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kentuck

(111,110 posts)
Tue Feb 21, 2017, 11:12 PM Feb 2017

The Russian Connection and Donald Trump

Last edited Wed Feb 22, 2017, 01:05 AM - Edit history (3)

In my opinion, this collaboration between Trump and the Russians has been in the works before Trump even began his campaign for the White House. Putin and Tillerson came into the game later. But, it is all about business deals.

Paul Manafort knows about the whole scheme, in my opinion. Trump has been using emissaries, like Carter Gray, Michael Cohen, and Roger Stone to assist him in his deal making,

Trump has coveted a hotel in Moscow for a long time. That is why he cherishes the friendship of Putin. He could be very close, now that Trump has put the former head of Exxon in as Secretary of State. As soon as the sanctions are lifted, the relationship should be much better.

Trump, in my opinion, was doing business with the Russian Mafia in the Ukraine and Manafort and Cohen were his go-betweens. Trump was mostly into making deals and money-laundering, in my opinion. Flynn came into the picture later.

When Trump and the Russians began to realize that Trump might actually have a chance to win the Presidency, then Putin got serious about helping him in any way he could. They colluded to run a propaganda campaign against Clinton. It was then that Trump could see the big money deals that he always dreamed about. The wheels began to turn.

After he became the President-elect, he wanted General Flynn, with his intelligence and his Russian connections as his National Security Adviser. He became very secretive and refused to turn over any information or to give up any of his business dealings. More or less, he told America to screw herself.

It was all about making deals and he was in the perfect place to make it happen. He did not want to be President - he wanted to be king of the world. Finally, after ten years, he got permission to build in China. But, it was after he pretended he was going to do away with the one-China policy. That was his way of "negotiating",

Then, he began his dealing with Putin to get the sanctions lifted and get the deal with Exxon signed to drill in the Arctic. They were in collaboration before Trump was ever sworn into office, which was illegal. Trump was like a kid in a candy store.

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The Russian Connection and Donald Trump (Original Post) kentuck Feb 2017 OP
yep - this didnt happen in a vacuum.. pkdu Feb 2017 #1
You might like this LOOONG article...Manafort & Stone, then trump, russia, Ukraine, Firtash, jmg257 Feb 2017 #2
Manafort knows it all. kentuck Feb 2017 #3
Yep keep your eye on Firtash! Extradition in the works, may be a kickstart? jmg257 Feb 2017 #6
This evening on Chris Hayes Maxime Waters breaks it down mulsh Feb 2017 #4
Yep...lifting the sanctions is important to the payoff of their efforts. jmg257 Feb 2017 #7
Go ahead Maxine triron Feb 2017 #8
I think you have picked up a scent. triron Feb 2017 #5
I'm sure it was more than propaganda. mountain grammy Feb 2017 #9
Maybe? kentuck Feb 2017 #10
The margins in the swing states were close mountain grammy Feb 2017 #11
It is a logical summation... kentuck Feb 2017 #14
imho, manafort recruited him to run. mopinko Feb 2017 #12
Makes sense to me. kentuck Feb 2017 #15
Trump, Russia and Money Laundering FBI is actively investigating. Bobbie Vinton Feb 2017 #13
Thanks for this valuable information, Bobby Vinton kentuck Feb 2017 #16
Thanks for the info and welcome to DU. oasis Feb 2017 #22
Thank you. 2naSalit Feb 2017 #25
Remember this story? kentuck Feb 2017 #17
knr triron Feb 2017 #18
kick again triron Feb 2017 #19
I cannot help but believe that Donald Trump is up to his eyeballs in a criminal enterprise. kentuck Feb 2017 #20
It started with real estate dealings in the 80's in NYC, then casinos, ties to the mob etc. m-lekktor Feb 2017 #23
KNR Lucinda Feb 2017 #21
The bigger this looks, the more discouraged I get. dem4decades Feb 2017 #24
knr triron Feb 2017 #26
A hotel seems like a likely piece, but I think the plot is vastly larger. lagomorph777 Feb 2017 #27
knr triron Feb 2017 #28

jmg257

(11,996 posts)
2. You might like this LOOONG article...Manafort & Stone, then trump, russia, Ukraine, Firtash,
Tue Feb 21, 2017, 11:34 PM
Feb 2017

& Putin. Seems like Manafort likely got him elected.

...They opened their doors in 1981.

Manafort and Stone pioneered a new style of firm, what K Street would come to call a double-breasted operation. One wing of the shop managed campaigns, electing a generation of Republicans, from Phil Gramm to Arlen Spector. The other wing lobbied the officials they helped to victory on behalf of its corporate clients...
Another early client was Donald J. Trump. What Trump wanted was help fending off potential rivals to his Atlantic City casino business. He especially feared the rise of Indian gaming. As the 2016 campaign has graphically illustrated, Trump doesn’t treat rivals gently. Testifying before a congressional committee in 1993, he began with his rote protestations of friendship. “Nobody likes Indians as much as Donald Trump.”
...
Manafort has spent a career working on behalf of clients that the rest of his fellow lobbyists and strategists have deemed just below their not-so-high moral threshold. Manafort has consistently given his clients a patina of respectability that has allowed them to migrate into the mainstream of opinion, or close enough to the mainstream. He has a particular knack for taking autocrats and presenting them as defenders of democracy. If he could convince the respectable world that thugs like Savimbi and Marcos are friends of America, then why not do the same for Trump? One of his friends told me, “He wanted to do his thing on home turf. He wanted one last shot at the big prize.”

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/04/paul_manafort_isn_t_a_gop_retread_he_s_made_a_career_of_reinventing_tyrants.html

jmg257

(11,996 posts)
6. Yep keep your eye on Firtash! Extradition in the works, may be a kickstart?
Tue Feb 21, 2017, 11:48 PM
Feb 2017

Though investigations involving him may be kept too narrow.
Hmm.

triron

(22,020 posts)
8. Go ahead Maxine
Wed Feb 22, 2017, 12:31 AM
Feb 2017

call them scumbags! That includes Tillerson, Trump, Sessions, Pence, Bannon, McConnell, Ryan, etc.

mountain grammy

(26,655 posts)
9. I'm sure it was more than propaganda.
Wed Feb 22, 2017, 12:36 AM
Feb 2017

I think there was actual hacking and manipulating of voting machines..

And we all know, trump isn't the mastermind here because his mind is very tiny. He is the puppet!

mountain grammy

(26,655 posts)
11. The margins in the swing states were close
Wed Feb 22, 2017, 12:53 AM
Feb 2017

and similar. Small anomalies added up to a 1% loss for Hillary in several states. This election was fixed, I'll believe it until the day I die.

mopinko

(70,225 posts)
12. imho, manafort recruited him to run.
Wed Feb 22, 2017, 01:12 AM
Feb 2017

like ronald raygun, an obvious simpleton who could be led by the nose.
he was already well acquainted w the russian mob after many years of dealing w him in nyc. they probably had their hooks so well into him that he couldnt say no. i dont know if he ever thought he could win, but maybe they promised him he would.

this whole joke is just unexplainable by the ordinary rules of how shit works.

Bobbie Vinton

(4 posts)
13. Trump, Russia and Money Laundering FBI is actively investigating.
Wed Feb 22, 2017, 01:29 AM
Feb 2017

Trump, Russia and Money Laundering – FBI is actively investigating.
Last week I read that Trump owes Deutsche Bank $300 million; that in January Deutsche Bank paid regulators from the US and UK government a total of $588 million in fines for laundering $10 billion out Russia. And moreover, earlier this month Trump’s Taj Mahal Associates LLC settled to pay the Treasury Department a $10 million civil penalty for violating anti-money-laundering program requirements.

Well, “yesterday it was revealed that the FBI is probing front-companies which Trump and Russia have been allegedly using to secretly do business with each other.”

In addition to the FBI probe, “Democratic congressman Bill Pascrell Jr, a member of the House Ways and Means committee, said the bank was under federal investigation for aiding Russian money-laundering - a “troubling potential conflict”.

In looking into the issue further I have found that: Three detailed reports by the Financial Times based on title deeds, bank records and correspondence, found that Trump and the Russian “mob” has laundered money “through the use of “anonymous LLCs” on both sides; the Trump side and the Russian crime bosses’ side.
It goes something like this: One “anonymous” LLC (Russian mobsters) forks over a monumentally bloated wad of millions for another “anonymous” LLC (Trump’s) property like an apartment worth considerably less than the “selling price.”… Trump’s organization is an ideal means of laundering Russian criminals’ dirty money because:”
“Real estate has an arbitrary value. Is that apartment worth $1 million? Two million? Why not $3 million for a buyer who really wants it? When the whole transaction is just one LLC with undisclosed ownership paying another LLC with undisclosed ownership, it’s even neater than hiding the money in an offshore account. And while some businesses require due diligence in looking at the source of funds, real estate is a bit more … flexible.”
“… American laws regulating real estate deals are nearly non-existent. … Criminals from Russia, like all money launderers, pay in dirty cash; it is precisely how Trump and the Russian criminals easily avoided prying eyes of regulators.”
“The idea of converting the Russian mobsters’ stolen cash from overseas into Trump’s properties in the U.S., and Russian cash deposited into an account of a Trump LLC listed as “anonymous,” was a dirty win for both the criminal oligarchs and the criminal Trump. The only thing Trump was required to do was just ignore deal and never pay any attention whatsoever to its particulars; something he has brought to the Oval Office for all to see.”


“Trump Lie Exposed With Proof He Is Indebted To Russian Mobsters”

http://www.politicususa.com/2017/02/18/trump-lie-exposed-proof-indebted-russian-mobsters.html

In which the author states his opinion:

“As calls for a comprehensive investigation into Trump’s conspiring with Putin to award him the White House become deafening and lead to an all-inclusive independent investigation, all of this illegal money laundering for Russian criminals will become common knowledge. It is why Trump is attempting to sully the media as “dishonest” and that any reporting on his deep ties to the Russians is “fake news” in hopes the public will ignore the truth in reporting as it develops going forward; and it is going to develop going forward. The IC will see to that and a fed up at being labeled dishonest media will do its part.”
“Trump’s terror at being exposed as a Russian collaborator is also why Trump continues to demean the intelligence community. He knows for a fact that the IC has mountains of devastatingly incriminating documentation that he does, in fact, have very deep ties to the Russians and is heavily indebted to them. The good news is that Trump has made very public claims, including on Thursday at his bizarre press conference, that in no possible way does he have now, or has ever had, any business relationships or ties to the Russians.”
“That latest rash of lies will be a damning piece of evidence that Trump lied on national television about something that is becoming such common knowledge that even congressional Republicans will have difficulty pretending there is no impeachable offense. They can’t cover up Trump’s lies any more without implicating themselves in a conspiracy involving the criminal in the White House and crime bosses and oligarchs in Russia. Those Russian mobsters saved Trump’s businesses with dirty money he gladly aided them in laundering because like every common criminal on the planet, Trump will do anything for money; including jeopardize the security of the United States of America for the nation that “earned” his devotion and allegiance with dirty money, Russia.”

This is a very conclusive report from the Financial Times.

“Dirty money: Trump and the Kazakh connection”
https://www.ft.com/content/33285dfa-9231-11e6-8df8-d3778b55a923

A Financial Times investigation has found evidence that one Trump venture has multiple ties to an alleged international money-laundering network. Title deeds, bank records and correspondence show that a Kazakh family accused of laundering hundreds of millions of stolen dollars bought luxury apartments in a Manhattan tower part-owned by Mr. Trump and embarked on major business ventures with one of the tycoon’s partners

…The revelations raise questions about what steps his business takes to ensure that the funds that pour through it are clean.

Jennifer Shasky Calvery, then director of the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, warned in January “corrupt foreign officials, or transnational criminals, may be using premium US real estate to secretly invest millions in dirty money”.


“FBI probes Trump-Russia front companies, after Trump’s bank caught laundering Russian money.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-cyber-idUSKBN15X0OE

“Two parallel investigations on two different continents into illegal financial activities by Russia, both connected to Donald Trump, may turn out to be the same investigation. Three weeks ago Deutsche Bank in Germany, which has been almost single handedly keeping Trump afloat with loans in recent years, was caught in a massive Russian money-laundering scheme. And yesterday it was revealed that the FBI is probing front-companies which Trump and Russia have been allegedly using do secretly to business with each other.”

“So here’s the billion dollar question: is this FBI investigation into Trump’s clandestine Russian financial connections based on what was exposed in the Russian money laundering probe into Deutsche Bank? More will inevitably leak out from the intel community one way or the other.”

https://www.palmerreport.com/politics/fbi-probes-trump-russia-laundering-bank/1599/



“U.S. inquiries into Russian election hacking include three FBI probes”
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-cyber-idUSKBN15X0OE

in which the reporter states: “[The] counterintelligence inquiry includes but is not limited to examination of financial transactions by Russian individuals and companies who are believed to have links to Trump associates. The transactions under scrutiny involve investments by Russians in overseas entities that appear to have been undertaken through middlemen and front companies, two people briefed on the probe said.”


And last here are the posts that I put on Facebook last Wednesday when I stumbled upon the article in the Wall Street Journal that reported on the Taj Mahal’s settlement.
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=Robert%20Veltkamp%20money%20laundering

I can only imagine what it means if the FBI comes to the same conclusions as the Financial Times. Trump will be indicted for money laundering and obviously impeached.

kentuck

(111,110 posts)
17. Remember this story?
Wed Feb 22, 2017, 10:12 AM
Feb 2017

This is how Trump has been laundering money?
========================
http://money.cnn.com/2016/07/27/news/donald-trump-russian-deal-mansion/

<snip>
Trump was asked about Russia during his news conference Wednesday because of speculation that Russia was behind the hack of the Democratic National Committee's emails in an effort to help his campaign. The FBI is still investigating and has not identified the hackers.

"No, I have nothing to do with Russia," Trump told a reporter in Doral, Florida. "How many times do I have say that? Are you a smart man? I have nothing to with Russia, I have nothing to do with Russia."

Trump then acknowledged: There was that one time.

"What do I have to do with Russia? You know the closest I came to Russia, I bought a house a number of years ago in Palm Beach, Florida... for $40 million and I sold it to a Russian for $100 million including brokerage commissions."

==================

And this story after the mansion was demolished by the Russian:

http://www.builderonline.com/land/local-markets/russian-billionaire-sells-former-trump-property-for-34-million-in-palm-beach_c

<snip>
County Road Property, a trust linked to Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, has sold one of the three Palm Beach oceanfront lots created from a 6.26-acre property previously owned and sold by President-elect Donald Trump. The 515 North County Road Trust, whose owner is “not immediately clear” according to the South Florida Business Journal, purchased the 2.72-acre property from County Road Property for $34.34 million, or $12.6 million per acre.

Trump acquired the full property, then 6.26 acres, at auction for $41.35 million in 2004. He performed some renovations on the property’s 60,000 square-foot mansion before he sold the lot to Rybolovlev for $95 million, or $15.2 million per acre, in 2008.

Rybolovlev demolished the mansion and listed the divided lots this year.

kentuck

(111,110 posts)
20. I cannot help but believe that Donald Trump is up to his eyeballs in a criminal enterprise.
Thu Feb 23, 2017, 06:57 AM
Feb 2017

I felt a similar way about Richard Nixon in 1971. Republicans scoffed and laughed it off.

m-lekktor

(3,675 posts)
23. It started with real estate dealings in the 80's in NYC, then casinos, ties to the mob etc.
Tue Feb 28, 2017, 01:34 AM
Feb 2017

There are articles, books , documentaries about all of it.

dem4decades

(11,304 posts)
24. The bigger this looks, the more discouraged I get.
Tue Feb 28, 2017, 01:38 AM
Feb 2017

Is it too big to out? Just at a down period, sorry.

lagomorph777

(30,613 posts)
27. A hotel seems like a likely piece, but I think the plot is vastly larger.
Tue Feb 28, 2017, 03:30 PM
Feb 2017

Trump wants to be the permanent dictator of the US and he believes Putin will allow him to do so, as a puppet.

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