Tracking former Trump officials

[China]

Why the Hell Isn’t Jared Kushner’s $2 Billion Saudi Payment a Big Scandal?

 

In July 1980, President Jimmy Carter got some bad news. The Justice Department had filed a complaint against his younger brother, Billy, for failing to register as a lobbyist for Libya. Billy had taken two all-expenses-paid trips to Tripoli pursuing business deals there, and he had accepted $220,000 from the Libyans to develop what he called a “propaganda campaign” to promote the foreign policy objectives of dictator Moammar Qaddafi. In response to the Justice Department action, Billy belatedly registered as a foreign agent.

 

But the scandal persisted, and Carter handled the controversy well. Everyone knew he had little control over the irrepressible Billy, who had long struggled with alcoholism and only that summer sobered up. The president released a statement saying, “I do not believe it is appropriate for a close relative of the president to undertake any assignment on behalf of a foreign government.” The Senate Judiciary Committee, controlled by Democrats, initiated an investigation into what became known as Billygate, and Carter announced the White House would cooperate fully and waive any claims to executive privilege. Carter held a press conference and spent an hour taking questions about the matter, and he went further. He issued an executive order prohibiting relatives of the president from lobbying or interacting with US government officials, and he released a 92-page report that criticized Billy but refuted allegations of wrongdoing. The report even included excerpts of the president’s diary. His reaction was widely regarded as transparent and honest.

 

Billygate is a good point of reference when assessing what could be called Jaredgate. On April 10, the New York Times revealed that Jared Kushner, son-in-law and adviser of the 45th president, secured a $2 billion investment for his new private equity firm, Affinity Partners, from a fund controlled by the Saudi crown prince—even after advisers to the Saudi fund raised serious objections to the investment. The screening panel for the Saudi fund had cited “the inexperience of the Affinity Fund management”; an “unsatisfactory in all aspects” due diligence report; a proposed asset management fee that seemed “excessive”; and “public relations risks.” Yet the panel was overruled by the fund’s board, which is headed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s autocratic de facto leader, who, according to US intelligence, green-lit the operation that resulted in the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

 

It’s damn hard to not see the $2 billion investment as either a payoff for past services rendered or a preemptive bribe should Trump manage to regain the White House. And it could be both. It’s a wonder that the disclosure of this deal hasn’t created more of a fuss and prompted congressional investigations. (Imagine what Republicans and Fox News would be doing if Hunter Biden received $2 billion from a Ukrainian government leader who was responsible for the gruesome murder of an American resident.) A 10-figure payment to a relative of a former president who is essentially the current (though undeclared) GOP frontrunner in the 2024 contest and possibly the next inhabitant of the White House is a major scandal.

 

Or it should be.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Mark Meadows was simultaneously registered to vote in three states

 

After Donald Trump lost the presidential election, falsely claiming election fraud, Meadows became senior partner at the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI), which promotes “election integrity” efforts. The organization’s “citizen’s guide” urges activists to determine that the registrations of their neighbors are legal by checking on “whether voters have moved, or if the registrations are PO Boxes, commercial addresses or vacant lots” and then “obtaining evidence: photos of commercial buildings? Vacant lots?” and “securing affidavits from current residents that a registered voter has moved.”

 

Voter-list maintenance is one of the dividing lines in American politics. Republicans argue that if voter-registration records are not regularly purged and updated, election fraud can take place. Democrats push back that too many voter-list purges are conducted haphazardly, removing eligible voters who don’t learn they are no longer listed until they show up to vote.

 

Now it turns out that until last week, Meadows was simultaneously registered to vote in three different states — North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina — according to state records obtained by The Fact Checker.

 

This is the latest in a series of revelations about election-related behavior by Meadows that appear to contradict his and his party’s rhetoric on election integrity.

 

Quote

“I don’t want my vote or anyone else’s to be disenfranchised. … Do you realize how inaccurate the voter rolls are, with people just moving around? … Anytime you move, you’ll change your driver’s license, but you don’t call up and say, ‘Hey, by the way, I’m re-registering.’”

   - Mark Meadows, then White House chief of staff, in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Aug. 16, 2020

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

They sure do a lot of projecting.

[Cooked Crack]

 

[EmirOfShmo]

House panel refers former Trump Interior Secretary David Bernhardt for criminal prosecution

 

The House Natural Resources Committee announced its first-ever criminal referral to the Department of Justice on Wednesday, asking it to investigate whether Mike Ingram, an Arizona real estate developer and a campaign donor to Donald Trump, bribed public officials during Trump’s tenure as president, including then-Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt.

 

https://news.yahoo.com/house-panel-refers-former-trump-223733765.html

[China]

Prosecutors Pursue Inquiry Into Trump’s Handling of Classified Material

 

A federal grand jury has issued at least one subpoena, and investigators are seeking interviews in the case of sensitive documents that ended up at the former president’s Florida home.

 

Federal prosecutors have begun a grand jury investigation into whether classified White House documents that ended up at former President Donald J. Trump’s Florida home were mishandled, according to two people briefed on the matter.

 

The intensifying inquiry suggests that the Justice Department is examining the role of Mr. Trump and other officials in his White House in their handling of sensitive materials during the final stages of his administration.

 

In recent days, the Justice Department has taken a series of steps showing that its investigation has progressed beyond the preliminary stages. Prosecutors issued a subpoena to the National Archives and Records Administration to obtain the boxes of classified documents, according to the two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.

 

The authorities have also made interview requests to people who worked in the White House in the final days of Mr. Trump’s presidency, according to one of the people.

 

The investigation is focused on the discovery by the National Archives in January that at the end of Mr. Trump’s term he had taken to his home at the Mar-a-Lago resort 15 boxes from the White House that contained government documents, mementos, gifts and letters.

 

After the boxes were returned to the National Archives, its archivists found documents containing “items marked as classified national security information,” the agency told Congress in February. In April, it was reported that federal authorities were in the preliminary stages of investigating the handling of the classified documents.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

 

[Larry]

3 minutes ago, China said:

 

 

. . . in the matter which he pled guilty to?  

[Bang]

Get the **** out of here


~Next

[China]

On 7/21/2021 at 3:23 PM, China said:

Feds Demand Detention For Barrack, Label Him A ‘Serious Flight Risk’

 

Describing Trump confidant Thomas Barrack as a “serious flight risk” who may receive the support of foreign leaders in fleeing the Justice Department, federal prosecutors asked a judge in a Tuesday memo to detain the 2017 Trump inaugural committee chair.

 

“The defendant is charged with extremely serious offenses based on conduct that strikes at the very heart of our democracy,” prosecutors wrote in the detention filing, which asks a Los Angeles federal magistrate to detain Barrack until a potential bail deal can be worked out.

 

Prosecutors want Barrack to be moved to Brooklyn federal court while in federal custody.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

 

[China]

Kushner’s and Mnuchin’s Quick Pivots to Business With the Gulf

 

Former White House senior advisor Jared Kushner and former Trump adminnistration Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin raised a combined $3.5 billion from Arab monarchies shortly after leaving office, The New York Times reported Monday.

 

After Trump’s defeat, the duo moved to cash in on their work in the Trump administration by making a string of visits to the Middle East while still in office, meeting those who would ultimately invest billions in their own funds.

 

According to The Times, Kushner made three trips to the Middle East shortly after the November 2020 US election, including a January 5 meeting with leaders of the Gulf states in Saudi Arabia. On the same day, traveled to the Middle East to meet with the heads of the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait.

 

Shortly after Biden’s win was certified by Congress, Mnuchin launched Liberty Capital, and Kushner launched Affinity Partners, The Times reported.

 

Within weeks, Affinity Partners had reportedly secured a $2 billion investment from the Saudi sovereign-wealth fund.

 

Meanwhile, Liberty Capital raised more than $1.5 billion from the sovereign-wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Qatar.

 

Political experts and ethics experts expressed concern that the investments may be a way for the investors to gain footing with those close to Trump, should he run for and win the 2024 election.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[EmirOfShmo]

Pardon can't stop him from facing state charges. 

 

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[Chew]

49 minutes ago, Cooked Crack said:

 

 

 

 he got money back 

 

 

 

 

[TradeTheBeal!]

God forbid I get a refund.

[China]

Army seeking to recoup nearly $40,000 from Michael Flynn for foreign payments

 

The Army is seeking to recoup nearly $40,000 from former President Donald Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, accusing the retired three-star general of violating the Emoluments Clause by accepting foreign payments without disclosing them.

 

The Army wrote to Flynn in May saying it would seek to recoup $38,557 from him for payments he received in 2015 related to RT, when Flynn was paid through a speaker's fee to travel to Russia and to speak at a conference hosted by the Russian state media organization. At the conference, Flynn was seated next to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Army letter to Flynn was reported by The Washington Post and confirmed by CNN.

The Army's acting principal deputy general counsel wrote that Flynn failed to obtain required approval from the military "before accepting compensation from an entity substantially owned or controlled by a foreign government in violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution."

"When there is a finding that a military retiree has violated the Emoluments Clause, the United States Government may pursue a debt collection," the Army letter said.

Flynn did not respond to a CNN request for comment. In May comments to conservative site Just the News, Flynn called the Army's investigation into him a "persecution and harassment and embarrassment."

The Army inspector general last year took up an investigation that began in 2017 about foreign payments Flynn had received after his retirement from the Army, according to a memo released under the Freedom of Information Act.

The January 2021 memo detailed that Flynn received $11,000 from an entity that appeared to be controlled by the Russian government when he appeared at a conference hosted by Russian security firm Kaspersky Lab, and that he received nearly $34,000 for his 2015 appearance at the RT conference.

In addition, the inspector general wrote that Flynn received more than $400,000 from Inovo BV, a Dutch company with ties to the Turkish government, for consulting services in 2015. Flynn's company retroactively registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act in 2017 for its work with Inovo.

The inspector general wrote the Army and State Department had no record of requests for approval for Flynn to receive the payments.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

[China]

 

[China]

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[China]

This is a different investigation from the other one where he was found to have lied.

 

Watchdog: Trump Interior Secretary Zinke lied during casino investigation

 

The Interior Department’s internal watchdog said former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke lied to investigators who were probing whether he wrongly blocked two native tribes from opening a casino in Connecticut in 2017 — and that he pressed the office to postpone Wednesday’s report until after the November election that he is hoping will return him to Congress.

 

The results of the inspector general’s investigation, which began after POLITICO reported lobbyists and Nevada lawmakers pressured Zinke to reject the casino despite an approval recommendation from agency analysts, comes as Zinke is running for a Montana congressional seat. And it follows an IG report in February that found Zinke had also not been honest in explaining his actions relating to a personal real estate deal he was negotiating while head of Interior with the then-chairman of oilfield services company Halliburton.

 

“We found that Secretary Zinke and the [Chief of Staff] made statements to [Inspector General] investigators with the overall intent to mislead them,” the office said in the new report. “We found that both Secretary Zinke and COS made statements that presented an inaccurate version of the circumstances in which the [Department of Interior] made key decisions. As a result, we concluded that Secretary Zinke and COS did not comply with their duty of candor when questioned about their respective involvement in the DOI’s decision.”

 

The agency noted that Zinke, who served in Congress before joining the Trump administration and narrowly won the Republican primary in June, asked the IG to keep its findings under wraps until after the November election, a request the agency said was not in keeping with its practices.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Christ, what an asshole.

 

Opinion: Jared Kushner settles a few scores

 

In the Trump White House, Jared and Ivanka Kushner were famously referred to as "the interns." Now, Jared Kushner has written a book about his internship, modestly titled "Breaking History," in which he casts himself as a diplomatic genius -- a latter-day Metternich with a solid dose of Henry Kissinger thrown in.

 

Describing his time in government, he writes: "Humbled by the complexity of the task, I orchestrated some of the most significant breakthroughs in diplomacy in the last fifty years." And that's just in the preface. The nearly 500 pages that follow are rife with this kind of self-congratulatory puffery.

 

Click on the link for the full piece

[EmirOfShmo]

Hmmm...

 

 

[China]

Trump attorney general Barr a liar, bully and thug, says fired US attorney in book

 

Donald Trump’s second attorney general, William Barr, is stupid, a liar, a bully and a thug, according to a hard-hitting new book by Geoffrey Berman, the US attorney for the southern district of New York whose firing Barr engineered in hugely controversial fashion in summer 2020.

 

“Several hours after Barr and I met,” Berman writes, “on a Friday night, [Barr] issued a press release saying that I was stepping down. That was a lie.

 

“A lie told by the nation’s top law enforcement officer.”

 

Trump’s politicisation of the US Department of Justice was a hot-button issue throughout his presidency. It remains so as he claims persecution under Barr’s successor, Merrick Garland, regarding the mishandling of classified information, the Capitol attack and multiple other investigations.

 

Berman describes his own ordeal, as Barr sought a more politically pliant occupant of the hugely powerful New York post, in Holding the Line: Inside the Nation’s Preeminent US Attorney’s Office and its Battle with the Trump Justice Department, a memoir to be published next week. The Guardian obtained a copy.

 

Berman testified in Congress shortly after his dismissal. He now writes: “No one from SDNY with knowledge of [his clashes with Barr over two and a half years] has been interviewed or written about them. Until now, there has not been a firsthand account.”

 

Berman describes clashes on issues including the prosecution of Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer, and the Halkbank investigation, concerning Turkish bankers and government officials helping Tehran circumvent the Iran nuclear deal.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[EmirOfShmo]

On 9/8/2022 at 2:45 PM, China said:

Trump attorney general Barr a liar, bully and thug, says fired US attorney in book

 

Click on the link for the full article

..and there's more