Sounds like a wonderful thing, doesn’t it? It’s created more divisions among people than can be counted. What is it? A PAC formed to produce propaganda, which became a Free Speech lawsuit upheld by a Supreme Court decision in 2010 and made way for “Dark Money”, or anonymous campaign contributions and effectively unlimited corporate donations.
Wikipedia: “The Political Action Committee (PAC) Citizens United was founded in 1988 by Floyd Brown, a longtime Washington political consultant, with major funding from the Koch family (industrialists who own “the second largest privately owned company in the United States”). The group promotes corporate interests, socially conservative causes and candidates who advance their mission.
Citizens United President and Bannon’s propaganda producer David Bossie, along with Catholic, Lenin-loving Steve Bannon. Lawrence Kadish is awealthy real estate investor/founder of Chairman of the Republican Jewish Coalition, whose Victory Film Group pushes Tweets that work with Breitbart New’s Anti-Muslim stories. Funded by the Koch Brothers and the Mercers.
FRIENDS:Kellyanne Conway, Newt Gingrich, Michael Reagan, nationally syndicated radio show host and chairman of Citizens United’s Faith and Family Project. The Mercers funded Citizens United in later years.
FOES: Obama,Clinton, John McCain, NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
A Closer Look at Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon from Wall Street on Parade: “Three of the men associated with Citizens United, the right-wing organization that took the legal case to the U.S. Supreme Court that ushered in today’s unprecedented era of unlimited corporate money in U.S. elections, took key posts in the Donald Trump campaign beginning this past summer.
One of the men, Stephen K. Bannon, has been named by President-elect Trump to be his Senior Counselor and Chief Strategist in the White House. While Bannon is widely cited for his executive role at Breitbart News prior to joining the Trump campaign, he is also the long-tenured, right-wing filmmaker for the Citizens United organization. A number of the films made by Bannon list Lawrence Kadish as Executive Producer and Victory Film Group as an affiliated entity involved in the documentaries.
When the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in the Citizens United Case in 2010, David N. Bossie, then President of Citizens United (who also joined the Trump campaign this year) had this to say about Lawrence Kadish:
“First and foremost, I would like to thank Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Kadish who have been incredibly generous from the very first day of this process. We would never have been able to reach the Supreme Court without their support. I also need to thank the thousands of donors who exercised their right to free speech to support Citizens United and this defense of the First Amendment.”
What the Citizens United decision effectively did was to drown out the voice of millions of average Americans while hedge fund titans and Wall Street billionaires can now individually contribute over $3 million, $5 million, $7 million and more to Super PACs supporting pro-corporate candidates.
Kadish is a wealthy real estate investor and founding Chairman of the Republican Jewish Coalition. He has prominently backed a series of neoconservative pro-Israel groups. Kadish’s full-throttle support for Israel and his involvement in numerous Bannon films for Citizens United, suggest that the heavily distributed rumors of Bannon being anti-Semitic are peculiar charges at best.
The Victory Film Group that is associated with the Bannon/Kadish movies has a Twitter page that plants the seeds of distrust of Muslims and appears to be a form of co-branding with Breitbart News, frequently promoting news stories on the Breitbart web site. One reTweet reads: “Judge Who Ended Interrogation Of Boston Bomber Has Ties To Muslim Brotherhood.” Another reTweet states: “57 Million New Immigrants to Enter America.”
On October 2, 2006, in reaction to revelations of a cover-up of inappropriate communications between Republican Congressman Mark Foley and United States House of Representatives Page, Citizens United president David Bossie called on Dennis Hastert to resign over his role in covering up the scandal.[6]
Citizens United campaigned against Michael Moore‘s 2004 film Fahrenheit 9/11, advocating for government limits on how much advertising the film received.[8] It simultaneously made advertisements attacking the film,[9] and produced a film called Celsius 41.11, meant to counter Moore’s film.[10]
Citizens United’s best known campaign centered around a documentary film it produced that was highly critical of Hillary Clinton.[11] It has also produced and screened advertisements attacking other Democrats, including Bill Clinton,[8]John Kerry,[12] and Al Gore.[11] In the 1988 US presidential election, Citizens United ran an ad that used Willie Horton to attack Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis. The ad was described as racist by commentators such as Mother Jones.[11]
In the case, the conservativenon-profit organizationCitizens United wanted to air a film critical of Hillary Clinton and to advertise the film during television broadcasts shortly before the 2008 Democratic primary election in which Clinton was running for U.S. President. This would violate a federal statute prohibiting certain electioneering communications near an election. The court found the provisions of the law that prohibited corporations and unions from making such electioneering communications to conflict with the U.S. Constitution.
However, the court upheld requirements for public disclosure by sponsors of advertisements. The case did not affect the federal ban on direct contributions from corporations or unions to candidate campaigns or political parties.
The decision was highly controversial when announced and remains a subject of much discussion today.[4]
Citizens United and the Trump Administration
In 2016 the Donald Trump presidential campaign enlisted Citizens United president David Bossie as deputy campaign manager.[13] During the campaign, Bossie made regular television appearances on behalf of the Trump campaign.[14] Bossie is a close friend and longtime acquaintance of Trump administration officials Stephen Bannon and Kellyanne Conway,[15] having introduced Bannon to Trump in 2011.[16]“
Citizens United Productions
Citizens United Productions, headed by president David Bossie, has released 25 feature-length documentaries. The following is a list of films produced by Citizens United Productions.
Trump Campaign Manager until Paul Manafort officially took over.
“A firm co-founded by Donald Trump’s original campaign manager Corey Lewandowski appears to have been pitching clients around the world by offering not only policy and political advice, but also face time with President Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and senior members of their administration, according to documents and interviews.
A document provided to an Eastern European politician by an international consulting firm that Lewandowski co-founded this year promises to arrange “meetings with well-established figures,” including Trump, Pence, “key members of the U.S. Administration” and outside Trump allies.
The previously unreported firm, Washington East West Political Strategies, was created by Lewandowski and fellow Trump campaign veteran Barry Bennett — as well as an Azerbaijani oil executive and an American political consultant who works extensively in Russia — to prospect for political business in Eastern Europe. And Lewandowski and Bennett have created different firms with other partners to prospect in the Middle East, Canada and Central America, Bennett said.
The Washington East West Political Strategies document boasts that its clients will benefit from its partners’ ability to “leverage” their “trusted relations with the U.S. Administration,” as well as European parliamentarians and leading Western journalists….And he explained it was one of several international recruitment vehicles that would allow business partners around the world to earn commissions by enlisting international clients for another firm that he co-founded with Lewandowski in the weeks after the election called Avenue Strategies…Lewandowski himself has railed against lobbyists and consultants to colleagues on the Trump campaign, at one point advocating the idea of a “blacklist” of consultants who opposed Trump and who he hinted would be barred from lucrative political work under Trump” Politico April 28, 2017
Fighting with Paul Manafort in the Press May 25, 2016 Politico
“How Lewsandowski Finally Ran Out Of Lifelines Politico June 20, 2016
American Oversight HATCH ACT: Nonpartisan ethics watchdog group American Oversight today asked the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) to investigate whether White House adviser Sebastian Gorka violated the Hatch Act by posting political tweets from President Trump’s recent campaign rally in Ohio. July 28, 2017
American Oversight Failure to Disclose Membership in a Nazi group on Security Clearance Forms “On March 16, the Forward reported that Mr. Gorka may be a member of Vitézi Rend, citing interviews with current members of the group. If substantiated, this affiliation would raise a number of serious questions warranting congressional investigation – including whether Mr. Gorka may have violated federal law if he failed to disclose his membership in the group when he was being vetted for a security clearance.” March 16, 2017
What Is Vitézi Rend, The Ally Of The Nazis That Sebastian Gorka ‘Joined’ Fast Forward March 16, 2017 By Lily Bayer and Larry Cohler-Esses “The group’s mission emphasized not only loyalty to Hungary and nationalist ideas, but also an ideology of racial superiority. One of the original aims of the Vitézi Rend was to “ensure such might to the Hungarian race, which with tremendous power strikes every subversive state and anti-national movement,” [Admiral Miklos] Horthy said in a speech to new members in 1921. The Quisling group to which Gorka, 46, purportedly belongs is a reconstitution of the original group on the State Department list, which was banned in Hungary until the fall of Communism in 1989.”
“Former Breitbart writer/ Seb Gorka’s wife Katherine Gorka is leaving her position aspress secretary for Customs and Border Protection, just about two months to the day after her appointment – administration sources” @ahauslohner Abigail Hauslohner 9:59 AM · Aug 20, 2019
Trump and Bannon ‘Personally Intervened’ to Save Seb Gorka The Daily Beast May 5, 2017 “Gorka and Bannon are close. They worked together at Breitbart News—the far-right Trump-boosting outlet that Bannon once ran as a “dictator,” according to former employees—where Gorka served as national security editor even as he was also a paid consultant for the Trump campaign.”
Sebastian Gorka accidentally included a Jezebel writer in a White House emailApril 6, 2017 Death And Taxes: The Jezebel writer stated: “He’s clearly sensitive… about any indication that he’s not honest about his résumé. But Gorka’s refusal to provide comment on basic matters of public interest like what he was doing in the army only raises doubts. I had the same experience previously, when I asked about his describing himself as an expert witness in the Boston bombing case, despite not having testified, and when I contacted the White House to ask about his being detained for carrying ammunition through an airport in 2004. The first time, neither Gorka nor the White House ever responded to my inquiries; the second, Gorka accidentally included me in a reply-all email, instructing White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer not to comment.”
“The Strategic Initiatives Group is run by assistant to the president Christopher Liddell, and includes deputy assistant to the president Sebastian Gorka, who has worked closely with Bannon while writing for Breitbart, the website he used to run. Gorka is a controversial character himself, author of a book, Defeating Jihad: The Winnable War, that argues the enemy is not, as the Obama administration saw it, “violent extremism,” but instead “the global jihadi movement, a modern totalitarian ideology rooted in the doctrines and martial history of Islam,” according to promotional material for the book. Gorka also faced a criminal charge for trying to take a gun through airport security, according to The Wall Street Journal. The White House could not be immediately reached for comment on the status of the case.
Sebastian Gorka Likely to Be Out of White House Role, Officials Say NY Times“Mr. Gorka, a former editor at Breitbart News, a right-wing website, is a friend of Stephen K. Bannon, the onetime Breitbart chairman who is now Mr. Trump’s chief strategist. Mr. Gorka memorably declared that “the alpha males are back” as an assertion of the distance between the Obama administration and the current one. He has been accused of having links to far-right groups in Europe, and critics of his hard-line views on Islam have accused him of Islamophobia. Mr. Gorka, a vocal defender of the administration’s efforts to temporarily ban travel from some predominantly Muslim countries, has said violence is a fundamental part of Islam and emanates from the language of the Quran. He rejects scholars’ assessment that Islamic militancy is an outgrowth of poverty, poor governance and war.”
White House Weighs Kicking Out Sebastian Gorka The president admires Sebastian Gorka for his fiery TV performances, but his ties to far-right organizations are making him more liability than asset, administration sources say. The Daily BeastApril 28, 2017
“We are at war with global jihadism,” he said. “The fact is, we know that ISIS has declared in English, in its publications, in its videos, ‘We will use the refugee streams and mass migrations to insert our jihadis into your cultures,’” he said, explaining the weekend executive order as a necessary evil to protect Americans from ISIS infiltration. ” The Daily Beast January 31, 2017
“Two senior administration officials said Trump and Bannon had shot down an attempt to eject Gorka from his government job, even after dozens of congress members called for his firing after video surfaced of Gorka endorsing radical nationalist group Jobbik’s violent, anti-Semitic Hungarian Guard militia.
There was pressure on the administration to do something about Gorka, a dubiously qualified counterterrorism official, after he had worn a pin associated with World War II-era Nazi collaborators to inaugural festivities.
Gorka’s views on Islam have also been widely characterized as extreme. He refused to admit it is a religion in several recent interviews, suggesting an affinity with the fringe, far-right belief Islam is not a religion at all but a totalitarian ideology.” MIC.com
“The U.K.’s defense ministry is pushing back on claims made by White House adviser Sebastian Gorka regarding his military record with the Territorial Army, the country’s reserves, as a language specialist. Gorka, who is Hungarian born, has claimed in the past that his reserve unit was charged to prevent terror attacks, and that he worked in Northern Ireland—both of which were questioned by the U.K.’s defense ministry, according to BuzzFeed News. The website also reported that these doubts about Gorka’s military record contributed to his security clearance to work in the Hungarian Parliament being denied. The ministry concluded that it would be highly unlikely.” The Daily Beast May 2, 2017
On June 3, 2016, Donald Trump Jr., received an email from Rob Goldstone, the manager for Emin Agalarov, a wannbe pop star son of the Russian version of Trump, real estate tycoon Aras Agalarov. Trump made a music video with Emin in 2013 while at the Moscow Miss USA pageant and mused with his father that it would be great to have an Agalarov Tower next to a Trump Tower. In this June 3 email, Goldstone said “This is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump -helped along by Aras and Emin.” Trump Jr. suggested a call was set up for the first thing Monday (7th) upon return. Donald Trump was in Trump Tower on Wednesday, June 9, 2016, stragizing and writing a speech to attack Hillary on Intelligence with the Campaign. Don Jr., Jared Kushner, and Campaign Manager Paul Manafort met with Natalia Veselnitskaya. Trump tweeted that day about Hillary’s missing 33,000 emails. Trump openly warned shortly thereafter that incriminating information would be released soon. The DNC announced that it got hacked on June 14. June 15 Guccifer 2.0 took credit for the hack. On June 20, longtime Trump loyalist and Russian PR lobbyist Paul Manafort officially replaced Corey Lewandoski as Campaign Manager. July 6, Guccifer 2.0 released DNC hack #2. The speech was delayed because of the Pulse Nightclub Massacre in Orlando.
Contacted Trump Jr this morning on why he should publish his emails (i.e with us). Two hours later, does it himself: https://t.co/FzCttGSyr6
— Julian Assange 🔹 (@JulianAssange) July 11, 2017<<&t; href=”http://cnn.it/2tEwRjV” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Donald Trump Jr. releases email chain on his Russian meeting on CNN Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said this is enough to prove intent of collusion between the Trump Campaign and Russia. CNNHere’s my statement and the full email chain pic.twitter.com/x050r5n5LQ
June 3, 2016 at 10:36 AM From Rob Goldstone “Good morning Emin just called asked me to contact you with something very interesting. The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russian and would be very useful to your father. This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump – helped along by Aras and Emin. What do you think is the best way to handle this information and would you be able to speak to Emin about it directly? I can also send this info to your father via Rhona, but it is ultra sensitive so wanted to send to you first.”
June 3, 10:53 AM From Don Jr. To Rob Goldstone “Thanks Rob I appreciate that. Ia m on the road at the moment but perhaps I just speak to Emin first. Seems we have some time and if it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer. Could we do a call first thing next week when I am back?”
June 6, 12:40 PM From Rob Goldstone To: Don Jr. “Hi Don Let me know when you are free to talk with Emin by phone about this Hillary info – you had mentioned early this week so wanted to try to schedule a time and day. Best to you and family”
June 6, 2:03PM Form Don Jr. To: Rob Goldstone “Rob could we speak now?”
June 6, 2:38 PM From Don Jr. “My Cell Thanks”
June 6, 3:37 PM From Rob Goldstone To: Don Jr. “Let me track him down in Moscow. What number he could call?”
June 6, 3:38 PM From Don Jr. To Rob Goldstone “Rob thanks for the help.”
June 6, 3:43 From Rob Goldstone To: Don Jr. “Ok he’s on stage in Moscow but should be off within 20 Minutes so I am sure can call Rob”
June 7, 4:20 PM From Rob Goldstone To: Don Jr. “Don Hope all is well. Emin asked that I schedule a meeting with you and The Russian government attorney who is flying over from Moscow for this Thursday. I believe you are aware of the meeting – and so wondered if 3 pm or later on Thursday works for you? I assume it would be at your office.”
June 7, 5:16PM From Don Jr. “How about 3 at our offices” Thanks rob appreciate you helping set it up.”
June 7, 5:19 PM From: Rob Goldstone “Perfect…I won’t sit in on the meeting, but will bring them at 3pm and introduce you etc. I will send the names of the two people meeting with you for security when I have them later today.”
June 7, 6:14 PM From Don Jr. “Great. It will likely be Paul Manafot (campaign boss) my brother in law and me. 725 Fifth Ave 25th floor.”
June 8, 10:34 AM From: Rob Goldstone To: Don Jr. “Good Morning Would it be possible to move tomorrow meeting rto 4pm as the Russian attorney is in court until 3 I was just informed.”
June 8, 11:15 AM From: Don Jr. To: Rob Goldstone “Yes Rob I could do that unless they wanted to do 3 today instead…just let me know and Ill lock it in either way.”
June 8, 11:18 AM From: Rob Goldstone To: Don Jr. “They Cant do today as she hasn’t landed yet from Moscow 4pm is great tomorrow.”
June 8, 2016 12:03 PM From Don Jr. To: Kushner & Manafort “Meeting got moved to 4 tomorrow at my offices.”
November 13, 2017 “The transparency organization asked the president’s son for his cooperation—in sharing its work, in contesting the results of the election, and in arranging for Julian Assange to be Australia’s ambassador to the United States.”
“Just before the stroke of midnight on September 20, 2016, at the height of last year’s presidential election, the WikiLeaks Twitter account sent a private direct message to Donald Trump Jr., the Republican nominee’s oldest son and campaign surrogate. “A PAC run anti-Trump site putintrump.org is about to launch,” WikiLeaks wrote. “The PAC is a recycled pro-Iraq war PAC. We have guessed the password. It is ‘putintrump.’ See ‘About’ for who is behind it. Any comments?” (The site, which has since become a joint project with Mother Jones, was founded by Rob Glaser, a tech entrepreneur, and was funded by Progress for USA Political Action Committee.)
The next morning, about 12 hours later, Trump Jr. responded to WikiLeaks. “Off the record I don’t know who that is, but I’ll ask around,” he wrote on September 21, 2016. “Thanks.”
The messages, obtained by The Atlantic, were also turned over by Trump Jr.’s lawyers to congressional investigators. They are part of a long—and largely one-sided—correspondence between WikiLeaks and the president’s son that continued until at least July 2017. The messages show WikiLeaks, a radical transparency organization that the American intelligence community believes was chosen by the Russian government to disseminate the information it had hacked, actively soliciting Trump Jr.’s cooperation. WikiLeaks made a series of increasingly bold requests, including asking for Trump’s tax returns, urging the Trump campaign on Election Day to reject the results of the election as rigged, and requesting that the president-elect tell Australia to appoint Julian Assange ambassador to the United States.
According to a source familiar with the congressional investigations into Russian interference with the 2016 campaign, who requested anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, on the same day that Trump Jr. received the first message from WikiLeaks, he emailed other senior officials with the Trump campaign, including Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, Brad Parscale, and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, telling them WikiLeaks had made contact. Kushner then forwarded the email to campaign communications staffer Hope Hicks. At no point during the 10-month correspondence does Trump Jr. rebuff WikiLeaks, which had published stolen documents and was already observed to be releasing information that benefited Russian interests.The Atlantic for more
“Why it matters: It was WikiLeaks that published emails stolen by Russian actors from Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee. In the messages to Trump Jr., WikiLeaks seems to be offering to help the Trump campaign, while seeking help in countering the perception it was aligned with Russia.” Axios
“It defies logic that Trump wouldn’t attend or be aware of this meeting.”
“From the Russian Tea Room to Russia, the music producer who connected the Kremlin and Don Jr. enjoys the high life—and documenting it all on social media.
Before he organized a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Kremlin-connected attorney, Rob Goldstone was known as a New York City playboy who hosted vodka-soaked parties with younger acquaintances at the Russian Tea Room, a Manhattan restaurant blocks away from Trump Tower.
In June 2016, Goldstone orchestrated a meeting between Donald Jr., President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Trump’s then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort, TheNew York Times reported Monday. Goldstone emailed Trump Jr., promising “information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia.” The info was “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump—helped along by Aras and Emin,” Goldstone wrote. Aras and Emin Agalarov are a Russian billionaire and his aspiring popstar son, whose career Goldstone managed.The Agalarovs have long boasted of their close relationship with Trump—they hosted his Miss Universe pageant in Moscow in 2013. Emin’s music career—which saw pre-President Trump appear in one of his music videos—also helped bankroll Goldstone’s life in New York’s club scene…
Shortly after Trump’s victory in November, Goldstone posted a picture to his now-private Instagram account depicting him in a T-shirt with the word “RUSSIA” written on it.
Goldstone’s Russian money also apparently fueled his expenses on the New York party circuit.” The Daily Beast July 11, 2017
Trustee of the Trump Organization with brother Eric. He has been in charge of leasing real estate at the Trump Organization, and to several felons, frauds, and questionable characters. Bloomberg
Son of Ivana, born in 1977, “The Hill” boarding school in Pottstown, PA, B.S. in Economics from Wharton. Moved to Aspen, CO, then NY to work at the Organization. Married to Jewish-Danish model Vanessa Haydon in 2005. 5 kids.
MIC.com Reports in “Trump-tied businessmen met NSC officials, Bannon over Venezuela sanctions, sources say“: “Five days before the resignation of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, a pair of American businessmen (Beach and Habboush) with ties to President Donald Trump‘s family attended a series of previously unreported meetings at the White House with the aim of convincing the United States to lift sanctions against Venezuela, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.
Mic reviewed documents indicating the businessmen were Gentry Beach, a billionaire Dallas financier, and Wadie Habboush, an international investor. Both men have ties to Donald Trump Jr., but Beach is particularly close: He is a longtime friend of the president’s son and was a major Trump campaign fundraiser.
Government ethics lawyers and policymakers who served in recent Democratic and Republican administrations say meetings between White House national security officials and campaign fundraisers over foreign policy violate NSC protocol and raise serious ethical concerns.
The proposed changes to U.S. policy toward Venezuela have also not come to pass. Several days after the meetings, the U.S. Treasury Department announced a new round of sanctions on Venezuelan Vice President Tareck El Aissami for allegedly aiding drug traffickers.
However, that Beach and Habboush obtained access to senior NSC officials — and that Beach was a big-dollar fundraiser for the campaign — raised alarm among lawyers in the White House Counsel’s office over possible conflicts of interest and ethics violations, according to one source with knowledge of the meetings, which another source confirmed.
Of specific concern is a longstanding personal relationship between Beach and the president’s eldest son. Alongside Trump Jr. and fellow Dallas billionaire Tommy Hicks Jr., Beach raised millions of dollars for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. He served as a finance vice chair for Trump’s inauguration committee. Beach is also a hunting buddy of Donald Trump Jr. and godfather to one of Trump Jr.’s sons.
Beach’s hedge fund, Vollero Beach Capital Partners, was a multimillion-dollar equity fund focused on energy investments. In late 2016, it was absorbed by Citadel, one of the world’s leading hedge funds. According to publicly available Nasdaq data, close to 50% of Vollero Beach Capital Partners’ investments were in oil and gas companies.
In December, Beach’s relationship to the Trump family came under scrutiny when a nonprofit he co-founded — and where Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump served as directors — was alleged to have solicited donations in exchange for access to the president at an inauguration event.
Habboush, an Iraqi-American businessman, is CEO of the Habboush Group, which specializes in energy and infrastructure investments. Earlier in his career, Habboush worked at Exxon Mobil, a company with a turbulent history in Venezuela, and whose former CEO Rex Tillerson is now secretary of state. Habboush’s father, R.W. Habboush is chairman of the Habboush Group and donated more than $33,000 to the Republican National Committee in January 2017, according to FEC filings.
Habboush and the Trumps are also connected through at least one employee. In February, former Trump family chief of staff Lindsay Santoro began working in business development for the Habboush Group, according to her LinkedIn profile. Santoro previously served as an assistant to Donald Trump Jr. at the Trump Organization, in addition to managing staff for the Trump family during the presidential campaign.” MIC, read more
He is an exotic and big-game hunter. On March 12, 2012, TMZ released photos of his Zimbabwe kills including a hanging crocodile from a tree, a dead leopard, and him holding an elephant tail and knife in each hand. This sparked a huge controversy. Photos on TMZ can be see here.
Steve Bannon pushed him through as Attorney General, the first appointee confirmed on February 8, 2017. Like Bannon and Trump, and according to his mother, he is a contrarian and loves to argue. Sessions recused himself from the investigation, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel. Trump has been openly displeased with Sessions refusing to resign, and Sessions protects Mueller from being fired from the investigation.
Then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) prepares to testify at his confirmation hearing to be attorney general. (Jim Lo Scalzo/European Pressphoto Agency)
Below, a timeline of events related to Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s relationship with the Trump campaign and his own conversations with Russian officials. This will be updated as needed.
Aug. 21, 2015. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) makes an unexpected appearance at a Donald Trump campaign rally in Mobile, Ala. While he doesn’t endorse Trump, he dons a “Make America Great Again” cap to loud applause. Sessions is one of the first elected officials to tacitly embrace Trump’s upstart candidacy.
(CNN)
Feb. 28, 2016. Sessions formally endorses Trump and becomes one of his campaign’s key surrogates.
March 3. Trump names Sessions as chairman of his campaign’s national security advisory committee.
March 17. At an event hosted by the American Council for Capital Formation, Sessions discusses Trump’s foreign policy positions.
“I think an argument can be made there is no reason for the U.S. and Russia to be at this loggerheads. Somehow, someway we ought to be able to break that logjam,” Sessions said. “Strategically it’s not justified for either country. It may not work. Putin may not be able to be dealt with, but I don’t condemn his instincts that we ought to attempt to do that.”
July 18. On the first day of the Republican National Convention, the Heritage Foundation hosted a panel conversation addressing European relations that was attended by a number of ambassadors. “Much of the discussion focused on Russia’s incursions into Ukraine and Georgia,” moderator Victor Ashe later wrote, adding that “[s]everal ambassadors asked for names of people who might impact foreign policy under Trump.”
This appears to be the event after which Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak approached Sessions as part of a small group of foreign dignitaries. Sessions, The Post reports, “then spoke individually to some of the ambassadors, including Kislyak.”
July 31. In an appearance on CNN, Sessions defends Trump’s position on reaching out to Russia.
“This whole problem with Russia is really disastrous for America, for Russia and for the world,” he said. “Donald Trump is right. We need to figure out a way to end this cycle of hostility that’s putting this country at risk, costing us billions of dollars in defense, and creating hostilities.
Sept. 8. Sessions and Kislyak meet in his Senate office. The subject of the meeting isn’t clear, but one official told NBC’s Hallie Jackson that during such meetings ambassadors would “often make superficial comments about election-related news.”
On Mar. 2, 2017, Session explained that the meeting was attended by himself and two or three other staffers. They “listened to the ambassador and what his concerns might be.” The topics discussed included travel to Russia, terrorism and Ukraine. “I don’t recall any specific political discussions,” Sessions said.
Sept. 13. A spokesperson for Sessions indicated that he and Kislyak spoke by phone on this day, but then retracted that claim.
Nov. 8. Trump is elected president.
Nov. 18. President-elect Trump nominates Sessions to serve as his attorney general.
Jan 10, 2017. A hearing on Sessions’s nomination to serve as attorney general is held by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) asks about a CNN report on Russian ties to the Trump campaign that came out that day.
Play Video2:15
Sessions ‘unable to comment’ on Trump intelligence briefing reports
FRANKEN: CNN just published a story alleging that the intelligence community provided documents to the president-elect last week, that included information that “Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump.” These documents also allegedly say “there was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government.” Again, I’m telling you this as it’s coming out, so, you know.
But if it’s true, it’s obviously extremely serious, and if there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do?
SESSIONS: Senator Franken, I’m not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians, and I’m unable to comment on it.
FRANKEN: Very well.
Jan. 12. The first questions about national security adviser-designate Michael Flynn’s interactions with Russia’s ambassador are reported by The Washington Post.
Jan. 15. Vice President-elect Mike Pence appears on “Face the Nation” and — erroneously, as it turns out — says that Flynn’s contacts with Kislyak were “strictly coincidental” and that Flynn and the Russian “did not discuss anything having to do with the United States’ decision to expel diplomats or impose censure against Russia.”
Jan. 17. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) sends Sessions a lengthy letterasking about Russia (and a number of other things).
Several of the President-Elect’s nominees or senior advisers have Russian ties. Have you been in contact with anyone connected to any part of the Russian government about the 2016 election, either before or after Election Day?
RESPONSE: No.
Jan. 20. Trump is inaugurated as president.
Feb. 8. Sessions is confirmed as attorney general in a 52-47 vote. Franken and Leahy — and every other Democrat save Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) — vote no.
March 1. The Post reveals Sessions’s two interactions with Kislyak.
Sessions’s staff releases a statement from the attorney general: “I never met with any Russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign. I have no idea what this allegation is about. It is false.”
A statement from Trump’s administration called the questions an “attack” and hinted that Franken was pushing the story for political purposes.
Sarah Isgur Flores, director of public affairs for the Department of Justice, went further in a statement to BuzzFeed.
“There was absolutely nothing misleading about his answer. Last year, the Senator had over 25 conversations with foreign ambassadors as a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, including the British, Korean, Japanese, Polish, Indian, Chinese, Canadian, Australian, German and Russian ambassadors,” she said. “He was asked during the hearing about communications between Russia and the Trump campaign—not about meetings he took as a senator and a member of the Armed Services Committee.”
March 2. Speaking with NBC, Sessions addresses the situation directly.”
Sessions had a third meeting with Kislyak in his Senate office in September. Officials declined to say whether U.S. intelligence agencies intercepted any Russian communications describing the third encounter.
As a result, the discrepancies center on two earlier Sessions-Kislyak conversations, including one that Sessions has acknowledged took place in July 2016 on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention.
By that point, Russian President Vladimir Putin had decided to embark on a secret campaign to help Trump win the White House by leaking damaging emails about his rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton, according to U.S. intelligence agencies.
Although it remains unclear how involved Kislyak was in the covert Russian campaign to aid Trump, his superiors in Moscow were eager for updates about the candidate’s positions, particularly regarding U.S. sanctions on Russia and long-standing disputes with the Obama administration over conflicts in Ukraine and Syria.
Kislyak also reported having a conversation with Sessions in April at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, where then-candidate Trump delivered his first major foreign policy address, according to the officials familiar with intelligence on Kislyak.
Sessions has said he does not remember any encounter with Kislyak at that event. In his June testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sessions said, “I do not recall any conversations with any Russian official at the Mayflower Hotel.”
Later in that hearing, Sessions said that “it’s conceivable that that occurred. I just don’t remember it.”
Current and former U.S. officials said that assertion is at odds with Kislyak’s accounts of conversations during two encounters over the course of the campaign, one in April ahead of Trump’s first major foreign policy speech and another in July on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention.
The apparent discrepancy could pose new problems for Sessions at a time when his position in the administration appears increasingly tenuous.” Washington Post
Sessions met with Russian envoy twice, encounters he did not disclose in confirmation hearings March 1, 2017 Washington Post
September 8, 2016:”Then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) spoke twice last year with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Justice Department officials said, encounters he did not disclose when asked about possible contacts between members of President Trump’s campaign and representatives of Moscow during Sessions’s confirmation hearing to become attorney general.
One of the meetings was a private conversation between Sessions and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak that took place in September in the senator’s office, at the height of what U.S. intelligence officials say was a Russian cyber campaign to upend the U.S. presidential race.”
July 18, 2016: “On the first day of the Republican National Convention, the Heritage Foundation hosted a panel conversation addressing European relations that was attended by a number of ambassadors. “Much of the discussion focused on Russia’s incursions into Ukraine and Georgia,” moderator Victor Ashe later wrote, adding that “[s]everal ambassadors asked for names of people who might impact foreign policy under Trump.”This appears to be the event after which Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak approached [Jeff] Sessions as part of a small group of foreign dignitaries. Sessions, The Post reports, ‘then spoke individually to some of the ambassadors, including Kislyak.'” Washington Post Sessions’ Timeline Washington Post
Sessions offered in recent months to resign as attorney general “Sessions announced his recusal shortly after he became attorney general and a day after The Washington Post revealed that he had twice met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the campaign and did not disclose that fact to the Senate Judiciary Committee during his January confirmation hearing. Trump learned of the attorney general’s decision shortly before Sessions announced it at a news conference. The president’s anger has lingered for months, according to the people close to the White House. They said that Trump cites Sessions’s recusal as a factor that prompted the decision last month by Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein to appoint a special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, to oversee the expanding Russian investigation.” Washington Post June 6 ABC Breaking News
“Democrats spent the hours before the vote on Wednesday seething over the rebuke of Ms. Warren, of Massachusetts, who had been barred from speaking on the floor the previous night. Late Tuesday, Republicans voted to formally silence Ms. Warren after she read from a 1986 letter by Coretta Scott King that criticized Mr. Sessions for using “the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens” while serving as a United States attorney in Alabama. Since Mr. Trump announced his choice for attorney general, Mr. Sessions’s history with issues of race had assumed center stage. A committee hearing on his nomination included searing indictments from black Democratic lawmakers like Representative John Lewis of Georgia, the civil rights icon, and Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, who broke with Senate tradition to testify against a peer.” NY TimesNow we know that Cory Booker took campaign contributions from Jared Kushner. MSN
“Jeff Sessions got confirmed as attorney general despite refusing to commit to recuse himself from DOJ inquiries into Trump and other administration officials.” Washington Post
“Sessions, then a U.S. senator from Alabama, was among Trump’s early supporters in Congress and went on television to promote the candidate. He has come under scrutiny for two meetings with Kislyak last year…Sessions said at a news conference Thursday that he was “taken aback” by a question — which referred to a breaking news story about contacts between Trump campaign surrogates and Russians. “In retrospect, I should have slowed down and said I did meet one Russian official a couple times. That would be the ambassador,” he said….John McLaughlin, a former deputy CIA director and acting CIA director under Obama, said that “it does strain credibility” that Sessions would have simply forgotten about his meetings with Kislyak when he asserted during his confirmation hearing to become attorney general that he had not met with Russian officials…Paul Saunders, a Russia specialist at the Center for the National Interest and a former official in the George W. Bush administration…hosted then-candidate Donald Trump for a foreign policy speech in April last year. Kislyak was in the audience as one of four invited foreign ambassadors as Trump proclaimed, “America-first will be the major and overriding theme of my administration.” Kislyak is known to collect scores of business cards as he moves around Washington, and to follow up, sometimes relentlessly, with requests for one-on-one meetings. Sessions said Thursday that Kislyak had also invited him to lunch, an invitation he never took up…In the case of Sessions, who was considered a top prospect for a Cabinet job when Kislyak visited him in his Senate office in September, Kislyak would have wanted to know: How reasonable is he from a Russia perspective? Hall said [Steven Hall, former head of Russia operations at the CIA].” Washington Post
Daily Kos Petition:”At his Senate confirmation hearing, Attorney General Jeff Sessions lied under oath that he had never had contact with the Russian government as a surrogate for the Trump campaign. We now know that he met with Russian officials at the Republican National Convention, right as they were engaging in cyberattacks to influence the election in favor of Donald Trump. After claiming he would “recuse himself” on all Trump-Russia matters at the Justice Department, Sessions then advised President Trump to fire FBI Director James Comey—right after Comey had issued subpoenas on the Trump-Russia investigation and requested more funding. As the nation’s top law enforcement official, Jeff Sessions has completely violated our trust. He must resign, and his successor appoint a special prosecutor to fully and openly investigate the Trump campaign’s ties with Russian officials.”
From Rolling Stone’s Meet the Leaders of the Trump Resistance by Tim Dickinson : “No cabinet pick has united the Trump resistance like Jeff Sessions, the Alabama senator tapped to head the Justice Department, where he would have broad autonomy to set the national course on the enforcement of civil rights, drug and immigration policy. Sessions was blocked from Senate confirmation once before, when the body refused to seat him as federal judge in the mid-Eighties, following hearings that detailed a distressing history of racism. As a U.S. attorney, Sessions had prosecuted black voting-rights activists – close associates of Martin Luther King Jr. – on trumped-up accusations of voter fraud. (The activists were found not guilty.) And he’s railed against the Voting Rights Act as “intrusive.” According to Senate testimony, Sessions repeatedly referred to a black subordinate as “boy” and opined – during an investigation of a Ku Klux Klan lynching – that he’d thought the KKK was “OK until I found out they smoked pot.” (Sessions denied denigrating his colleague, and insisted the Klan comment was a joke.) Sessions also called civil rights groups, including the NAACP, “un-American organizations teaching anti-American values.” In his U.S. Senate career, Sessions has continued a track record as an extremist. He’s an unreconstructed drug warrior – Sessions insisted last year that “good people don’t smoke marijuana.” An immigration hardliner, Sessions has long ties to the far-right organization FAIR; “he has cavorted with groups that we consider to be hate groups,” says Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Sharry, the immigrant-rights leader, calls the idea of Sessions enforcing civil rights and immigration laws “preposterous.” Todd A. Cox, director of policy at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, says “it is unimaginable that he could be trusted to enforce this nation’s civil rights laws.” Coretta Scott King warned in a 1986 letter that Sessions’ appointment to the judiciary would “irreparably damage the work of my husband.” Sessions faces deep resistance from the drug-reform community, concerned Sessions will break the fragile federal Drug War truce that has enabled state-legal marijuana to boom into a $7 billion industry. Sessions is also opposed by conservatives, who fear he will derail bipartisan progress on issues like criminal justice reform. “Sessions illustrates the need for a new conservative movement,” McMullin says.”
Nancy McLean: “This is about the billionaire radical right…they understood themselves to be a radical libertarian right. The Libertarian right believes that government should only have 3 functions and those are [1]Ensuring theRule of Law to Protect the Rights of Property, in particular, [2]Guaranteeing Social Order, and [3]Providing for the National Defense. So according to this Right, we should not be able to have anything like Social Security, Medicare [anti-poor], like a government that has a right to stop discrimination [anti-civil rights], like a government that cleans up our air and water [anti-environmental regulation]; anything that involves tax revenues going from these unwilling, wealthy and corporate taxpayers going to other people, whether it’s citizens drug benefits or clean air and water, none of that is legitimate in their view.
And what’s so chilling about this history that I uncovered is that they’re using the ideas of this particular Nobel Prize-winning economist who worked in Virginia for most of his life, to actually Change the Political Process essentially by MISINFORMATION ITSELFto get to that great libertarian Utopia that would be so DYSTOPIAN FOR THE REST OF US.So things like VOTER SUPPRESSION, drawing district lines in a way that make the remaining voters’ votes irrelevant, and all of those things. So it really is a stealth plan. It’s different than traditional conservative. Jane Mayer, the journalist who exposed the dark money trail that the Koch brothers have built, mine is more focused on the ideas and strategies and the end game, but she describes that as “New Koch”: a kind of a re-branding effort trying to make themselves popular, by doing these things, by giving these moneys. I would say be very, very wary of this. They have been working with groups like the LEAGUE OF THE SOUTH, which essentially revived SECESSIONIST IDEAS. There’s a long history of the Libertarian Right sliding into the Alt-Right because they are So Committed To These Ideas. You know what used to be called Social Darwinism that blamed people for their situations, so these people are not the friends of African Americans…”
Roland Martin: “And Nancy, let’s be clear. This started with Brown v. Board of Education”
Nancy McLean: “Yeah, that was what was so new in my work was finding this Southern story, that the origins of these ideas came from Virginia, while Virginia was leading the wider South, in massive resistance to Brown v. Board of Education. This particular thinker, James McGill Buchanan, set to work, and he came up with a new set of ideas that basically provided a kind of scholarly imprimatur to a lot of long-standing conservative ideas on the Southern conservative Right, like the ideas that the politicians just buy the votes of people with things like the rights of workers to organize, social security and medicare, they call all of that “Vote Buying”. And they played on a lot of racist tropes over the years to build an audience for this idea, but basically it’s coming after everyone, including the programs that white people depend on and value. So it is really a radical cause.
Alt Right: A Primer about the New White Supremacy Anti Defamation League“White supremacist Richard Spencer, who runs the National Policy Institute, a tiny white supremacist think tank, coined the term “Alternative Right” as the name for an online publication that debuted in 2010. The online publication changed hands in 2013 when Spencer shut it down. It was soon re-launched by Colin Liddell and Andy Nowicki, who were former writers for Alternative Right. Spencer went on to found another online journal, Radix. Both Alternative Right and Radix act as forums for racists, anti-Semites and others who identify with the Alt Right.”
The “Alt-Right” is a loosely defined movement in the US and Europe based in anger…at Muslims, Women, African-Americans, Jews, LGBTQ2+, the Liberal Elites, the Deep State, Immigrants, Refugees and Racial Integration, Big Government, Neocon/Neoliberal Globalism, threats to freedom and personal liberties (guns, unlimited hate speech and calls for violence), Taxes, the UN, World Bank, Mainstream Media (MSM), the Intelligence Community and Dark Military, and more. It has many common sentiments with the Mercer/Bannon camp and lesser so with the Koch brothers.
The Alt-Right has become a politically influential group of Meme Warriors, ready to take on presidential campaigns at a moment’s notice through Reddit chat rooms for strategy, particularly4 chan, 8 chan and The_Donald. Palmer Luckey, the creator of Oculus VR who sold it to Facebook, bought Facebook ads after the RNC in July 2016 and pushed the anti-Clinton memes which Bannon/Mercer‘s Cambridge Analytica refined using big data algorithms in Brad Parscale’s “Project Alamo”, and no doubt included the influence of Rebekah Mercer and Roger Stone in content. This social media “meme war” of disinformation and hate mongering happened simultaneously with Wikileaks email dumps against the DNC and Clinton. The dumps are speculated to have been coordinated bythe Trump Campaign Digital Manager Jared Kushner, and there is evidence that Steve Bannon’s Breitbart news coordinated with Russian bots to spread stories. Bannon spent 20 hours with Special Counsel Robert Mueller. More on Hacking & Cyber Warfare here. They act as the civilian social media arm of the Russian hackers and propagandist’s efforts to sway public thought and votes in the 2016 election and highly active promoting LePen over Macron and Brexit. “Several alt-techies I interviewed said they were fans of A Troublesome Inheritance, a national bestseller published in 2014 by former New York Times science writer Nicholas Wade that makes a case for the existence of differences in average IQ and behavior between races.” Mother Jones
Alt-Right moves into the White House
Trump has stated many times that he judges people based on genes. His nanny was a Nazi. Steve Bannon‘s wife alleged in divorce proceedings that he didn’t want his kids going to school with a bunch of Jews. He was Chief Strategist and with the ethics waiver is officially overseeing Breitbart from the White House, where he is joined by his former Breitbart mid-20s writer, Julia Hahn.
Stephen Miller is a close Trump policy adviser and gained notoriety for defending the Duke University LaCrosse team when they raped two African-American strippers in a violent act of racism. He became Jeff Sessions‘ over-paid speech writer and moved up the political ladder. Miller, Hahn and Bannon are all from the Westside of Los Angeles. Miller was considered as White House Communications Director following Sean Spicer’s resignation and Anthony Scaramucci’s 250-hour term.
Cooperating Witness Michael Flynn, former DIA and National Security Advisor, was a prominent anti-Clinton voice influencing the Alt-Right hatred throughout the Campaign and Transition (Pizzagate, “Lock Her up”, etc.). He brought Ezra Cohen-Watnick into the National Security Council where he has remained. Michael Flynn’s extremist protege from the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency National Security AdvisorSebastian “Seb” Gorka is Anti-Muslim self-proclaimed counterterrorism expert, and sits on the Strategic Initiatives Group with Bannon, Kushner, and Christopher Liddell.
First Amendment Freedoms: The Alt-Right, although there is current pushback on using that label from its fellow idealogues, has been using Freedom of Speech to turn the tables on those who wish to stop giving hate speech a public platform at Universities and in general. It speaks to the Paradox of Intolerance; to have a tolerant societyThe acquisition of Tribune by Sinclair in May 2017 created the opportunity for the Alt-Right propaganda created by this team of writers and military/security strategists to reach 72% of homes. The “must run” segments are mixed into legitimate news, confusing an unwitting audience. While this group has been attacking Mainstream Media and legitimizing their own fringe voices in the process, they have been weakening the reputation of legitimate journalism, which has had a strict code of ethics and validating sources not unlike the legal system, until now.
On August 12, with a preview the night before, Charlottesville, VA, Richard Spencer led the “Unite the Right” protest of the removal of the statue of Robert E. Lee, Confederate hero. It developed into tragedy attributed to the coordinated efforts of what should be a fringe group with limited presence. Because of the power of social media and the internet which allows everyone a voice if they want it, the Alt-Right has developed all of the hallmarks of a terrorist organization. Like ISIS, which uses religion as its tool for legitimacy, the Alt-Right uses the First Amendment against Americans.
“days before the rally, the short-term lodging service Airbnb started suspending the accounts of rally attendees who had rented houses in the area. It was a blow for the organizers, who had “taken over all of the large AirBnBs in a particular area,” according to a user on the message board for the Daily Stormer, a popular neo-Nazi website, who had “set up ‘Nazi Uber’ and the ‘Hate Van’ to help in moving our people around as needed.” Over the last two years, a crop of start-ups has begun offering social media platforms and financial services catering to right-wing Internet users. After being banned from Twitter during the 2016 presidential campaign, many members of the “alt-right” movement of white nationalists joined Gab, which describes itself as “an ad-free social network for creators who believe in free speech, individual liberty, and the free flow of information online.” On Tuesday, one of the site’s most popular posts was an image that said, “I ❤ BEING WHITE.”
Hatreon — pronounced HATE-ree-on — currently features fundraiserssupporting Richard Spencer, one of America’s most prominent white nationalists (who has 34 “patrons” pledging to donate $362 to him a month), and Andrew Anglin, who, as founder and editor of the Daily Stormer, is one of America’s most prominent neo-Nazis (with 50 donors pledging $869.17 a month)…[Creator of Hatreon] Cody Wilson, of Austin, Texas, who is best known for his efforts to produce guns through 3-D printing, described himself as an “Internet anarchist” who wants to disrupt the establishment’s status quo. He was intrigued by far-right users on social media, who sometimes post racist, sexist and anti-Semitic comments and images but also playful memes of their de facto mascot, “Pepe,” a cartoon frog. “Frog Twitter and the so-called ‘alt-right’ — there’s a lot of life there,” Wilson said. “I’m kind of happy to help it mutate.”
Another crowdfunding start-up, WeSearchr, has raised more than $150,000 for Anglin’s legal defense in a lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the anti-extremism nonprofit, after Anglin organized a “troll storm” against a Jewish woman on the Daily Stormer.
WeSearchr often sponsors fundraisers for medical bills and legal defense funds for far-right figures who have gotten in fights with left-wing activists who call themselves “anti-fascists.” [AntiFa] It also offers “bounties” — money donated by users to meet a certain objective — seeking the identities of anti-fascists involved in violent encounters.
WeSearchr’s owner,Chuck C. Johnson, a right-wing journalist and provocateur who has been banned from Twitter, told The Times in an email that it was “good business to allow free speech” and that he believes not discriminating against users’ political views might give him better protection from lawsuits. Johnson, whose operation is based in California, added that his attorney advised him that, under state law, it’s illegal to discriminate on the basis of politics. “All are welcome to fundraise on my properties,” Johnson wrote.
One of WeSearchr’s other founders, Pax Dickinson, recently split from the company to start his own crowdfunding site, Counter.Fund, with an “explicit dedication against Marxist political correctnessand the globalist progressive Left,” according to its website.
Dickinson was the chief technology officer of Business Insider until he was forced to resign in 2013 after sexist and racist tweets of his were uncovered by the news site Gawker. Dickinson since has channeled his entrepreneurial energies into creating financial infrastructure to sustain the far-right.
As for [Richard] Spencer, one of the alt-right’s other most prominent figures, he still has a Twitter account, but he has been banned from the audio hosting site SoundCloud. He said three banks have terminated the accounts of his white nationalist nonprofit, the National Policy Institute, but the group still does business with online payment-processing services such as PayPal.” LA Times August 12, 2017
The Alt-Right is said to have started in the US with Matt Drudge’s “The Drudge Report” radio show, which popularized victim mentality among mostly white men, some of whom were un- or under-employed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Drudge went on the Internet and Breitbart News gained power after Andrew’s death and his replacement with Stephen K. aka Steve Bannon at the helm. Breitbart’s reach has grown exponentially since Trump’s candidacy and as of August 2017, his news segments from the White House will be mandatory on 72% of public broadcast TV under the Sinclair-Tribune merger. More on the First Amendment Freedoms page.
TEA PARTY ROOTS: CITIZENS UNITED, THE KOCH BROTHERS AND MERCERS
The Tea Party movement was heavily funded by the Koch Brothers and Robert and Rebekah Mercer. It took pride in its refusal to compromise and fostered anti-big-government simplicity and economic nationalism. It absorbed the Christian Right vote with “family values”/anti-abortion & LGBTQ stances and the GOP is what it is today. Steve Bannon made a lot of money from the TV Show “Seinfeld” and became a propaganda filmmaker with Koch–Mercer money as it was produced by Citizens United and David Bossie. “Generation Zero”, 2010, is about the apocalyptic aftermath of the financial crisis leading to a cataclysmic war, allowing us to return to the idealized life of the 50s after the horrors of WW2. Bannon, while having made anti-semitic statements in his divorce proceedings, considers himself an Economic Nationalist. White Nationalists are the racial supremacists, according to various alt-right internet and media voices. See Generation Zero here.
ROMANCING THE PAST: PUTIN, THE CHRISTIAN- AND ALT-RIGHT
The self-pity of the victimized white man stirred anti-feminism. Bannon and others openly long for the accepted patriarchy of the past when gender roles were clearly defined and oppressive to women. There is a romance of past greatness, pre-feminist, pre-globalist, pre-mixing of religions and races. Racism and sexism have flourished in this climate. Competition for jobs, physical space and resources, women and the insecurity of dealing with them in a Women’s Lib world, all contribute. Fears of losing a previously great American/European culture, and the social and economic costs of and benefits to immigrants, whether South of the US border or Muslim have fueled hatred against immigrants. Europe has felt a crush of refugees and we have seen the photos of crowded train stations. Rumors of violence, especially against women, have been magnified. All of these things have been magnified by the Alt-Right in their perception and intention to stir up hatred and anger. Cambridge Analytica, Steve Bannon, and Russia’s Internet Research Agency have used these to steal our government through the politicians and policies they’ve bought.
As the Chief Propagandist / Strategist for Trump and Breitbart News, Steve Bannon has garnered incredible power for a “fringe” fear- and war-mongerer, as he appointed himself to the National Security Council and formed the Strategic Initiatives Group after being removed from the Principals Committee. Most of the Republicans in office have been politically funded by the people behind Bannon’s propaganda films (Mercers, CitizensUnited, Kochs), whose goal is the destruction of the administrative state (as so many Government jobs go unfilled today) and deregulation/removing protections, while the selfish and discompassionate philosophy of Ayn Rand is enacted in our public policy (Libertarian, far-right Republican).
Traditional Patriarchal, Christian and Caucasian-dominated sentiments are also being pushed in Europe. Reportedly and by action, Putin wants a return to 19th. Century absolute power/Oligarchy “greatness” and has appealed to the Christian Right pointing out their anti-feminist, anti-gay and other similar stances in the Eastern Orthodox church-influenced culture of Russia and Eastern Europe. French Presidential candidate Marine Le Pen is openly backed by Putin and the Alt-Right openly declared a Meme War on her behalf as they did for Trump and Brexit. Turkey’s Erdogan and the Catholic Philippines’ Duterte have their hard right influences. All have received compliments or congratulations from Trump. Breitbart News wants to spread the hard alt-right hatred all over Europe. Erdogan in Turkey was supported by Putin and Michael Flynn Sr. and Jr. (Flynn Intel Group) were paid to lobby for Erdogan (cause for firing and investigation); likewise Paul Manafort was paid to lobby for Putin-backed Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych (resignation & initial investigation inquiries). Poland’s recent resignation of the pro-American government and installation of a far-right fascist one may be due to Russian taping in the top restaurants. Someone did, and it seems like an FSB op.
Voices of the Alt-Right
Steve Bannon, “The Movement” founder, Former Editor of Breitbart News, Former Chief Strategist, propaganda filmmaker, Leninist, Right Wing Catholic Militia
Andy Nowicki aka the Nameless One “is the assistant editor of the white supremacist Alternative Right blog, which was founded by alt right leader Richard Spencer. The Alternative Right weighs in on the alt right hot topics, from “white sharia” and racial disparities in IQs, to the distinctions in thought between the “normie” world versus the alt right.” While Nowicki claims he is not a white nationalist, he shares many of those views.” ADL
Augustus Invictus “(born Austin Mitchell Gillespie) is a far-right activist, attorney, and speaker from Orlando, Florida. He is a member of the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights, the “military wing” of the Proud Boys. He is also the Sergeant at Arms for the Florida American Guard, a white supremacist group led by Brien James, one of the founders of the Vinlanders Social Club (VSC), a hardcore, frequently violent racist skinhead gang. At the alt right’s June 25 rally in DC, Invictus claimed that while he is not part of the alt right, he stands with the alt right on the issue of free speech. Infighting on the right, he says, just takes energy away from fighting the “real enemy,” which includes the federal government, the lobbyists, and people like George Soros and the Clintons.” ADL
Brad Griffin aka Hunter Wallace “is the Alabama-based white supremacist behind the Occidental Dissent blog, which celebrates Southern nationalism and the alt right. Griffin has been active in the Council of Conservative Citizens and the League of the South, both traditional white supremacist groups. He is a regular contributor to Altright.com, the online publication run by Richard Spencer and Daniel Friberg. He has also proposed creating an “alt south,” an alt-right version of Southern nationalism that would try to attract a broader range of people who reject mainstream conservatism and embrace some of the tactics of the alt right.” ADL
Christopher Cantwell “runs Radical Agenda, a racist, “pro-European,” internet radio show/blog that touts its pay-to-view content as “common sense extremism.” Cantwell has a history of promoting anti-police and anarchist rhetoric, but has recently moved toward the extreme right, and spoke at the neo-Nazi gathering in Pikeville, Kentucky. He has interviewed and appeared alongside white supremacists Mike Enoch and Matthew Heimbach, and has written that he abandoned libertarianism for the alt right after seeing that the latter “has better memes.” At the June 25 Free Speech Rally in DC, Cantwell urged the crowd to fight “Jewish influence.” ADL
Colin Liddell “is the editor-in-chief of Alternative Right, the website started by Richard Spencer in 2010. Liddell previously contributed to the white supremacist journal American Renaissance. He writes about the notion of racial equality fabricated by the “liberal-leftist media” and the “Jewish propaganda machine.” In his 2012 essay “Is Black Genocide Right?” he writes, “Instead of asking how we can make reparations for slavery, colonialism, and apartheid or how we can equalize academic scores and incomes, we should instead be asking questions like, “Does human civilization actually need the Black race?” ADL
Daniel Friberg “is a Swedish businessman, white supremacist, and European editor, and the co-founder (with Richard Spencer) of Altright.com. He is the CEO and co-founder of Arktos Media, which features books by white nationalists, and was one of the founding members of the Motpol think tank, which organized a well-attended alt right conference in Stockholm in February 2017. In his youth, Friberg was active in the Swedish Resistance, a neo-Nazi group.” ADL
Daniel J. Kleve “runs an online group called “Racial Theocracy,” which promotes the idea that “religious fulfillment comes from the proper expression of racial, social and spiritual consequences.” The group wants “to spread overlooked Right Wing literature.” It also promotes National Socialism as world’s “only hope of a future.” Kleve has set up a pool fund to help pay for travel expenses for people who wanted to attend an alt right rally.” ADL
Dillon Irizarry “a military veteran, has been leading the white supremacist group Vanguard America since early 2016. In a speech at the neo-Nazi gathering in Pikeville, Kentucky, a heavily-armed Irizarry claimed that Vanguard America, which is part of the umbrella Nationalist Front organization, has approximately 200 members in 20 different states. The group, which opposes multiculturalism and believes America is a nation for white people,posted white supremacist fliers at universities across the country during the 2016-17 school year. Vanguard America has participated in a number of rallies with alt right figures. In a June 2017 rally in Austin, Texas, Vanguard America appeared alongside members of The Right Stuff and The Daily Stormer.” ADL
Greg Johnson “is a white supremacist and editor-in-chief of Counter-Currents Publishing and its online compendium, the North American New Right. He has also written for the Occidental Observer, an anti-Semitic online publication. Johnson calls himself a “white nationalist” who hopes to create “racially and ethnically homogeneous homelands for whites.” He holds forums in New York and in the Northwest for alt-right activists and is a leader on the alt right. He and Richard Spencer recently had a falling out over the leadership of the alt right and accusations that Johnson was trying to discredit Altright.com editor Daniel Friberg.” ADL
Jared Taylor “(also known as Samuel Jared Taylor) is the founder of The New Century Foundation, a white supremacist think tank known primarily for its racist online journal, American Renaissance. The annual American Renaissance conference features extreme right speakers from the U.S. and Europe. Taylor presents himself as a “race realist” who believes that racial differences are real and that it is natural and healthy for groups to segregate along racial lines. American Renaissance generally avoids the cruder bigotry and stereotyping characteristic of many other racist publications, and Taylor himself does not appear to be anti-Semitic. Taylor is sometimes referred to as the “father of the alt right” due to his influence on the alt right movement. He also was one of the main speakers, with Richard Spencer, at a September 2016 news conference to “explain” the alt right movement.” ADL
Jason Kessler “of Charlottesville, Virginia, is an alt right activist and white supremacist who claims that a “white genocide” is underway in the United States. Kessler is the president of Unity and Security for America and is a contributor to the racist website VDare.com. He also wrote for The Daily Caller until he was revealed to be a white nationalist. At a May 2017 pro-Confederate rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Kessler reportedly praised racist groups and a Holocaust denier, and was eventually arrested for disorderly conduct. At June’s Free Speech Rally in D.C., he told the crowd that America would be better off if the South had won the Civil War, and advanced conspiracy theories about Jews controlling Hollywood and the media and promoting “filthy propaganda.” Kessler is one of the organizers of the August 12 Unite the Right white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.” ADL
Jason Reza Jorjani “co-founded Altright.com with Richard Spencer, and is on the site’s board of directors. A lecturer in humanities at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, he is also the editor-in-chief of Arktos Media, known for publishing nationalist philosophers and “New European” materials. Jorjani calls Arktos “the leading press of the alt right.” ADL
Johnny Ramondetta (aka Johnny Monoxide) “is a white supremacist and an electrician from Berkeley, California, who is responsible for the podcasts “Paranormies Present” and “The Current Year Tonight,” both of which are promoted on The Right Stuff Radio, a popular alt right site. Ramondetta has produced live-streams for a number of alt right events, including the April 2017 “Battle of Berkeley.” ADL
Lana Lokteff “is a white supremacist who runs internet media company Red Ice TV with her husband, Henrik Palmgren. Based in “Sweden and North America,” Red Ice features online TV and radio shows, including Lokteff’s own “Radio 3Fourteen,” that celebrate “European identity and culture.” Lokteff has interviewed numerous white supremacists on the show. She also co-hosts “Red Ice Live,” and “Weekend Warrior,” on Red Ice. In May 2017, Lotkeff appeared in a video segment with Jared Taylor of American Renaissance to discuss “the women of the alt right.” ADL
Matt Forney “currently based in Budapest, Hungary and Lviv, Ukraine, is a white nationalist, anti-Semite, and misogynist who works for Red Ice Radio. Forney, who is active in the alt right, publishes bigoted and hateful rants against Islam, Jews, and women, often on AltRight.com. Forney’s online videos include Holocaust denial tirade “Eric Hunt-The Shoah: The Biggest Hoax of the 20th Century?” Among his virulently misogynistic writings, “How to Beat Your Girlfriend or Wife and Get Away with It,” and “The Myth of Female Intelligence,” Forney’s bigotry extends to people of color, Muslims, and interracial marriage. “Blacks,” Forney says, “do nothing but murder cops, rob and rape people, and bring death and destruction wherever they go.” ADL
Matthew Heimbach “is one of the co-founders of the Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP). TWP claims to be the “political arm” of an earlier white supremacist endeavor, the Traditionalist Youth Network (TYN), which was created to attract young people, particularly college students, to the white supremacist movement. In 2016 and 2017, TWP has participated in white supremacist events all over the country, including the neo-Nazi rally in Pikeville, Kentucky. Heimbach is intensely anti-Semitic and a Holocaust denier. Alongside National Socialist Movement leader Jeff Schoep, Heimbach co-chairs the Nationalist Front, an umbrella organization of approximately 20 white supremacist organizations, including racist skinhead crews, Klan groups, and neo-Nazi groups. Heimbach started out promoting conservative causes in college but moved further and further to the right, eventually embracing National Socialism. He showed up at Auburn University in Alabama in April 2017 to “protect” Richard Spencer, who spoke there. Heimbach is scheduled to speak August 12 at the white supremacist United the Right event, where he’ll be joined by other alt right figures.” ADL
Matthew Parrott “is the co-founder, with his son-in-law, Matthew Heimbach, of the Traditionalist Worker Party, the “political arm” of the Traditionalist Youth Network. The group promotes white supremacy and a racist interpretation of Christianity, and models itself after the European Identitaire movement, which advocates preserving white European culture and identity in Western countries. Parrott, a frequent contributor to AlternativeRight.com, outlined his belief system in a 2013 essay in the white supremacist online journal Counter-Currents. Though he says that he doesn’t wholeheartedly support the philosophies of Hitler, the Klan, or Southern segregation, he sees them as “ideological progenitors and fallen forefathers.” ADL
Mike Peinovich (aka Mike Enoch) “of New Jersey, is the founder of The Right Stuff (TRS), a racist and anti-Semitic website and well-known voice of the alt right. Peinovich, who frequently appears at events alongside Richard Spencer, hosts a TRS podcast called “The Daily Shoah” which promotes anti-Semitic commentary. Peinovich spoke at the May 13 gathering in Charlottesville in defense of southern monuments, and attended the April 29 neo-Nazi rally in Pikeville, Kentucky. Peinovich blames immigration and diversity policies for the “displacement and genocide of the white race.” He also fixates on anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about Jews controlling the Federal Reserve, banks, media, and foreign policy. At June’s Free Speech Rally, he said, “It’s Jews, we know that it’s Jews. Why do we go to war in the Middle East against our country’s interests, against the interests of our race? It’s because of Jewish control.” ADL
Nathan Damigo “an Iraq war veteran and student at California State University, Stanislaus, founded Identity Evropa in early 2016. The white supremacist student group is concerned with preserving “white American culture” and promoting white European identity. It is also known for distributing racist fliers at dozens of campuses across the country. At the June 25, 2017, Free Speech Rallyin D.C., Damigo said that America was founded by white people for white people and was not founded to be a multiracial or multicultural society. In April, 2017, Damigo told a reporter he sees the alt right as “the next natural step to take this decentralized internet-based movement into the real world. We’re trying to create a fraternity and brotherhood for people who have awakened and who see the world in a different light. We want to get the normies’ attention.” ADL
Pax Dickinson “was the Chief Technology officer for Business Insider until he was fired after posting a number of offensive tweets attacking the LGBT community, women, Jews, and African-Americans. He has since founded CounterFund, a “crowd-funding platform built by and for the wider alt right counterculture.” Richard Spencer is an enthusiastic supporter, and has said, “the fund might become the most important counter assault against the SJW [social justice warrior] insanity of the past decade.” Dickinson is listed as one of the speakers at the white supremacist Unite the Right rally scheduled for August 12 in Charlottesville, Virginia.” ADL
Tara McCarthy “is a British alt right media personality who hosts the “Reality Calls” podcast, which boasts the tagline, “Let’s Make Western Civilization Great Again.” The goal of the show is to “help make ethno-nationalist views more socially acceptable, and to educate people on the dangers of globalism and replacement migration from the third world.” She has interviewed numerous white supremacists on the show, but denies being a white supremacist herself. She also co-hosts a podcast (with Brittany Pettibone) called “Virtue of the West,” which features interviews with people associated with both the alt right and the alt lite. McCarthy considers herself part of the alt right.” ADL
The Alt-Lite
“You can’t discuss the alt right without mentioning the “alt lite,” a loosely connected movement of right-wing activists who reject the overtly white supremacist ideology of the alt right, but whose hateful impact is more significant than their “lite” name suggests. The alt lite embraces misogyny and xenophobia, and abhors “political correctness” and the left.” ADL
Brittany Pettibone “writes science fiction and co-hosts the “Virtue of the West” podcast with Tara McCarthy. The podcast encourages listeners to “reconnect with the traditional values that once made Western Civilization great, including but not limited to the glorification of the nuclear family, motherhood, masculinity, femininity, etiquette, traditional gender roles and love of one’s own culture, race and country.” Pettibone, unlike McCarthy, does not explicitly identify as part of the alt right, but she walks the very thin line that separates that group from the alt lite. Whatever her personal beliefs, Pettibone uses her podcast to amplify the views of the alt right by interviewing members of the movement. In July 2017, Pettibone traveled to Sicily to join “Defend Europe’s” efforts to keep NGO boats of African refugees from reaching the continent. “Defend Europe” is run by the far-right group “Generation Identity,” which claims to be protecting Europe against “Islamic invasion.” ADL
Colton Merwin“is a 19-year-old self-identified filmmaker/photographer and activist from Baltimore, Maryland. He emerged on the alt right scene when he organized the June 25 Free Speech Rally in DC, an effort that attracted notable alt right personalities including Richard Spencer and Nathan Damigo (of Identity Evropa). Merwin is also affiliated with the Maryland Proud Boys. Despite his organizing and activism on the group’s behalf, Merwin claims he is not part of the alt right.” ADL
Corey Stewart “a failed 2017 Virginia GOP gubernatorial candidate, was the state’s Trump campaign co-chair until he was fired for attending an anti-RNC rally in October 2016. Stewart champions the preservation of Confederate monuments in the South, and has defended the “heritage” of the Confederate flag. He referred to his Republican primary opponent a “cuckservative.” Stewart was a featured speaker at the alt lite Rally Against Political Violence on June 25 in Washington, D.C. ” ADL
Gavin McInnes VICE Magazine & The Proud Boys Founder, formerly Rebel Media contributor “McInnes, who left VICE in 2008, is a co-founder of the Fraternal Order of the Alt-Knights (FOAK), the “tactical defensive arm of the Proud Boys, ” a right-wing activist group founded by McInnes and dedicated to “Reinstating a Spirit of Western chauvinism.” McInnes was accused of anti-Semitism in March 2017, when he posted a video on Rebel Media called “Ten Things I Hate about Jews,” which was later retitled “Ten Things I Hate About Israel.” Even after this incident, McInnis has been criticized by the alt right for refusing to promote the conspiracy theory that Jews control the world. McInnis eschews the white supremacist label and describes himself as a “Western chauvinist” who hails “Judeo-Christian values” as superior to all others.” ADL
BBC News – ‘Proud Boys’ back in Canada military after crashing indigenous ceremony.
Jack Posobiec “a conspiracy theorist and author, organized June’s Rally Against Political Violence, after learning that Richard Spencer would be speaking at the Free Speech Rally. He also helmed the DeploraBall, a 2017 inaugural event that attracted many from the alt right and alt lite spheres. He has enthusiastically promoted a range of lies, including the Pizzagate hoax, and attempted to discredit anti-Trump activists by planting an inflammatory “Rape Melania” sign at a protest event. He frequently tweets anti-Muslim sentiments, and has harassed former Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin with anti-Muslim slurs online and in person, tweeting, “I screamed ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ at Huma Abedin.” He also posted to Facebook: “Citizen Journalist Jack Posobiec Asks Huma Abedin “Is the Muslim Brotherhood Paying Your Legal Fees?” Posobiec was among the protesters who stormed the stage during New York Public Theater’s controversial run of “Julius Caesar,” shouting, “You are all Goebbels! You are all Nazis like Joseph Goebbels… you are inciting terrorists,” and, “The blood of Steve Scalise is on your hands!” Posobiec has clashed verbally with white supremacist Richard Spencer, who called Posobiec’s Rally Against Political Violence “pathetic.” Posobiec was until recently the Washington correspondent for right-wing Rebel Media.” ADL
Kyle Prescott “is an advocate and recruiter (mainly on social media) for the Proud Boys, a right-wing activist group founded by Gavin McInnes and dedicated to “Reinstating a Spirit of Western chauvinism.” The Proud Boys claim to be “anti-racist, pro-First Amendment, pro-Second Amendment.” They “venerate the housewife and glorify the entrepreneur.” Prescott believes that the left (which he describes as “race-baiters and social justice warriors”) is responsible for most political violence. Prescott attended June’s Rally Against Political Violence.” ADL
Lucian Wintrich “is a conservative activist and White House correspondent for the The Gateway Pundit, a right-wing blog sometimes associated with the alt right, and known for promoting conspiracy theories and propaganda. During the 2016 campaign, Wintrich organized a “Twinks4Trump” photo series featuring provocative pictures of men wearing “Make America Great Again” caps. The photos were featured at the Wake Up! LGBT party at the 2016 Republican National Convention, which Wintrich helped organize. Wintrich called the event “a huge success…with incredible speakers,” including Islamaphobes like Pamela Geller and far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders, who told party-goers, “First, we should acknowledge that Islam is the problem…if you allow Islam to be planted on your soil, don’t be afraid that you will harvest sharia law, because Islam and sharia law [are] exactly the same.” In the past, Wintrich identified with the alt right, but told Andrew Marantz of The New Yorker, “For a while, alt-right was the perfect catchall for anti-establishment conservatism. A lot of us are still frustrated that Richard Spencer ruined the term for the rest of us.” Wintrich spoke at June’s Rally Against Political Violence.” ADL
Andrew Torba, “Gab” Social Network: “The market is owned and controlled and operated by the oligarchy of Twitter and Facebook and Google,” said Gab’s founder, Andrew Torba. “The reality is hate speech is free speech,” Torba added, citing U.S. Supreme Court precedent. With predominantly left-leaning companies, many of them in San Francisco, setting the boundaries on what speech isn’t acceptable on for-profit platforms, “that’s a huge opportunity to sit here and defend the Internet that I grew up on,” he said.” LA Times
“We call ourselves ‘the Fight Club.’ You don’t come to us for warm and fuzzy,” said Stephen Bannon, Breitbart’s executive chairman and one of its guiding editorial spirits. He adds, “We think of ourselves as virulently anti-establishment, particularly ‘anti-’ the permanent political class. We say Paul Ryan was grown in a petri dish at the Heritage Foundation.” Washington Post January 27, 2016.
Paul Ryan is a traditional Koch libertarian conservative. The Alt-Right movement has anarchistic attitude, sassy humor and much more blatant hate speech than a traditional Republican. That’s why they call them “Cuckservatives”, a derivation of the middle English word “Cuckhold”. The attitude continued into the White House, as much infighting was observed in the first 6 months as struggles between ideologies resulted in a rapidly shifting power structure.
Many of the Alt-Right voices in 2017 were teenagers during 9/11 and frustrated young adults during the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009. The middle-aged Alex Jones of Infowars.com is a conspiracy theorist and has promoted 9/11 conspiracies among many others. He, like many others, breeds distrust of our Intelligence and Institutions and fuels the anger towards them.
“Readers of The Right Stufflong knew that founder “Mike Enoch” had two main interests: technology and white supremacy.Posts on the neo-Nazi site have included discussion of “a new blogging platform built on node.js,” In January, Enoch was outed as Mike Peinovich, a Manhattan-based software engineer. Nonetheless, “alt-techies,” as Spencer and others call them, do appear to play a role in a movement that first incubated in the backwaters of the internet and eventually spread online with the rise of Trump. Some heroes of the far right are associated with tech: They include former Breitbart News “tech editor” Milo Yiannopoulos; the infamous neo-Nazi hacker Andrew Auernheimer (a.k.a. Weev); and the video gaming vlogger Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, whose “Pewdiepie” YouTube channel featuring Nazi-themed jokes has 54 million subscribers. (Last month Kjellberg apologized for the jokes and said he is not a Nazi.) The DeploraBall, a gathering of far-right activists and conspiracy theorists during Trump’s inauguration, was co-organized by software investor Jeff Giesea and attended by tech billionaire and Trump backerPeter Thiel. San Francisco-based tech entrepreneur Curtis Yarvin is known for launching the pro-authoritarian “neoreactionary” movement and reportedly has been in contact with Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon. (Yarvin denies this.) Giesea and Yarvin, both of whom I interviewed, reject the “alt-right” label for its associations with white nationalism, yet they share the movement’s disdain for the race and gender politics of the left. ” Mother Jones
Alt-Right Publications
Andrew Anglin, founder of Daily Stormer, Southern Poverty Law Center is fighting back
r_4Chan on /Pol/(politically incorrect) Meme Warriors and Strategists. Declared War on Macron and then the hacked and leaked emails were outsmarted by French intelligence during the media blackout period of their elections. These are the Pepe puppets. They have morphed into another forum as well, having been discovered by “normies”. Originally a gamer forum, notorious for being abusive to women. Includes many members of the tech community, and the industry has come under criticism for its prejudicial behavior against women.
8chan“8chan, also known as InfiniteChan and ∞chan, is an anonymous image board that allows users to create and moderate their own custom boards. The site gained a large influx of new users following the controversial banning of all GamerGate related threads on 4chan in September 2014.” KnowYourMeme
r_The_Donald includes members of the Trump Campaign. Meme Warriors and Strategists
“hostility toward women and people of color thrives on 4chan and on Reddit, the social sharing site whose political and gaming forums /r/the_donald and /r/kotakuinaction are popular with the alt-right. In 2014, 4chan and Reddit users launched an elaborate campaign of rape and death threats against female video game developers that became known as Gamergate. They found champions in Yiannopoulos, who argued that the true victims were the men whose gaming culture was being destroyed by “feminist bullies” and the “achingly politically correct” tech press, and in Mike Cernovich, a blogger who has trumpeted the neuroticism and other alleged weaknesses of women as well as what he claims to be the criminal proclivities of certain ethnic groups. When former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao last year banned five “harassing subreddits,” including one called ShitNiggersSay, the move unleashed weeks of bigoted trolling (a.k.a. “shitposting”) and digital vandalism on the site—and a migration to a Reddit copycat site, Voat. (More recently, similar migrations took place after Reddit banned /r/altright and discussion of the fake-news scandal #PizzaGate)…Chuck Johnson, who runs the pro-Trump site Got News from his home in Fresno, California, and claims to have received funding offers from wealthy tech investors, points to an obvious outlet for closeted alt-techies: “A lot of these people see a sort of ostracism takes place [after they question the value of diversity], and they either rebel against it internally or they go online and they have a different identity and they shitpost on Reddit.” Mother Jones
Scott Reed, Dole Campaign Managerwho managed Robert J. Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign, with Davis as a deputy, said Davis deserves credit for “being the manager of the most amazing political comeback in modern political history.”
Tony Fabrizio-Pollster, Multi Media Services Corporation secretly paying Manafort’s legal bills via Rebuilding America Now. Bob Dole 1996 Campaign introduced to Dmytro Firtash
Roger Stone–UNPAID DOLE ADVISER RESIGNS: September 12, 1996 CHICAGO TRIBUNE “An unpaid consultant to Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole was forced to resign Thursday after two supermarket tabloids reported he and his wife had advertised for group sex. Consultant Roger Stone was a member of Dole’s “Clinton accountability team,” whose job was to point out inconsistencies in the president’s record…The National Enquirer and the Star said Stone used the Internet and a “swingers’ magazine” called Swing Fever to find couples or single men to join him and his wife for group sex. Clinton’s top political strategist, Dick Morris, resigned from the president’s campaign two weeks ago when the Star reported he had a year-long liaison with a prostitute with whom he had shared confidential White House information.”
Ukraine: Manafort was a campaign consultant to Fmr. President Victor Yanukovych
USA v Paul J. Manafort Jr. and Richard Gates III Superseding Indictment February 2018. CRIMINAL NO. 1:18 Cr. 83 (TSE)(S-1) COUNTS 1–5: 26 U.S.C. § 7206(1); 18 * Subscribing to False United States PAUL J. MANAFORT, JR., * (Counts 1 through 5, 11 through 14, and * 24 through 32) * and * RICHARD W. GATES III, *(Counts 6 through 10 and 15 through 32) *; Assisting in the Preparation of False United States Individual IncomeTax Returns COUNTS 6–10: 26 U.S.C. § 7206(2); 18 * U.S.C. § 3551 et seq.;COUNTS 11–14: 31 U.S.C. §§ 5314 and * 5322(a); 18 U.S.C. §§ 2 and 3551 et seq Failure To File Reports Of Foreign Bank; COUNTS 15–19: 26 U.S.C. § 7206(1); * 18 U.S.C. §§ 2 and 3551 et seq. Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns; COUNT 20: 26 U.S.C. § 7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §§ 2 and 3551 et seq. Subscribing to a False Amended United States Individual Income Tax Return; COUNTS 21–23: 31 U.S.C. §§ 5314 and 5322(a); 18 U.S.C. §§ 2 and 3551 et seq. Failure To File Reports Of Foreign Bank And Financial Accounts; COUNT 24: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1349 and 3551 et seq. Bank Fraud Conspiracy; COUNT 25: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1344, 2, and 3551 et seq. Bank Fraud; COUNT 26: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1349 and 3551 Bank Fraud Conspiracy; COUNTS 27: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1344, 2, and * 3551 et seq. Bank Fraud; COUNT 28–29: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1349 and * 3551 et seq. Bank Fraud Conspiracy; COUNT 30: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1344, 2, and * 3551 et seq. Bank Fraud; COUNT 31: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1349 and 3551 * et seq. Bank Fraud Conspiracy; COUNT 32: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1344, 2, and * 3551 et seq. Bank Fraud *FORFEITURE NOTICE
USA v Paul J. Manafort Jr. and Richard Gates III Superseding Indictment February 2018. CRIMINAL NO. 1:18 Cr. 83 (TSE)(S-1) COUNTS 1–5: 26 U.S.C. § 7206(1); 18 * Subscribing to False United States PAUL J. MANAFORT, JR., * (Counts 1 through 5, 11 through 14, and * 24 through 32) * and * RICHARD W. GATES III, *(Counts 6 through 10 and 15 through 32) *; Assisting in the Preparation of False United States Individual IncomeTax Returns COUNTS 6–10: 26 U.S.C. § 7206(2); 18 * U.S.C. § 3551 et seq.;COUNTS 11–14: 31 U.S.C. §§ 5314 and * 5322(a); 18 U.S.C. §§ 2 and 3551 et seq Failure To File Reports Of Foreign Bank; COUNTS 15–19: 26 U.S.C. § 7206(1); * 18 U.S.C. §§ 2 and 3551 et seq. Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns; COUNT 20: 26 U.S.C. § 7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §§ 2 and 3551 et seq. Subscribing to a False Amended United States Individual Income Tax Return; COUNTS 21–23: 31 U.S.C. §§ 5314 and 5322(a); 18 U.S.C. §§ 2 and 3551 et seq. Failure To File Reports Of Foreign Bank And Financial Accounts; COUNT 24: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1349 and 3551 et seq. Bank Fraud Conspiracy; COUNT 25: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1344, 2, and 3551 et seq. Bank Fraud; COUNT 26: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1349 and 3551 Bank Fraud Conspiracy; COUNTS 27: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1344, 2, and * 3551 et seq. Bank Fraud; COUNT 28–29: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1349 and * 3551 et seq. Bank Fraud Conspiracy; COUNT 30: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1344, 2, and * 3551 et seq. Bank Fraud; COUNT 31: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1349 and 3551 * et seq. Bank Fraud Conspiracy; COUNT 32: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1344, 2, and * 3551 et seq. Bank Fraud *FORFEITURE NOTICE
Manafort indicted by Manhattan DA on mortgage fraud charges The Hill BY BRETT SAMUELS – March 13, 2019 “The Manhattan District Attorney on Wednesday indicted former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in connection to a mortgage fraud scheme, announcing the charges within minutes of his sentencing in federal court in Washington, D.C. District Attorney Cyrus Vance announced 16 charges against Manafort, including residential mortgage fraud, attempted mortgage fraud, falsifying business records and conspiracy. Prosecutors said Manafort engaged in the scheme over the course of roughly a year, from December 2015 until January 2017. The 11-page indictment, filed in New York Supreme Court in New York City, alleges that Manafort falsified business records to obtain millions of dollars in mortgage loans. “No one is beyond the law in New York,” Vance said in a statement.”
Wikipedia“Paul John Manafort Jr. was born on April 1, 1949,[36] in New Britain, Connecticut. Manafort’s parents are Antoinette Mary Manafort (née Cifalu; 1921–2003) and Paul John Manafort Sr. (1923–2013).[37][38]His grandfather immigrated to the United States from Italy in the early 20th century, settling in Connecticut.[39] He founded the construction company New Britain House Wrecking Company in 1919 (later renamed Manafort Brothers Inc.).[40] His father served in the U.S. Army combat engineers during World War II[38] and was mayor of New Britain from 1965 to 1971.[10] His father was indicted in a corruption scandal in 1981 but not convicted.[41]
To run the group, Manafort tapped an old friend, Connecticut-based lobbyist Laurance “Laury” Gay. A former official in President Ronald Reagan’s administration, Gay went on to work at Manafort’s lobbying firm in the late 1980s. He is also the godfather to one of Manafort’s daughters.
With Manafort’s blessing and Gay at its helm, Rebuilding America Now raised more than $24 million between June and December 2016, more than any other pro-Trump super PAC did during the entire election.
According to the transcript from a Feb. 4 hearing in Manafort’s trial, prosecutors believe that in 2017, Rebuilding America Now under Gay’s leadership also played a central role in what they describe as a “scheme” to provide Manafort with “a way of getting cash” out of his time as the unpaid chairman of Trump’s 2016 campaign.
The payment
Manafort’s decision to take a volunteer job at the top of Trump’s presidential campaign drew national attention to his lobbying career. By the summer of 2017, Manafort was the target of multiple investigations into his personal finances, campaign work and foreign lobbying.
Faced with mounting legal bills, Manafort reached out to Gay in June of that year and asked him to arrange a $125,000 payment to Manafort’s lawyers, according to both prosecutors and Manafort’s defense attorneys. Rather than give Manafort the money himself, however, Gay called someone else.
“At the request of Paul Manafort, Laury [Gay] asked that funds be forwarded to an entity designated by Mr. Manafort to assist with his legal expenses,” said Anthony J. Iacullo, a criminal defense attorney who represents Gay, in a recent interview with The New York Times.
It’s not clear why Manafort asked for this specific amount. In an emailed response to CNBC, Iacullo said Gay “has not been charged with any wrongdoing nor has he done anything that violates any federal or state laws.” He added that “out of an abundance of caution and respect for the process itself, we decline to comment any further at this time.”
CNBC attempted to reach Gay several times, but the phone at Gay’s Canaan, Connecticut-based consulting firm, Business Strategies & Insight, had been disconnected.
In order to get the $125,000, Gay reached out to someone else, whose name is redacted in court filings. Prosecutors described the person as having “a long relationship” with Manafort. Manafort’s defense attorneys said the person had “been a vendor on all these campaigns [Manafort has] used in the past.”
Crucially, in a January court filing the special counsel also noted that this person ran a firm that had been paid “approximately $19 million” by the super PAC that Gay was running in 2016.
There is only one firm that received anything near $19 million from Rebuilding America Now. And reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show that this firm received almost exactly $19 million, leaving little doubt about which firm it was that prosecutors were referring to.
It is a political ad-buying firm called Multi Media Services Corporation, or MMSC, based in Alexandria, Virginia.
At first glance, MMSC appears to be a small, two-man shop with no obvious ties to Manafort or anyone else with whom Manafort has “a long relationship.” Moreover, there are no signs that either of the principals at MMSC was ever “a vendor on all these campaigns [Manafort has] used in the past,” which is how Manafort’s lawyers described the person who ran this firm.
But there is more to MMSC than meets the eye. Interviews and corporate records unearthed by CNBC have revealed that MMSC has a silent owner:Tony Fabrizio, a longtime Manafort associate and the chief pollster on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Fabrizio’s dual role as: a) the owner of MMSC, which was the biggest vendor to the top pro-Trump super PAC, Rebuilding America Now, and b) the Trump campaign’s lead pollster, has not been reported until now.”
THE AMERICAN LOBBYIST WHO UNDERMINED A DEMOCRACY AUGUST 21, 2018 WhoWhatWhyGINA BRADBURY. Ukrainian steel magnate Rinat Akhmetov hired Manafort in 2005 to update his image. Mafia godfather Akhmetov of E. Ukraine’s Donetsk Clan and Putin ally. “Akhmetov recruited Manafort to revamp Yanukovych’s image, and help prepare him for a second presidential run in 2010. Manafort became Yanukovych’s closest political adviser. He established campaign headquarters in Kiev that was staffed by six American consultants and a group of Ukrainian translators and drivers. Konstantin Kilimnik, an intelligence officer trained by the Soviet Army, worked as Manafort’s translator and right-hand man.
In 2005, he struck a $10 million annual contract with the wealthy Russian steel magnate Oleg Deripaska to promote Russian interests in politics, business, and media coverage in Europe and the US.
Manafort also secured a major natural gas deal with Dmitry Firtash, a wealthy oligarch who was a middleman for Semion Mogilevich. Mogilevich, the Russian mafia’s “boss of bosses,” is the most dangerous member of organized crime there, according to the FBI. Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned natural-gas conglomerate, sold fuel to Firtash at a discounted rate. In turn, Firtash resold the gas to the Ukrainian government, and used the profit to fund Viktor Yanukovych’s campaign.
Yulia Tymoshenko, a pro-democracy Ukrainian politician, who allied with the Svoboda political party, entered the 2010 presidential race as Yanukovych’s political opponent. As a co-leader of the Orange Revolution, Tymoshenko became the first woman appointed prime minister of Ukraine, serving from January to September 2005, and again from December 2007 to March 2010. Tymoshenko, like Firtash, was a natural-gas broker, and the two became arch rivals. In a deal to cut out Firtash and the mafia, Tymoshenko attempted to strike a gas deal directly with Putin, but was unsuccessful. ” THE AMERICAN LOBBYIST WHO UNDERMINED A DEMOCRACY AUGUST 21, 2018 WhoWhatWhyGINA BRADBURY
“In November and December of 2013, for example, the company transferred almost $53,000 to Konstantin Kilimnik, a Kiev-based political operator. It’s not known what the money was for. A federal law enforcement official described Kilimnik as a linguist trained by the Russian army and about whom the US has gathered intelligence. He reportedly attended a military school some experts believe to be a training ground for Russian spies. Kilimnik worked with Manafort for more than a decade, and the Washington Post reported that Manafort emailed his old partner in 2016 to offer “private briefings” to a Russian billionaire close to President Vladimir Putin.” BuzzFeed
Less than two weeks before Donald Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination, his campaign chairman offered to provide briefings on the race to a Russian billionaire closely aligned with the Kremlin, according to people familiar with the discussions.
Paul Manafort made the offer in an email to an overseas intermediary, asking that a message be sent to Oleg Deripaska, an aluminum magnate with whom Manafort had done business in the past, these people said.
“If he needs private briefings we can accommodate,” Manafort wrote in the July 7, 2016, email, portions of which were read to The Washington Post along with other Manafort correspondence from that time.”
“A review of New York state and Suffolk County records shows the loan was made by S C 3, a subsidiary of Spruce Capital, which was co-founded by Joshua Crane, who has partnered with Donald Trump on real estate deals. Spruce is also partially funded by Ukrainian-American real-estate magnate Alexander Rovt, who tried to donate $10,000 to Trump’s presidential campaign on Election Day but had all but the legal maximum of $2,700 returned.” NBC News
“On the day he resigns from the Trump campaign, Manafort records documents creating Summerbreeze LLC, a shell company that he controls. Shortly thereafter, Summerbreeze receives a $3.5 million loanfrom Spruce Capital, a small New York investment firm. Spruce’s co-founder is a developer of Trump hotel projects, including Trump International Hotel and Tower in Waikiki. One of Spruce’s financial backers, Alexander Rovt, is a billionaire who made his fortune in the privatization of the fertilizer industry in post-Soviet Ukraine. On Feb. 1, 2016, Rovt had shared a Manor College stageforum about Ukraine with Andrii Artemenko, a pro-Putin member of the Ukraine Parliament. In January 2017, Artemenko would resurface at the Manhattan Loews Regency hotel on Park Avenue with long-time Trump business associate Felix Sater and Trump’s personal lawyer Michael D. Cohen. During their meeting, Sater gives Cohen a sealed envelope containing Artemenko’s Ukranian-Russian peace plan and asks him to deliver it to Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn. The plan would have leased Crimea to Russia for 50 or 100 years, essentially ceding to Putin the territory he had annexed illegally.” [Added April 17, 2017]Bill Moyers
By Peter Stone And Greg Gordon McLatchyDC.com November 27, 2017
“Political guru Paul Manafort took at least 18 trips to Moscow and was in frequent contact with Vladimir Putin’s allies for nearly a decade as a consultant in Russia and Ukraine for oligarchs and pro-Kremlin parties.
Even after the February 2014 fall of Ukraine’s pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych, who won office with the help of a Manafort-engineered image makeover, the American consultant flew to Kiev another 19 times over the next 20 months while working for the smaller, pro-Russian Opposition Bloc party. Manafort went so far as to suggest the party take an anti-NATO stance, an Oppo Bloc architect has said. A key ally of that party leader, oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, was identified by an earlier Ukrainian president as a former Russian intelligence agent, “100 percent.”
Prosecutors have charged that Manafort and associate Rick Gates funneled through a maze of foreign accounts at least $75 million in consulting fees from an array of Kremlin-leaning clients: Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, who secretly paid them $10 million annually for several years; a second Ukrainian oligarch; and the ruling Party of Regions, which supported Yanukovych until corruption allegations and bloody protests led to his overthrow in February 2014.”
“The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, then followed the house search with a warning: His prosecutors told Mr. Manafort they planned to indict him, said two people close to the investigation. Mr. Manafort is under investigation for possible violations of tax laws, money-laundering prohibitions and requirements to disclose foreign lobbying. “
Exclusive: US government wiretapped former Trump campaign chairman CNN By Evan Perez, Shimon Prokupecz and Pamela Brown, CNN September 18, 2017 “A secret order authorized by the court that handles the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) began after Manafort became the subject of an FBI investigation that began in 2014. It centered on work done by a group of Washington consulting firms for Ukraine’s former ruling party, the sources told CNN. The surveillance was discontinued at some point last year for lack of evidence, according to one of the sources. The FBI then restarted the surveillance after obtaining a new FISA warrant that extended at least into early this year.”
What lawmakers want to know from Manafort and Trump Jr.
With some of the closest members of President Trump’s campaign slated to testify before congressional panels investigating its ties with Russia, here’s what investigators want to ask Trump’s son and former campaign manager. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)
Paul Manafort joined the Trump campaign on April 7, 2016, with sights on the Cleveland Convention.
August 19, 2016: “Manafort is fired from the campaign and replaced by Kellyanne Conway” NBC “As reports of Manafort’s financial connections to Ukraine intensified, he resigns from the Trump campaign.”Bill Moyers
BREAKING NEWS: Manafort switching legal team as feds crank up heat on him 08/10/17 “Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is changing his attorneys as a federal investigation heats up into his financial transactions, according to people familiar with the matter. Manafort’s case will now be handled by Miller and Chevalier, a boutique firm in Washington that specializes in complicated financial crimes among other issues, these people said.” Politico
Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly a.k.a. The Torturer’s Lobby
Watch “Get Me Roger Stone!” on NetflixTrailer Understand the Evolution of the GOP from Reagan On. Manafort was right there, together with Trump from Day One.
By accepting clients without regard to their actions and only caring about the money, the lobby group weakened ethics rules to create the first powerful, enriched lobbying agency and paved the way for what we see today. Manafort and Stone began working with Trump in 1980 during his first shady dealings with the Italian mob and illegal immigrant labor that built Trump Tower. Manafort became of its first residents, and continued consulting him throughout his PR shenanigans as he bought into casinos, Trump’s first presidential candidacy push, and as his 2016 Campaign Manager, one of five US Presidential campaigns he’s consulted.
He has turned over documents to the Senate Intelligence Committee for review, as of May 22, 2017. NBC
“New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is also taking a “preliminary look” at Manafort’s real estate transactions, according to a separate source. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the Justice Department has requested Manafort’s banking records.” May 16, 2017 NBC
“On the day that the dossier came out in the press (January 10, 2017), Paul called Reince, as a responsible ally of the president would do, and said this story about me is garbage, and a bunch of the other stuff in there seems implausible,” said a personclose to Manafort. Manafort had been forced to resign as Trump’s campaign chairman five months earlier amid scrutiny of his work for Kremlin-aligned politicians and businessmen in Eastern Europe. But he had continued talking to various members of Trump’s team and had even had at least two conversations with Trump, according to peopleclose to Manafort or Trump. According to a GOP operative familiar with Manafort’s conversation with Priebus, Manafort suggested the errors in the dossier discredited it, as well as the FBI investigation, since the bureau had reached a tentative (but later aborted) agreement to pay the former British spy to continue his research and had briefed both Trump and then-President Barack Obama on the dossier. Manafort told Priebus that the dossier was tainted by inaccuracies and by the motivations of the people who initiated it, whomhe alleged were Democratic activists and donors working in cahoots with Ukrainian government officials, according to the operative. Manafort discussed with other Trump allies the possibility of launching a countervailing investigation into efforts by Ukrainian government officials who allegedlyworked in conjunction with allies of Trump’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton to damage Trump’s campaign, according to the operative. The operative added that Manafort saw such an investigation as a way to distract attention from the parallel FBI and congressional Russia probes.” Politico
While the White House isn’t talking, these same arguments and suspicions have been used in Republican circles to discredit intelligence and build suspicion elsewhere.
“Over a 40-year career as a lobbyist and political consultant, Manafort and his firms have advised, in no particular order, a business group tied to Ferdinand Marcos, the dictator of the Philippines; Viktor Yanukovych, the ousted Ukrainian president and ally of Vladimir Putin; and Lynden Pindling, the former Bahamian prime minister who was accused of ties to drug traffickers…He resides, at least part of the time, in Trump Tower in Manhattan, where he has an apartment. He and Trump have met over the years in the lobby and elevators.
Manafort splits time in Florida, New York and Alexandria, Va., and travels internationally often, and for weeks or months at a time, consulting for foreign governments, several friends said.” Washington Post
“Paul Manafort, who managed an investment fund for a Russian aluminum magnate with close ties to Putin. Manafort resigned from the campaign days after his name was found in a ledger designating funds to be paid out from the party of former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted in a pro-European street revolution in 2014…Yevgen Kopachko, a pollster who worked with Yanukovych on parliamentary and presidential campaigns, said that Manafort had a “phenomenal ability to work with sociological information. In another business venture, Oleg Deripaska, a Russian aluminum magnate, accused Manafort in a court in the Cayman Islands of taking nearly $19 million intended for investments, then not accounting for the money, returning it or responding to numerous inquiries about exactly how the money was used. In his legal filing, Deripaska said he expected that the money would be used to make acquisitions in Russia, Ukraine and other countries in eastern and southern Europe. Instead, the petition argues, the partnership made only one purchase: buying a stake in Ukrainian cable television and Internet ventures. Deripaska, squeezed by the 2008 credit crunch, asked for the partnership to be liquidated and his money returned, according to Deripaska’s petition. But the filing said it was unclear who was controlling the Ukrainian cable TV and Internet assets and what happened to the money Deripaska initially provided.” Washington Post
How Paul Manafort Wielded Power in Ukraine Before Advising Donald Trump NY Times “Mr. Manafort’s influence in the country was significant, and his political expertise deeply valued, according to Ukrainian politicians and officials who worked with him. He also had a voice in decisions about major American investments in Ukraine, said a former spokesman for Ukraine’s foreign ministry, Oleg Voloshyn, who also ran as a candidate in the new bloc Mr. Manafort helped form.”
Manafort’s man in Kiev: The Trump campaign chairman’s closeness to a Russian Army-trained linguist turned Ukrainian political operative is raising questions, concerns. Politico
“The protégé, Konstantin Kilimnik, has had conversations with fellow operatives in Kiev about collecting unpaid fees owed to Manafort’s company by a Russia-friendly political party called Opposition Bloc, according to operatives who work in Ukraine.
A Russian Army-trained linguist who has told a previous employer of a background with Russian intelligence, Kilimnik started working for Manafort in 2005 when Manafort was representing Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, a gig that morphed into a long-term contract with Viktor Yanukovych, the Kremlin-aligned hard-liner who became president of Ukraine.
“A former trucking official who had been convicted and incarcerated as a teenager for serious crimes, Yanukovych had become a popular symbol of the corruption that plagues Ukraine after his team tried to rig the 2004 presidential election. A series of protests, which became known as the Orange Revolution, forced a re-vote, which Yanukovych lost.
While Manafort initially protested that Yanukovych was too deeply flawed to revive, Akhmetov eventually prevailed upon his American consultant to help Yanukovych and his political party, the Party of Regions, try to make a comeback in the 2006 parliamentary elections. Manafort and his team, including Kilimnik, set about to recast Yanukovych as an inspiring leader who could work with the West. Under Manafort’s guidance, Yanukovych began studying English, and communicated in Ukrainian with the pro-European western part of the country, while using Russian to push pro-Russian themes in the east, which is linguistically, culturally and religiously aligned with Russia.Manafort also implemented polling, micro-targeting and get-out-the-vote strategies that are de rigueur in American politics, but which Yanukovych had not previously used. Manafort even coached Yanukovych on his appearance, reportedly urging him to start blow-drying his hair, though one Manafort associate called the blow-drying claim a myth that was “total bullshit.”
Remarking on the transformation, a U.S. diplomat, in a hacked cable posted on WikiLeaks, wrote that the “Party of Regions is working to change its image from that of a haven for mobsters into that of a legitimate political party. Tapping the deep pockets of [Akhmetov], Regions has hired veteran K Street political help for its ‘extreme makeover’ effort … [Manafort’s firm] is among the political consultants that have been hired to do the nipping and tucking.” Kilimnik was key to this effort, according to several people who worked with the team.” Politico
“According to documents that we’ve reviewed, Paul Manafort secretly worked for a Russian oligarch who wanted him to promote Russian interests,” the AP’s Chad Day tells NPR’s Rachel Martin. “And in particular, he wrote a memo that outlined this kind of vast plan for him to promote Russian interests in the former Soviet republics — and also to specifically benefit the Putin government.”The financial arrangement dates to at least 2006, when Manafort signed a $10 million yearly contract with Russian aluminum tycoon Oleg Deripaska“, a close Putin ally, Day says. Their business relationship lasted through at least 2009, according to Day’s story for the AP.” NPR
March 22, 2017, “Manafort proposed in a confidential strategy plan as early as June 2005 that he would influence politics, business dealings and news coverage inside the United States, Europe and former Soviet republics to benefit President Vladimir Putin’s government, even as U.S.-Russia relations under Republican President George W. Bush grew worse.White House’s Sean Spicer says President Donald Trump had not been aware of Paul Manafort’s work on behalf of a Russian billionaire. “To suggest that the president knew who his clients were from 10 years ago is a bit insane,” Spicer said. (March 22) Manafort pitched the plans to aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, a close Putin ally with whom Manafort eventually signed a $10 million annual contract beginning in 2006, according to interviews with several people familiar with payments to Manafort and business records obtained by the AP. Manafort and Deripaska maintained a business relationship until at least 2009, according to one person familiar with the work.” AP News
“Report: Russian Billionaire Linked To Manafort Seeks Immunity To TestifyOleg Deripaska, who had Trump’s former campaign manager on a $10 million annual contract, is apparently ready to sing. ” Huff Post Oleg “Deripaska and Manafort worked together on an offshore fund in 2007 that quickly folded. During the time of the contract, Manafort was working as a campaign consultant to candidates in the Ukraine backed by the Kremlin. Deripaska, who has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, traveled several times to the U.S. from 2011 to 2014 on a diplomatic passport, according to the Times. He was unable to obtain regular business visas for travel to the U.S. because of suspicions by American officials that he was linked to the Russian mob — which Deripaska has denied.”
Feds Subpoena Records for $3.5M Mystery Mortgage on Manafort’s HomeNBC News “Manafort’s name does not appear on the UCC filing, but Summerbreeze LLC gives his Florida address as a contact, and lists his Bridgehampton home as collateral. A review of New York state and Suffolk County records shows the loan was made by S C 3, a subsidiary of Spruce Capital, which was co-founded by Joshua Crane, who has partnered with Donald Trump on real estate deals…The mortgage notice for the loan, however, was never entered into government records by the lender. A mortgage notice normally names the lender, and gives the interest rate, the frequency with which payments must be made, and the length of the mortgage. Real estate experts contacted by NBC News called the omission “highly unusual,” though not illegal…Baldinger said Spruce Capital had required that Manafort create the LLC to receive the loan, and that the Hamptons property had previously been held in the name of Kathleen Manafort, Paul’s wife. Baldinger said that Manafort himself was never the borrower. The deed for the Bridgehampton house was transferred from Kathleen Manafort to Summberbreeze LLC in December 2016. There is also a question as to how the loan came about and how the lender and borrower were introduced. Two people involved say that independent broker Millenium Estates LLC brought the deal to Spruce. However, Manafort’s spokesperson Maloni said Millenium wasn’t the independent broker. Baldinger said that the relationship with Spruce Capital originated with an independent mortgage broker who was introduced to Manafort by Manafort’s son-in-law. “The broker then introduced me to Spruce Capital,” said Baldinger. “Prior to the transaction, Mr. Manafort had no knowledge of either the broker, Spruce Capital, or its principals. After the repayment of the loan, Mr. Manafort had no further dealings or contact with Spruce Capital or its principals, nor had he any reason to be in any contact with them…Manafort’s LLC, Summerbreeze, took out a new $9.5 million loan in December (2016) using the Hamptons property as part of the collateral. The lender is Federal Savings Bank of Chicago, whose chief executive Steve Calk was an economic adviser to the Trump campaign. NBC News and other media outlets reported in March that Manafort had used LLCs to buy four properties in New York City between 2006 and 2014 for cash, and had then taken out mortgages on them.” NBC News
“In mid-April, federal investigators requested Mr. Manafort’s banking records from Citizens Financial Group Inc., the people said. It isn’t clear whether Citizens is the only bank that received such a request or whether it came in the form of a subpoena. Federal law generally requires that a bank receive a subpoena to turn over customer records, lawyers not connected to the investigation said. Citizens gave Mr. Manafort a $2.7 million loan last year to refinance debt on a Manhattan condominium and borrow additional cash..Separately, investigators for New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman as well as Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. also have been examining real-estate transactions by Mr. Manafort, who has spent and borrowed tens of millions of dollars in connection with property across the U.S. over the past decade…Anticorruption officials in Ukraine, working with the FBI, are investigating a ledger found in Ukraine, where Mr. Manafort long worked as a consultant for a pro-Russia political party. The ledger lists $12.7 million in purported cash payments from that party to Mr. Manafort or affiliated entities…In late March, the Journal reported that Mr. Manafort had borrowed $16 million from a bank run by a former Trump campaign adviser after the election to salvage troubled investments, according to real-estate and court records. Steve Calk, who runs the Federal Savings Bank, a small bank in Chicago, declined to comment on whether his bank had been contacted by federal investigators…The Journal also reported that since the mid-2000s, around the time Mr. Manafort started working as a political adviser to wealthy pro-Russia politicians in the Ukrainian Party of Regions, he and immediate family members bought at least six properties in New York, Florida and Virginia for more than $16 million, property records show. Also in late March, WNYC public radio station reported on Mr. Manafort’s use of corporate entities to purchase multimillion-dollar properties without mortgages, some of which he later took loans against. NBC News reported around the same time that a Cyprus bank had investigated accounts associated with Mr. Manafort for possible money laundering, and that he had closed them after questions were raised.” Wall Street Journal, May 13, 2017
Paul Manafort is among those names on the list of the so-called “black ledger” of the Party of Regions, which is investigated by the detectives of National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine. According to the lists, a total sum of over 12.7 million US dollars was allocated on the costs associated with this person since 20.11.2007. The last entry on the lists about P. Manafort is dated on October 5, 2012.
We emphasize that mentioning P.Manafort’s name on the list does not mean that he actually got the money, because the signatures that appear in the column of recipients could belong to other people.
To avoid rumors and speculations, the NABU is publishing copies of 19 pages, containing 22 items related to the name of Paul Manafort.
1. 20.11.07 – $455 249 – (payment from the 3d parties to Manafort US)
2. 20.11.07 – $6 374 – (payment of services with regards to Manafort)
3. 18.09.(09?) – $ 4 632 – (7 personal computers Manafort)
4. 14.10.09 – $750 000 – (Manafort)
5. 26.10.09 – $854 – (Server to Manafort)
6. 9.11.09 – $ 6000 – (Expenses for payment to Manafort)
7. 9.11.09 – $ 6000 – (Expenses for payment to Manafort)
8. 30.11.09 – $500 000 – (Payment on Manafort)
9. 09.12.09 – $6000 – (Expenses for payment to Manafort)
10. 14.12.09 – $ 1 300 000 – (Payment Manafort)
11. 16.12.09 – $15 600 – (Expenses for payment to Manafort as of 14.12)
12. 18.01.10 – $1 075 000 – (Contract Manafort)
13. 08.04.10 – $ 846 000 – (P. Manafort – expenses in Ukraine)
14. 22.09.10 –$ 750 000 – (Manafort)
15. 04.11.10 – $ 1 150 000 – (Payment of the contract Manafort)
16. 27.04.11 – $142 000 – (Payment for Manafort’s services)
17. 30.05.11 – $300 000 – (Payment Manafort)
18. 11.10.11 – $135 000 – (Paul Manafort)
19. 21.06.12 – $3 468 693 – (Paul Manafort Contract)
20. 10.07.12 – $645 000 – (Manafort sociology)
21. 09.10.12 – $400 000 – (Manafort exit poll in real time)
22. 09.10.12 – $12 467 – (Manafort, foreign observers)”
Ex-Ukrainian President YANUKOVYCH confides directly to PUTIN that he authorised kick-back payments to MANAFORT, as alleged in western media. Assures Russian President however there is no documentary evidence/trail
PUTIN and Russian leadership remain worried however and sceptical that YANUKOVYCH has fully covered the traces of these payments to former campaign manager
Close associate of TRUMP explains reasoning behind recent resignation. Ukraine revelations played part but others wanted MANAFORT out for various reasons,especially LEWANDOWSKI who remains influential
Detail
1.Speaking in late August 2016, in the immediate aftermath of Paul MANAFORT’s resignation as campaign manager for US Republican presidential candidate Donald TRUMP, a well-placed Russian figure reported on a recent meeting between President PUTIN and ex-President YANUKOVYCH of Ukraine. This had been held in secret on 15 August near Volgograd, Russia and the western media revelations about MANAFORT and Ukraine had featured prominently on the agenda. YANUKOVYCH had confided in PUTIN that he did authorise and order substantial kick-back payments to MANAFORT as alleged but sought to reassure him that there was no documentary trail left behind which could provide clear evidence of this.
2. Given YANUKOVYCH’s (unimpressive) record in covering up his own corrupt tracks in the past, PUTIN and others in the Russian leadership were sceptical about the ex-Ukrainian president’s reassurances on this as relating to MANAFORT. They therefore still feared the scandal had legs, especially as MANAFORT had been commercially active in Ukraine right up to the time (in March 2016) when he joined campaign team. For them it therefore remained a point of potential political vulnerability and embarrassment.
3. Speaking separately, also in late August 2016, an American political figure associated with Donald TRUMP and his campaign outlined the reasons behind MANAFORT’s recent demise. /he said it was true that the Ukraine corruption revelations had played a part in this but also, several senior players close to TRUMP had wanted MANAFORT out, primarily to loosen his control on strategy and policy formulation. Of particular importance in this regard was predecessor as campaign manager, Corey LEWANDOWSKI, who hated MANAFORT personally and remained close to TRUMP with whom he discussed the presidential campaign on a regular basis.