Category: ConflictsOfInterest

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Trump Accused Of “Sports Washing” Saudi Arabia’s Complicity In 9/11 Attacks

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Terry Strada, the National Chair of 9/11 Families United On MSNBC’s Alex Witt Reports(07/30/22)

MSNBC’s Liz McLaughlin reported on Alex Witt Reports show(07/30/22) that outraged families of the victims of the September 11th attacks(2001) are protesting the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Tournament currently being held at former President Trump’s Bedminster Golf Club in New Jersey. The protesters are essentially accusing former President Trump and the participating golfers, of “sports washing” Saudi Arabia’s role in the horrific 9/11 attacks, and their atrocious human rights record generally.

Asked by host Alex Witt, how the families were responding to the tournament, Liz McLaughlin responded (video at 0:31):“The families say they are disgusted, disappointed, that it feels like a gut punch after losing a loved one in that horrible act, to see a former President of the United States, who by the way, has the presidential seal emblazoned on golf carts, embroidered in golf towels at this tournament, which is less than 50 miles from ground zero, to have him take what they call blood money. LIV is bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, investing an estimated 2 billion in LIV Golf so far, and this new pro golf circuit is set to try to dethrone the PGA, but it has come with a lot of controversy, and Trump is set to host another one of these, later in the year.”

Trump has defended his actions saying, “nobody has gotten to the bottom of 9/11 unfortunately, and they should have”–essentially arguing that it’s unfair/inaccurate to place the 9/11 blame on Saudi Arabia. He also added that all the proceeds from the golf tournament will be going to charity, so he was not profiting from it.

As Liz McLaughlin correctly pointed out however, even though the U.S. government has never singled out Saudi Arabia as the masterminds of the 9/11 attacks, it is a fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers were from the Kingdom, and the mastermind of the attacks, Osama bin Laden, was also born there. It has also been established that a lot of the funding for bin Laden’s Al Qaeda terrorist network, came from Saudi nationals. So any reasonable person would suspect that the Saudis were behind the 9/11 attacks. And even if one gives Saudi Arabia a pass over 9/11, it is impossible to ignore the Kingdom’s atrocious human rights record, which includes the brutal murder of American journalist Jamal Khashoggi. 

Terry Strada, the National Chair of 9/11 Families United, slammed Trump’s assertion that nobody has gotten to the bottom of the 9/11 attacks, telling host Alex Witt(3:02): “He sounds foolish saying anything like that. He met with the families. He met with me in the White House and we went there for the sole purpose of asking him to declassify FBI documents that were the investigative reports into this…so he sounds completely foolish when he says that nobody has looked into it. We asked him to look into it. It was his job as President to look into it. He failed us miserably back then.”

Bottom line folks, the pundits on Fox News recently made a big deal out of President Biden’s fist bump with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman(MBS) on his official visit to Saudi Arabia. It will be interesting to see if the same pundits also make a big deal out of former President Trump’s “sports washing” of Saudi’s atrocious human rights record and involvement in the 9/11 attacks. 

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Briefing By AOC & Fellow Dems On Banning Stock Trading By Members Of Congress

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Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez(D-NY) joined fellow Democrats for a briefing(04/07/22) on their push to ban stock trading by members of Congress. Others on the briefing were Senator Jeff Merkley(D-OR), Rep Joe Neguse(D-CO), Rep Rashida Tlaib(D-MI), Rep Abigail Spanberger(D-VA), Rep Pramila Jayapal(D-WA), Rep Andy Kim(D-NJ) and Rep Angie Craig(D-MN).

Rep Ocasio-Cortez said banning stock trading by members of Congress will not only address legitimate concerns about conflicts of interest, but that it would also tackle the other urgent problem involving crisis of faith in our institutions. She said: “We are also tackling a crisis of faith in our institutions in the United States, and that exploitation of that crisis of faith is a direct threat to our democracy, as we have seen over the last two to four years. It is our responsibility to ensure that we eliminate that perception of impropriety, because it is these perceptions that can be exploited to undermine our most sacred institutions.”

The final speaker, the epitome of “save the best for last”, was Minnesota’s Rep Angie Craig(remember that name folks, vivacious Angie is going up the Dem ladder). She said: “My background experience in this issue is I actually sat on a corporate executive team for 12 years before I came to Congress, and this is not hypothetical to me, it’s not hypothetical. I helped run the investor relations department of a major fortune 500 company. I know that information moves markets, and it moves stocks. That’s why when I first got here, I wrote something called the Humble Act, which as part of it, would ban members of Congress from owning individual stocks. And it’s also not hypothetical to me because before I was sworn in to Congress, I had stock from the company I had worked for for 12 years. I had stock options from that company as well. Every single one of those shares were sold in the open market before I stepped foot into the U.S. Capitol, every single one. And if we can’t find 535 people in the damn United States of America, who are willing to give up their personal stock portfolio in order to serve their constituents, then shame on us, just shame on us.”

Bottom line folks, as some of the speakers here pointed out, banning stock trading by members of Congress should be a no-brainer, and no Democrat should be opposed to it. Opposing a stock trading ban for members of Congress is bad optics, bad morally, bad politics, and a sure loser at the polls this Fall. It’s really that simple.

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Ivanka Was Behind Trump Hotel Overcharging His Inaugural

There has been a lot of reporting about Trump inaugural committee’s strange sources of funding and the equally strange manner the funds were spent. The biggest bombshells surrounding Trump’s inaugural funds were the revelations that (1) a staggering $40 million out of the record $107 million raised remains unaccounted for and (2) that $26 million of inaugural funds were used to pay a month-old company registered to First Lady Melania’s friend Stephanie Wolkoff for “planning services”.

Strangely left out of the Trump inaugural controversy however is an equally significant if not bigger bombshell, that Trump Hotel DC overcharged Trump’s own inaugural for rooms, meals and event space and crucially, that it was Trump’s daughter Ivanka who negotiated the exorbitant prices. Yeah, you heard that right folks—Trump’s DC hotel overcharged his own inaugural for rooms, meals and event space–basically Trump taking money from his inaugural and stuffing it in his pockets. Sickening corruption!!

Propublica’s Justin Elliot said on CNN’s Outfront with Erin Burnett, “A top planner in the inaugural committee expressed concerns to several people including Ivanka Trump saying the rate that the Trump Hotel is trying to charge the inaugural committee is way too high and essentially she said this is not going to look good when it becomes public. They were proposing to charge $175,000 a day for a ballroom rental in the Trump Hotel down in Washington.”

We[Propublica] also didn’t know that Ivanka Trump was involved in some kind of pricing negotiation between the inaugural committee on one hand and her company Trump Organization on the other……….It’s not clear where they ended up…….it’s also not clear the total amount of money the Trump Organization ultimately got….Another issue here is if they[inaugural] were overcharged it could actually be a violation of tax law. Because Trump was an influential person in the inaugural committee, his business is not allowed to be overcharging the inaugural committee for services. That could actually be a legal violation.“

The top planner who advised against Trump Hotel overcharging the inaugural was apparently Melania’s friend Stephanie Wolkoff–the woman behind the $26 million payday. Turns out according to this reporting, Stephanie Wolkoff is not that corrupt after all—you get a few brownie points for this Stephanie. We still need to know however, exactly what happened with your $26 million pay.

It bears repeating here that Propublica’s Justin Elliot argues Trump may have broken the law—violated tax law. OutfrontCNN’s host Erin Burnett citing a New York Times piece, said a criminal investigation has been launched into the source of Trump inaugural funds. Specifically, Burnett said, “The New York Times reported that the [Trump] inaugural committee is under criminal investigation for possibly taking illegal foreign donations….” Given this bombshell reporting, it is incumbent upon these investigators to also look into whether Trump violated tax law by lining his pockets with inaugural funds as the Propublica reporter argues.

Bottom line folks, there’s but no question that the Trump administration is hands down, the most corrupt in U.S. history. Just looking at Trump’s inauguration alone, we have a situation where they potentially accepted illegal foreign donations $40 million of which have disappeared, $26 million of which went to his wife’s pal, and now his daughter Ivanka is credibly accused of helping him overcharge his own inaugural—the kind of third world-style corruption America has always fought against. Democrats must make the fight against corruption a centerpiece of their 2020 campaign message. This is beyond ridiculous.

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Why Won’t Dems Seek Fast-Tracked SCOTUS Ruling On Trump’s Tax Returns?

A federal appeals court today dismissed Trump’s appeal holding that the district court ruling ordering Trump to release his tax returns to the Manhattan DA was proper–essentially that Trump wasn’t immune from New York state prosecution. Moments after that ruling, one of Trump’s lawyers Jay Sekulow said they are going to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. It is very well known however that the arguments Trump’s lawyers are advancing in federal court to keep his tax returns hidden are frivolous and that the whole reason for their court challenges is delay.

The question then becomes, why haven’t Democrats ever filed a motion with the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to intervene in the tax return and quite frankly other obstruction of congress cases that are at this juncture throwing the country into a constitutional crisis. Yours Truly broached this subject in an earlier tweet.

The U.S. Supreme court did indeed fast-track one of Trump’s immigration cases, handing down a decision even before the appellate courts could decide on the case. If it was good for the Roberts Supreme Court to honor Trump’s fast-track motion and short circuit his case, then why can’t the Roberts Supreme Court do the same for the co-equal U.S. Congress especially where, as here, there appears to be a constitutional crisis? Why won’t the U.S. Supreme Court do what’s best for the country and just hand down rulings on Trump’s tax returns, executive priviledge, whether a president can be criminally prosecuted, and many other cases that confront the country at this moment thus saving the country from Trump’s abuse of the court process for delay? Doesn’t the threat of a constitutional crisis far exceed the “extraordinary circumstances” bar the U.S. Supreme Court sets before it takes up extraordinary writ petitions?

Except from Scotusblog post

Reasonable people will agree that Trump is not mounting these court challenges because he has meritorious legal arguments that will prevail in federal court. His only reason for these challenges is delay. The question for the Roberts Supreme Court therefore becomes whether they are comfortable being viewed by the public as being complicit in Trump’s stalling tactics by standing idly by as the country teeters into a constitutional crisis.

Bottom line folks, the Trump administration is like no other U.S. administration we have witnessed before. We are witnessing things right before our very eyes we’d never have thought possible in the United States. Equally troubling, the guard rails we thought we had in place to address some of these eventualities, especially the U.S. Senate, appear to have either fallen by the wayside or are actively helping Trump in his lawlessness. The only question remaining is whether the Roberts Supreme Court will step in and hand down the much needed legal decisions that are within its power to do, or like the U.S. Senate, they will just sit idly by and either watch or abet Trump’s lawlessness.

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Rep Speier: Trump Is Pimping For Himself Or Putin

In one of the most hilarious political segments Yours Truly has heard on cable TV in a long time, Rep Jackie Speier (D-CA) told MSNBC host Chris Matthews that President Trump wants the next G7 Summit held at his Doral Golf Resort because “he[Trump] is pimping either on behalf of himself or Vladimir Putin.” Apparently Yours Truly was not the only one who found the “pimping” phrase exceedingly funny because host Chris Matthews and the other guests also couldn’t contain their laughter following her statement The full Hardball with Chris Matthews segment is available here but the relevant clip is below.

Specifically, Rep Speier said, “He [Trump] says that Vladimir Putin should be brought back into the G7. And then he starts talking about Doral….Once again, he’s pimping on behalf of himself or on behalf of Vladimir Putin…”

We are accustomed to hearing Democrats and some in the mainstream media expressing their frustrations about the flagrant corruption of the Trump administration using phrases like “conflict of interest”, “emoluments clause” etc. It was therefore very funny and quite honestly very refreshing to hear Rep Speier use the colloquial “pimping” phrase to describe President Trump’s seemingly endless efforts to use the Presidency to profit himself and his family.

Maybe, just maybe, the “pimping” phrase will annoy Trump enough to make him start abiding by the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution. I know–wishful thinking–but Rep Speier thanks for the laugh nonetheless. Made my day.

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Trump Has Already Lost Tax Return Battle

In case you missed it, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow in a very encouraging segment recently revealed that despite the unprecedented stonewalling Trump has engaged in regarding the release of his tax returns, there’s strong reason to believe he has all but lost the fight. According to Maddow, a lot of the banks Trump has used for his business dealings over the years have already shared these transactions with the various congressional committees. It therefore turns out that with these treasure troves of Trump’s financial records, we may not even need his actual tax returns to get an accurate picture of his financial dealings–especially with the Russians.

It is very sad that even in this day and age Americans would have to fight this hard to get a public official to release his financial records–records he swore on the campaign trail he would release to the public.

It is also very sad that a major U.S. political party–The GOP–has aided and abetted Trump in this unprecedented stonewalling in total breach of the public’s trust. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in particular has gone as far as violating well-laid IRS statutes in an effort to aid Trumps stonewalling–a total travesty of public service and borderline criminal conduct.

Bottom line if Maddow’s reporting pans out that congressional Democrats do indeed already have much of Trump’s financial records, then this should not only be celebrated as a big win for government transparency advocates, but it should also lead to louder calls for Secretary Mnuchin and others to be held accountable. This is especially so if evidence of criminal conduct is unearthed in Trump’s financial records–a very likely outcome.

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Trump’s Financial Disclosures Are Meaningless

President Trump has repeatedly argued that there is no need for him to release his tax returns because his financial disclosures give us the same information we would obtain from his tax returns. Specifically, Trump argues through his financial disclosure forms that because he is no longer listed as the head of his numerous companies, he doesn’t have any conflict of interest. Well, now we find out courtesy of CNN’s OutFront with Erin Burnett that Trump’s financial disclosures are deceptive and thus meaningless.

Erin Burnett citing a consumer advocacy group Public Citizen said, “Public Citizen did some digging by looking into Trump’s federal financial disclosures and found that Trump did remove his name as the owner of more than 500 assets once he became President but [that is] on paper, not in reality. The Truth, Public Citizen found, the assets Trump transferred ownership to can be traced back to one person and that one person is President Trump…..Which means Trump still has a vested interest in making sure his businesses are doing well, businesses that receive money every single day from people trying to influence or carry favor from the President.”

Bottom line folks, we do not need Erin Burnett to prove to us that Trump is in serious and constant violation of the constitution’s emoluments clause. The clamor for his tax returns should be an issue of the utmost urgency and Congress must deal ruthlessly with corrupt public officials like Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin who continue to abuse their positions to hide Trump’s tax returns. Time has come for Congress to exercise its rarely used powers and jail Steven Mnuchin for contempt of Congress!!

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Trump Family’s Deceptive Trade Practices

A CNN Special Report by Erin Burnett exposed some stunning deceptive practices employed by the Trump family in their real estate dealings. Some of the deceptive statements the Trumps used to lure in real estate investors are borderline criminal fraud. According to the CNN Special Report, the Trump family essentially embarked on real estate projects worldwide and then made false media pronouncements that their properties were sold out in an effort to lure in investors. Non-suspecting investors then pumped money into what they believed were very profitable Trump properties only to be hit by bankruptcy notices resulting in severe losses. The full CNN Special Report titled “The Trump Family Business” is available here but the relevant clip is below

In 2009 Ivanka Trump for example told CBS regarding the Trump Tower Toronto project, “We have projects all over the world that are incredibly successful and that are virtually sold out…from Hawaii to Toronto to Istanbul.” However according to Erin Burnett, bankruptcy papers filed for the Toronto project years later totally contradicted Ivanka’s statement to CBS. Turns out a whopping 75% of the “sold out” Toronto building remained unoccupied.

Similar shocking deceptive practices were also employed at Trump’s SOHO project where Ivanka told reporters in 2008 that 60% of the units had been sold. It later turned out upon further inspection that contrary to Ivanka’s assertion, only 15% of the units had been sold. Even more troubling about the SOHO project is the fact that there were email exchanges between Ivanka and Trump’s eldest son Don Jr showing that the two were willfully lying to investors about the occupancy rates at Trump SOHO. This apparently led to a lawsuit which the Trump family settled with the terms remaining secret.

Bottom line as Erin Burnett’s Special Report points out, a lot of these real estate investors who were lured into investing based on gross misrepresentations by the Trumps, ended up losing large sums of money. These were not just harmless sales gimmicks employed by the Trumps. Even though it is unlikely that any criminal prosecution could be initiated against Trump’s adult children(statute of limitations), the only decent cause of action for them given their current status in society(Presidential children) would be to make a public apology to the investors who got crushed by their deceptive trade practices.

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Trump’s Sister And Federal Judge Abruptly Retires Amid Tax Fraud Probe

In case you missed it MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow recently did a segment about Maryanne Trump Barry’s abrupt retirement from the federal bench

Maryanne Trump Barry, Trump’s older sister was a judge at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. According to Maddow, both President Trump and his federal judge sister are currently targets of a criminal tax fraud investigation related to their deceased father’s estate. Maryanne Trump apparently ended up pocketing a staggering $200 million from the tax fraud scheme.

Naturally the tax fraud probe also led to judicial misconduct complaints against judge Maryanne Trump Barry. Her abrupt retirement effectively ends the judicial misconduct proceedings against her exposing once again the gaping loophole in the judicial misconduct process that allows federal judges to walk away with zero accountability.

Bottom line, as Maddow correctly pointed out, Judge Maryanne Trump Barry’s abrupt retirement brings into focus once again the issue of President Trump’s tax returns. It’s becoming apparent with every single passing day that the reason Trump is terrified to release his tax returns is because it is riddled with criminal conduct that will almost certainly lead to his impeachment.

Sadly, the so-called “moral values” “evangelical christians” occupying today’s Republican Party are the ones helping him hide his tax returns and the criminal conduct embedded in them.

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