting between Don Trump, Jr., Kushner, Manafort, and Russians Natalia Veselnitskaya and Rinat Akhmetshin. Trump, Jr.’s emails about the meeting are here. Trump’s hint about this meeting on June 7 and his tweet about Clinton’s emails on the day of the Trump Tower meeting are here.

    Summer 2016, as Steele Dossier alleges (p. 9 and p. 30): Russians made a deal in the summer of 2016 to sell 19% of fossil fuel giant Rosneft, a multibillion dollar deal, and secretly transfer benefits to Trump officials. The dossier alleged that Carter Page was a campaign intermediary to meet personally with Russians, and that Igor Sechin—the CEO of Rosneft and a close Putin ally—and Page had held a “secret meeting” to discuss “the issues of future bilateral energy cooperation and prospects for an associated move to lift Ukraine-related western sanctions against Russia.” The dossier further alleged that Sechin offered commissions from the Rosneft sale in exchange for the lifting of U.S. sanctions on Russia. (Page appears to have been pushed out of Trump orbit by the fall, but others appear to have followed up on this arrangement).

    Nov. 18, 2016: Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, sends a letter to Pence with concerns about Flynn’s links to Russia and Turkey, and requests more information.

    Dec. 1, 2016: Flynn and Jared Kushner meet Russia’s Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at Trump Tower. According to Kushner’s own testimony, he proposed a secret communication link with the Kremlin through the Russian Embassy in an effort to find a “secure line.”

    Dec. 7, 2016: Consistent with a key allegation in the Steele Dossier, Russia announces their sale of 19.5% of state energy giant Rosneft ($11 billion). The identity of the buyers are initially concealed, and are later revealed to be Qatar and Glencore. The sale is completed on Dec. 8th or 9th, and Qatar and Glencore immediately sell off these assets in smaller parts. (Odd financial twist: Russia later bought back a significant amount of the 19.5% stake, claiming that its intent had been that the sale was a temporary measure to bring in cash, like a loan. Alternatively, could the same and buy-back plan be part of a way to create a paper transaction to generate commissions that could be paid without detection or regulation to Trump associates?  A Qatar-backed firm later gave Kushner’s family company a $184 million loan). And why 19.5%? A colleague pointed out that the 19% in the Dossier’s description (p. 30) and the 19.5% in the actual Qatar on Dec. 9 deal makes sense, because there seems to be a 20% legal threshold rule for reporting financing and investors. These deals are under that 20% threshold because the dealmakers seem to be unusually focused on secrecy and evading regulators and prosecutors. Russia’s basic framework for some kind of 19.5% deal may have been initiated in 2014, even before Trump was running, because Russia intended to shield a potential deal from regulatory scrutiny, however it was eventually executed.

    Dec. 12: Qatar’s Ahmed Al-Rumaihi, director of Qatar Investments, a $100 billion fund, met with Cohen and Flynn at Trump Tower (and perhaps KT MacFarland, too?). See this Slate piece by Jeremy Stahl. As Michael Avenatti alleges, “Why was Ahmed Al-Rumaihi meeting with Michael Cohen and Michael Flynn in December 2016 and why did Mr. Al-Rumaihi later brag about bribing administration officials according to a sworn declaration filed in court?” A lawsuit alleges he admitted that he had bribed Trump administration officials. The Qatar fund, QIA, which Al-Rumaihi directs, made an announcement the following day to invest in American infrastructure. Is this potentially part of a financial/quid pro quo agreement in the works?

    Dec. 12: Ukrainian politician Andrii Artemenko (who worked with Cohen and Sater on lifting Russian sanctions) visited Qatar. This is a pretty remarkable coincidence. It just happened to be four days after Qatar’s Rosneft purchase and the same day as Al-Rumaihi’s visit to Cohen and Flynn at Trump Tower.

    Dec. 13, 2016: Kushner meets Sergey Gorkov, who chairs Russia’s government-owned Vnesheconombank and is Putin’s close confidant. Vnesheconombank is understood by analysts to be Putin’s slush fund and is under strict U.S. sanctions.

    Dec. 14, 2016: Gorkov flies to Japan, where he is reported to have met with Putin.

    Dec. 28, 2016: Obama orders new Russian sanctions for election hacking and interference. Kislyak contacts Flynn.

    Dec. 29, 2016: According to details later revealed in Flynn’s plea agreement, he calls a “senior official of the Presidential Transition Team” who was with other “senior members of the [team]” at Mar-a-Lago. Flynn and this “senior official” agree that they do not want Russia to “escalate the situation.” Flynn calls Kislyak immediately and afterward reports back to the senior official. Reports suggest that this official was Jared Kushner.

    Dec. 30, 2016: Trump tweets to Putin, calling him “very smart” for not responding to Obama’s sanctions in kind.

    January 2017: Vekselberg begins sending payments to Michael Cohen’s Essential Consulting account, totaling at least $500,000 over four months.

    Jan. 4, 2017: According to later reporting by the New York Times, Flynn reveals to Don McGahn, chief attorney for the transition effort, that he’s under FBI investigation. Flynn is still appointed national security adviser and receives provisional security clearance.

    Jan. 11, 2017: Erik Prince (Trump supporter, founder of Blackwater), met with Kirill Dmitriev (Putin-tied Russian fund manager), in the Seychelles, allegedly to establish a back-channel.

    Jan. 15, 2017: In the wake of news reports that Flynn and Kislyak spoke during the sanctions controversy, Pence states on CBS’s Face the Nation that Flynn and Kislyak “did not discuss anything having to do with the United States’ decision to expel diplomats or impose censure against Russia.” Pence says he was told this by Flynn—who is now a cooperating witness with Mueller’s probe and the FBI—himself.

    Jan. 20, 2017: On Inauguration Day. Flynn allegedly texted a former business associate that their private firm’s plan to build nuclear reactors in the Mideast was "good to go" because U.S. sanctions on Russia -- which had been blocking these plans -- would soon be "ripped up.” This plan would have delivered massive profits to Flynn and others.

    Jan. 24, 2017: In an interview with FBI agents, Flynn denies that he spoke about sanctions with Russian officials.

    Jan. 26, 2017: Acting Attorney General Sally Yates tells McGahn, now the White House counsel, that Pence, among others, was not correct about Flynn’s Russian contacts. Did McGahn really not tell Pence?

    Early February 2017: Michael Cohen reportedly delivers a Ukrainian peace proposal to Flynn that would involve ousting the anti-Putin leader and lifting sanctions against Russia. Whom did Flynn and Cohen share this with?

    Feb. 9, 2017: According to Pence’s press secretary’s later account, this is when Pence learned about Yates’ warning. The Washington Post also reports on this day that Flynn had discussed sanctions with Kislyak. But Flynn continues in office.

    Feb. 13, 2017: Flynn resigns.

    Feb. 14, 2017: Trump meets privately with FBI Director Jim Comey and allegedly asks him to “let go” of the Flynn “thing.” (Comey testified to this under oath before a Senate panel, but Trump has denied it is true in public statements.)

    April 2017: Kushner reportedly escalated tensions between Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar into a Gulf state crisis:

    The real estate firm tied to the family of presidential son-in-law and top White House adviser Jared Kushner made a direct pitch to Qatar’s minister of finance in April 2017 in an attempt to secure investment in a critically distressed asset in the company’s portfolio, according to two sources. At the previously unreported meeting, Jared Kushner’s father Charles, who runs Kushner Companies, and Qatari Finance Minister Ali Sharif Al Emadi discussed financing for the Kushners’ signature 666 Fifth Avenue property in New York City. …

    The failure to broker the deal would be followed only a month later by a Middle Eastern diplomatic row in which Jared Kushner provided critical support to Qatar’s neighbors. Led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, a group of Middle Eastern countries, with Kushner’s backing, led a diplomatic assault that culminated in a blockade of Qatar. Kushner, according to reports at the time, subsequently undermined efforts by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to bring an end to the standoff.

    May 8, 2017: According to later reporting in the New York Times, the White House disseminates a draft letter written by Trump and Stephen Miller—described by sources as a “screed”— laying out the reasons for firing Comey, including Trump’s displeasure that Comey wouldn’t publicly say Trump wasn’t being investigated in the Russia inquiry. In the Oval Office, Pence and McGahn reportedly review the draft and McGahn reportedly asks that some sections be removed. A version of this letter is sent to Rod Rosenstein, who crafts a new memo justifying the firing and attributing it to Comey’s conduct during the Clinton investigation, with no mention of Russia.

    May 9, 2017: Trump fires Comey.

    May 10, 2017: Pence publicly denies that the Russia investigation factored into the decision, strongly suggesting that Trump was merely “accept[ing] the recommendation of the deputy attorney general and the attorney general” (full video here).  

    May 10 in Oval Office: Trump to Ambassador Kislyak and Foreign Minister Lavrov: “I just fired the head of the F.B.I. He was crazy, a real nut job… I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.”

    May 11: Trump to NBC’s Lester Holt here: “And in fact when I decided to just do it [fire Comey,] I said to myself, I said, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should’ve won.’”

    November 2017, as the New York Times reported, Apollo Global, backed by Qatar, makes an unusually large $184 million loan to Kushner’s family company.One of the largest investors in Apollo’s real estate trust is the Qatari government’s investment fund, the Qatar Investment Authority… Mr. Kushner’s firm previously sought a $500 million investment from the former head of that Qatari fund for its headquarters at 666 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. That investment never materialized.”

    Later, in 2018, Qatar also seeks to invest in Trump-linked right-wing media outlet NewsMax.

     

    Dec. 2017: Trump tweets an apparent admission that he knew Flynn had lied to FBI. “I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!” If he indeed asked Comey to “let Flynn go” on Feb. 14, 2017, this tweet suggests that Trump knew at that time that Flynn had committed a felony, and thus strengthens the obstruction case.

     

    April 2018: Trump delays, undercuts, and sabotages Russian sanctions.

     

    May 2, 2018: Giuliani, among other things during Hannity’s interview, provides more evidence of Trump’s obstruction of justice with corrupt intent: “[Trump] fired Comey because Comey would not, among other things, say that he wasn’t a target of the investigation.” On Hannity and then Fox and Friends next morning, Giuliani also incriminates Trump for campaign finance felony.

     

    May 4, 2018: Qatar’s holdings of Rosneft are updated as $9 billion after Chinese company backs out of deal. It is less clear that Russia had bought back its Rosneft shares. These financial holdings need to be clarified by journalists in this field.

     

    For more on the law of obstruction of justice related to these events, see my blogposts from 2017 here, here, here, and on Pence, here.

     

    I’m collecting other timelines, charts and graphics here:

     

    Wendy Siegelman on the Rosneft sale here.

     

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