Trump and Russia; Spasiba, Harasho!

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Re: Trump and Russia; Spasiba, Harasho!

Post by Brian Peacock » Wed Jun 06, 2018 1:54 am

Now it seems that the FBI are only partisan when it's investigating politicians, and we know this how? Because the politician tell us so. However, its worth noting that Democrats didn't call the FBI partisan when it was investigating Clinton's emails, though Republicans did when the investigation didn't find her guilty enough, and now it's Republicans who are again calling the FBI partisan because they've beem looking into the 'Russia-Trump Thing'. One might conclude that It's only the Republicans who are actively undermining the percieved independence of the FBI, and only then because the FBIs investigatory activities are not bolstering Republicans' political interests. This is pretty much all one-way traffic guys, a kind of indignantly declared, "Don't you know who we are?" played out for political advantage against a backdrop in which Republicans consider themselves not just the custodians of law and order but the embodiment and masters of it. This is the only context in which baseless conspiracy theories about the FBI's inherent Democratic bias can possibly gain ground.
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Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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Re: Trump and Russia; Spasiba, Harasho!

Post by pErvinalia » Wed Jun 06, 2018 2:44 am

Well the Dems did get fired up over the Comey investigation update just before the election. And while they certainly don't have the track record for whining that the Repubs do, I think both of them will shout "BIAS" whenever it suits them. The major parties of any political system are usually professional politicians and see themselves as elite and somehow more deserving of their jobs and therefore require less standards in performing those jobs than what the public rightfully expect (except when said public are voting and they have forgotten everything that matters to them, and all they can think about are brown people coming to get them and/or their jobs, and how many extra 10's of dollars they are going to get out of party A as opposed to party B, etc).
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Re: Trump and Russia; Spasiba, Harasho!

Post by Joe » Wed Jun 06, 2018 3:33 am

Forty Two wrote:
Wed Jun 06, 2018 12:08 am
Joe wrote:
Tue Jun 05, 2018 11:31 pm

Well, I was referring to a principle of argumentation, but the Mueller investigation faces it's own burden of proof, that of the courtroom. Their indictments have to justify bringing charges, and they have to make their case to a jury.
The same principle of argumentation applies. There hasn't been shown any evidence of Russiagate (Trump campaign collusion with Russia). The only thing that we have is suspicion that something improper was talked about at this meeting or that meeting. If suspicious possibilities are enough to retain an independent counsel and such, then I think what we see regarding the possible political machinations behind the investigation of Trump merits a look-see, too.
I disagree. The special counsel did not initiate the investigation, the FBI did. The FBI describes itself as "an intelligence-driven and threat-focused national security organization with both intelligence and law enforcement responsibilities," and has the authority and duty to investigate suspicious possibilities involving foreign powers. Welcome to the post 9/11 national security state Forty Two.
They don't need no stinking argumentation, or political machinations for that matter, to defend the Homeland. :crusade:

Trump's admitted attempt to derail the FBI investigation by firing Comey brought Mueller into the picture. It was a stupid, stupid move on Trump's part, because the DOJ couldn't allow the investigation to be derailed after that. Yes, Mueller was tasked with investigating Russian interference and possible collusion, a criminal matter, but he was also tasked with continuing Comey's investigation. That was a counterintelligence investigation and a very different matter.

Members of the President's inner circle were approached by, and met with, agents of an adversary nation with a history of espionage against the US, and didn't report it. If one of these people was recruited to spy, we would have a huge national security problem.

How do you not check it out? Simple, you do your patriotic duty, and chase it down even though it's a PITA and a political football for all the bigwigs. Better safe than sorry.
Forty Two wrote:
Wed Jun 06, 2018 12:08 am
Joe wrote:
Tue Jun 05, 2018 11:31 pm
As for political considerations, you're right that the missing separation of power is a huge drawback in the organization of our government, but it's a product of the growth in power of the Executive Branch, and isn't something we can fix overnight.
Agreed. One of the biggest problems we face in government is the Legislature's delegation of power to the executive agencies to "regulate" instead of the Congress retaining the lawmaking powers. They took the easy way out, and said "here, we'll delegate a bunch of power to the executive, and let them worry about the details." They should have started a regulatory department within the Legislative branch.
Joe wrote:
Tue Jun 05, 2018 11:31 pm
Forty Two wrote:
Tue Jun 05, 2018 7:18 pm

Well, he doesn't really have the wherewithal. He would have to force the FBI to disclose its records and information about the 2016 hiring and use of Halper, and the investigation, and that's the very thing that neither the FBI, nor Mueller, nor the Democrats would allow him to do (politically).

Frankly, I think that is what should happen. There should be full disclosure of (a) what caused the FBI to become suspicious, (b) what caused them to hire Halper and when did they hire him, (c) when did his investigation begin, and (d) what what was the basis for the FBI opening its investigation (which apparently occured after it became suspicious of something and enlisted Halper.

I think that this should have been a special commission, like a 9/11 commission, and they could investigate the entirety of the Russia allegations, from 2015-16 onward, in all its aspects, and expose any wrongdoing by all concerned. Let's open it up.

If Trump is guilty of something, hang him. But, so far, I haven't seen any evidence, have you?
I don't know if he's guilty of anything more than being completely out of his depth, so I'll wait for the investigation to run its course. That is, if Trump doesn't bollix things up more than he already has. He seems hellbent on hanging himself sometimes. :dunno:
Yes, but, again, I think the idea of an independent counsel is not the right way to go. They can't indict Trump. All this ever was was a way to dig up something for impeachment. If either side wanted to get at "the truth" they would have done a 9/11 Commission style investigation run by a bipartisan team of respected persons from a variety of backgrounds. Give the Commission subpoena power, and investigate what the Russians did, when they did it, and who they did it with.
The bipartisan commission boat sailed as soon as Trump fired Comey, but as I described above, there's more to this investigation than just collusion, and others in the administration who are bigger worries than Trump. Of course, the media and twits are yammering about collusion and impeachment, but there are substantive reasons to let Mueller do his due diligence.

To my mind that's essential, and if he finds nothing, it's great news.
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Re: Trump and Russia; Spasiba, Harasho!

Post by Brian Peacock » Wed Jun 06, 2018 9:26 am

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There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia."

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"This is how humanity ends; bickering over the irrelevant."
Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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Re: Trump and Russia; Spasiba, Harasho!

Post by pErvinalia » Wed Jun 06, 2018 12:01 pm

Joe wrote:
Wed Jun 06, 2018 3:33 am
Forty Two wrote:
Wed Jun 06, 2018 12:08 am
Joe wrote:
Tue Jun 05, 2018 11:31 pm

Well, I was referring to a principle of argumentation, but the Mueller investigation faces it's own burden of proof, that of the courtroom. Their indictments have to justify bringing charges, and they have to make their case to a jury.
The same principle of argumentation applies. There hasn't been shown any evidence of Russiagate (Trump campaign collusion with Russia). The only thing that we have is suspicion that something improper was talked about at this meeting or that meeting. If suspicious possibilities are enough to retain an independent counsel and such, then I think what we see regarding the possible political machinations behind the investigation of Trump merits a look-see, too.
I disagree. The special counsel did not initiate the investigation, the FBI did. The FBI describes itself as "an intelligence-driven and threat-focused national security organization with both intelligence and law enforcement responsibilities," and has the authority and duty to investigate suspicious possibilities involving foreign powers. Welcome to the post 9/11 national security state Forty Two.
They don't need no stinking argumentation, or political machinations for that matter, to defend the Homeland. :crusade:

Trump's admitted attempt to derail the FBI investigation by firing Comey brought Mueller into the picture. It was a stupid, stupid move on Trump's part, because the DOJ couldn't allow the investigation to be derailed after that. Yes, Mueller was tasked with investigating Russian interference and possible collusion, a criminal matter, but he was also tasked with continuing Comey's investigation. That was a counterintelligence investigation and a very different matter.

Members of the President's inner circle were approached by, and met with, agents of an adversary nation with a history of espionage against the US, and didn't report it. If one of these people was recruited to spy, we would have a huge national security problem.

How do you not check it out? Simple, you do your patriotic duty, and chase it down even though it's a PITA and a political football for all the bigwigs. Better safe than sorry.
Forty Two wrote:
Wed Jun 06, 2018 12:08 am
Joe wrote:
Tue Jun 05, 2018 11:31 pm
As for political considerations, you're right that the missing separation of power is a huge drawback in the organization of our government, but it's a product of the growth in power of the Executive Branch, and isn't something we can fix overnight.
Agreed. One of the biggest problems we face in government is the Legislature's delegation of power to the executive agencies to "regulate" instead of the Congress retaining the lawmaking powers. They took the easy way out, and said "here, we'll delegate a bunch of power to the executive, and let them worry about the details." They should have started a regulatory department within the Legislative branch.
Joe wrote:
Tue Jun 05, 2018 11:31 pm
Forty Two wrote:
Tue Jun 05, 2018 7:18 pm

Well, he doesn't really have the wherewithal. He would have to force the FBI to disclose its records and information about the 2016 hiring and use of Halper, and the investigation, and that's the very thing that neither the FBI, nor Mueller, nor the Democrats would allow him to do (politically).

Frankly, I think that is what should happen. There should be full disclosure of (a) what caused the FBI to become suspicious, (b) what caused them to hire Halper and when did they hire him, (c) when did his investigation begin, and (d) what what was the basis for the FBI opening its investigation (which apparently occured after it became suspicious of something and enlisted Halper.

I think that this should have been a special commission, like a 9/11 commission, and they could investigate the entirety of the Russia allegations, from 2015-16 onward, in all its aspects, and expose any wrongdoing by all concerned. Let's open it up.

If Trump is guilty of something, hang him. But, so far, I haven't seen any evidence, have you?
I don't know if he's guilty of anything more than being completely out of his depth, so I'll wait for the investigation to run its course. That is, if Trump doesn't bollix things up more than he already has. He seems hellbent on hanging himself sometimes. :dunno:
Yes, but, again, I think the idea of an independent counsel is not the right way to go. They can't indict Trump. All this ever was was a way to dig up something for impeachment. If either side wanted to get at "the truth" they would have done a 9/11 Commission style investigation run by a bipartisan team of respected persons from a variety of backgrounds. Give the Commission subpoena power, and investigate what the Russians did, when they did it, and who they did it with.
The bipartisan commission boat sailed as soon as Trump fired Comey, but as I described above, there's more to this investigation than just collusion, and others in the administration who are bigger worries than Trump. Of course, the media and twits are yammering about collusion and impeachment, but there are substantive reasons to let Mueller do his due diligence.

To my mind that's essential, and if he finds nothing, it's great news.
Any chance you've seen the Australian ABC Four Corners investigation into the investigation and Trump? Probably not, as Part I only aired two nights ago. It goes into some of this other detail about some of the dodgy fuckers Trump has been involved with over the years and leading up to and including Russia-gate. I like to think the Australian ABC isn't biased, so it's hard to ignore some of the circumstantial evidence regarding the suspect character and movements and associations of people that Trump has done business with, or employed, in the past. It's hard to believe there isn't something going on here. Part II and III over the next two weeks.
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Re: Trump and Russia; Spasiba, Harasho!

Post by Joe » Wed Jun 06, 2018 12:57 pm

I haven't seen that one, but I've read a few long pieces about his business dealings. What a tangled mess of potential leverage, especially since he didn't put his holdings in a blind trust, but a revocable one instead.

I love it when he complains about how long the investigation is taking. That decision alone made Mueller's job so much harder.
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Re: Trump and Russia; Spasiba, Harasho!

Post by pErvinalia » Wed Jun 06, 2018 1:06 pm

Yeah it seems to me that there's plenty of possible leads and avenues to go after. There's a lot going on with Trump and his business dealings, and Russia has been close by for a lot of them over the years.
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Re: Trump and Russia; Spasiba, Harasho!

Post by Brian Peacock » Wed Jun 06, 2018 6:18 pm

Joe wrote:
Wed Jun 06, 2018 3:33 am
Forty Two wrote:
Wed Jun 06, 2018 12:08 am
Joe wrote:
Tue Jun 05, 2018 11:31 pm

Well, I was referring to a principle of argumentation, but the Mueller investigation faces it's own burden of proof, that of the courtroom. Their indictments have to justify bringing charges, and they have to make their case to a jury.
The same principle of argumentation applies. There hasn't been shown any evidence of Russiagate (Trump campaign collusion with Russia). The only thing that we have is suspicion that something improper was talked about at this meeting or that meeting. If suspicious possibilities are enough to retain an independent counsel and such, then I think what we see regarding the possible political machinations behind the investigation of Trump merits a look-see, too.
I disagree. The special counsel did not initiate the investigation, the FBI did. The FBI describes itself as "an intelligence-driven and threat-focused national security organization with both intelligence and law enforcement responsibilities," and has the authority and duty to investigate suspicious possibilities involving foreign powers. Welcome to the post 9/11 national security state Forty Two.
They don't need no stinking argumentation, or political machinations for that matter, to defend the Homeland. :crusade:

Trump's admitted attempt to derail the FBI investigation by firing Comey brought Mueller into the picture. It was a stupid, stupid move on Trump's part, because the DOJ couldn't allow the investigation to be derailed after that. Yes, Mueller was tasked with investigating Russian interference and possible collusion, a criminal matter, but he was also tasked with continuing Comey's investigation. That was a counterintelligence investigation and a very different matter.

Members of the President's inner circle were approached by, and met with, agents of an adversary nation with a history of espionage against the US, and didn't report it. If one of these people was recruited to spy, we would have a huge national security problem.

How do you not check it out? Simple, you do your patriotic duty, and chase it down even though it's a PITA and a political football for all the bigwigs. Better safe than sorry.
Forty Two wrote:
Wed Jun 06, 2018 12:08 am
Joe wrote:
Tue Jun 05, 2018 11:31 pm
As for political considerations, you're right that the missing separation of power is a huge drawback in the organization of our government, but it's a product of the growth in power of the Executive Branch, and isn't something we can fix overnight.
Agreed. One of the biggest problems we face in government is the Legislature's delegation of power to the executive agencies to "regulate" instead of the Congress retaining the lawmaking powers. They took the easy way out, and said "here, we'll delegate a bunch of power to the executive, and let them worry about the details." They should have started a regulatory department within the Legislative branch.
Joe wrote:
Tue Jun 05, 2018 11:31 pm
Forty Two wrote:
Tue Jun 05, 2018 7:18 pm

Well, he doesn't really have the wherewithal. He would have to force the FBI to disclose its records and information about the 2016 hiring and use of Halper, and the investigation, and that's the very thing that neither the FBI, nor Mueller, nor the Democrats would allow him to do (politically).

Frankly, I think that is what should happen. There should be full disclosure of (a) what caused the FBI to become suspicious, (b) what caused them to hire Halper and when did they hire him, (c) when did his investigation begin, and (d) what what was the basis for the FBI opening its investigation (which apparently occured after it became suspicious of something and enlisted Halper.

I think that this should have been a special commission, like a 9/11 commission, and they could investigate the entirety of the Russia allegations, from 2015-16 onward, in all its aspects, and expose any wrongdoing by all concerned. Let's open it up.

If Trump is guilty of something, hang him. But, so far, I haven't seen any evidence, have you?
I don't know if he's guilty of anything more than being completely out of his depth, so I'll wait for the investigation to run its course. That is, if Trump doesn't bollix things up more than he already has. He seems hellbent on hanging himself sometimes. :dunno:
Yes, but, again, I think the idea of an independent counsel is not the right way to go. They can't indict Trump. All this ever was was a way to dig up something for impeachment. If either side wanted to get at "the truth" they would have done a 9/11 Commission style investigation run by a bipartisan team of respected persons from a variety of backgrounds. Give the Commission subpoena power, and investigate what the Russians did, when they did it, and who they did it with.
The bipartisan commission boat sailed as soon as Trump fired Comey, but as I described above, there's more to this investigation than just collusion, and others in the administration who are bigger worries than Trump. Of course, the media and twits are yammering about collusion and impeachment, but there are substantive reasons to let Mueller do his due diligence.

To my mind that's essential, and if he finds nothing, it's great news.
Indeed. The fundamental issue here is the security and well-regulated operation of US democracy. That has to be the start and the end of the matter - if anyone get's caught up in the investigation then that's unfortunate, but it has to be addressed and people may have to be dealt with, whoever they are, whatever position they hold. Even though Comey would've reported to the President he couldn't pledge a personal oath of loyalty to Trump, and so in Trump's mind Comey became an adversary Trump was compelled to dominate and control, and so he had to go. This single act marked Trump as a man who will always put his personal interests before the national interest, no matter how important and vital those interests are. Everything about how this sordid tale has developed flows as a consequence of Trump's need to secure and protect his personal interests above all other things.
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"This is how humanity ends; bickering over the irrelevant."
Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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Re: Trump and Russia; Spasiba, Harasho!

Post by Seabass » Thu Jun 07, 2018 10:02 am

Even this ex Fox News guy thinks Trumpism is a big dumb cult.

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Re: Trump and Russia; Spasiba, Harasho!

Post by Brian Peacock » Thu Jun 07, 2018 12:51 pm

Ooff!
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"This is how humanity ends; bickering over the irrelevant."
Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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Re: Trump and Russia; Spasiba, Harasho!

Post by Joe » Thu Jun 07, 2018 12:54 pm

Yeah, that was grim.
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Re: Trump and Russia; Spasiba, Harasho!

Post by Seabass » Thu Jun 07, 2018 6:58 pm

Cambridge Analytica director 'met Assange to discuss US election'
Brittany Kaiser also claims to have channelled payments and donations to WikiLeaks
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... -wikileaks
A Cambridge Analytica director apparently visited Julian Assange in February last year and told friends it was to discuss what happened during the US election, the Guardian has learned.

Brittany Kaiser, a director at the firm until earlier this year, also claimed to have channelled cryptocurrency payments and donations to WikiLeaks. This information has been passed to congressional and parliamentary inquiries in the UK and US.

Cambridge Analytica and WikiLeaks are already subjects of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, but the revelations open up fresh questions about the precise nature of the organisations’ relationship.

There was no known connection until October last year, when it was revealed that Cambridge Analytica had “reached out” to Assange in July 2016 and offered to help him index and distribute the 33,000 emails that had been stolen from Hillary Clinton.

Assange issued a statement saying that he had turned down the Cambridge Analytica offer. Alexander Nix, the company’s chief executive, told Westminster MPs the same in February, during an appearance at the Commons digital, culture, media and sport (DCMS) select committee. Nix said he found a contact for WikiLeaks’ speaking agency on the internet and sent Assange an email.

But visitor logs from the Ecuador embassy obtained by the Guardian and Focus Ecuador appear to show that Brittany Kaiser, a senior executive at Cambridge Analytica until earlier this year, visited Assange on 17 February 2017. Information passed to the DCMS committee in the UK and the Senate judiciary committee in the US states that the meeting was “a retrospective to discuss the US election”.

Kaiser is also alleged to have said that she had funnelled money to WikiLeaks in the form of cryptocurrency. She called the organisation her “favourite charity”. The reports passed to investigators say that money was given to her by third parties in the form of “gifts and payments”.

Nix is due to appear before the DCMS committee for the second time at 3pm on Wednesday, where he is expected to be pressed on Cambridge Analytica’s relationship with WikiLeaks.

At his first appearance, Nix told the committee: “We have no relationship with WikiLeaks. We have never spoken to anyone at WikiLeaks. We have never done any business with WikiLeaks. We have no relationship with them, period.”

He told MPs that Cambridge Analytica had found out about the Clinton emails leak on the news and had “reached out to a speaking agency that represents [Assange] – that was the only way we could find to get hold of him”.

But when Kaiser appeared before MPs in April, she acknowledged that some employees at the company had contacts with lawyers who had also represented Assange.

Damian Collins, the DCMS committee chair, asked Kaiser: “If Alexander Nix wanted to reach out to Julian Assange, couldn’t he do it through you?” Kaiser replied: “That’s what I was wondering when I found that out from the press – he could have asked me to put him in touch with the legal team. But he didn’t.”

Kaiser told MPs that her principal connection to WikiLeaks was via . Jones represented Assange in his extradition case against the Swedish government and became a close, personal friend, visiting him weekly until he in April 2016. The inquest ruled that no-one else was involved in the death of Jones, who had been depressed.

Jones’s legal assistant, Robert Murtfeld, who worked closely with him on the WikiLeaks case subsequently went to work for Cambridge Analytica in New York. Information passed to the US and UK committees reveals that Murtfield had arranged Kaiser’s visit to Assange last year.

In a Tweet on Wednesday, Wikileaks said: “WikiLeaks has no knowledge of donations from either party mentioned, did not have a meeting to discuss the US election and was not approached by Murtfeld or anyone connected to him.”
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Re: Trump and Russia; Spasiba, Harasho!

Post by Forty Two » Thu Jun 07, 2018 7:17 pm

That sounds like an article about private individuals engaged in lawful behavior. They discussed the election when they met in February 2017? So, what? Donation to Wikileaks? So, what?
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Re: Trump and Russia; Spasiba, Harasho!

Post by Seabass » Fri Jun 08, 2018 11:27 pm

I'm sure this guy's done nothing wrong. :whistle:

Image

Meet the New York architect who was a key figure in Donald Trump's deals and connections in Eastern Europe
The McClatchy news service reported in April that Mueller's probe was looking more closely at the people involved in Trump's dealings in three countries, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Russia.

Fotiadis covers his trail

Around this time, CNBC received a tip that Fotiadis had worked on several Trump projects in Eurasia. Curious about his professional relationship with Trump, CNBC reached out to Fotiadis on April 11 for comment about this work.

Fotiadis did not respond to a call or an email. But eight hours later, he announced on Twitter that he was closing his firm, John Fotiadis Architect, or JFA, after 10 years in business. A few days later, Fotiadis closed the Twitter account he had used to announce he was closing down his firm.

By the end of the week, all the content from Fotiadis' professional website, including his portfolio, had been removed, leaving only a note saying he planned to join a New Jersey-based engineering company.

Gone was Fotiadis' impressive portfolio of 30 projects (some of which are pictured below), including villas, schools and office buildings he has designed for clients around the world. Also gone was any reference to the two overseas branches of JFA that he had opened — in Tbilisi and Kiev, Ukraine.


The closure of JFA appears to mark an abrupt end to the solo career of an architect who counted some of the richest men in the world among his clients. Fotiadis has not answered repeated calls, emails and text messages from CNBC with questions about his work in Eurasia or why he shuttered his company. He also declined to comment on whether he had been contacted by anyone from Mueller's office. Peter Carr, a spokesman for the special counsel, also declined to comment.
full article here:
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/06/how-a-n ... urope.html

More related info here:
The work of a New York architect reveals a lot about real estate in Eastern Europe — where Donald Trump and Paul Manafort built ties to oligarchs
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/06/archite ... archs.html
"Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." —Voltaire
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L'Emmerdeur
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Re: Trump and Russia; Spasiba, Harasho!

Post by L'Emmerdeur » Sat Jun 09, 2018 12:03 am

The title of the article linked below is gratuitously sensationalist, but that's what headline writers get paid to do. People who've been following the news about Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign have already heard pretty much all of what is told in the story (including Kilimnik's suspected involvement with Russian intelligence), but it's a decent precis on the latest character to get indicted by the Mueller team. It now appears that they have evidence that substantiates those suspicions. Whether that evidence is rock-solid or not remains to be seen.

'The Astonishing Tale of the Man Mueller Just Indicted'
For more than two decades, Konstantin Kilimnik, known familiarly as Kostya and K.K., has worked for Americans, the bulk of his time with Manafort. During that entire period, he has been dogged by suspicions. There were always hints that he might be serving another master, providing a set of surveilling eyes for Russian intelligence. One of his former colleagues, Michael Getto, told me, “From my standpoint, I kept my distance from Kostya, because I knew there was a better-than-even chance that he was connected to people I didn’t want to be.” These insinuations were never backed by more than a smattering of circumstantial evidence. They were never enough to deter State Department officials from grabbing the occasional gossipy drink with him—although one diplomat, casting a backwards glance over the course of his dealings with Kilimnik, told me, “He has excellent tradecraft.”

It was easy enough to dismiss those old hunches as conspiracy theories. The immediate post-Soviet period was a time rife with unfounded accusations. But Robert Mueller has begun to state them as fact. Or rather, in two separate fillings, he has referred to an unnamed colleague of Manafort’s, identified only as “Person A,” with “ties to Russian intelligence.” In a brief Mueller submitted to a U.S. District Court in the course of pressing his case against Manafort, he went one step further. Citing FBI special agents, the special prosecutor described Person A’s ties to Russian intelligence as “active” through the 2016 presidential election.

What everyone close to Paul Manafort already knew, and what The New York Times and other outlets later confirmed, is that Mueller was pseudonymously describing none other than Konstantin Kilimnik. Or to put it even more bluntly than Mueller: Donald Trump’s campaign chairman had a pawn of Russian intelligence as his indispensable alter ego.

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