Day 1005

[matt (Matt Kiser)]

1/ Mick Mulvaney – again – tried to deny his public assertion of a quid pro quo in which the Trump administration held up an aid package to Ukraine because Trump wanted an investigation that could politically benefit him. During an appearance on Fox News Sunday, Mulvaney insisted that while he "didn't speak clearly maybe on Thursday," and that there couldn't have been a quid pro quo because "the aid flowed." Mulvaney also claimed that the administration only held up military aid to Ukraine because of the country's corruption and because other countries weren't giving more aid as well. On Thursday, however, Mulvaney told reporters to "Get over it," calling quid pro quo "absolutely appropriate" and that "we do that all the time with foreign policy." Mulvaney also claimed at the press conference last week that the Trump administration withheld military aid in part to secure cooperation with a Justice Department investigation into the origins of Robert Mueller's Russia probe. (Washington Post / New York Times / Daily Beast)

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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2019/10/21/day-1005/

[Windthin (David Bythewood)]

Heather Vogell of ProPublica shows how they got a look at Trump’s business taxes in this fascinating thread:

Heather Vogell (hvogell)

[Windthin (David Bythewood)]

Putin and Erdogan Announce Plan for Northeast Syria, Bolstering Russian Influence

Russia’s leader hosted his Turkish counterpart as a U.S.-brokered cease-fire with Kurdish forces came to an end, underscoring Moscow’s emergence as a powerful player in the Middle East.

Putin and Erdogan Announce Plan for Northeast Syria, Bolstering Russian...

His jets patrol Syrian skies. His military is expanding operations at the main naval base in Syria. He is forging closer ties to Turkey. He and his Syrian allies are moving into territory being vacated by the United States.

And on Tuesday, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia played host to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, for more than six hours of talks on how they and other regional players will divide control of Syria, a land devastated by eight years of civil war.

[Keaton_James]

Link courtesy of currentstatus.io.

Feds charge California investor who donated $900K to Trump inaugural committee

A California venture capitalist who donated $900,000 to President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee has admitted to falsifying records to hide his work as a foreign agent while lobbying high-level U.S. officials, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

Imaad Zuberi, 49, has agreed to plead guilty to tax evasion, filing bogus foreign agent registration records and providing almost $1 million in illegal campaign contributions to various presidential election campaigns and other candidates for elected office, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.

The charging documents do not specify which candidates received the illegal money funneled from foreign entities between September 2011 and November 2016. Federal prosecutors also did not reveal the source of the $900,000 that Zuberi donated to the Trump inaugural committee in December 2016.

Mmmm… Zuberi is charged with “falsifying records to hide his work as a foreign agent while lobbying high-level U.S. officials.” Sounds a lot like the allegations leveled against Giuliani. Will he be the next to be indicted?