Podcast appearances and mentions of Felix Sater

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER“The story Unger weaves with those earlier accounts and his original reporting is fresh, illuminating and more alarming than the intelligence channel described in the Steele dossier.”—The Washington PostHouse of Trump, House of Putin offers the first comprehensive investigation into the decades-long relationship among Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Russian Mafia that ultimately helped win Trump the White House.It is a chilling story that begins in the 1970s, when Trump made his first splash in the booming, money-drenched world of New York real estate, and ends with Trump's inauguration as president of the United States. That moment was the culmination of Vladimir Putin's long mission to undermine Western democracy, a mission that he and his hand-selected group of oligarchs and Mafia kingpins had ensnared Trump in, starting more than twenty years ago with the massive bailout of a string of sensational Trump hotel and casino failures in Atlantic City. This book confirms the most incredible American paranoias about Russian malevolence.To most, it will be a hair-raising revelation that the Cold War did not end in 1991—that it merely evolved, with Trump's apartments offering the perfect vehicle for billions of dollars to leave the collapsing Soviet Union. In House of Trump, House of Putin, Craig Unger methodically traces the deep-rooted alliance between the highest echelons of American political operatives and the biggest players in the frightening underworld of the Russian Mafia. He traces Donald Trump's sordid ascent from foundering real estate tycoon to leader of the free world. He traces Russia's phoenix like rise from the ashes of the post–Cold War Soviet Union as well as its ceaseless covert efforts to retaliate against the West and reclaim its status as a global superpower.Without Trump, Russia would have lacked a key component in its attempts to return to imperial greatness. Without Russia, Trump would not be president. This essential book is crucial to understanding the real powers at play in the shadows of today's world. The appearance of key figures in this book—Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, and Felix Sater to name a few—ring with haunting significance in the wake of Robert Mueller's report and as others continue to close in on the truth.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-opperman-report--1198501/support.

This week SCOTUS granted Trump immunity and more. It remains to be seen what impact it will have on the Fulton County case.Trump asks for leave to file a motion to dismiss his Manhattan verdict and Judge Merchan modifies Trump's Manhattan gag order.Mark Meadows battles over his White House records.Steve Bannon is officially an inmate. He probably doesn't like it any more than Pete Navarro does.Felix Sater has been hit with a $32 million judgment.Rudy Giulianni is disbarred from New York.Plus, Jim Jordan writes a weak and terrible report on the 51 former intel officials who said that the Hunter Biden laptop smelled like Russian misinformation. Thanks to ExpressVPN for supporting our show!Get an extra 3 months free. Expressvpn.com/cleanup. Allison Gillhttps://muellershewrote.substack.com/https://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrotePete Strzokhttps://twitter.com/petestrzokThe Podcasthttps://twitter.com/aisle45podWant to support this podcast and get it ad-free and early?Go to: https://www.patreon.com/aisle45podTell us about yourself and what you like about the show - http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=short

Friday, June 28th, 2024Today, still no ruling on immunity from the Supreme Court, and the decisions are now rolling over into next week; Felix Sater lost his money laundering trial to the tune of $32M; Roger Sollenberger from Daily Beast got a records request showing Jim Comer wrote over 2,000 emails using an alias; the former school police chief of Uvalde has been indicted for his role in the botched response to the Robb Elementary shooting; the Oklahoma state superintendent orders schools to teach the Bible in grades 5 through 12; CNN has banned White House press pool reporters from the debate; plus Allison delivers your Good News.John Fugelsanghttps://www.johnfugelsang.com/tmehttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-john-fugelsang-podcast/id1464094232The Sexy Liberal Save The World Comedy Tourhttps://sexyliberal.comTickets and LIVE show dates https://allisongill.comSubscribe for free to MuellerSheWrote on Substackhttps://muellershewrote.substack.com Former Uvalde school police chief Pete Arredondo criminally charged in Robb Elementary massacre (San Antonio Express-News)Ex-Trump Associate Felix Sater Loses Money-Laundering Trial (Bloomberg)Hypocrite James Comer's Unbelievable Number of Email Aliases Exposed (The New Republic)What it means for the Supreme Court to block enforcement of the EPA's ‘good neighbor' pollution rule (AP News)CNN bans White House pool reporters from debate room (Reuters)Oklahoma state superintendent orders schools to teach the Bible in grades 5 through 12 (AP News) Subscribe to Lawyers, Guns, And MoneyAd-free premium feed: https://lawyersgunsandmoney.supercast.comSubscribe for free everywhere else:https://lawyersgunsandmoney.simplecast.com/episodes/1-miami-1985Check out other MSW Media podcastshttps://mswmedia.com/shows/Follow AG and Dana on Social MediaDr. Allison Gill Follow Mueller, She Wrote on Posthttps://post.news/@/MuellerSheWrote?utm_source=TwitterAG&utm_medium=creator_organic&utm_campaign=muellershewrote&utm_content=FollowMehttps://muellershewrote.substack.comhttps://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrotehttps://www.threads.net/@muellershewrotehttps://www.tiktok.com/@muellershewrotehttps://instagram.com/muellershewroteDana Goldberghttps://twitter.com/DGComedyhttps://www.instagram.com/dgcomedyhttps://www.facebook.com/dgcomedyhttps://danagoldberg.comHave some good news; a confession; or a correction to share?Good News & Confessions - The Daily Beanshttps://www.dailybeanspod.com/confessional/From The Good NewsUS Department of Veterans Affairs (va.gov)Safe Hands Rescue (MN)Feline Rescue (MN)Social Security Administration (ssa.gov) Live Show Ticket Links:https://allisongill.com (for all tickets and show dates)Wednesday July 10th – Portland OR – Polaris Hall(with Dana!)Thursday July 11th – Seattle WA – The Triple Door(with Dana!)Thursday July 25th Milwaukee, WI https://tinyurl.com/Beans-MKESunday July 28th Nashville, TN - with Phil Williams https://tinyurl.com/Beans-TennWednesday July 31st St. Louis, MO https://tinyurl.com/Beans-STLFriday August 16th Washington, DC - with Andy McCabe, Pete Strzok, Glenn Kirschner https://tinyurl.com/Beans-in-DCSaturday August 24 San Francisco, CA https://tinyurl.com/Beans-SF Listener Survey:http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=shortFollow the Podcast on Apple:The Daily Beans on Apple PodcastsWant to support the show and get it ad-free and early?Supercasthttps://dailybeans.supercast.com/OrPatreon https://patreon.com/thedailybeansOr subscribe on Apple Podcasts with our affiliate linkThe Daily Beans on Apple Podcasts

The late-breaking flood of SCOTUS decisions (and especially, a new-to-us kind of sort-of non-decision) captivated Greg Dworkin this morning. Though it really started yesterday, with one case they meant to release, but which got what we'll call varying treatment in the media, and one case they didn't mean to release, but did anyway. That led us to something new for the day: the Supreme Escape Hatch known as the “DIG.” Thankfully, someone had already done some digging. Specifically into just what a DIG is. Those cases that were actually decided and released today generated some heavy social media traffic of their own. Oh, right. There's also the earliest presidential “debate” in history, coming up tonight. Maybe. If you can call it that. And we haven't even had the conventions yet. Not that anyone will notice. About that suit “filed” by the Missouri Attorney General, saying The Convicted Felon's NY trial was itself “election interference?” Did anybody check the paperwork? Then again, who cares about paperwork if you can just rewrite history? House Gop leadership looks to un-contempt Steve (K.G.) Bannon, now that they think they're Congress. Speaking of history, here's a guy with some: Felix Sater is back! By which we mean back… in trouble!

VLOG June 24 Trump docket FLA closed session, gag as lifting on Stormy & Fixer Cohen before Justice Merchan. US v. Menendez Qatar & Egypt; Miles Guo, Hwang & Felix Sater. 40 Foley duo incl NBA while UN @AntonioGuterres bans Press, corrupt https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24767259-1icpunaccred061924

VLOG June 12 US v Menendez focus, Gold Bar Bob testified against his mentor Musto, now Uribe. Also, ex-Citi with Guo, Screaming Bill Hwang of Archegos, Trump Tower man Felix Sater defends against Kazakh case while UNSG @AntonioGuterres covers up corruption

VLOG June 10: Trump Zoom by NYS Probation for July 11 sentencing; Felix Sater wants RICO conviction out of Kazakh trial https://www.patreon.com/posts/105931693. US v Menendez, Uribe on stand; US v Guo, Epoch Times echo. UN corruption UNFPA & next: UNHCR, @AntonioGuterres censors

Original Air Date: Nov 30, 2020More cabinet picks loom for the Biden administration, the Felix Sater money laundering case is moving forward, Rudy Giuliani holds a “hearing” in Arizona as they certify their results today for Biden, Trump claims the FBI and DoJ rigged the election against him, and the second half of my interview with my former boss the former Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin, plus AG and Dana deliver your Good News.Follow our guests on twitter:Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck)Nat.Sec.L. Podcast (@NSLpodcast) co-hostDavid J. Shulkin, MD (@DavidShulkin)Former Secretary of Dept. of Veterans AffairsThe first half of the interview David Shulkin from 2019 is near the end of this episode:https://jack.simplecast.com/episodes/the-mueller-memos-ft-interview-with-david-shulkinHow We Win The House 2024! https://swingleft.org/fundraise/howwewin2024Want some sweet Daily Beans Merch https://shop.dailybeanspod.comSubscribe to Lawyers, Guns, And Money Ad-free premium feed: https://lawyersgunsandmoney.supercast.com Subscribe for free everywhere else: https://lawyersgunsandmoney.simplecast.com/episodes/1-miami-1985Check out other MSW Media podcasts https://mswmedia.com/shows/Follow AG and Dana on Social MediaDr. Allison Gill Follow Mueller, She Wrote on Post https://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrote https://twitter.com/dailybeanspod https://www.tiktok.com/@muellershewrote https://instagram.com/muellershewroteDana Goldberg https://twitter.com/DGComedy https://www.instagram.com/dgcomedy https://www.facebook.com/dgcomedy https://danagoldberg.comHave some good news; a confession; or a correction? Good News & Confessions - The Daily Beans

“The story Unger weaves with those earlier accounts and his original reporting is fresh, illuminating and more alarming than the intelligence channel described in the Steele dossier.”—The Washington PostHouse of Trump, House of Putin offers the first comprehensive investigation into the decades-long relationship among Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Russian Mafia that ultimately helped win Trump the White House.It is a chilling story that begins in the 1970s, when Trump made his first splash in the booming, money-drenched world of New York real estate, and ends with Trump's inauguration as president of the United States. That moment was the culmination of Vladimir Putin's long mission to undermine Western democracy, a mission that he and his hand-selected group of oligarchs and Mafia kingpins had ensnared Trump in, starting more than twenty years ago with the massive bailout of a string of sensational Trump hotel and casino failures in Atlantic City. This book confirms the most incredible American paranoias about Russian malevolence.To most, it will be a hair-raising revelation that the Cold War did not end in 1991—that it merely evolved, with Trump's apartments offering the perfect vehicle for billions of dollars to leave the collapsing Soviet Union. In House of Trump, House of Putin, Craig Unger methodically traces the deep-rooted alliance between the highest echelons of American political operatives and the biggest players in the frightening underworld of the Russian Mafia. He traces Donald Trump's sordid ascent from foundering real estate tycoon to leader of the free world. He traces Russia's phoenix like rise from the ashes of the post–Cold War Soviet Union as well as its ceaseless covert efforts to retaliate against the West and reclaim its status as a global superpower.Without Trump, Russia would have lacked a key component in its attempts to return to imperial greatness. Without Russia, Trump would not be president. This essential book is crucial to understanding the real powers at play in the shadows of today's world. The appearance of key figures in this book—Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, and Felix Sater to name a few—ring with haunting significance in the wake of Robert Mueller's report and as others continue to close in on the truth.Buy the book https://amzn.to/3PU4CYBThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/1198501/advertisement

As we ramp up to the new season, three episodes from the archives about RUDY GIULIANI. This content has been re-edited and digitally remastered, previously exclusive to premium members. If you want to see or hear more content like this, join narativ on Patreon or YouTube. Listen in as we untangle the complex web of connections between Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Vladimir Putin, and Ukraine. Discover the ins and outs of Giuliani's relationships with Russian oligarchs and how they shaped the U.S. response to Russia's actions in Ukraine. We'll also explore how Trump's desire for a Trump Tower in Moscow played a part in the unfolding drama. Hear about the infamous meeting between Felix Sater, Michael Cohen, and Andrei Artimenko, which had potential implications for Ukraine's leadership. Also, we pay tribute to Sally Yates, the whistleblower who Trump swiftly dismissed after voicing concerns about potential compromise within his administration. In the second half of the episode, we investigate the intriguing timeline leading up to a critical meeting at the White House involving Trump, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin. Hear about Giuliani's mysterious contracts with two Ukrainian cities and the potential influence they might have had on Trump's actions. We also explore how the firing of FBI's Jim Comey may have been connected to the larger geopolitical narrative. The potential connections between Trump, Giuliani, and figures like Pavel Fuchs, a businessman with strong ties to Putin, will be examined. This episode promises to give you an in-depth understanding of the intricate relationships and deals that define our current political landscape. ORIGINALLY AIRED OCTOBER 20, 2019 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As we ramp up to the new season, three episodes from the archives about RUDY GIULIANI. This content has been re-edited and digitally remastered, previously exclusive to premium members. If you want to see or hear more content like this, join narativ on Patreon or YouTube Listen in as we untangle the complex web of connections between Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Vladimir Putin, and Ukraine. Discover the ins and outs of Giuliani's relationships with Russian oligarchs and how they shaped the U.S. response to Russia's actions in Ukraine. We'll also explore how Trump's desire for a Trump Tower in Moscow played a part in the unfolding drama. Hear about the infamous meeting between Felix Sater, Michael Cohen, and Andrei Artimenko, which had potential implications for Ukraine's leadership. Also, we pay tribute to Sally Yates, the whistleblower who Trump swiftly dismissed after voicing concerns about potential compromise within his administration. In the second half of the episode, we investigate the intriguing timeline leading up to a critical meeting at the White House involving Trump, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin. Hear about Giuliani's mysterious contracts with two Ukrainian cities and the potential influence they might have had on Trump's actions. We also explore how the firing of FBI's Jim Comey may have been connected to the larger geopolitical narrative. The potential connections between Trump, Giuliani, and figures like Pavel Fuchs, a businessman with strong ties to Putin, will be examined. This episode promises to give you an in-depth understanding of the intricate relationships and deals that define our current political landscape. ORIGINALLY AIRED OCTOBER 20, 2019  

One of the first Twitter Space's done by the Russia Hoax Sleuths, hosted by Fool Nelson, Ryan M, Monsieur's Ghost, and Julie Lewis. Quite entertaining, as Michael Caputo, and Felix Sater showed up, and Scott Stedman got mangled. Battle of the Titans - Good Vs Evil, Christianity, Education is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit efdouglass.substack.com/subscribe

This episode explains how to destroy the credibility of a government witness while also destroying their lives – and helping your client avoid conviction!  These are the stories of Gene “Lowlife” Klotsman (Trump associate Felix Sater's partner) and Marvin “Money Marvin” Dodson who had the misfortune of cooperating against two of Jeff's clients decades ago.  In this episode, Jeff explains the upside of having a manically motivated attorney on your side.Finally, Jeff notes that Joe Biden's speech at Independence Hall basically called for a Civil War – and why that might not be in the best interests of liberals.Don't miss an episode: Visit https://beyondthelegallimit.com/subscribe/ to get episodes sent directly to your inbox each week.

The next Twitter Space's done by the Russia Hoax Sleuths, hosted by Fool Nelson, Introducing Felix Sater This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit efdouglass.substack.com/subscribe

“The story Unger weaves with those earlier accounts and his original reporting is fresh, illuminating and more alarming than the intelligence channel described in the Steele dossier.”—The Washington Post House of Trump, House of Putin offers the first comprehensive investigation into the decades-long relationship among Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Russian Mafia that ultimately helped win Trump the White House. It is a chilling story that begins in the 1970s, when Trump made his first splash in the booming, money-drenched world of New York real estate, and ends with Trump's inauguration as president of the United States. That moment was the culmination of Vladimir Putin's long mission to undermine Western democracy, a mission that he and his hand-selected group of oligarchs and Mafia kingpins had ensnared Trump in, starting more than twenty years ago with the massive bailout of a string of sensational Trump hotel and casino failures in Atlantic City. This book confirms the most incredible American paranoias about Russian malevolence. To most, it will be a hair-raising revelation that the Cold War did not end in 1991—that it merely evolved, with Trump's apartments offering the perfect vehicle for billions of dollars to leave the collapsing Soviet Union. In House of Trump, House of Putin, Craig Unger methodically traces the deep-rooted alliance between the highest echelons of American political operatives and the biggest players in the frightening underworld of the Russian Mafia. He traces Donald Trump's sordid ascent from foundering real estate tycoon to leader of the free world. He traces Russia's phoenix like rise from the ashes of the post–Cold War Soviet Union as well as its ceaseless covert efforts to retaliate against the West and reclaim its status as a global superpower. Without Trump, Russia would have lacked a key component in its attempts to return to imperial greatness. Without Russia, Trump would not be president. This essential book is crucial to understanding the real powers at play in the shadows of today's world. The appearance of key figures in this book—Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, and Felix Sater to name a few—ring with haunting significance in the wake of Robert Mueller's report and as others continue to close in on the truth.

“The story Unger weaves with those earlier accounts and his original reporting is fresh, illuminating and more alarming than the intelligence channel described in the Steele dossier.”—The Washington PostHouse of Trump, House of Putin offers the first comprehensive investigation into the decades-long relationship among Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Russian Mafia that ultimately helped win Trump the White House.It is a chilling story that begins in the 1970s, when Trump made his first splash in the booming, money-drenched world of New York real estate, and ends with Trump's inauguration as president of the United States. That moment was the culmination of Vladimir Putin's long mission to undermine Western democracy, a mission that he and his hand-selected group of oligarchs and Mafia kingpins had ensnared Trump in, starting more than twenty years ago with the massive bailout of a string of sensational Trump hotel and casino failures in Atlantic City. This book confirms the most incredible American paranoias about Russian malevolence.To most, it will be a hair-raising revelation that the Cold War did not end in 1991—that it merely evolved, with Trump's apartments offering the perfect vehicle for billions of dollars to leave the collapsing Soviet Union. In House of Trump, House of Putin, Craig Unger methodically traces the deep-rooted alliance between the highest echelons of American political operatives and the biggest players in the frightening underworld of the Russian Mafia. He traces Donald Trump's sordid ascent from foundering real estate tycoon to leader of the free world. He traces Russia's phoenix like rise from the ashes of the post–Cold War Soviet Union as well as its ceaseless covert efforts to retaliate against the West and reclaim its status as a global superpower.Without Trump, Russia would have lacked a key component in its attempts to return to imperial greatness. Without Russia, Trump would not be president. This essential book is crucial to understanding the real powers at play in the shadows of today's world. The appearance of key figures in this book—Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, and Felix Sater to name a few—ring with haunting significance in the wake of Robert Mueller's report and as others continue to close in on the truth.

“The story Unger weaves with those earlier accounts and his original reporting is fresh, illuminating and more alarming than the intelligence channel described in the Steele dossier.”—The Washington Post House of Trump, House of Putin offers the first comprehensive investigation into the decades-long relationship among Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Russian Mafia that ultimately helped win Trump the White House. It is a chilling story that begins in the 1970s, when Trump made his first splash in the booming, money-drenched world of New York real estate, and ends with Trump's inauguration as president of the United States. That moment was the culmination of Vladimir Putin's long mission to undermine Western democracy, a mission that he and his hand-selected group of oligarchs and Mafia kingpins had ensnared Trump in, starting more than twenty years ago with the massive bailout of a string of sensational Trump hotel and casino failures in Atlantic City. This book confirms the most incredible American paranoias about Russian malevolence. To most, it will be a hair-raising revelation that the Cold War did not end in 1991—that it merely evolved, with Trump's apartments offering the perfect vehicle for billions of dollars to leave the collapsing Soviet Union. In House of Trump, House of Putin, Craig Unger methodically traces the deep-rooted alliance between the highest echelons of American political operatives and the biggest players in the frightening underworld of the Russian Mafia. He traces Donald Trump's sordid ascent from foundering real estate tycoon to leader of the free world. He traces Russia's phoenix like rise from the ashes of the post–Cold War Soviet Union as well as its ceaseless covert efforts to retaliate against the West and reclaim its status as a global superpower. Without Trump, Russia would have lacked a key component in its attempts to return to imperial greatness. Without Russia, Trump would not be president. This essential book is crucial to understanding the real powers at play in the shadows of today's world. The appearance of key figures in this book—Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, and Felix Sater to name a few—ring with haunting significance in the wake of Robert Mueller's report and as others continue to close in on the truth.

The next step in this journey is our look into an individual that was in Trump’s orbit — Felix Sater. An interesting guy, to say the least, but his past and present is very murky and another Trump liar.

Today, more cabinet picks loom for the Biden administration, the Felix Sater money laundering case is moving forward, Rudy Giuliani holds a “hearing” in Arizona as they certify their results today for Biden, Trump claims the FBI and DoJ rigged the election against him, and the second half of my interview with my former boss the former Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin, plus Dana Goldberg (@DGComedy) joins AG to do the Hot Notes and Good News. Follow our guests on twitter: Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) Nat.Sec.L. Podcast (@NSLpodcast) co-host David J. Shulkin, MD (@DavidShulkin) Former Secretary of Dept. of Veterans Affairs First half of the interview from 2019 https://apple.co/39wv5qC Want to support the show and get it ad-free and early? https://dailybeans.supercast.tech/ Or https://patreon.com/muellershewrote Have some good news, a confession, or a correction to share? https://bit.ly/2ShareGN Promo Codes If you want to turn things around and get in the best shape of your life, check out ECHELONFIT.COM today! Special offer for DAILYBEANS listeners, get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/DAILYBEANS PrettyLitter.com - use promo code DAILYBEANS for 20% off your first order Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Throughout this reporting project, Jason Leopold and Anthony Cormier wanted to talk to someone who was the subject of a suspicious activity report to ask, “Why did the bank flag you?” Only one person was willing to talk: real estate developer and former associate of President Trump, Felix Sater. And Senator Ron Wyden and a former DOJ prosecutor tell us what they think needs to be done to stem the flow of dirty money in our banking system. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER“The story Unger weaves with those earlier accounts and his original reporting is fresh, illuminating and more alarming than the intelligence channel described in the Steele dossier.”—The Washington PostHouse of Trump, House of Putin offers the first comprehensive investigation into the decades-long relationship among Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Russian Mafia that ultimately helped win Trump the White House.It is a chilling story that begins in the 1970s, when Trump made his first splash in the booming, money-drenched world of New York real estate, and ends with Trump's inauguration as president of the United States. That moment was the culmination of Vladimir Putin's long mission to undermine Western democracy, a mission that he and his hand-selected group of oligarchs and Mafia kingpins had ensnared Trump in, starting more than twenty years ago with the massive bailout of a string of sensational Trump hotel and casino failures in Atlantic City. This book confirms the most incredible American paranoias about Russian malevolence.To most, it will be a hair-raising revelation that the Cold War did not end in 1991—that it merely evolved, with Trump's apartments offering the perfect vehicle for billions of dollars to leave the collapsing Soviet Union. In House of Trump, House of Putin, Craig Unger methodically traces the deep-rooted alliance between the highest echelons of American political operatives and the biggest players in the frightening underworld of the Russian Mafia. He traces Donald Trump's sordid ascent from foundering real estate tycoon to leader of the free world. He traces Russia's phoenix like rise from the ashes of the post–Cold War Soviet Union as well as its ceaseless covert efforts to retaliate against the West and reclaim its status as a global superpower.Without Trump, Russia would have lacked a key component in its attempts to return to imperial greatness. Without Russia, Trump would not be president. This essential book is crucial to understanding the real powers at play in the shadows of today's world. The appearance of key figures in this book—Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, and Felix Sater to name a few—ring with haunting significance in the wake of Robert Mueller's report and as others continue to close in on the truth.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “The story Unger weaves with those earlier accounts and his original reporting is fresh, illuminating and more alarming than the intelligence channel described in the Steele dossier.”—The Washington Post House of Trump, House of Putin offers the first comprehensive investigation into the decades-long relationship among Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Russian Mafia that ultimately helped win Trump the White House. It is a chilling story that begins in the 1970s, when Trump made his first splash in the booming, money-drenched world of New York real estate, and ends with Trump's inauguration as president of the United States. That moment was the culmination of Vladimir Putin's long mission to undermine Western democracy, a mission that he and his hand-selected group of oligarchs and Mafia kingpins had ensnared Trump in, starting more than twenty years ago with the massive bailout of a string of sensational Trump hotel and casino failures in Atlantic City. This book confirms the most incredible American paranoias about Russian malevolence. To most, it will be a hair-raising revelation that the Cold War did not end in 1991—that it merely evolved, with Trump's apartments offering the perfect vehicle for billions of dollars to leave the collapsing Soviet Union. In House of Trump, House of Putin, Craig Unger methodically traces the deep-rooted alliance between the highest echelons of American political operatives and the biggest players in the frightening underworld of the Russian Mafia. He traces Donald Trump's sordid ascent from foundering real estate tycoon to leader of the free world. He traces Russia's phoenix like rise from the ashes of the post–Cold War Soviet Union as well as its ceaseless covert efforts to retaliate against the West and reclaim its status as a global superpower. Without Trump, Russia would have lacked a key component in its attempts to return to imperial greatness. Without Russia, Trump would not be president. This essential book is crucial to understanding the real powers at play in the shadows of today's world. The appearance of key figures in this book—Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, and Felix Sater to name a few—ring with haunting significance in the wake of Robert Mueller's report and as others continue to close in on the truth.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “The story Unger weaves with those earlier accounts and his original reporting is fresh, illuminating and more alarming than the intelligence channel described in the Steele dossier.”—The Washington Post House of Trump, House of Putin offers the first comprehensive investigation into the decades-long relationship among Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Russian Mafia that ultimately helped win Trump the White House. It is a chilling story that begins in the 1970s, when Trump made his first splash in the booming, money-drenched world of New York real estate, and ends with Trump's inauguration as president of the United States. That moment was the culmination of Vladimir Putin's long mission to undermine Western democracy, a mission that he and his hand-selected group of oligarchs and Mafia kingpins had ensnared Trump in, starting more than twenty years ago with the massive bailout of a string of sensational Trump hotel and casino failures in Atlantic City. This book confirms the most incredible American paranoias about Russian malevolence. To most, it will be a hair-raising revelation that the Cold War did not end in 1991—that it merely evolved, with Trump's apartments offering the perfect vehicle for billions of dollars to leave the collapsing Soviet Union. In House of Trump, House of Putin, Craig Unger methodically traces the deep-rooted alliance between the highest echelons of American political operatives and the biggest players in the frightening underworld of the Russian Mafia. He traces Donald Trump's sordid ascent from foundering real estate tycoon to leader of the free world. He traces Russia's phoenix like rise from the ashes of the post–Cold War Soviet Union as well as its ceaseless covert efforts to retaliate against the West and reclaim its status as a global superpower. Without Trump, Russia would have lacked a key component in its attempts to return to imperial greatness. Without Russia, Trump would not be president. This essential book is crucial to understanding the real powers at play in the shadows of today's world. The appearance of key figures in this book—Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, and Felix Sater to name a few—ring with haunting significance in the wake of Robert Mueller's report and as others continue to close in on the truth.

With the release of revealing new documents from his court file, former Donald Trump real estate advisor Felix Sater -- in an exclusive interview with Skullduggery-- talks about his one time life of crime, his work with mobsters in a Wall Street "pump and dump" scheme and his years serving as an undercover informant for the U.S. government providing crucial details about Al Qaeda terrorists and international cyber criminals. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Today we discuss Jeffrey Epstein's bail plea, Rudy Giuliani's cronies, a Judge unsealing Felix Sater's court documents, the Senate passes the 9/11 first responders bill, Boris Johnson becomes UK prime minister, our new Secretary of Defense, Bijan Kian's conviction, how Trump is trying to block the Ways and Means Committee from seeing his New York tax returns, and of course, the hotly anticipated live Mueller testimony.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we discuss Jeffrey Epstein's bail plea, Rudy Giuliani's cronies, a Judge unsealing Felix Sater's court documents, the Senate passes the 9/11 first responders bill, Boris Johnson becomes UK prime minister, our new Secretary of Defense, Bijan Kian's conviction, how Trump is trying to block the Ways and Means Committee from seeing his New York tax returns, and of course, the hotly anticipated live Mueller testimony.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

071019 Podcast, Jeffrey Epstein, Robert Mueller, Seth Rich, Felix Sater, Christopher Steele, Michael Isikoff, Kim Darroch

Legs, David and Jody were in the Bunker.RIP Ross Perot. Legs had some personal thoughts on him.Jeffrey Epstein has been indicted and arrested. Barr recused and then un-recused himself from the case.Donaldson didn't answer 200 written questions. And much more!Hope you enjoy this week's installment.Talk at you next week.

S3E25 - Joining us this week is law professor and MSNBC contributor Joyce White Vance! We also give updates on the Manafort/Hannity texts, Stone's gag order, Hope Hicks exerting white privilege, Felix Sater oversleeping, and more! Enjoy!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before he became infamous for working on the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails and the Trump Russia investigation, former acting FBI chief Andrew McCabe investigated the Russian mob in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. McCabe has been asking some of the questions we at Trump, Inc. have asked ourselves about Trump’s business. So today, we compare notes. In this conversation with Andrea Bernstein and Heather Vogell, of Trump, Inc., McCabe talks about why it makes sense that some of the people he investigated in the 1990s have resurfaced in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, what questions he still has after the Mueller report and why he and former FBI director Jim Comey have said Trump’s management style reminds them of the mob. Trump has long denied any wrongdoing, and he has said he was simply acting as an ordinary businessman in his Russia dealings. (This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.) WNYC’s Andrea Bernstein: I want to start by asking you about your FBI training. You write about being at Quantico and you say, “I embraced every bit of this culture, even the most arbitrary aspects of the discipline.” You say that you loved “wearing the same style of polo shirt every day for weeks on end, loved the fact that everybody around me wore the same polo shirt too.” Why was it important to you, to dress the part? Andrew McCabe: You know, I think each of those little details, though not significant individually, were a way of communicating to us that we had joined an organization that was much bigger and more significant than our individual preferences or our lives before that point.  Bernstein: I have to say, you definitely look like a G-man. McCabe: I'm going to say thank you. Bernstein: Early on in your career, you were assigned to investigate the Russian mob at a specific point in history in New York, and Brighton Beach was a big place where a lot of this activity was based. I'm wondering if you could paint a picture for listeners of what Brighton Beach was like then, and what the Russian mob was like then and how it all came to you? McCabe: So the FBI field office in New York City had experience with developing new programs in what we called nontraditional organized crime. The folks who ran the organized crime program recognized the situation that we had with a very large Russian-speaking population in New York — one with a deep historical connection to organized crime activity in Russia — and so they made the decision to start a Russian organized crime squad. So when I got there in ’96, it was really still in its infant stages. Pretty much everybody on the squad were very young, new agents. “First office agents,” as we call them in the Bureau. And so we found Brighton Beach to be just a fascinating, chaotic, confusing place filled with opportunity to identify and investigate criminal activity. Brighton in those days was a thriving, bustling, Russian-speaking community. You’d drive down Brighton Beach Avenue and all of the signs for all the stores were written in both English and Russian. It was not uncommon to walk down Brighton Beach Avenue and just not hear anyone speaking anything other than Russian. Places like Tatiana’s, Rasputin, the Odessa. All these very fancy restaurants that also operated as night clubs. And there was a thriving kind of social scene around those nightclubs, which often led to criminal activity and became the kind of focus of the organized crime community in New York at that time. ProPublica’s Heather Vogell: You wrote about how the Russian mob started turning more toward financial crimes and business to pursue its goals. Could you talk a little bit about that transformation? McCabe: Sure. This was one of the fascinating things about working on that squad. You could be working an extortion or kidnapping case one day, and then a really esoteric financial fraud the next. The thing that set the Russians apart from their Italian counterparts in the organized crime community was their creativity. They very quickly became the originators of the new scams. So they did things like the tax cheating scams on gasoline and diesel fuel that were very common in the New York-New Jersey area in those days. They really professionalized the auto insurance scams around false accidents and medical mills and clinics where people would go and get processed to increase the billings against auto insurance companies. We did a lot of that work. And then, of course, we spent a lot of time on what became known as the Bank of New York money laundering scandal. So a few enterprising employees of the Bank of New York essentially took their private banking and internal computer software, which they had access to because one of them had a position in, I believe, the private banking section of Bank of New York, and began operating their own financial institution with individuals for the purpose of transferring money from Russia first to New York and then to many other places around the world. Bernstein: We have spent the last year thinking about whether there is a line from some of the small-time crooks in Brighton Beach to Russian interference in the 2016 election. The list of people who seem to matter now were in some way connected to this scene. There's Felix Sater, who is connected to the Trump Tower Moscow deal; there was Michael Cohen. They later show up trying to build a Trump Tower Moscow. And then there's Yevgeny Dvoskin, who was convicted in the gasoline scam that you were just talking about in Brighton Beach and is now a banker in Russia. McCabe: That's right. Bernstein: So they were all connected to Brighton Beach years ago, and then they show up in negotiations and 2015 and 2016. What do you make of that? McCabe: Well, it is at first blush curious, and then when you think about it a little bit longer, it makes perfect sense. Brighton Beach — we thought of it as kind of the Normandy landing in America for Russian organized crime folks. So there were many people who had experience with organized crime in Russia who came to the United States and settled in Brighton Beach just because they thought it was the new frontier. And this is a place you can make a lot of money. And then there were some who we believe were actually sent by organized crime criminal organizations in Russia for the purpose of organizing and developing business and things like that. So if you are someone, or you are an organization, that is not opposed to dealing with people with that sort of background, with those sorts of connections, with that sort of history, then you're gonna find yourself negotiating with and being represented by people who had experience in those early ’90s heydays of Russian organized crime and Brighton Beach. That doesn't really surprise me that much that you see connections like that back to the Trump Organization. Bernstein: OK, so let's talk about that a little more, because to us we're like, wow! That is crazy that these characters keep re-emerging in the story, and a generation later. So when you say it doesn't seem strange to you when you think about it, can you unpack that a little more? I mean, why is it that they're coming to work with the Trump Organization and the man who is now the president of the United States?   McCabe: Well, as I said, it makes sense to me as an investigator. I don't mean to say that it's a good thing. But these are the same folks in many cases — guys like Felix Sater and others people — who we investigated back in the early and mid-’90s. If you are an organization that doesn't have a problem with dealing with someone who has a known organized crime past and has actually been convicted of federal crimes for that same sort of activity, then you know you're going to find yourself making deals with and being represented by Felix Sater. Bernstein: So how does that make you feel? Here's the president of the United States, who is in a business deal or talking about a business deal with somebody that you investigated when you started, and when the United States started, investigating the Russian mob. McCabe: It is to my recollection and experience absolutely unprecedented and deeply concerning. From a strictly counterintelligence perspective, these are the exact sort of connections and historical overlaps that you look for when you're trying to determine whether or not a person or an organization could be subject to foreign influence. If you think about it just in the context of a standard background check for access to classified information, one of the things that can slow down an unbelievably complicated background check for any individual is if they have a relative in a foreign country. That requires all kinds of other degrees of investigation because you have to understand who is that person and what position are they in and that sort of thing. Now think of that in terms of someone who is taking extraordinary steps to develop a potentially billion-dollar real estate investment not in any foreign country, but in Russia. I mean, that is incredibly concerning to any counterintelligence professional who is trying to make an assessment as to when, how and where will that foreign government attempt to influence this person. Vogell: So we have all these characters re-emerging from Brighton Beach. Can you talk about the significance of that in light of what we now understand in terms of the interplay between organized crime and the state security services and the top levels of the Russian government? McCabe: Yeah. So there's a lot there. But I would start, I think, by saying it is very hard to desegregate organized crime from the government in Russia. I mean, we learned from the Mueller report that Vladimir Putin met quarterly with the oligarchs. The oligarchs are the modern-day masters of organized crime in Russia. They are the folks who, by one way or another, rose to the top of that pile and now control massive assets as a result. Huge fortunes. Vogell: So how, in your understanding, did this tie back to the Russian government? McCabe: The place where those two things come together — the organized crime figures and the government — is through the intelligence services. So there's always been this kind of synchronicity between the arm of the government that understands organized crime, knows who the players are, understands the businesses and the things that different individuals are engaged in, and has the kind of boots on the ground, if you will, to make those sorts of connections. Those are the intelligence services in Russia. Bernstein: There is a mountain of evidence suggesting a Trump-Russia thing. But so far no one — not not us, not you, not Robert Mueller — has been able to say what that thing is. And as you have puzzled over this relationship, does it seem possible that there in fact isn't a thing? McCabe: I think that mountain of evidence that you referred to makes it strongly likely that there is a thing. Does that mean we'll ever figure out what it is? No. But it certainly means we should keep looking. If you look at even just the Trumps’ history with Deutsche Bank: It's almost impossible to look at those series of relationships and transactions and defaults and failures followed by more and more loans. There has to be a thing at the core of that relationship between the Trump Organization and Deutsche Bank. Do we know what it is just yet? No. Will we ever? I'm not sure, but we certainly should keep looking. Bernstein: So after the Mueller report was released, we locked ourselves in the big conference room and read it for hours. McCabe: I did the same thing. Bernstein: And then when we read it, we were like, well, we still have so many questions about Trump and his business dealings in Russia and how that might have linked to foreign influence in the election. If I'm hearing you correctly, I'm hearing you say that you still have a lot of questions, too.   McCabe: Well, I think anybody who follows these issues can't help but have a lot of questions. And I don't think that Director Mueller and his team went about their work assuming that they would answer every question about Donald Trump and about the Trump business enterprises and about his historical business entanglements with Russians or anyone else. They tried to be as narrowly tailored in their remit as they could possibly be. But sure, I still have many questions about the president and his associates’ connections with Russia. I think you can't help but but walk away from the report with a lot of things that you'd like to see more information about. Bernstein: So you just switched to the second person you said “you can't help.” But we're not you. We didn't actually start this investigation; we didn't work on this investigation; we weren't investigating the Russian mob two decades ago. So I'm wondering what we are to conclude from that. McCabe: What we are to conclude from the fact that I still have questions? Bernstein: Correct. McCabe: Well, I think you see it the same way that I do. I mean, I think that the issues that you address in the podcast are the best indication of that. I think even such basic things as, why is this president fighting tooth and nail to continue to withhold and conceal his own personal financial records in a way that no other president — Republican or Democrat — has ever endeavored to conceal? Those are the sorts of questions that, if you are an investigator, and you know this as well as I do, give rise to the curiosity that leads you to investigate. Like why is it that there are so many representatives, so many people, even if it's just a handful, people who have official connections to sanctioned entities or banks in Russia who are interacting with the president, with his associates, with his family members? Have we ever seen that before by any president or really any high-level government official? I haven't, in the years that I've been doing this. So those are questions that I think were outside the scope of what Director Mueller was doing to some extent, but certainly questions I'd love to see answered. Bernstein: Trump says in his Russia dealings he was acting like an ordinary businessman. So let's talk about the Trump administration for a moment. You know we are big students of the history of President Trump. And before he was President Trump, he was a businessman here in our city. And one of the tactics that he honed very well was to try to kill off investigations about him or that might potentially involve him before they started. And just observing from the outside seeing these sustained attacks by the president on you, on Peter Strzok, both of you, forced out, forced off the Russia beat, makes me feel like there's this incredible brain drain going on. Are you alarmed by that? McCabe: Well, I think that there's no question that this president, that's his approach to perceived adversity. He attacks people personally. He will stop at nothing to undermine reputations and employment and everything else. That's certainly what I've experienced. And Peter and others I think have been on the sharp end of that as well. Am I concerned that there's no one left in the FBI to investigate these sorts of things? No. The investigative experience in that organization is deep and significant and done, hopefully, by people whose names you and the president don't know, so they can continue doing that work carefully and quietly in the way that it needs to be done. Bernstein: In your book you write a lot about your private thoughts in the years that you were working in the Trump administration, and as you were having these strange and sometimes alarming conversations with the president. One of the strangest interactions at that time that you wrote about was a meeting with President Trump and the White House counsel Don McGahn when you were being pressured to say it was a good idea for the president to come and address the FBI. You were writing that your permission would somehow give him cover to do something he was planning to do. In the end, he didn't make the trip but you wrote, “The president and his men were trying to work me the way a criminal brigade would operate.” What did you mean by that? McCabe: You know, it's a method of operation that I'd seen many times before in my own investigative history working in Russian organized crime. The leader of the crew, the leader of an organized criminal enterprise doesn't come out and tell someone what to do. They throw it out as an option that they want that other person to select. And so that way after the fact they can say: “Oh, I was just doing what they asked me to do. I wasn't forcing them to pay me $100 a week to protect their furniture store. I simply gave him the option to do that, and he selected it for himself.” So it's a kind of a subtle, passive-aggressive kind of bullying that comes with an unspoken threat. That's very effective. I mean, organized criminal enterprises have been doing that for as long as organized crime enterprises have existed. And so that's what it felt like in the Oval Office that day as I was being kind of progressively backed into the corner to state the words that they wanted to hear me state. Bernstein: Just to follow up with that, Jim Comey in his book references La Cosa Nostra. He also says the way that the president operated reminded him of the way the mob operated. But what are you guys saying here? McCabe: It's impossible to interact with the president and the administration without drawing that comparison. If you're somebody who comes from an investigative background, somebody like Jim Comey or myself or anybody else who's had experience with organized crime, the parallels are undeniable. The parallels in the way business is conducted, the way conversations proceed, the way you are asked for personal loyalty rather than loyalty to the oath that you've taken, the way that everything is analyzed on this kind of black-and-white paradox: you're either with us or you're against us, you’re either on our team and a part of this effort or you are somebody that we need to destroy. It's just such an obvious comparison. I’m not try not trying to undermine Jim Comey or myself, but it is an undeniable parallel between the way this president conducts himself and those around him support him and conduct themselves and the things that we have seen from organized crime groups. Bernstein: So is there an inference to be made from that or is that just an observation. McCabe: That's just an observation. It certainly leads to another round of questions as to why somebody would conduct themselves that way. But until you see that entity actually conducting crimes, you're not really in a position to call it an organized crime enterprise, right? And I think that effort is ongoing. Vogell: So we wanted to talk a little bit more about Robert Mueller, who you worked very closely with when he was FBI director. McCabe: Yes. Vogell: You had some wonderful and revealing personal details about his work habits and his general demeanor in the book. Especially, the one I liked, was about how on charts that showed different networks of criminal connections, he hated it when there were too many bold colors on those. Tell us a little bit more about that and what that taught you about his personality and how that was important at the time. McCabe: You know, through your interactions with the director you would pick up those little gems like, oh my gosh, you can't use a diagonal line on your chart. They have to be straight lines and perpendicular lines. You can't use bold colors, as you've mentioned. He hated some case names, the code names that were used for major cases. And so you're constantly kind of navigating your work with an eye on like, oh you can't do this because the director wouldn’t like it, or you should do that because he’ll like it better. So it was hard to do at the time and it could be a cause of great stress, but it was also a very effective way of completely transforming the way that we approached our work at least in the terrorism area. Vogell: It was a level of discipline, is what you're saying? McCabe: That's right. A level of discipline and accountability. Vogell: There was at one point more recently when you were sort of pining for the old Bob Mueller “say nothing” FBI, right in the middle of all of these political firestorms that were going on. McCabe: Yeah. Vogell: Did you feel that you had gotten a long way from where you were just a few years earlier with him? And not entirely necessarily because of the directors themselves, but the whole climate and environment had changed, and did you feel the whole organization struggling to adjust to that? McCabe: You know, I did. It was a little bit of a nostalgic look back. There were many days I was in the Hoover Building wishing I was back in Brighton Beach. Those were simpler and in many ways more satisfying times. But we changed significantly as an organization, particularly in terms of the way that we approached our responsibilities to informing the public and informing Congress of what we were doing after Director Mueller left. And that's because those things had changed around us. In the age of 24-hour news cycles and social media and constant reporting and everything that we were doing, there was certainly a need for the Bureau to evolve in its approach to public relations and things of that nature. And Jim Comey was the perfect guy to do it, because he had such significant abilities as a communicator and brought a great understanding of the impact of social media and media in general to the Bureau. But it did get us to a place where, you know, once you invite that guest over you're kind of stuck entertaining that guest for as long as they stay, which in this case was forever. Bernstein: Forever is a long night. McCabe: It is. It is. Bernstein: So you have been through an awful lot in the last four years. How are you feeling now about the future of our country and national security? McCabe: You know, like many people, I am still surprised day in and day out by the things, the developments that I see in the news each day. This latest constitutional crisis that we seem to be stumbling our way towards causes me great concern. Understanding that maybe we're at a point in history now where the executive branch not only doesn't cooperate with the legislative branch, but completely denies and ignores their constitutional responsibilities to conduct oversight. That's not someplace I ever thought we'd end up. Seeing things like that is tough. And I think it reinforces for us the incredible challenges that we face with this current administration. However, I try to step back and take the long view. I try to remind myself that we as a nation have been through really infinitely tougher challenges before. We have made mistakes in the past, and we've gotten past those mistakes by owning up to them and acknowledging them transparently and honestly and having leadership with the courage and the moral backbone to do that and to guide us to a better place. And I think that that will happen for us this time as well. I've no reason to believe it won't. And so I am still confident and optimistic about the future. I don't know how long this kind of period of chaos will last, but it won't last forever. And I think at the end of the day we will navigate this in the same way we have every other challenge that's faced this country. Bernstein: Thank you very much, Andrew McCabe. McCabe: Sure. Thank you for having me. It's been really fun.   Stay up to date with email updates about WNYC and ProPublica’s investigations into the president's business practices. You can contact us via Signal, WhatsApp or voicemail at 347-244-2134. Here’s more about how you can contact us securely. You can always email us at tips@trumpincpodcast.org. And finally, you can use the Postal Service: Trump, Inc. at ProPublica 155 Ave of the Americas, 13th Floor New York, NY 10013 “Trump, Inc.” is a production of WNYC Studios and ProPublica. Support our work by visiting donate.propublica.org or by becoming a supporting member of WNYC. Subscribe here or wherever you get your podcasts.   Copyright © 2019 New York Public Radio and ProPublica. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use at www.wnyc.org and https://www.propublica.org/steal-our-stories/ for further information. Our transcripts are created on a rush deadline, often by contractors. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of our programming is the audio record.”

Today's topics: *Deutsche Bank, Trump and Kushner; what we've known for a while and what we learned yesterday *Choice protests tomorrow! check out stopabortionbans.org for further info *"Why hasn't Felix Sater testified yet?" *Voter turnout and why it matters so much in 2020 *A primer on the Full Faith & Credit clause of the Constitution and how it impact abortion bans *"The Hague" can do nothing for us; here's why *Justin Amash put a crack in the Republican wall this weekend *And a rant on why worrying about division in the Democratic Party isn't worth your time; demand the House DO ITS JOB AND IMPEACH Please support this broadcast on Patreon if you do not do so. You help us to pay our team and keep the broadcast free. patreon.com/ResistanceLive #RESIST #PERSIST #IMPEACH #INDICT #IMPRISON

Guest: Daniel Lazare. We discuss the origins of Russiagate, some key questions that we have about the Mueller Report and surprising things that the Mueller Report doesn’t cover at all. In Lazares’s own words: “Mueller’s door-stopper of a report may be chockfull of facts, but it’s also filled with the non sequiturs, loose threads and self-serving arguments that we’ve come to expect from official Washington.  It’s good on collusion, pointing out that reports of a Trump-Russia conspiracy remain unsubstantiated despite desperate Democratic efforts to spin it otherwise.” “But it’s lousy on interference, regurgitating the standard intelligence-community line that Russia ‘interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion.’ Simultaneously, it is remarkably incurious about how the scandal began, who propelled it along, and how it all snowballed into a mega-Watergate.” Timestamps: 02:00- historical recap (from 2014) of US-Russia relations and flawed US foreign policy: Maidan revolution, Crimea, Syria regime change war, Russian intervention and subsequent fury and panic of US War Party, Trump campaign’s pro-Russia stance leading to War Party believing Trump was in league with Putin 8:30 Origins of Russiagate: US and foreign intelligence suspicions about Trump campaign’s contacts with Russians, counterintelligence investigation. Informants, creating pretexts for investigations, Papadopoulous, Mifsud, Roger Stone, Felix Sater 18:00 Mueller and Weismann reputations, Manafort, collusion section of Mueller report 24:00 Other foreign policy and empire ambitions and problems that influenced Russiagate, e.g. Syria, Ukraine, refugee crisis in Europe, rise of right-wing parties 32:00 Watergate narrative, DNC alleged hack, neverending Russiagate, Assange 36:00 Key questions we have about the Mueller Report and questions the Mueller report does not answer, creeping conspiracy culture, the Steele dossier, IRA, GRU, new investigations and the political impact Daniel Lazare is a journalist and author of three books: The Frozen Republic; The Velvet Coup, and America's Undeclared War. FOLLOW Dan  on Twitter @dhlazare. Find his work at Consortium News and find his writings and his books at daniellazare.com. Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in if you can at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Website: aroundtheempire.com. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon. SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on May 8, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: Top Ten Questions About the Mueller Report, Daniel Lazare, Consortium News The ‘Guccifer 2.0’ Gaps in Mueller’s Full Report, Daniel Lazare, Consortium News The Tale of a ‘Deep State Target’, Daniel Lazare, Consortium News Bachelor Show 5/7/29 interview with Andrew McCarthy: "I think they're not finding Mifsud because they don't want to find him."  

For more on Felix Sater and Trump SoHo New York Times: Donald Trump settled a real estate lawsuit and a criminal case was closed    Los Angeles Times: Trump business associate led double life as FBI informant — and more, he says BuzzFeed News: How a player In the Trump-Russia scandal led a double life as an American spy NPR: Trump SoHo: A shiny hotel wrapped in glass, but hiding mysteries Harvard Political Review: A tale of two Russias For more on Iceland condo hotel money, Russians and jailed bankers Bloomberg: Hey, Mueller, you should check out Iceland Time: Why Russia is bailing out Iceland The Telegraph (Britain): Donald Trump signed off deal designed to deprive US of tens of millions of dollars in tax Sigrún Davíðsdóttir Icelog: Iceland, Russia and Bayrock – some facts, less fiction For more on the failed Trump Fort Lauderdale condo project: Miami Herald: Failed Donald Trump tower thrust into GOP campaign for presidency (with video and portion of 2013 Trump deposition) Lawsuit brought by prospective buyers: Second amended complaint YouTube: Wyclef Jean entertains at announcement of Fort Lauderdale project Looking for book-length reading? Craig Unger: “House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia” https://www.amazon.com/House-Trump-Putin-Untold-Russian/dp/152474350X David Cay Johnston: “The Making of Donald Trump” https://www.amazon.com/Making-Donald-Trump-David-Johnston/dp/1612196322 Salvatore Lauria: “The Scorpion and the Frog” https://www.amazon.com/Scorpion-Frog-High-Times-Crimes/dp/1893224260

For more on Felix Sater and Trump SoHo New York Times: Donald Trump settled a real estate lawsuit and a criminal case was closed    Los Angeles Times: Trump business associate led double life as FBI informant — and more, he says BuzzFeed News: How a player In the Trump-Russia scandal led a double life as an American spy NPR: Trump SoHo: A shiny hotel wrapped in glass, but hiding mysteries Harvard Political Review: A tale of two Russias For more on Iceland condo hotel money, Russians and jailed bankers Bloomberg: Hey, Mueller, you should check out Iceland Time: Why Russia is bailing out Iceland The Telegraph (Britain): Donald Trump signed off deal designed to deprive US of tens of millions of dollars in tax Sigrún Davíðsdóttir Icelog: Iceland, Russia and Bayrock – some facts, less fiction For more on the failed Trump Fort Lauderdale condo project: Miami Herald: Failed Donald Trump tower thrust into GOP campaign for presidency (with video and portion of 2013 Trump deposition) Lawsuit brought by prospective buyers: Second amended complaint YouTube: Wyclef Jean entertains at announcement of Fort Lauderdale project Looking for book-length reading? Craig Unger: “House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia” https://www.amazon.com/House-Trump-Putin-Untold-Russian/dp/152474350X David Cay Johnston: “The Making of Donald Trump” https://www.amazon.com/Making-Donald-Trump-David-Johnston/dp/1612196322 Salvatore Lauria: “The Scorpion and the Frog” https://www.amazon.com/Scorpion-Frog-High-Times-Crimes/dp/1893224260

On Thursday, the “Trump, Inc.” team gathered with laptops, pizza and Post-its to disconnect — and to read special counsel Robert Mueller’s report. What we found was page after page of jaw-dropping details about the inner workings of the administration of President Donald Trump, meetings with foreign officials and plots to affect our elections. But we also found rich details on how Trump ran his business dealings in Russia, itself the subject of our recent episode on his Moscow business partners. It backed up a lot of our earlier reporting: The deal with Andrey Rozov, a relatively unknown developer whose claim to international prominence was the purchase of a building in Manhattan’s garment district, did go further than agreements with other developers. The type of development they were hoping for would need signoff from Russia’s powers that be — namely, President Vladimir Putin — potentially putting Trump in the position of owing favors to a hostile foreign power. And the deal went on longer than the Trump campaign wanted the public to know, with the then-candidate rebuffing Michael Cohen’s concerns about the accuracy of his portrayal of his relationships with Russia. Here are a few of our takeaways: The deal was bigger… The Mueller report puts the terms of Trump’s most infamous Trump Tower deal side by side with a failed prior deal with the family of Russian pop star Emin Agalarov. In doing so, it proposes an answer to why Trump chose to move forward with Rozov: he offered Trump a much better deal. In fact, Cohen said the tower overall "was potentially a $1 billion deal.” Under the terms of the agreement, the Trump Organization would get an upfront fee, a share of sales and rental revenue, and an additional 20% of the operating profit. The deal offered by the well-known Agalarov developers, in contrast, would have brought in a flat 3.5%. We’d tried to reach Rozov to talk about the deal for our earlier reporting. He never responded. For Trump, this agreement promised to be the deal of a lifetime. There were more Russian contacts… The report says Cohen and Felix Sater, a fixer who brought the Trump Organization together with the potential developer for the Moscow deal, both believed securing Putin’s endorsement was key. There was also plenty of outreach from Russians, many of them offering to make that very connection. But even as the two were figuring out how to pitch the tower plan to Putin, at least three intermediaries who claimed to have connections to the Russian president were reaching out to Trump and his associates. They promised help with Trump’s business interests and his campaign, the report says. One was Dmitry Klokov, whom Cohen looked up online and mistakenly identified as a former Olympic weightlifter. Klokov, in fact, worked for a government-owned electric company and was a former aide to Russia’s energy minister. He told Cohen he could facilitate a meeting with a “person of interest” — that is, Putin — and also offered help creating “synergy on a government level.” But Klokov’s overtures for talks on matters beyond mere business interests were rebuffed by Cohen. The report also clarified that it was Sater who approached the Russian developer with the idea of a Trump Tower Moscow — and later brought his pitch to the Trump Organization. This sequence of events raises new questions about whether the tower deal, which Trump had wanted for decades, was part of the Russian government’s multiple intelligence approaches to Trump and his advisers at the time. One other figure in our previous Trump Moscow episode surfaced again in the Mueller report: Yevgeny Dvoskin, a Russian national with a U.S. criminal record and alleged ties to organized crime. Dvoskin is now a part-owner of Genbank, a small Russian bank sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury. He grew up in Brighton Beach at the same time as Sater, who, in 2016, called on Dvoskin to invite Trump and Cohen to Russia for an exploratory visit. To arrange the invitation, Dvoskin asked for copies of Cohen’s and Trump’s passports, which Cohen was happy to provide. The Mueller report says that Trump’s personal assistant even brought Trump’s passport to Cohen’s office, but that it is not clear whether it was ever passed on to Sater. Sater declined to comment for the podcast. Genbank and Dvoskin did not respond to earlier requests for comment. And there was more cover-up… Mueller describes continued efforts to mislead investigators and the public about the Trump Moscow deal and associates’ contacts with Russian officials. Many of the details are gleaned from Cohen’s cooperation. Cohen confronted Trump after he denied having business ties to Russia in July 2016 and pointed out that Trump Tower Moscow was still in play. “Trump told Cohen that Trump Tower Moscow was not a deal yet and said, ‘Why mention it if it is not a deal?’” according to the Mueller report. To maintain Cohen’s loyalty during the investigation, multiple Trump staff members and friends told him the “boss” “loves you,” according to the Mueller report. “You are loved,” another associate told him in an email. Cohen also said the president’s lawyer told him he’d be protected as long as he didn’t go “rogue.” The report concludes that active negotiations in Moscow continued into the summer of 2016. Cohen told Mueller’s team that the project wasn’t officially dead until January 2017, when it was listed with other deals that needed to be “closed out” ahead of the inauguration. After admitting to lying to Congress about when the Moscow deal fizzled, Cohen told Mueller about the “script,” or talking points he’d developed with Trump to downplay his ties to Russia. He also said he believed lawyers associated with his joint defense agreement — including attorneys for the president — edited out a key line about communications with Russia from his congressional testimony. The offending line: “The building project led me to make limited contacts with Russian government officials.” You can contact us via Signal, WhatsApp or voicemail at 347-244-2134. Here’s more about how you can contact us securely. You can always email us at tips@trumpincpodcast.org. And finally, you can use the Postal Service: Trump, Inc. at ProPublica 155 Ave of the Americas, 13th Floor New York, NY 10013 “Trump, Inc.” is a production of WNYC Studios and ProPublica. Support our work by visiting donate.propublica.org or by becoming a supporting member of WNYC. Subscribe here or wherever you get your podcasts.

This week, we’re exploring President Donald Trump’s efforts to do business in Moscow. Our team — Heather Vogell, Andrea Bernstein, Meg Cramer and Katie Zavadski — dug into just who Trump was working with and just what Trump needed from Russia to get a deal done. (Listen to the podcast episode here.) First, the big picture. We already knew that Trump had business interests involving Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign — which he denied — that could have been influencing his policy positions. As the world has discovered, Trump was negotiating to develop a tower in Moscow while running for president. Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen has admitted to lying to Congress about being in contact with the Kremlin about the project during the campaign. All of that explains why congressional investigators are scrutinizing Trump’s Moscow efforts. And we’ve found more: •  Trump’s partner on the project didn't appear to be in a position to get the project approved and built. On Oct. 28, 2015 — the same day as a Republican primary debate — Trump signed a letter of intent with the partner, a developer named Andrey Rozov, to build a 400-unit condominium and hotel tower in Moscow. In a letter Rozov wrote to Cohen pitching his role, he cited his work on a suburban development outside of Moscow, a 12-story office building in Manhattan’s Garment District (which he bought rather than constructed) and two projects in Williston, North Dakota, a town of around 30,000.We looked into each of them. Rozov’s Moscow project has faced lawsuits from homeowners, some of which have settled and some of which are ongoing, and the company developing it filed for bankruptcy. It remains unfinished. Property records show that Rozov owned his New York building for just over a year. He bought it for about $35 million in cash, took out an almost $13 million loan several months later, made no significant improvements and then sold it for a 23 percent profit. Trump’s former business associate, Felix Sater, who once pleaded guilty to financial fraud and reportedly later became an asset for U.S. intelligence agencies, is listed on the sale as an “authorized signatory.” We did find a developer with a workforce housing project in Williston, as well as approved plans for a mall/hotel/water-park. (The town attracted interest from developers as the center of North Dakota’s oil boom earlier in the decade.) Rozov’s name doesn’t appear on materials relating to the company, but a person familiar with the project confirmed that this is what Rozov was bragging about in his letter. Oil prices cratered and the mega-mall was never built. Rozov did not respond to an email seeking comment. Here is a rendering of the plan: Plans for "Williston Crossing," a 218 acre site in Williams County, North Dakota. (Williston Crossing Major Comprehensive Plan Amendment Presentation/Gensler) •  An owner of a sanctioned Russian bank that vouched for the Trump Organization in Moscow had a criminal history that included involvement in a Russian mafia gas-bootlegging scheme in the U.S. Making a business trip to Russia requires an official invitation. According to correspondence published by BuzzFeed, Sater arranged for an invitation from Genbank, a small Russian bank that expanded significantly in Crimea after Russia invaded in 2014. One of Genbank’s co-owners is Yevgeny Dvoskin, a Russian-born financier who grew up in Brighton Beach at the same time as Sater. Dvoskin pleaded guilty to tax evasion in federal court in Ohio for the bootlegging scheme and spent time in prison. He was later deported to Russia, according to press accounts. In Russia, he remained tied to criminal networks, according to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. (We were unable to reach Dvoskin for comment.) •  We also get a hint about why Trump may have needed the Kremlin to get his deal done. Some of the sites under consideration for a potential Trump Tower Moscow were in historic areas with strict height restrictions. Just a few years before the 2015 letter of intent that Trump signed, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin pledged to do all he could to prevent the city from being overrun by skyscrapers. If Trump’s deal was to move forward in some place like the Red October Chocolate Factory, one of the spots that was considered, getting around zoning restrictions would need help from the very top. Sater and Cohen were also kicking around a plan to offer Putin the building’s $50 million penthouse, according to BuzzFeed. That need for special help, combined with the potential offer of a valuable asset, raises questions about whether the plan ran afoul of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, according to Alexandra Wrage, the president and founder of Trace International, an organization that helps companies comply with anti-bribery laws. “What you describe is certainly worrying,” she said. The Trump Organization, the White House, and Michael Cohen did not respond to requests for comment. For his part, Sater is scheduled to testify before the House Intelligence Committee on March 27. The committee members will undoubtedly have plenty of questions. You can contact us via Signal, WhatsApp or voicemail at 347-244-2134. Here’s more about how you can contact us securely. You can always email us at tips@trumpincpodcast.org. And finally, you can use the Postal Service: Trump, Inc. at ProPublica 155 Ave of the Americas, 13th Floor New York, NY 10013 “Trump, Inc.” is a production of WNYC Studios and ProPublica. Support our work by visiting donate.propublica.org or by becoming a supporting member of WNYC. Subscribe here or wherever you get your podcasts.

Trump burned his bridges and wore out his welcome in this country - in the investment banking community.  By the 1990's no U.S. bank would lend Trump a friggin' dime!  Hell, not even the People's Bank of China would. Trump turned eastward.  Aside from the freaky confluence of events involving Mr. Burnett and "The Apprentice" in the early 2000's, propelling this Dip-Shit into public notoriety, the Orange Dumpster sucked up to Deutschebank for some loans, notably for his Chicago Trump Tower.  But even this proved a pitfall for that bank as the Dumpster "welched" on upwards of $760-million in loans.   No, the only source of investment cash/money through the Trump criminal enterprise was from Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan.  This is where Felix Sater & Tevfik Arif come into the picture.  In 2002 these two fellow Ukrainian emigres set up shop in the Trump Tower on the 24th floor - 2 floors below Trump's 26th floor office.  Their investment firm, Bayrock Capital, got mysterious infusions of cash from Tevfik's brother back in the Ukraine - everytime they were needed.  Felix Sater, during this time, had befriended the "Dump" and pitched all kinds of deals to the Orange One.  Sater had connections back in Russia - his father worked for Russia's largest mafia family.  Between these two sources a good deal of cash made its way into Trump real estate projects - such as the Soho condo/office complex in downtown Manhattan.  

I had amazing conversation with journalist, Sam Thielman. Sam of The Tow Center for Digital Journalism, with bylines in The Guardian, Variety, The Daily Beast and Talking Points Memo. We discuss his breakthrough piece that was published in 2017, "Stringer Missiles: Ex-Biz Partner To Trump Has A Story to Tell" -- this incredible story is about Felix Sader. his background, shady business ties, Trump and so much more. A must listen!

Opening Monologues. Bad Blood Ahead in 2019. Steel your spines, harden your exoskeletons for the wild and woolly year to come. The American icon Rev. Franklin Graham gets banned from Facebook, by freakish Leftist censors. Social media trust-busting required soon. Melania Trump becomes the first First Lady to visit American troops in a war zone in over ten years. The Christmas trip to Iraq. Did the MSM bother to point that out? Notes on Felix Sater the long-time FBI informant. While some claim Team Mueller will be wrapping up their investigation soon, we beg to differ. Not gonna happen -- sadly, the Mueller Goosegg Cover-Up Is Forever. Meanwhile, Republican Establishment Zeroes Trey Gowdy & Bob Goodlatte throw in the towel on their Deep State investigations, without getting an answer to anything nor even issuing a report. Plus, we cover the latest developments on SpyGate with Nick Weil on the line from Fresno. Could Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS be headed for hard time in jail? Might that explain the latest recrudescence of the Cohen-In-Prague canard? Also, updates on the tragic killing of California police officer Ronil Singh at the hands of illegal alien Gustavo Perez Arriaga. ABC News reports that seven of criminal Arriaga's associates are also illegal aliens, out there in the Sanctuary State of California. As Open Borders Democrat Nancy Pelosi vacations in Blue Hawaii, in the midst of the Government Shutdown over border security, MSM reporters have yet to ask for her commentary on the departed hero Ronil Singh. With Listener Calls & Music via Neil Sedaka, Elton John, Greta Van Fleet, Shakira and Willie Nelson.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Felix Sater is the latest CIA/FBI operative at the center of Robert Mueller's plea deal with Michael Cohen for lying to Congress. Sater tried to lure Trump into meeting with Putin during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Thursday saw another plea deal from Michael Cohen: this time with Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Cohen pleaded guilty to one count of lying to Congress regarding how long into the 2016 campaign the Trump Organization sought to build Trump Tower in Moscow and who exactly knew about the efforts. The criminal information validates to a remarkable degree a May 2018 report from Anthony Cormier and Jason Leopold of Buzzfeed news, chronicling the details of Michael Cohen and associate Felix Sater’s efforts to cement the real estate deal (you can also listen to a special edition of the Lawfare Podcast on the story here).   Immediately after new of the plea broke, Benjamin Wittes sat down with Cormier, Susan Hennessey and Paul Rosenzweig to discuss the story, the implications of the plea for the Mueller investigation, and who just might have legal exposure and for what.

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." - Winston Churchill.  And yes, today does, in fact, mark the end of the beginning of the Mueller Investigation... and perhaps for Donald Trump.  Why?  You'll just have to listen and find out! In this super-sized episode, we tackle: (1) Michael Cohen's just-announced plea to a new count of lying -- this time in connection with his prior testimony before the Senate and House Intelligence Committees investigating Russian interference in the 2016 elections; (2) A follow-up on Andrew Miller and Concord Management and Consulting, including a fascinating new blog written by Randall Eliason with Yodel Mountain implications; (3) Paul Manafort's apparent repudiation of his plea deal with Mueller, what that means and when we'll know; (4) Jerome Corsi's public refusal to plead and cooperate with the Mueller investigation over WikiLeaks and Julian Assange; and (5) An update in the Brain Frosh Finally, we end with an all new Thomas Takes The Bar Exam #103 on a property owner who has the rug pulled out from under him due to a new law.   If you'd like to play along with us, just retweet our episode on Twitter or share it on Facebook along with your guess and the #TTTBE hashtag.  We'll release the answer on next Tuesday's episode along with our favorite entry! Appearances None!  If you'd like to have either of us as a guest on your show, drop us an email at openarguments@gmail.com. Show Notes & Links Click here to read the new Information to which Cohen pled guilty to today. This is the BuzzFeed article on Cohen, Felix Sater, and Trump's efforts to get a building in Moscow over the past 30 years.  Oh, and here's a link to Trump's tweet that he has "ZERO INVESTMENTS IN RUSSIA." We discussed the Andrew Miller lawsuit in OA 229; you'll definitely want to read the two new filings: Silbey's supplemental amicus "letter", and Christenson's... something. You'll definitely want to check out Randall Eliason's blog analyzing the Concord Management and Consulting lawsuit and what it means for 18 U.S.C. § 371 conspiracy charges (of the sort that might be filed against Trump). Here's Manafort's original plea deal, and this is the Joint Status Report filed earlier this week. Oh, and this is Manafort's waiver of his right to appear at the scheduling conference. This is the Marcy Wheeler article we broke down; for the other side, here's the Wall Street Journal report suggesting Manafort lied about non-Trump-related personal business dealings. This is the Guardian article connecting Manafort to Julian Assange and WikiLeaks; here is the fantastic Washington Post article and timeline on what that means if true. Here's Corsi's draft deal with Manafort that he rejected. Finally, we discussed the Brian Frosh lawsuit against Matthew Whitaker in Episode 227; you can now read the amicus brief filed by 15 state attorneys general.  Phew! Support us on Patreon at:  patreon.com/law Follow us on Twitter:  @Openargs Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/openargs/ Don't forget the OA Facebook Community! For show-related questions, check out the Opening Arguments Wiki And email us at openarguments@gmail.com  

Putin Was To Get $50 Million Penthouse In Trump Tower Moscow; Michael Cohen And FBI Informant Negotiated Failed Deal President Trump’s ex-longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen worked with an FBI informant known as “The Quarterback” to negotiate a deal for Trump Tower Moscow during the 2016 US election, according to BuzzFeed News. “The Quarterback,” Felix Sater – a longtime FBI and CIA undercover intelligence asset who was busted running a $40 million stock scheme, leveraged his Russia connections to pitch the deal, while Cohen discussed it with Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, according to BuzzFeed, citing two unnamed US law enforcement officials. The Trump Tower Moscow plan is at the center of Cohen’s new plea agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller after he admitted to lying to congressional committees investigating Trump-Russia collusion. ✪ Solar Powered Patriot Flashlight - Holiday Special 20% OFF [Enter Promo Code P20] http://patriotflashlight.com ✪

Scott's interview with Tom Arnold explains the one thing Trump’s former business partner Felix Sater does not want to be known about him, reveals the gaping holes in Michael Cohen’s alibi and explains why this story is probably going to wind up on the Rachel Maddow show this coming Tuesday, unless the news cycle intervenes. Arnold’s insider view of the Trump crime family will be featured in the upcoming television program “The Hunt for the Trump Tapes with Tom Arnold” which will premiere on Viceland this September 18th. Listen to Part 1 of our interview with Tom Arnold here and Part 2 here. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/dworkinreport/support

Felix Sater's life is a mystery. He went to jail for stabbing a guy in the face, he was involved with the Russian Mafia, and was an informant for the CIA. He also helped Donald Trump build his property empire. So are there any secrets? And what does he know?

Felix Sater's life is a mystery. He went to jail for stabbing a guy in the face, he was involved with the Russian Mafia, and was an informant for the CIA. He also helped Donald Trump build his property empire. So are there any secrets? And what does he know?

Felix Sater's life is a mystery. He went to jail for stabbing a guy in the face, he was involved with the Russian Mafia, and was an informant for the CIA. He also helped Donald Trump build his property empire. So are there any secrets? And what does he know?

Felix Sater's life is a mystery. He went to jail for stabbing a guy in the face, he was involved with the Russian Mafia, and was an informant for the CIA. He also helped Donald Trump build his property empire. So are there any secrets? And what does he know?

Trey Gowdy is the new darling of the leftist media after he claimed political spying is what the FBI is supposed to do.Now that the left has declared Spygate dead, what will they do when it revealed that Joseph Mifsud and Felix Sater were also spying on the Trump campaign.And the never-Trumpers are declaring that the President is peddling conspiracy theories, so lets compare their Russia collusion mythology to the proven Spygate facts

Latest talking point with the Democrats and opposition media is that Trump has no proof the FBI and CIA spied on his campaign – this is what Goebbels referred to as the big lie.Felix Sater tried to sell Michael Cohen on fake contacts with Vladimir Putin in November 2015 - was he working for John Brennan's CIA?

I woke up this morning and came across an article by Mike Allen and Jim Vandehei on the Axios website called, "The Public Case against Trump." I figured I had better read it because if there is a public case against this President, I'd like to know what it is. I was immediately disappointed. The very first sentence in the article makes a false claim. It says, "One thing is true of all major political scandals: What we know in the moment is but a tiny, obscured, partial view of the full story later revealed by investigators." I thought to myself, "is there even one case where that was true?" The authors claim it has been true "of all major political scandals." Yet, when I think back to the mother of all political scandals, Watergate, the American public knew pretty early on that President Nixon was involved. And unlike Watergate, where an office was burglarized and people were arrested, the investigators of Trump and Russia aren't even investigating a crime. They are investigating hoping to find one. There is nothing to compare that to in previous political scandals. So, right from the jump, Allen and Vandehei want their readers to think all political scandals end in a crescendo of unanticipated revelations. To me, it sounds like the boys have watched way too many movies. But I digress. I soldiered on to the meat and potatoes of their "case". Allen and Vandehei go through a list of "knowns" they believe should have already ended the Trump Presidency. It's worth addressing each one, because it reveals something really disturbing: Allen and Vandehei are desperately attempting to keep the Russian collusion fantasy alive when they know there's nothing there. The only other alternative is even more disturbing: that both men believe this set of "knowns" are sufficient grounds upon which to end a Presidency and reverse the results of an election. 1ST KNOWN: "We know Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign chair, has been indicted on 32 counts, including conspiracy and money laundering. We know he made millions off shady Russians and changed the Republican platform to the benefit of Russia." Allen and Vandehei fail to point out that the charges against Manafort had nothing at all to do with Russian collusion. They are related to bank and tax fraud charges two year before Manafort's involvement with the Trump campaign. Incidentally, Manafort was only involved with the Trump campaign from June to August of 2016 and the NY Times admitted that the charges against Manafort were simply an effort by the Mueller team to pressure him. In fact, the Mueller team has been reprimanded by the trial judge publicly for using strong armed tactics. 2ND KNOWN: "We know that the U.S. intelligence community concluded, in a report released in January 2017, that Russian President Vladimir Putin “ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election,” to “denigrate” Hillary Clinton and with “a clear preference for ... Trump.”" Allen and Vandehei fail to point out key facts here, as well. For months, Democrats and their allies in the media like Allen and Vandehei, were declaring "all 17 intel agencies agreed about Russian interference." This was an intentional falsehood designed to give the public the impression that the full weight of the US intelligence establishment agreed, when 13 agencies rendered no opinion and had no interest in weighing in. It was simply a way to make the case sound more overwhelming than it was. Furthermore, while it was true that Putin and Russia worked to denigrate Clinton, it was not necessarily to benefit Trump. That canard was perpetrated by James Comey in Congressional testimony who said he saw no other motivation. But simple logic would tell you that the Russians, like everyone else, expected Clinton to win the election and their only motivation was to de-legitimize her. We have evidence this is true, because immediately after Trump won the election, the Russians organized a protest against his victory in New York City. So, the preference for Trump by Putin is belied by the fact that his people organized that protest. 3RD KNOWN: "We know that in May 2016, Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos told an Australian diplomat Russia had political dirt on Hillary. "About three weeks earlier," according to the N.Y. Times, "Papadopoulos had been told that Moscow had thousands of emails that would embarrass Mrs. Clinton."" These were barroom conversations, not evidence of collusion. It would be wise at this point to remember that Hillary Clinton operated a mail server that was so lacking in security, it wasn't even up to date with the regular security patches issued by Microsoft. And while official Washington has denied there being any evidence her email server was hacked by a foreign power, a number of former government officials have come forward, on the record to state that it is virtually impossible to think Clinton's server wasn't hacked because foreign intel agencies continuously attempt to hack the communications of our top officials. Having an unsecured server isn't even a challenge for government grade hackers. In other words, whatever was said betwee Papadopoulos and a Russian professor in London, is really almost meaningless because anyone who wanted Clinton's emails, had them. 4TH & 5TH KNOWN: "We know that in June 2016, Trump’s closest aides and family members met at Trump Tower with a shady group of Russians who claimed to have dirt on Hillary. The meeting was billed as "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump."" "We know the Russian lawyer who helped set it up concealed her close ties to Putin government." This meeting was a big nothing. Rather than being evidence of collusion, it's actually evidence that there was no collusion. Because if there was collusion, the meeting would not have been abruptly ended. The Russian attorney with ties to Putin would have come with information on Clinton pointing to collusion. Yet, she didn't. Some will say that Trump's son and son in law attended hoping to get information on Clinton, but even if that is true, nobody at the time knew whether she was tied to Putin. 6TH KNOWN: "We know that in July 2016, Trump said: "“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 [Hillary] emails that are missing,” and urged their publication." Of all these so called "knowns", I find this one to be an embarassment for Allen and Vandehei. Why? Because if a Presidential candidate is going to collude with a hostile foreign power in order to win an election, it would seem that the best way to do that would probably not include a public campaign speech. Anyone who's seen the video of Trump making this speech knows he was needling the Democrat media as Trump often does to the delight of his supporters. 7TH KNOWN: "We know that on Air Force One a year later, Trump helped his son, Don Jr., prepare a misleading statement about the meeting. We know top aides freaked out about this." This is water over the dam, too. Donald Trump and his son are both political novices. Whatever they crafted is of no consequence because Donald Trump Junior's emails leading up to the meeting with the Russian lawyer have been released to the Special Counsel and made public. 8TH KNOWN: "We know Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting." Actually, we don't know this for a fact. All we know is that an anonymous source to the NY Times revealed this. Even if it occurred, it is neither illegal or an indicator of collusion. The President has the authority by virtue of his office to declassify anything he wishes. Trump's conversation with Lavrov are not evidence of anything resembling collusion. 9TH KNOWN: "We know Michael Flynn, former national security adviser and close campaign aide, lied to Vice President Pence and FBI about his Russia-related chats. We know he’s now cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller. We know Trump initially tried to protect Flynn with loyalty and fervency rarely shown by Trump to others." What the authors are not telling you here is how those "chats" Flynn had were of no consequence because they didn't involve collusion of any kind. Furthermore, people associated with the Flynn case within the FBI have asserted he did not lie to them as Allen and Vandehei suggest here. Only James Comey continues to insist he lied to FBI investigators. Even Andrew McCabe, the disgraced 2nd in command at the FBI has said Flynn did not lie to his investigators. Additionally, Flynn is being prosecuted and having his life and reputation destroyed over lies he never told, while Hillary Clinton and her entire team were exonerated and given immunity from prosecution while actually lying to investigators. 10TH KNOWN: "We know that during the transition, Jared Kushner spoke with the Russian ambassador "about establishing a secret communications channel between the Trump transition team and Moscow." We know Kushner omitted previous contacts with Russians on his disclosure forms." The key phrase here is "during the transition." There is nothing extraordinary about a newly elected President having his team of advisers establishing lines of communication with other governments. To cast suspicion on something as routine for an incoming administration as this, is nothing short of staggering. 11TH KNOWN: We know Trump initially lied about why he fired James Comey, later admitting he was canned because of the “Russia thing.” Article 2 of the Constitution gives the President broad authority to fire or hire Federal agency officials. In the exercise of those duties under Article 2, the President is not required to justify any firing he makes. He can fire James Comey because he's too tall or has bags under his eyes. He can fire him for ANY REASON or NO REASON. Therefore, it really doesn't matter why Trump fired him or what he ever said about it, one way of the other. 12TH KNOWN: We know Michael Cohen was a close adviser and lawyer, the fixer and secret-keeper. We know Trump seethed when the FBI raided Cohen's office. The authors here are being blatantly dishonest by not revealing all the facts. We also know that President Trump was not the only person "seething" from the raid on Cohen's office. The raid was a unnecessarily heavy handed move, rarely used, especially on a cooperating witness as Cohen was, and even more especially on the President's attorney. Former Federal prosecutors and DOJ officials were highly critical of this action. It's hardly used even on organized criminals, much less Presidents of the United States. The question readers of Allen and Vandehei need to ask is, why are these authors not giving the entire story? 13TH KNOWN: "We know that in January 2016, just before Republicans began voting, Michael Cohen tried to restart a Trump Tower project in Moscow." This is an incredible overstatement of what actually occurred. Donald Trump had only a non-binding letter of intent that was signed in 2015, regarding real estate development in Russia. Felix Sater, a Russian business associate wrote Michael Cohen about getting the project underway, but there is no evidence Cohen ever responded to those emails. So, how Allen and Vandehei could conclude that Cohen tried to restart the project is simply baffling. In addition to that, there is also no evidence that Sater ever delivered on any of his promises, according to the New York Times. So, what the hell are Allen and Vandehei even talking about? 14TH & 15TH KNOWN: "We know Mueller questioned a Russian oligarch who made payments to Cohen who used the money to pay off a porn star who allegedly had an affair with Trump." "We know that oligarch was a bad enough dude that the Trump administration sanctioned him." This is pure speculation. The Russian oligarch being referred to is, Viktor Vekselberg. He was in attendence at the same dinner in which Michael Flynn and others were seated with Vladimir Putin. Also in attendance at that dinner, was Jill Stein, who remarked that Putin sat down for a photo op and was not even introduced to the people sitting at the table. If Vekselberg is such an ally of Trump, it's difficult to explain why Trump sanctioned him in April of 2018 along with about a dozen other Russian oligarchs. It should be clear from this incredibly slanted article, that Allen and Vandehei have staked their reputations on the Russian collusion story and are desperately grasping at straws, using selected facts, speculation, mischaracterizations to mislead the public. This is not to say there was no Russian collusion. Here are a few facts we actually do know. 1. We know that within 24 hours of the election, the Hillary Clinton campaign team talked about floating the idea that Russian interference was responsible for her defeat. This was mentioned in a book memorializing the Clinton Campaign, written by two liberal reporters, Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, "Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign." 2. We know that the Clinton Campaign shelled out millions of dollars to acquire what has come to be known as the "Russian Dossier", generally regarded as a fraudulent document. It was relied upon to acquire a FISA warrant to spy on the Trump Campaign and transition. The FBI never interviewed the sources of the claims in the dossier, a violation of their standards and practices. 3. We know that Hillary Clinton maintained an email server that was unsecured in direct violation of her duties as Secretary of State and for which she suffered no legal penalty. 4. We know that former Deputy Director of the CIA, Mike Morell, Michael Hayden, former Director of the NSA, and a number of others have said it is virtually impossible to believe Clinton's mail server wasn't breached by a multitude of hostile governments. 5. We know that John Podesta, Clinton's campaign chairman and his brother in the Podesta Group, lobbied on behalf of Russia. 6. We know that Clinton destroyed numerous electronic devices, which could have been mined for evidence against her. 7. We know that the people leading the FBI investigation of Clinton were anti-Trump, pro-Clinton partisans. 8. We know the FBI investigators broke with their standards and practices by permitting all of Clinton's staff to be represented by a single attorney, which gave them the opportunity to coordinate their testimony. This violates protocol because in an investigation, the FBI looks for inconsistencies in testimony. 9. We know that Russian entities donated in excess of $150 million dollars to the Clinton Family Foundation during the same timeframe that Hillary Clinton's State Department approved the Uranium One deal, which ultimately resulted in Russian control of 20% of American Uranium ore resources. 10. We know that since the Uranium One deal, Russian entities have not given any noteworthy donations to the Clinton Foundation. 11. We know that James Comey wrote the exoneration letter for Clinton, months before she and her team were actually inteviewed. I could go on, but the point has been more than sufficiently made: Hillary Clinton not only colluded with Russians against Trump, she also was a key player in policy decisions that allowed Russia to have access to strategic nuclear materials and benefited financially, even if only by coincidence, but certainly warranting as deep an investigation as anything Trump is alleged to have done. To make matters even worse, it appears that high ranking officials in the Obama Administration, DOJ and FBI conspired to exonerate Clinton of any wrongdoing, even though it was clear she had broken the law. People like Allen and Vandehei don't even see this as an issue anymore. But their attitude is prevalent throughout the media and it is precisely why growing numbers of people just don't believe them anymore and have stopped taking them seriously as impartial reporters. For the Great Vocal Majority, I'm Tony Codispoti. Thanks for listening.      

On BULLSHIT FILTER THE NEWS this week: Semion Mogilevich, the alleged “boss of bosses” of the Russian mob and his connections to Donald Trump Read more: https://trump-russia.com/2017/05/22/the-russian-mobster-who-hid-out-in-trump-tower-and-the-taj-mahal/amp/ http://www.citjourno.org/page-1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semion_Mogilevich?wprov=sfti1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Sater?wprov=sfti1 https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/who-is-holding-robert-levinson Online dating closers https://qz.com/1247382/online-dating-is-so-awful-that-people-are-paying-virtual-dating-assistants-to-impersonate-them/ The Incel Rebellions https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/24/world/canada/incel-reddit-meaning-rebellion.html https://www.vox.com/world/2018/4/25/17277496/incel-toronto-attack-alek-minassian Follow Cameron on Micro Blog and Facebook. Follow Ray on Facebook. The post BFTN #4 2018-04-30 appeared first on The BS Filter.

If you’ve seen video or images of Michael Cohen, President Trump’s personal attorney, they’ve probably been set in locations that exude power and importance: Cohen berating a CNN anchor in a TV studio, for example, or striding across the sleek marbled interior of Trump Tower, or more recently, smoking cigars in front of Cohen’s temporary residence, the Loews Regency Hotel on Manhattan’s Park Avenue. But to understand how Michael Cohen arrived in those precincts, you need to venture across New York City’s East River. There, in a Queens warehouse district in the shadows of an elevated No. 7 subway line, is a taxi garage that used to house his law practice. The office area in the front is painted a garish taxi-cab-yellow, with posters of hockey players on the wall and a framed photo of the late Hasidic rabbi, Menachem Schneerson. Cohen practiced law there and invested in the once-lucrative medallions that grant New York cabs the right to operate. Or you could drive 45 minutes deep into Brooklyn, near where Gravesend turns into Brighton Beach. There, in a desolate stretch near a shuttered podiatrist’s office, you’d find a medical office. According to previously unexamined records, Cohen incorporated a business there in 2002 that was involved in large quantities of medical claims. Separately, he represented more than 100 plaintiffs who claimed they were injured in auto collisions. At the same time, in Brooklyn and Long Island, New York prosecutors were investigating what Fortune magazine called possibly “the largest organized insurance-fraud ring in U.S. history.” That fraud resulted in hundreds of criminal prosecutions for staging car accidents to collect insurance payments. Cohen was not implicated in the fraud. A distinctive pattern emerged early in Cohen’s career, according to an examination by WNYC and ProPublica for the Trump, Inc. podcast: Many of the people who crossed paths with Cohen when he worked in Queens and Brooklyn were disciplined, disbarred, accused or convicted of crimes. Cohen, 51, has always emerged unscathed — until now. Last week, his Rockefeller Center office was raided by federal agents, as were his home, hotel room, safety deposit box, and two cell phones. Cohen is under criminal investigation by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York. According to court papers, investigators are examining whether he committed fraud and showed a “lack of truthfulness.” He and his attorneys did not respond to a lengthy set of questions emailed to them. Cohen’s lawyers have stated that he has done nothing improper. Cohen has attained national attention as the man who paid Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep her alleged affair with Trump secret. He also negotiated a $1.6 million settlement with a woman impregnated by Trump fundraiser Elliott Broidy. (Cohen’s attorney told a judge on Monday that his only three legal clients over the past 15 months were Trump, Broidy and talk-show host Sean Hannity.) Cohen has for decades had close personal and professional relationships with many citizens of the former Soviet Union. He ended up as point men on Trump’s deals there and also turned up in the notorious Russia “dossier.” He has routinely been described as an indispensable man to Donald Trump. One indicator of that, according to the New York Times: President Trump is more agitated by what those New York prosecutors may find in Cohen’s files than he is by the wide-ranging investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller. Cohen, it seems, may hold some crucial secrets. What’s more surprising, perhaps, is the path he took to get to that point. *** Michael Cohen grew up in the Five Towns area of Long Island, N.Y., a heavily Jewish enclave. His father was a surgeon, according to media reports, and Cohen enjoyed a top-tier education, graduating from the private Lawrence Woodmere Academy, then moving on to American University. From there, it seems, Cohen’s educational trajectory turned in a different direction. He attended the Thomas M. Cooley School of Law in Michigan, which InsideHigherEd.com once wrote, “is known for admitting students other law schools would not touch.” In 1992, after law school, he returned to his home region and landed a job working for a personal injury attorney named Melvyn Estrin, who had an office on lower Broadway in Manhattan.  Estrin was the first in a series of colleagues who would run afoul of authorities. Within three years of Cohen’s arrival, Estrin was charged with bribing insurance adjusters to inflate damage estimates and expedite claims. He later pleaded guilty. Cohen was never implicated in any of the misdeeds. Estrin did not respond to a request for comment. He is still practicing law. Cohen continued to use Estrin’s address on legal filings as late as 1999, but he added several new addresses during this period, including 22-05 43rd Avenue, in Long Island City, Queens — the taxi garage. It was the headquarters of the New York branch of the empire of Simon Garber, a Soviet emigre who also has had cab companies in Chicago and Moscow. Charismatic and silver-haired, Garber released kitschy TV-style advertisements, in Russian, for his company. Over the years, Garber has been convicted of assault in New York, arrested for battery in Miami, and pleaded guilty in New Jersey to charges of criminal mischief involving him breaking into three neighbors’ homes, shattering glass doors, smearing blood all over, and taking a shower. In Chicago, his taxi fleet included wrecked vehicles with illegally laundered titles. Garber did not respond to a request for comment. (Two other attorneys had offices inside Garber’s offices in the early 2000s. One was forced to resign from the bar after he was accused of not turning money over to a client. The other was disbarred, in part for trying to steal money from the first lawyer.) In 1994 Cohen married Laura Shusterman, who was born in the Soviet Union. Her father, also a taxi entrepreneur, pleaded guilty to a felony, conspiracy to defraud the IRS, the year before. By the late 1990s, records show, Cohen had begun acquiring taxi medallions, licenses required by the City of New York to operate a yellow cab. The number of medallions has been strictly controlled for decades. Before the advent of services like Uber, they were particularly valuable, with their price peaking at over $1 million in 2014. Cohen co-owned some of the medallions with his wife, and indeed, his family and business relationships sometimes overlapped. Filings show his father-in-law once made a loan to Garber. And in 2001, Cohen borrowed money for one of his taxi companies, Golden Child Cab Corp., from one of the men convicted with Cohen’s father in law, Fima Shusterman, in the fraud against the IRS. Starting around 2000, Cohen was involved in scores of car insurance lawsuits, often on behalf of plaintiffs who claimed to have been injured in auto collisions and were seeking judgments to cover purported medical expenses. At this time, a wave of staged auto accidents, involving immigrants from the former Soviet Union who claimed to have been hurt, had led prosecutors to open a massive investigation. They dubbed it Operation Boris, an acronym for Big Organized Russian Insurance Scam. The prosecutorial push resulted in hundreds of convictions. Cohen also drew up incorporation papers for at least three medical practices, and three medical billing companies. One company Cohen registered in 2002, Avex Medical Care PRC, sued insurance companies nearly 300 times. The plaintiffs lawyer in almost all of these cases was David Katz, who was disbarred later for professional misconduct. The doctor who owned Avex was charged in 2003 with criminal insurance fraud connected with another medical business; the charge was dismissed. He’s now practicing medicine in New Jersey. Dr. Zhanna Kanevsky, the principal of Life Quality Medical, a clinic business that Cohen incorporated in 2002, surrendered her medical license after pleading guilty to writing phony prescriptions for 100,000 oxycodone and other pills. Once again, Cohen was never charged. *** In the early 2000s, Trump and Cohen became connected, fittingly, through real estate. Cohen started to transfer the wealth he’d gained from taxi medallions and insurance lawsuits to apartments in Trump buildings. Along with his parents, his in-laws, and Simon Garber, Cohen acquired eight units in Trump Palace, Trump Park Avenue, and Trump World Plaza. The man who operated out of a Queens taxi garage now owned apartments alongside the likes of Sophia Loren and Harrison Ford. Cohen also began to show political ambitions. In 2003, he ran for city council on Manhattan’s Upper East Side as a Republican. Even people close to his campaign weren’t sure why he ran. His own campaign biography provided few answers — or rather, disparate ones. He claimed at the time to own 200 taxi medallions, to be a member of the Friars Club, an avid stamp collector, and a member of the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s Inspector General advisory board. Cohen lost the city council race, but his donor list provides a snapshot of his network. He received contributions from his father, his father in law, and Bruce Winston, a son of the jeweler Harry Winston. A New York Republican with knowledge of Cohen’s 2003 campaign said Cohen told him then that he was Harry Winston’s in-house counsel at the time. The company says Cohen was never an employee. Court papers show Cohen was one of the lawyers who helped Bruce Winston, and his daughter, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, in a legal action challenging Deutsche Bank’s conduct as trustee of Harry Winston’s estate. Their petition failed. (For her part, Wolkoff, a friend of Melania Trump’s, later became the highest-paid contractor for Donald Trump’s inauguration, taking in an eye-popping $26 million, and sparking a backlash.) It’s unclear when Cohen and Trump first met, but the two were publicly linked in February 2007. The New York Post published an article then about an attorney who was purchasing large numbers of apartments in Trump buildings. “Trump properties are solid investments,” Cohen told the Post. Trump returned the compliment, declaring Cohen to be a wise investor. “Michael Cohen has a great insight into the real-estate market,” he told the Post. “He has invested in my buildings because he likes to make money — and he does.” Three months later, Cohen became an executive vice president at the Trump Organization, with the same job title as Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric Trump. Cohen was never a traditional in-house lawyer for Trump. He has been described as both a “fixer” and a “dealmaker” — and it seems he embraced both roles. “He did jobs for Donald that no one else would do,” said one person who worked with Cohen, “especially not a lawyer. He did a lot of these jobs.” Still, even after Cohen had joined the Trump Organization, he harbored personal political dreams. In 2010, Cohen mounted a second unsuccessful campaign, this time for the New York State Senate. Among his donors in that race were shipping magnate Oleg Mitnik and tobacco tycoon and New York real estate man Howard Lorber, one of Donald Trump’s closest friends. Cohen continued to expand his role within the Trump universe. It had become simultaneously global, national and highly local. The Trump Organization’s business model had shifted, from building high-end Manhattan properties to scoping for international licensing deals, particularly in the former Soviet Union. Cohen, along with Trump’s adult children, headed up this effort. At a Trump Tower press conference in early 2011, Cohen took the public stage as an international dealmaker. “Seven months ago, at the request of a dear friend of mine from Georgia, Giorgi Rtskhiladze, I traveled to the Republic of Georgia to explore several real estate opportunities on behalf of Mr. Trump,” Cohen said in his unmistakable Long Island accent. He then introduced Trump and the then-president of Georgia, Mikhail Saakashvili. The ostensible purpose of the press conference was to talk up a planned tower in the city of Batumi, on the Black Sea coast. But most of the questions centered on Donald Trump’s possible run for President. Months earlier, Michael Cohen had helped set up a website called shouldtrumprun.com with the Long Island law firm Schwartz, Gerstman, and Malito. (David Schwartz is a long time Cohen friend and attorney who made several television appearances on Cohen’s behalf when the Stormy Daniels news broke.) Cohen also traveled to Iowa to explore the political terrain. Shouldtrumprun.com was billed as independent of Trump; otherwise Trump would have had to file papers with the Federal Election Commission on his own behalf. At the press conference, Trump was peppered with political questions. “Could you comment on the kind of feedback or what you took from the feedback from Mr. Cohen’s Iowa trip,” one reporter asked. “You could ask Mr. Cohen. You can speak to him,” Trump replied. But she pressed. “Are you encouraged by anything that you saw or read out of that? Trump couldn’t resist. “Well,” he said, “I mean the response has been amazing, actually.” Another response: A complaint was filed with the Federal Election Commission, alleging Trump had accepted “excessive or impermissible contributions from the Trump Organization, LLC” because shouldtrumprun.com was set up by an employee: Michael Cohen. Trump and Cohen were cleared of wrongdoing. One of the two commissioners who signed off on the ruling was Donald McGahn. McGahn later became Trump’s White House Counsel. There’s another piece of public work that Cohen was involved in that further shows the close links among Trump, Cohen, and the attorney David Schwartz. During the same time period of the Georgia deal and shouldtrumprun.com, Schwartz and Cohen were both working on a project called Trump on the Ocean, which aimed to construct a massive catering hall in the popular Jones Beach State Park on Long Island. Trump was so keen on this project that, unusually even for him, he called four governors and a state comptroller to lobby for it, according to former state officials. In at least one of the calls, he cited his generous donations as a reason to get the clearances he needed to move forward.   Trump put Cohen in charge of the negotiations. But some state officials balked at what they saw as an attempt to commercialize a state park, and Trump’s insistence that the state override its fire code so he could build a kitchen in the basement. The lobbying was contentious, said Judith Enck, the top environmental advisor for Govs. Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson (and later the chief of the Environmental Protection Agency for the New York region), who was involved in the negotiations. “That was not a typical discussion with a business that was trying to do business with the state of New York. It was aggressive,” Enck said. “There were efforts to go around me to get a better outcome in the discussion… I recall it as you know one of the most unpleasant experiences I had in the governor's office.” Misery, perhaps for a government official — but triumph for Trump, Cohen, and Schwartz. They got permission to begin construction. “GREAT JOB!” Trump wrote in a note to Schwartz. “I will hire your firm again!” Alas, it was all for naught in the end. Months later, the tail of the storm Sandy inundated Jones Beach and Trump walked away from the project. *** Three years later, when Trump made a run for the White House, Cohen continued to serve both as promoter and dealmaker. He frequently appeared on TV as a Trump surrogate, though he had no official campaign position. In one interview in the summer of 2016, Cohen refused to acknowledge that polls strongly favored Hillary Clinton. He badgered CNN anchor Brianna Keilar when she referred to Trump’s then-dismal poll numbers. “Says who?” Cohen shot back. “What polls?” The anchor, seemingly mystified, answered “all of them?” The clip went viral. Cohen’s truculent tendencies were also on display a year before that interview when he threatened Daily Beast reporter Tim Mak. Mak had resurfaced an old accusation made by Donald Trump’s first wife, Ivana, during their divorce proceedings, that Trump had raped her. (She later withdrew the allegation.) “I'm warning you,” Mak says Cohen told him, “tread very fucking lightly because what I’m going to do to you is going to be fucking disgusting.” Behind the scenes, Cohen was still attempting to make deals for Trump in the former Soviet Union. Cohen drafted a letter of intent with a Moscow investment company to build Trump World Tower Moscow. Cohen’s partner in the deal was Felix Sater, a Trump associate who had been convicted of assault and securities fraud and had widely reported connections to the Russian mob. “Let’s make this happen and build a Trump Moscow,” Sater wrote in an email to Cohen. “And possibly fix relations between the countries by showing everyone commerce and business are much better and more practical than politics.” In another email, Sater wrote, “Buddy our boy can become President of the USA and we can engineer it.” In a statement issued last summer, Cohen called this “puffery” and said Sater was prone to colorful language and salesmanship. Cohen’s activities drew the attention of Christopher Steele, a former British spy who was assembling raw intelligence on the Trump campaign for a private client (ultimately paid for by the Clinton campaign). The resulting collection of documents has become known as “the dossier.” Steele’s memo included the assertion that Cohen met with Russian contacts in Prague after damaging news emerged about Trump’s former campaign manager and an aide. “The overall objective had been ‘sweep it all under the carpet and make sure no connection could be fully established or proven,’” Steele wrote in a memo dated Oct. 19, 2016. In statements and court documents, Cohen has vociferously denied ever visiting Prague, even dispensing photos of his passport, with no Czech stamps visible, as putative proof. Cohen has filed two defamation lawsuits over the release of the dossier. But now McClatchy has reported that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has evidence that Cohen was in Prague in late summer 2016. (And the photographic “proof” Cohen offered may turn out to be moot, according to the McClatchy article, since he reportedly entered the Czech Republic from Germany, which would not have required him to pass through immigration or customs.) One thing that Cohen does not dispute: In October 2016, he was involved in fixing another problem, this time by paying $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels. Cohen asserts he did this on his own, with money he obtained from a home equity line of credit. When FBI agents searched Cohen’s offices on April 9, 2018, they were seeking evidence relating to the Stormy Daniels payment. They were also, according to the Washington Post, sifting through business records relating to Cohen’s taxi medallions. There may still be answers to be found in Queens.

West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy is Now Open! 8am-9am PT/ 11am-Noon ET for our especially special Daily Specials, Metro Shrimp & Grits Thursdays!Starting off in the Bistro Cafe, Trump's trade war with China is just a nice way of telling his base, you only hurt the one you love.Then, on the rest of the menu, Betsy DeVos wanted to prosecute leakers at the Department of Education, but was shot down by her own agency's internal watchdog; Trump's mobster business associate, Felix Sater, was grilled by the Senate Intelligence Committee for seven hours; and, Trump's shady data firm, Cambridge Analytica, is already trying to hijack the next election.After the break, we move to the Chef's Table where Mueller's aggressive new approach should terrify Trump; and, the best-selling psychologist, Jordan Peterson, isn't leading young men to salvation, he's delivering them to authoritarianism.All that and more, on West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy with Chef de Cuisine, Justice Putnam.Bon Appetit!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~“Everyone in this good city enjoys the full right to pursue his own inclinations in all reasonable and, unreasonable ways.” -- The Daily Picayune, New Orleans, March 5, 1851~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Show Notes & Links: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/4/5/1754525/-West-Coast-Cookbook-amp-Speakeasy-Daily-Special-Metro-Shrimp-amp-Grits-Thursdays

The crew celebrates their one-year anniversary and discuss Felix Sater and other Trump news. Gorilla Glue OG and some P-town Pilsner were utilized in celebration.

For eight years, Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank has waged a legal war on three continents against former Chairman Mukhtar Ablyazov - over $4 billion in missing bank assets. Now, court cases playing out on both sides of the Atlantic could pull back the curtain on whether some of those funds wound up in properties developed by former associates of Donald J. Trump. Kazakh investors were drawn to the allure of the Trump brand and a country with the rule of law, according to Kate Mallinson, a partner at Prism Political Risk Management Ltd. in London and an expert on Kazakhstan. “The Kazakhs learned from Russia that a Trump property was a safe place to park your money for a while,” she said, pointing out that capital flight from the country, fueled by political uncertainty, probably reached a peak in 2012. BTA Bank, once the Central Asian nation’s biggest lender, has accused Ablyazov of embezzling billions of dollars’ worth of mines, hotels, shopping centers and other assets in the former Soviet bloc between 2005 and 2009. Even as the lender sought to recover those holdings, Ablyazov and members of his family were funneling hundreds of millions of dollars into properties in Europe and the U.S., including three condominiums in a 46-story luxury development in lower Manhattan known as Trump SoHo, court documents allege. Ablyazov enlisted his son-in-law, Iliyas Khrapunov, to help him conceal his assets, according to sworn statements from former associates of the fugitive financier. The previously reported purchases in Trump SoHo, developed by Bayrock Group LLC in partnership with the Trump Organization, were made by members of Khrapunov’s family, the bank has alleged in court documents. Khrapunov also worked on a separate deal with Felix Sater, a former Bayrock executive and onetime adviser to Trump. Ablyazov, who held a majority stake in BTA Bank, said in the interview that he legally owned

The ONLY way that he (Trump) was able to finance his resurrection --- from his bankruptcies AFTER 2000 --- was the TORRENT of money flowing OUT of RUSSIA and the former Soviet Union countries like Kazakhstan, Azerbajan.  The investors that he got at that point were looking for safe havens or opportunities to LAUNDER money that were proceeds that were basically from CRIMINAL enterprises.   Trump himself denies having any financial connections with Russia  So he tweeted out --- (1) I have no dealings with Russia --- (2) I have no deals in Russia --- (3) I have no deals that could happen in Russia because we've stayed away --- (4) and, I have no loans with Russia  --- The thing to notice when Donald Trump talks about his relationship with Russia is that he always says I have no business in Russia --- he doesn't say that Russians have no business with me. As pointed out in a recent MSNBC episode of the Rachel Maddow show ---  Steve Bannon, the one-time chief strategist for Trump, claimed that money laundering may be the real crime that will ultimately bring the Trump presidency to an END.

There is an old expression that’s long been part of the training of medical students. It says that if you hear hooves, look for horses, not zebras. The idea is simple. Look first in the most obvious places. Often times the solution is in pain sight and doesn't require some deep, expensive digging. The same might very well be said of Donald Trump and Russia. Sure we all hear about the complex web, but really there is a kind of elemental simplicity to the story. Trump came to the attention of Russians as far back as 1987. The Russians, seeking contacts or assets in the US, dangled in front of Trump the prospect of doing business in Russia. They paraded before him oligarchs who he admired, and who he was jealous of. They keep their eyes on on him for years. He even married two wives from the former soviet bloc. Two wives who grew up behind the Iron Curtain. He went back to Russia in 2013, by which time planet Trump was surrounded by people like Michael Cohen, Felix Sater, the Agalaroffs, Paul Manafort and dozens and duzens of Russians that had bought property in Trump Tower, or one of his other real estate interests. When he fell on financial hard times, Russians and particularly Deutsche Bank in Moscow, were there to help with laundered money In 2016, when he finally ran for president, something he’d been talking about for decades, we know the Russians intervened to help. Paul Manafort, with deep Russian and Ukrainian ties, would, for a time, manage the campaign. When he won, so many that were circling the mothership Trump would lie about their contacts with Russia. His cabinet would be filled with people like Wilbur Russ, Rex Tillerson and the sister of Eric Prince, all with deep ties to Russia. All the while he would continue to praise Vladimir Putin.  This is the story that Luke Harding brings forth in Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win My WhoWhatWhy.org conversation with Luke Harding:  

This article is a collaboration between WNYC, ProPublica and The New Yorker. In the spring of 2012, Donald Trump’s two eldest children, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr., found themselves in a precarious legal position. For two years, prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office had been building a criminal case against them for misleading prospective buyers of units in the Trump SoHo, a hotel and condo development that was failing to sell. Despite the best efforts of the siblings’ defense team, the case had not gone away. An indictment seemed like a real possibility. The evidence included emails from the Trumps making clear that they were aware they were using inflated figures about how well the condos were selling to lure buyers. In one email, according to four people who have seen it, the Trumps discussed how to coordinate false information they had given to prospective buyers. In another, according to a person who read the emails, they worried that a reporter might be onto them. In yet another, Donald, Jr. spoke reassuringly to a broker who was concerned about the false statements, saying that nobody would ever find out, because only people on the email chain or in the Trump Organization knew about the deception, according to a person who saw the email. There was “no doubt” that the Trump children “approved, knew of, agreed to, and intentionally inflated the numbers to make more sales,” one person who saw the emails told us. “They knew it was wrong.” In 2010, when the Major Economic Crimes Bureau of the D.A.’s office opened an investigation of the siblings, the Trump Organization had hired several top New York criminal defense lawyers to represent Donald, Jr. and Ivanka. These attorneys had met with prosecutors in the bureau several times. They conceded that their clients had made exaggerated claims, but argued that the overstatements didn’t amount to criminal misconduct. Still, the case dragged on. In a meeting with the defense team, Donald Trump, Sr., expressed frustration that the investigation had not been closed. Soon after, his longtime personal lawyer, Marc Kasowitz entered the case. Kasowitz, who by then had been the elder Donald Trump’s attorney for a decade, is primarily a civil litigator with little experience in criminal matters. But in 2012, Kasowitz donated $25,000 to the re-election campaign of Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., making Kasowitz one of Vance’s largest donors. Kasowitz decided to bypass the lower-level prosecutors and went directly to Vance to ask that the investigation be dropped. On May 16, 2012, Kasowitz visited Vance’s office at One Hogan Place in downtown Manhattan — a faded edifice made famous by the television show, “Law & Order.” Dan Alonso, the chief assistant district attorney, and Adam Kaufmann, the chief of the investigative division, were also at the meeting, but no one from the Major Economic Crimes Bureau attended. Kasowitz did not introduce any new arguments or facts during his session. He simply repeated the arguments that the other defense lawyers had been making for months. Ultimately, Vance overruled his own prosecutors. Three months after the meeting, he told them to drop the case. Kasowitz subsequently boasted to colleagues about representing the Trump children, according to two people. He said that the case was “really dangerous,” one person said, and that it was “amazing I got them off.” (Kasowitz denied making such a statement.) Vance defended his decision. “I did not at the time believe beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime had been committed,” he told us. “I had to make a call and I made the call, and I think I made the right call.” Just before the 2012 meeting, Vance’s campaign had returned Kasowitz’s $25,000 contribution, in keeping with what Vance describes as standard practice when a donor has a case before his office. Kasowitz “had no influence and his contributions had no influence whatsoever on my decision-making in the case,” Vance said. But less than six months after the D.A.’s office dropped the case, Kasowitz made an even larger donation to Vance’s campaign, and helped raise more from others—eventually, a total of more than $50,000. After being asked about these donations as part of the reporting for this article—more than four years after the fact—Vance said he now plans to give back Kasowitz’s second contribution, too. “I don’t want the money to be a millstone around anybody’s neck, including the office’s,” he said. Kasowitz told us his donations to Vance were unrelated to the case. “I donated to Cy Vance’s campaign because I was and remain extremely impressed by him as a person of impeccable integrity, as a brilliant lawyer and as a public servant with creative ideas and tremendous ability,” Kasowitz wrote in an emailed statement. “I have never made a contribution to anyone’s campaign, including Cy Vance’s, as a ‘quid-pro-quo’ for anything.” Last year, The New York Times reported the existence of the criminal investigation into the Trump SoHo project. But the prosecutor’s focus on Ivanka and Donald, Jr. and the email evidence against them, as well as Kasowitz’s involvement, and Vance’s decision to overrule his prosecutors, had not been previously made public. This account is based on interviews with 20 sources familiar with the investigation, court records, and other public documents. We were not able to review copies of the emails that were the focal point of the inquiry. We are relying on the accounts of multiple individuals who have seen them. Requests for interviews with Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump, Jr., were referred to Alan Garten, the chief legal officer of the Trump Organization. In an emailed response, Garten did not address a list of questions about the criminal case. Instead, he quoted the company’s filings in civil litigation relating to the Trump SoHo, which described complaints as “a simple case of buyers’ remorse.” But even a lawyer in the Trump camp acknowledges that the way the case was resolved was unusual. “Dropping the case was reasonable,” said Paul Grand, a partner at Morvillo Abramowitz who was part of the Trump SoHo defense team. “The manner in which it was accomplished is curious.” Grand, who was a partner of Vance’s when the district attorney was in private practice, said he did not believe that the D.A.’s office had evidence of criminal misconduct by the Trump children. But the meeting between Vance and Kasowitz “didn’t have an air you’d like,” he said. “If you and I were district attorney and you knew that a subject of an investigation was represented by two or three well-thought-of lawyers in town, and all of a sudden someone who was a contributor to your campaign showed up on your doorstep, and the regular lawyers are nowhere to be seen, you’d think about how you’d want to proceed.” [Have a tip about this story? Click here to share information with WNYC and our reporting partners ProPublica and The New Yorker.] In June 2006, during the season finale of “The Apprentice,” Donald Trump, Sr. unveiled the Trump SoHo as a visionary project. The luxury development was intended to mark the ascension of Ivanka and Donald, Jr.—then 24 and 28 years old, respectively—as full players in the Trump empire. They signed the licensing deal alongside their father, and photographs of Ivanka were featured in the Trump SoHo’s advertising, under the tagline “Possess your own SoHo.” Their partners on the project included two Soviet-born businessmen, Felix Sater and Tevfik Arif, who ran the Bayrock Group, a real estate development firm. Sater had a history of running afoul of the law. In 1993, he was convicted of assault and spent about a year in prison for attacking a man with the stem of a margarita glass in a bar fight. In 1998, he pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering for his role in a $40 million securities fraud scheme. The Trump SoHo was beleaguered from the start: Named for one of Manhattan’s trendiest neighborhoods, the development wasn’t really in SoHo, but located just west of it, near the entrance ramp to the Holland Tunnel. Zoning laws wouldn’t allow a residential tower at the location, so the Trumps fell back on an alternative: a “condo-hotel,” in which buyers got a hotel room rather than an apartment, and were legally prohibited from staying there more than 120 nights per year. Worse, the high-priced condos hit the market in September 2007, just as the global economy began to crater in what became the largest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Business was slow, but the Trump family claimed the opposite. In April 2008, they said that 31 percent of the condos in the building had been purchased. Donald Jr. boasted to The Real Deal magazine that 55 percent of the units had been bought. In June 2008, Donald, Jr. and Ivanka, alongside their brother Eric, gathered the foreign press at Trump Tower in Manhattan, where Ivanka announced that 60 percent had been snapped up. “We’re in a very fortunate position,” she said, “where we have enough sales and now we are strategically targeting certain buyers.” None of that was true. According to a sworn affidavit by a Trump partner filed with the New York Attorney General’s office, by March of 2010, almost two years after the press conference, only 15.8 percent of units had been sold. This was more than a marketing problem. The deal hinged on selling at least 15 percent of the units. By law, the sales couldn’t close with anything less. The Trumps and their partners would have had to return the buyers’ down payments. Some buyers concluded that they’d been cheated. In August 2010, some sued the Trump Organization and others involved in the project in New York federal court. “This action seeks to redress the substantial and ongoing pattern of fraudulent misrepresentations and deceptive sales practices” by the Trumps and the other defendants, the suit charged. The plaintiffs argued that there’s a vast difference in value between a unit in a building that is fifteen percent sold and one that is sixty percent sold. Their complaint accused the sellers, including the Trumps, of “a consistent and concerted pattern of outright lies.” After the civil suit was filed, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office opened a criminal investigation. Prosecutors are often wary of getting involved in a dispute between wealthy litigants. But in this instance, according to a person familiar with their thinking, the lawyers in the Major Economic Crimes Bureau quickly concluded that there was enough to warrant an investigation. They believed that Ivanka and Donald, Jr., might have violated the Martin Act, a New York statute that bans any false statement in conjunction with the sale of a security or real estate. Prosecutors also saw potential fraud and larceny charges, applying a legal theory that, by overstating the number of units sold, the Trump were falsely inflating their value and, in effect, cheating unsuspecting condo buyers. Peirce Moser, an assistant district attorney known for his methodical, comprehensive investigations, soon took over the case. “He is not a cowboy,” Marc Scholl, who spent almost forty years as a prosecutor in the district attorney’s office, said. “He is certainly not out to make headlines for himself or to advance himself.” On the other side, the Trumps’ defense team included Gary Naftalis and David Frankel, of the law firm Kramer Levin; Paul Grand represented one of the real estate brokers who had worked with the Trumps. As the investigation progressed, Vance suffered an embarrassing setback in one of his highest profile cases. In the summer of 2011, his office had abandoned a sexual-assault case against the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Vance, who was pummeled in the press afterward, denied in his interview with us that the case made him reluctant to take on another prominent defendant. A few months later, on Jan. 11, 2012, Marc Kasowitz contributed $25,000 to Vance’s campaign, unbeknownst to prosecutors in the Major Economic Crimes Bureau, who continued their work. Moser was particularly focused on email correspondence, according to seven people familiar with the case. The prosecutors began considering impaneling a special grand jury, according to a person familiar with the investigation. That would have represented a significant escalation in the case, because it is often a prelude to indictments. With a grand jury in place, defense lawyers knew the risk of indictment was high. The defense team offered a deal to stave off this possibility, floating the possibility of a settlement of some kind, including a deferred prosecution agreement, which would have meant the corporate equivalent of probation for the Trump Organization. With the investigation appearing to gather momentum, Naftalis and Grand, who had already met with the prosecutors twice, began to step up their campaign against the case. Grand calls this the “internal appellate process.” Particularly when well-heeled or high-profile defendants are involved, there can be a multi-month advocacy process that slowly makes its way up the hierarchy inside the Manhattan D.A.’s office. Grand and Naftalis decided that it would be unwise to go over the heads of the staff prosecutors. Instead, on April 18, 2012, they sent a letter to Adam Kaufmann, then chief of the investigative division (he’s now in private practice), outlining their arguments. The next day, the defense lawyers met with Moser, Kaufmann, and others from the prosecution team. The defense team acknowledged that the Trumps made some exaggerated statements in order to sell the units. But this was mere “puffery”— harmless exaggeration. Such language, they contended, didn’t amount to criminal conduct. The Trumps weren’t selling useless swampland in Florida. The condos existed. And the buyers’ money was in escrow the entire time. The defense lawyers argued that bringing such a case to trial would be wasteful and that resources would be better spent on more serious offenses. As Grand put it to us during our recent interview, “I guess in a world that is completely pure and where there is no deviation between propriety and the law, that kind of exaggeration and deliberately concentrated exaggeration can be pursued. But is that the kind of criminal law enforcement the D.A. should be doing?” Moser’s answer seemed to be “yes,” and he found support among his supervisors. Moser had prepared an elaborate PowerPoint presentation, featuring dozens of emails that prosecutors believed showed that Ivanka and Donald, Jr. had repeatedly lied to buyers. “You couldn’t have had a better email trail,” a person familiar with the investigation told us. At the meeting, Kaufmann peppered the defense team with questions, at one point raising his voice, according to a person who was there. “I believed in the case,” Kaufmann told us, though he declined to discuss the evidence. “But believing in the case doesn’t mean we had reached the point when [I had] settled on what should happen with the case.” *** White-collar criminal cases are often challenging to bring because of their complexity. And, by the time of the April meeting, prosecutors knew that they faced another impediment, this one created by legal maneuvers in the Trumps’ civil case. Five months earlier, the Trumps and their partners had reached a settlement with the disgruntled buyers. The defendants agreed to return 90 percent of the buyers’ deposits, plus their attorneys’ fees. But they extracted a rare concession in return: The plaintiffs agreed not to cooperate with prosecutors unless they were subpoenaed. (Garten, the Trump Organization’s chief legal officer, noted that the settlement terms were confidential and declined to comment on them.) Adam Leitman Bailey, the attorney for the buyers, had been helping prosecutors. Now he provided aid to the Trumps, writing a letter to the district attorney that stated: “We acknowledge that the Defendants have not violated the criminal laws of the State of New York or the United States.” In our interview with Vance, he said he had never before seen a letter where plaintiffs in a civil case asserted that no crime had been committed. “I don’t think I’d ever received a letter like it,” Vance said. He calls it a “significant and important” communication. Certainly, prosecutors could subpoena the buyers of Trump condos. But they feared the witnesses would undercut the criminal case by claiming they weren’t victims of a fraud. Still, Moser, backed by his supervisors, persisted. “Peirce believed in his case,” Grand said. “We did not succeed in talking him out of it and didn’t succeed in talking one or two levels above him into dropping the case.” *** Finally, in the spring of 2012, Kasowitz joined the case. His involvement “came from out of the blue,” Grand told us. He and the other lawyers assumed Kasowitz intervened at the request of Donald Trump, Sr. In early May 2012, Kasowitz asked to see the District Attorney. Vance told us such meetings aren’t unusual — but his investigations chief at the time, Kaufmann, characterized Kasowitz’s request as “a little premature.” The Trump lawyer was going over the heads of everyone who had been working on the case. The gathering, on May 16, lasted 20 to 30 minutes, according to Vance. Kasowitz repeated the arguments the defense team had made before. Afterwards, Kasowitz didn’t seem to think his clients were in the clear. On August 1, he suggested a settlement, proposing that the Trump Organization would not admit to wrongdoing but would agree not to mislead people in the future and would submit to outside monitoring. The offer proved unnecessary. Two days later, on August 3, 2012, Moser called the Trumps’ defense attorneys and told them prosecutors were dropping the investigation. (Moser, who  still works for Vance, now as senior investigative counsel, did not respond to requests for an interview made over multiple months. Shortly before this article was published, he sent an email stating that Vance’s ultimate decision in the case “was not unreasonable” and that throughout the process, the D.A. asked “smart questions” and expressed “reasonable skepticism.”) In his interview, Vance defended his decision to drop the case with no conditions, even after Kasowitz offered a deal. “This started as a civil case,” Vance said. “It was settled as a civil case with a statement by the purchasers of luxury properties that they weren’t victims. And at the end of the day, I felt if we were not going to charge criminally, we should leave it as a civil case in the posture in which it came to us.” In September 2012, within weeks of the case being resolved, Kasowitz contacted Vance’s campaign about hosting a fundraiser, according to a spokesperson for the campaign. Kasowitz held the event that January. He personally donated almost $32,000 to Vance’s campaign, and 20 of his law firm’s partners and employees kicked in at least another $9,000. Then, in October 2013, as Election Day approached, he hosted a breakfast —“Republicans for Cy Vance” — which raised an additional $9,000. Vance defended his decision to accept the money Kasowitz sent his way. “We did the right thing,” he said, referring to the decision to drop the case. “Another five and a half months go by. Marc Kasowitz has no matter pending before the office for the Trumps or anybody else. It’s 2013 and it’s an election—and I welcome his support.” Vance noted that New York law allowed him to accept such a contribution. Still, he now intends to return the money to Kasowitz. Ivanka Trump is now an adviser to the President, with an office in the West Wing. Donald, Jr., is running much of the family empire while his father is in the White House. Kasowitz attained national prominence when he was retained to represent the president in the Russia investigation, only to be supplanted as lead counsel. Vance is running unopposed for reelection in November. The Trump SoHo went into foreclosure in 2014 and was taken over by a creditor. Only a hundred and twenty-eight of the three hundred and ninety-one units in the building have sold. That comes out to around thirty-three percent. Derek Kravitz and Leora Smith of ProPublica contributed reporting to this article, as did Keenan Chen, Alex Mierjeski, Inti Pacheco and Manuela Andreoni of Columbia Journalism Investigations. This article is a collaboration between WNYC, ProPublica and The New Yorker. 

Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect talks about Trump's 180 on DACA and the Dreamers. Also: Hurricanes, Texas Toxics and Trump's EPA: John Nichols comments. And Bob Dreyfuss explains what we now know about Facebook taking money from Russians for political ads, and answers the question, 'Who is Felix Sater -- and why is Trump so afraid of him?"

Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect talks about Trump's 180 on DACA and the Dreamers. Also: Hurricanes, Texas Toxics and Trump's EPA: John Nichols comments. And Bob Dreyfuss explains what we now know about Facebook taking money from Russians for political ads, and answers the question, 'Who is Felix Sater -- and why is Trump so afraid of him?"

Ok, let's just quickly mention Paul Manafort, Trump Campaign Mgr. in 2016.  He's got his hands in the Russian "till" and then some.  He's been on somebody's payroll over in Russia & Ukraine for years now.  At last count he's up to north of  $40-million in payments from these sources.  Since 2000 he's bought several properties in Trump Tower and one in Ft. Lauderdale for ALL-CASH!  He Then turns around and places them in an LLC and then takes out a LOAN on the very properties that he paid for with ALL-CASH!  Can you say Money Laundering, Boys & Girls! Let's move right on to Center Stage with Michael Cohen, Trump's Personal Lawyer AND Felix Sater, Trump's erstwhile business associate operating out of Trump Tower. Michael Cohen, like Paul Manafort, bought multiple properties in Trump Tower and other Trump New York highrises.  Cohen was a solo operating personal injury lawyer and could still afford to buy high-priced condo units like these.  He and his brother, also a lawyer, then joined a small boutique New York law firm as a partner - Phillips Nizer, but stayed for less than a year.  What he brought to the firm other than personal injury expertise is hardly a reason to join or be asked to join such a legal firm. He purchased his first Trump apartment at Trump World Tower at 845 United Nations Plaza in 2001. He was so impressed he convinced his parents, his in-laws and a business partner to buy there, too. Cohen’s in-laws went on [to] purchase two more units there and one at Trump Grande in Sunny Isles, Fla. Cohen then bought at Trump Palace at 200 E. 69th St., and Trump Park Avenue, where he currently resides.  He’s currently in the process of purchasing a two-bedroom unit at Trump Place on Riverside Boulevard – so, naturally, Cohen’s next step is to purchase something at Trump Pla

Bill Maher and Trevor Noah talk Russia, Felix Sater and Trump's business ties. (Photo: Brad Barket)

Virginia Heffernan talks to Andrew Rice, a contributing editor at New York Magazine, about Felix Sater, Trump's original Russia connection, and why his name may come up more and more as Mueller's investigation unravels. Read Andrew's story The Original Russia Connection over at New York Magazine. Do you have a question for us? Send us a tweet @realTrumpcast or use the #AskTrumpcast hashtag. You can also leave us a voice message at: (646)-598-6510. Don’t forget about our live show in Austin, Texas, for the Texas Tribune Festival on Saturday, Sept. 23, at 7:30 p.m. We’ll be live from the Texas Union Theatre with special guests Jill Abramson, the former executive editor of the New York Times, and Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas. For tickets go to Slate.com/Live. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Virginia Heffernan talks to Andrew Rice, a contributing editor at New York Magazine, about Felix Sater, Trump's original Russia connection, and why his name may come up more and more as Mueller's investigation unravels. Read Andrew's story The Original Russia Connection over at New York Magazine. Do you have a question for us? Send us a tweet @realTrumpcast or use the #AskTrumpcast hashtag. You can also leave us a voice message at: (646)-598-6510. Don’t forget about our live show in Austin, Texas, for the Texas Tribune Festival on Saturday, Sept. 23, at 7:30 p.m. We’ll be live from the Texas Union Theatre with special guests Jill Abramson, the former executive editor of the New York Times, and Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas. For tickets go to Slate.com/Live. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week the dynamic duo of political podcasting is back to discuss one of the most insane week's in the Trump presidency (which is saying something). The guys discuss the firing of known Hungarian Nazi, Sebastian Gorka, Hurricane Harvey, Rex Tillerson's countdown to being fired, Felix Sater and his devastating emails in the ongoing Russian scandal, and much more. SHOW NOTES Domestic Politics Gorka resigned after being fired from the White House Trump pardons Sheriff Joe Arpaio Hurricane Harvey’s devastation in Texas Climate Change argument Tillerson on the chopping block Michael Cohen has really fucked up now Felix Slater helping to sink Trump Carl Icahn quits a special adviser to the president Foreign Politics North Korea fires missiles over Japan This Week in Stupid People believed in Joel Osteen

WHO IS FELIX SATER? --- TRUMP'S RUSSIAN MONEY MAN ================== WHO Is Felix Sater?  He was a very close business associate of Donald J. Trump.  He was, until recently, a "principal" of an investment firm, Bayrock Capital, which was located on the 24th floor of Trump Tower, two floors below Donald Trump's office - located on the 26th floor. Sater was, until recently, one of the FBI's most coveted counter-intelligence assets who for years reported back to the FBI on a daily basis and provided that organization with critical foreign intelligence information, information that was in turn passed on to the CIA. WHAT Is Felix Sater?  He is a financial/investment "facilitator" for Donald Trump.  Felix's father, Mikhail, was a lieutenant (or soldier) in the Simeon Mogilevich Russian crime family, the largest such criminal organization in the world.  In addition, Felix Sater knows numerous individuals throughout Russia, the Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Kazakistan, et al. who are from the criminal/underworld.  There is money galore that needs to be spirited out of Mother Russia and sent overseas to be cleaned (or "laundered"). WHEN Did Felix Sater enter into the picture and become involved with Donald Trump in the first place?  Felix Sater was convicted in 1999 for investor fraud but the court records were sealed and the actual sentencing was delayed for almost a decade.  It was felt that Mr. Sater was of such high value to the United States government that he should be put in a special protected status.  He was free to operate without any public record of a criminal past.  Shortly thereafter, Mr. Sater - sometime between 2000-2002 - made the acquaintance of Donald J. Trump. WHY Was Felix Sater an associate of Donald Trump?  It was common knowledge in the New York metropolitan area that Donald Trump would

Liar Liar Pants On Fire: The First 100 Lies; Trump's Love For All Things Moscow; Trump And The Russian Mafia; Trump Picked Felix Sater As Senior Advisor To Trump; Did Trump Lie Under Oath About Not Knowing Felix Sater? A Back Channel Plan For Russian/Ukraine; Trump's Attacks On Foreigners – He Sold Condos To All Of Them; How Did A Russian Mobster End Up On Trumps Red Carpet?

Liar Liar Pants On Fire: The First 100 Lies; Trump's Love For All Things Moscow; Trump And The Russian Mafia; Trump Picked Felix Sater As Senior Advisor To Trump; Did Trump Lie Under Oath About Not Knowing Felix Sater? A Back Channel Plan For Russian/Ukraine; Trump's Attacks On Foreigners – He Sold Condos To All Of Them; How Did A Russian Mobster End Up On Trumps Red Carpet?

Donald Trump keeps saying that he has nothing to do with the Russians.  Most recently, he made this claim in his White House press conference last week: “I can tell you, speaking for myself, I own nothing in Russia.  I have no loans in Russia.  I don’t have any deals in Russia.”  He said it at a press conference in early January, too. Hopefully, you’ve already seen the New York Times piece from this weekend detailing how Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen took a dossier to Michael Flynn that had been provided to him by a pro-Russian Ukrainian politician named Andrii V. Artemenko and a Russian mob-connected former employee of the Trump Organization named Felix Sater. ? The dossier reportedly contained damaging information about the anti-Russian Ukrainian president, Petro O. Poroshenko, that the Trump administration could conceivably use to oust him. It also contained some kind of Russian-Ukrainian “peace plan” that would facilitate the lifting of sanctions on Russia. At this point --- we need to stress the "real" importance behind the lifting of sanctions on Russia.  The U.S.'s new Secretary of State --- Rex Tillerson, was the FORMER CEO Of EXXON-MOBIL.  In 2012 He entered negotiations with the Kremlin to join forces with the Russians to extrapolate nearly one-trillion dollars worth of oil that lay in the Arctic Ocean North Of Russia --- just waiting to be brought up to the ground and sold for enormous revenues!  With the invasion of the Ukraine by The Russians & Putin in 2014 President Obama placed severe sanctions on the Russians which also froze in place Rex Tillerson's trillion-dollar Arctic Ocean oil venture agreement with the Russians.