Category: #TrumpSwamp/Corruption

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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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NYT’s Maggie Haberman Ensnared In Feud Over Trump Inaugural Funds

Melania Trump with Stephanie Winston Wolkoff

In case you missed it, the Trump inaugural saga has taken a new, and very interesting twist lately, with now Twitter-active Stephanie Winston Wolkoff taking a direct shot at Maggie Haberman and Ken Vogel of the New York Times(NYT), as being part of the plot to throw her under the bus.

You’ll remember that after the bombshell revelation that a staggering $40 million of Trump’s inaugural funds had mysteriously disappeared, there was an effort by Trump’s allies to pin the blame on then First Lady Melania Trump’s Senior Advisor Stephanie Winston Wolkoff. Stephanie Wolkoff talked about this effort to throw her under the bus at an appearance on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow show on September 1, 2020.

In the interview, a visibly upset Stephanie Wolkoff told host Maddow, that then First Lady Melania Trump basically told her she had to be the fall person for the Trump inaugural scandal. Wolkoff specifically said, “Melania and the [Trump]White House had accused me of criminal activity, then publicly shamed and fired me, and made me their scapegoat. At that moment in time, that’s when I pressed record. She was no longer my friend, and she was willing to let them take me down, and she told me herself, that this is the way it has to be. She was advised by the attorneys at the White House that there was no other choice because there was a possible investigation into the presidential inauguration committee….At first I really did think maybe she would come to my aid? Maybe she would tell the truth? She turned her back, she did. She folded like a deck of cards., and I’m shocked she did it.”

This 05/23/2021 tweet however, shows that Stephanie Wolkoff is not only going after Trump and his allies in her effort to set the record straight regarding Trump’s inaugural, she’s also calling out NYT’s Maggie Haberman and Ken Vogel, as being part of the plot to destroy her. This, if proven, could turn out to be a huge scandal unto itself, given the fact that many liberals still blame the New York Times for Trump’s ascension to the White House. Specifically, many liberals believe NYT’s excessive coverage of the “email scandal”, weakened Hillary Clinton’s campaign during the final stretch of the 2016 campaign.

There’s no other way any reasonable person can interpret Stephanie Wolkoff’s tweet other than NYT’s Haberman and Vogel were doing Trump’s bidding when they wrote the referenced piece. This is especially so considering Wolkoff’s invocation of “SETUP. COVERUP. TAKEDOWN” in her tweet. For the record, accusations of “access journalism” against then White House reporter for the New York Times, Maggie Haberman, persisted throughout Trump’s presidency. Stephanie Wolkoff is not the first person drawing that inference.

Bottom line folks, Yours Truly is not accusing Maggie Haberman or Ken Vogel of any wrongdoing. By all accounts, these are serious journalists, who exhibit a high level of professionalism(my personal opinion). What Yours Truly is simply pointing out, is what any reasonable person presented with Stephanie Wolkoff’s recent tweet would conclude, and that is, Haberman and Vogel were in on the plot by Trump’s allies to throw her under the bus. It would be in everybody’s interest, especially Wolkoff who suffered greatly as a result of the Trump inaugural saga, if Haberman, Vogel or even the New York Times management, addressed this issue.

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Did Trump Fire State Dept IG Over Probe Into Pompeos?

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with his wife Susan

CNN White House reporter Sarah Westwood, citing a House Democratic source, said President Trump may have fired State Department Inspector General Steve Linick because Linick had opened an investigation into Secretary Mike Popmeo and his wife Susan, for improperly using a political appointee to perform personal favors for them. While this kind of allegation would have rocked any other modern U.S. administration, it perfectly fits the corrupt pattern that has been set by the Trump administration.

Westwood specifically said, “House Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel who is a Democrat, said that he had learned that the Inspector General had opened an investigation into Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a Democratic source claimed to CNN that that involved allegations that Pompeo had used improperly, a political appointee to do personal favors for him and his wife.”

This troubling report comes just a few weeks after President Trump removed Inspector General Glenn Fine, who members of congress in a bipartisan fashion chose to oversee the disbursement of $2 trillion in covid-19 stimulus funds. It is difficult at this juncture for anyone not to conclude that the Trump administration is by far the most corrupt in modern U.S. history, especially if one takes into account the fact that despite intense public demand, Trump is yet to release his tax returns, something almost every other modern U.S. president has gladly done.

Bottom line folks as Yours Truly has repeatedly stated, the rampant corruption by the Trump administration has to be called out loudly. We cannot afford to accept this corruption simply because AG Barr’s DOJ will do nothing about it. The fact of the matter is that neither Trump nor Barr will be in office forever, meaning there will come a time, hopefully next year with a Biden administration, when Secretary Pompeo and his fellow corrupt Trump administration officials will be held to account.

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Deutsche Bank Employee Was Fired After Flagging Trump/Kushner-Russia Transactions

A bombshell segment on yesterday’s (2/17/20) edition of Rachel Maddow show took a deep dive into Trump’s long history of shady transactions at the troubled Deutsche Bank. Among the eye-popping revelations on Maddow show which are detailed in a new book called “Dark Towers”, was the fact that a Deutsche Bank employee, one Tammy McFadden, was fired after flagging suspicious transactions Trump and Kushner made with Russian individuals via Deutsche Bank.

Maddow asked “Dark Towers” author David Enrich, who’s also the Finance Editor at New York Times, “During the presidential election [2016], a Deutsche Bank employee raised concerns about transactions related to Jared Kushner. There seemed to be a link between Kushner’s dealings with Deutshe Bank and Trump’s dealings. They involved the same banker, they seemed to sort of be cultivating the same ties, what do you know about the seriousness of the concerns that were raised about Kushner and sending money to Russia during the campaign?”

Author David Enrich responded, “They were extremely serious. The woman who raised these concerns named Tammy McFadden, I spent a lot of time talking with her, and she was so concerned that she not only filed a suspicious activity report…but when that report was killed, she started complaining so loudly internally that she had to be transferred to another part of the bank and then ultimately was fired. She still feels very strongly about this. She had the courage to speak out publicly and talk to me, have her picture taken, which is something that in this day and age, in this political climate, just takes such guts and people who don’t feel really strongly, really alarmed about something don’t do.”

Right off the bat, it is very hard to swallow the fact that during the thick and thin of the 2016 presidential election, Trump’s son in law Jared Kushner was making wire transfers to individuals in Russia, which regulators at Deutsche Bank found highly suspicious. How thoroughly did Special Counsel Mueller dig into these transactions before arriving at the “no collusion” conclusion? Did Mueller ever interview Tammy McFadden? If not, why not?

As for the brave and heroic whistleblower Tammy McFadden, who is apparently ready to share her story with anybody who would listen, why hasn’t the mainstream media given her an exclusive interview yet. Why hasn’t she been called to testify before Congress so the public can know exactly what Trump and Kushner were doing with the Russians?

Bottom line folks, even though Mueller’s TrumpRussia probe is officially over, it is very clear that there are still many questions regarding TrumpRussia that remain unanswered. After Maddow’s bombshell show, the public must demand to hear from Tammie McFadden about her tenure at Deutsche Bank, and specifically what she detailed in her suspicious activity reports that the bank killed. It would be great if the mainstream media would grant McFadden an exclusive interview but the best option by far would be her testimony before Congress under oath.

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Drain The Swamp?Yeah Right. How Lobbyists Are Helping Trump Roll Back Regulations

Bombshell NYT piece goes into details of how the Trump administration, with the help of lobbyists tied to the fossil fuel industry (oil and gas), is rolling back environmental regulations and in so doing, seriously jeopardizing the public’s health and safety. These environmental regulations affect everything– from the air we breathe, the water we drink, to the toxic(potentially carcinogenic) substances we may be exposed to as a result of petrochemical processes.

Trump who was elected President largely because of his signature promise to “drain the swamp”(end corruption) in Washington, has apparently created his own swamp of oil and gas lobbyists who are tearing down environmental regulations they deem a hindrance to maximizing profits.

Yeah, you read that right–oil and gas lobbyists are helping the Trump administration to tear down environmental regulations so that the companies they represent can maximize profits–public health and safety be damned. This is public corruption at its worst and as “swampy” as it gets.

According to the New York Times piece the Trump admin has to date rolled back 95 environmental regulations, 58 of them completely and 37 still in the roll back process.

16 environmental regulations related to air pollution and emissions have already been completely rolled back with 9 more still in the roll back process

10 regulations related to drilling and extractions have already been completely rolled back with 9 more still in the roll back process.

As for regulations related to infranstructure and planning, 11 regulations have already been completely rolled back with 1 more still in the roll back process.

7 regulations related to animals have already been completely rolled back with 3 more still in the roll back process. 5 regulations related to toxic substances have already been rolled back with 3 still in the roll back process.

4 regulations related to water pollution have already been completely rolled back with 6 more still in the roll back process. According to the NYT piece, there are 11 other environmental regulations the Trump administration has tinkered with, 5 of which have completely been rolled back and 6 still in the roll back process.

Bottom line folks, there are already very many reasons for America to adopt Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s ( AOC) Green New Deal(GND). As gifted as Rep AOC is in promoting her GND, she rarely cites corruption in the oil and gas industry as one of the central reasons why the country should adopt her plan. Hopefully this bombshell NYT piece will make her highlight corruption in the oil and gas industry as one of the primary reasons why America needs the green new deal. Simply put, AOC’s GND will once and for all, drain the swamp that is the oil and gas lobby.

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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 Did Manhattan DA Give Trump An Easy Out Over His Tax Returns?

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance (L)

NBC News reported on October 21, 2019 that prosecutors from Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance’s office had “struck a deal” with President Trump’s lawyers not to enforce subpoenas requesting 8 years of Trump’s tax returns until the U.S. Supreme Court had a take on the issue–either decides the case on its merits or declines to hear it. This “deal” between Cyrus Vance’s office and the President’s lawyers came after a U.S. District Judge ruled in favor of DA Cyrus Vance, ordering Mazars, the accounting firm holding the requested tax returns to release them to Manhattan prosecutors.

On November 4, 2019, a federal appeals court(2nd circuit) affirmed the decision of the district court, essentially dismissing Trump’s appeal and ordering Mazars to release 8 years of Trump’s tax returns to Manhattan prosecutors. What now remains between the public(represented by DA Vance) getting a chance to see Trump’s tax returns possibly before the end of 2019 is this “deal” which Yours Truly argues is an easy out by DA Vance to Trump–a point that is totally lost to the mainstream media.

Here’s why DA Vance’s “deal” with Trump’s lawyers is an easy out. DA Vance has been quoted by several mainstream media outlets as saying that his entire criminal investigation into Trump rests on information that can only be provided by the tax returns his office is currently seeking. Reasonable people will therefore agree that if Trump’s tax returns are so crucial to DA Vance’s case, he should never have “struck a deal” with Trump’s lawyers after the U.S. District Court ruled in his favor. He should have gone for the kill–enforce the subpoenas.

Enforcing the subpoenas would have put Trump’s lawyers on major defense both at the federal appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court. At the U.S. Supreme Court it would have been much easier given the huge public interest in the case, the fact that it is a criminal proceeding, and the fact that it involves President Trump, for DA Vance to request the high court for an emergency declaration–one that would have highly likely been handed down before the end of 2019. Yours Truly wrote and tweeted about this very topic which coincidentally, was echoed by Fox News’ legal eagle Judge Napolitano.

For the record, prosecutors are accorded tremendous discretion over how they decide to proceed with their various cases and like all human beings, are prone to making wrong judgement calls. DA Cyrus Vance however has a recorded history of going easy on the Trumps which is why Yours Truly takes great issue with this “deal” his office struck with Trump lawyers, a deal that significantly weakens their winning hand. You will remember the same DA Vance, presented with overwhelming evidence of criminal wrongdoing by Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump, Jr, still made the shocking decision not to file criminal charges against them.

Bottom line folks, even though this is lost to the mainstream media, Manhattan DA Vance did not need to “strike a deal” with Trump’s attorneys after his District Court win. His office held all the cards at that point. Any serious prosecutor presented with the same situation would have gone for the kill–enforce the subpoenas and then ask for an emergency declaration from the Supreme Court. As Judge Napolitano correctly pointed out, we could have secured Trump’s tax returns before Christmas 2019. Now thanks to DA Vance’s bogus “deal” we have to wait until June 2020—an unnecessary delay which only favors Trump. Its about time Democrats and the mainstream media start calling out DA Vance for his peculiar softness towards the Trumps. Better yet, it’s about time Manhattan elected a fair and impartial DA who would pursue rich criminals with the same vigor they pursue poor ones.

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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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