Day 761

matt · February 19, 2019, 10:53pm

Updated 2/19/2019 2:50 PM PST

1/ Trump asked acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker if a Trump-appointed attorney could lead the the Southern District of New York's investigation into Michael Cohen's hush money payments during the 2016 election. Whitaker couldn't put Geoffrey Berman, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York and a Trump ally, in charge, because Berman had already recused himself from the investigation, which led to Trump complaining about Whitaker's inability to pull the strings necessary at the Justice Department to make his legal problems go away. There is no evidence that Whitaker took any direct steps to intervene in the Manhattan investigation, but Whitaker privately told associates that part of his role at the Justice Department was to "jump on a grenade" for Trump. Earlier this month Whitaker testified to the House Judiciary Committee that Trump had never pressured him to intervene in an investigation, which is now under scrutiny by House Democrats for possible perjury. [Editor's note: This is a must read] (New York Times)

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2019/02/19/day-761/

Keaton_James · February 20, 2019, 4:25am

The Danske Bank money laundering scandal has been flying under the radar for some time, but I have a feeling we’ll be hearing a lot more about it in the near future. One of their relatively small branch offices in Estonia allegedly laundered $226 billion (yes, that is “billion” with a “b”) out of Russia into Deutsche Bank. The whistle-blower who first exposed this massive criminal operation estimates that about $150 billion of the laundered funds were routed to Deutsche Bank’s U.S. division. So just where in the U.S. did those dirty billions land? That’s a question that a joint investigation coordinated between the House Intelligence and Financial Services Committees is aiming to answer.

Danske Bank is also being investigated by the Department of Justice as well as by two other financial watchdogs: EU’s European Banking Authority and the Copenhagen International Financial Crimes Unit SØIK.

Today’s order by the Estonian government to shut down the corrupt Danske Bank branch office was preceded a couple months ago by the arrest of 10 of the branch’s employees:

https://www.thelocal.dk/20181219/ten-arrested-in-estonia-in-danske-bank-money-laundering-case

Let’s hope Mueller is also on the same money trail.

Keaton_James · February 20, 2019, 7:37am

House and Senate Democrats say they have obtained evidence that a senior official at the Department of Education tried to oust the department’s independent watchdog after she pushed back on an attempt to interfere in an active investigation of Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Lawmakers from four House and Senate committees who oversee the department sent a letter to DeVos on Tuesday, suggesting that the effort to replace the department’s acting inspector general, Sandra Bruce, had been related to her duties in overseeing the probe of DeVos’ decision to reinstate ACICS, an accreditor that had been stripped of its certification by the Obama administration.

"We have now received correspondence between the Department and the (Office of Inspector General) that reveals troubling efforts by the Department to influence the ACICS investigation," House Education and Labor Committee Chairman Bobby Scott, D-Va., wrote to DeVos.

I wonder if the White House is offering night classes in how to obstruct justice. Remember, just four months ago, when now-ousted Interior Department head, Ryan Zinke, tried the same gambit?

dragonfly9 · February 21, 2019, 3:12am

More details on what Cohen can talk about, that would have been vetted by Mueller.

Cohen, who became known as Trump’s “fixer” when he worked for the President, is also expected to testify about the accuracy of Trump’s public statements; “potentially fraudulent or inappropriate practices by the Trump Foundation,” which is the subject of an ongoing civil lawsuit brought by the New York Attorney General’s Office; and “public efforts by the President and his attorney to intimidate Mr. Cohen or others not to testify.”

dragonfly9 · February 22, 2019, 12:47am

This is an unbelievable story/situation…grifters manning the levers, and offering sweet nuclear deals (with all the fixings) to the Saudi’s.

Came across this Op Ed from Washington Post…which highlights another detail involving Kushner, Brookfield Asset Management (invester in Kushner’s property) who is trying to buy Westinghouse Electric and build these nuclear reactors in Saudi Arabia.

In January 2018, Brookfield Business Partners, a subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management, announced its plans to acquire Westinghouse Electric for $4.6 billion. Westinghouse Electric is the bankrupt nuclear services company that is part of IP3’s proposed consortium to build nuclear reactors in Saudi Arabia, and which stands to benefit from the Middle East Marshall Plan. In August 2018, Brookfield Asset Management purchased a partnership stake in 666 Fifth Avenue, a building owned by Jared Kushner’s family company.

In case you aren’t aware, 666 Fifth Avenue in New York isn’t just any building. It is the building that nearly destroyed the Kushner family’s business, a building for which they massively overpaid (to the tune of $1.8 billion) at the height of the real estate bubble, and one they have been trying for years to unload to get rid of the crushing debt it took on to buy it. Brookfield agreed to purchase a 99-year lease on the building, paid up front; for all intents and purposes, it was a bailout of the Kushner Companies.

Now, we can’t say for sure why Brookfield bailed out the Kushners. Maybe it was just a smart business decision. Maybe it had nothing to do with the potential for Westinghouse Electric to build reactors in Saudi Arabia, or Kushner’s influence with the president and his friendship with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. But this issue is being discussed in the White House to this day:

matt · March 9, 2019, 12:35am

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Maxfacter · September 24, 2020, 3:38am

I guess that eternity tax audit will be coming due soon. Yes, follow the money and soon let’s remove this cancer on our Whitehouse. And maybe there will be more support on FOX actually reporting on the president’s activities…from Wallace and Shepard. You would think some sunshine has to find a few illuminations even at that network with such overwhelming evidence.