WTF Community

Day 915

1/ Trump sued the House Ways and Means Committee and the New York state officials to block his state tax returns from being turned over to the congressional committee. In May, New York passed a bill that allowed the Ways and Means Committee chairman to obtainTrump's state tax returns. The lawsuit seeks an injunction to would block the application of the new state law. (CNBC / Wall Street Journal)


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2019/07/23/day-915/
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A snippet in the WSJ article (paywall)

Deutsche Bank AG played a key role in Jeffrey Epstein’s financial dealings in recent years, helping the accused sex-trafficker move millions of dollars in cash and securities through dozens of private-banking accounts with the German bank, according to people familiar with the matter.

Mr. Epstein, a wealthy American financier facing two counts in New York related to alleged sex trafficking of minors, used Deutsche Bank’s private-wealth division to hold and manage assets connected to him, clients or entities he was affiliated…

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Mueller is proven right once again. Maybe this conviction will boost his morale – let’s hope he has the courage and conviction to do the right thing tomorrow and clearly lay out Trump’s crimes of obstruction without any of his usual convoluted explanations.

Let’s also hope that House Democrats will vigorously pursue their investigation of other crimes committed within the Transition Team which was headed by Pence. I still can’t understand why Pence isn’t being held accountable for the fact that he vetted Flynn even though Flynn actually confessed to the committee that he was under investigation for accepting secret payments from Turkey (aka “bribes”). For a refresher, see this posting from Day 698.

It’s about time we really dug into what went on during the transition – there’s every reason to believe that Flynn’s and Rafiekian’s crimes were known by others on the team and that their corruption was just the tip of the iceberg. Onward with the investigations!

A federal jury on Tuesday convicted Bijan Rafiekian, a former business partner of Michael Flynn, on a pair of foreign-agent felony charges stemming from work the two men did for Turkish interests during the final months of the Trump presidential campaign in 2016.

The verdicts, returned by jurors in Alexandria, Va., after a weeklong trial and only about four hours of deliberation, amount to a belated courtroom victory for special counsel Robert Mueller, who investigated the $600,000 lobbying and public relations contract at the heart of the case and then handed the matter off to other federal prosecutors after Flynn’s guilty plea to a false-statement charge in 2017.

Rafiekian, 67, faces up to 15 years in prison on the two felony counts against him: acting as an unregistered foreign agent in the U.S., and conspiracy to violate that law as well as to submit false statements to the Justice Department in a foreign-agent filing. Defendants are typically sentenced in accord with federal sentencing guidelines that result in far less than the maximum.

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And Bijan Kian got a guilty verdict on acting as a foreign agent, and Michael Flynn got nothing…no advancing his position or case, or sentencing.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A business associate of the former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn was convicted on Tuesday in Northern Virginia of secretly lobbying for Turkey, a victory for the government after the judge considered dismissing the case because prosecutors lacked evidence.

Judge Anthony J. Trenga had described the evidence against Mr. Flynn’s associate, Bijan Kian, as speculative and very circumstantial but let the case go to the jury. Judge Trenga could still toss the verdict and scheduled a Sept. 5 hearing on the matter.

During the short trial in federal court in Alexandria, Va., prosecutors had accused Mr. Kian and his business partners of trying to “subvert the American process” when they secretly agreed to work for Turkey. They said that Mr. Kian was operating at Turkey’s control and direction.

Mr. Kian’s defense lawyers repeatedly tried to undercut the government’s case, saying there was no actual agreement with the Turkish government to influence American policy. Prosecutors, Mr. Kian’s lawyers said, could not even demonstrate that Turkey paid for anything.

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Kismet! @Keaton_James

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and the other one…WTF WTF WTF-ery.

Unreal. :astonished:

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And a word from NY State AG James

Touche

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@dragonfly9

To borrow a phrase—“beans come true”! :joy:

Truly mind-blowing! WTF! :exploding_head:

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