Citgo's Inaugural Gift ($500K) Surfaces Amid National Security Concern

[babylonsister]

https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/politics/articles/2017-04-19/citgo-s-inaugural-gift-surfaces-amid-national-security-concern


Citgo's Inaugural Gift Surfaces Amid National Security Concern
by Bill Allison
and John McCormick
April 19, 2017, 7:02 PM EDT


A U.S. subsidiary of a Venezuelan state-owned oil company that has stirred national security concerns among U.S. senators contributed $500,000 to President Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, federal disclosures show.

The contribution from Citgo Petroleum Corp. surfaced just nine days after a bipartisan group of senators expressed concern that “critical energy infrastructure” in the U.S. controlled by Citgo could wind up in the hands of Russian oil giant Rosneft PJSC.

Specifically, the senators, who included Florida Republican Marco Rubio and Texas Republican Ted Cruz, cited “a series of international transactions that could have significant national security implications for critical energy infrastructure in the United States,” according to a letter they sent to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on April 10. The letter asked Mnuchin to monitor the situation.

snip//

Citgo’s $500,000 contribution, which was received by the inaugural committee on Dec. 2, helped propel Trump’s inaugural fundraising to $106.7 million, a record. It appears to be unusual for Citgo, which didn’t contribute to inaugurations in 2005, 2009 or 2013.

The contribution was among the largest from fossil-fuel companies -- which in all donated almost $3.6 million to the inaugural fund, according to a tally prepared by Friends of the Earth, an environmental group.

[VigilantG]

1. Amazing how deep and widespread these Russian ties

run.
Maduro is just biding his time hoping for Rosneft to seal the deal. What a chaotic mess around the world. Mortifying on so many levels.
While the US rolled back use of human intelligence (spies) years ago and chose to rely on technology, it sounds like Russia was full steam ahead--on both accounts.
😶
The world needs to wake TFU!