Comments by "" (@DavidJ222) on "Cuomo argues Trump isn't normalizing corruption; GOP is" video.

  1. In Sept, one month before Lev Parnas was indicted on campaign finance charges, his wife received a $1 million wire transfers from a bank account in Russia. The the source was a lawyer for Dmytro Firtash, according to a court filing by U.S. prosecutors. Firtash is a Ukrainian oligarch who made a fortune in the natural gas trade, and is perhaps the most enigmatic figure in the scandal related to Trump's impeachment. A billionaire with close ties to the Russian mob, Firtash is facing bribery-related charges here in the U.S. and fighting extradition from Vienna. He once attempted to buy the famous Drake Hotel in NY with the now imprisoned Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign manager. He's seen by Ukrainian anti-corruption activists and Western governments as a corrupt instrument of Russia. Firtash provided documents to Giuliani that he used to further his discredited claim that Joe Biden engaged in wrongdoing in Ukraine. The question over Firtash's role in the effort to smear Biden deepened when Parnas said the oligarch's involvement came from an explicit quid pro quo. In exchange for Firtash's help in their effort to damage Biden, Parnas assured the oligarch they (Rudy, Trump, and Parnas) would make his U.S. legal troubles disappear. In other words, according to Parnas: Guiliani, was so eager to help Trump and hurt Biden, that he turned to a man Ukrainian activists call their country's most dangerous oligarch — and offered the equivalent of a get-out-of-jail-free card. "Some folks might wonder what Mr. Giuliani was thinking. The better question is whether he WAS thinking," said Chuck Rosenberg, a former federal prosecutor and senior FBI official. "This is so foolhardy and so reckless, that it is difficult to fathom what he was doing or how he thought it could succeed." Firtash lived up to his end of the alleged bargain: His lawyers provided a now-discredited affidavit from a Ukrainian prosecutor accusing Biden of wrongdoing. But Giuliani's team did not deliver. According to Parnas and a senior U.S. official, Firtash's lawyers, Giuliani associates Joe DiGenova and Victoria Toensing, were unable to convince Attorney General William Barr to intervene in the Firtash case. The alleged scheme, one former U.S. official said, was stunning in its audacity. "Think of it this way," said the official, who has deep knowledge of Ukraine's politics and Firtash's history. "You have the president's personal lawyer trying to get the president's official lawyer, the attorney general, to get the Justice Department to drop charges against an oligarch supported by Russia. That's what was happening." "Firtash is at dead center of the greatest corruption operation in Ukraine's history," said a former senior U.S. diplomat who served in the region. "He managed the flow of natural gas from Russia to Ukraine and beyond and it kept Ukraine dependent on Russia's gas supplies." Anders Aslund, a former Swedish diplomat who has studied Ukraine's economy for years, said Firtash is more of a purveyor of bribes than a proper businessman. "He has essentially been used by the Russians to buy political power in Ukraine," said Aslund.  "He's the person who has spent the most money on behalf of the Kremlin on Ukraine's politicians." In 2013, as the  Obama administration was pushing an anti-corruption agenda in Ukraine, federal prosecutors in Chicago indicted Firtash, charging him with a scheme to bribe Indian officials to obtain a lucrative mining deal to sell titanium to Boeing for the 787 Dreamliner. He was arrested in Vienna in March 2014, and released on $174 million bail and has been contesting his extradition to the U.S. ever since. The $174 million bail, said to be the largest in Austrian history, was paid by the Russian billionaire Vasily Anisimov, who is also under U.S. sanctions. Richard Grenell, Trump’s pick for the Director of National Intelligence, has absolutely  zero experience in intelligence or national security. But what Grenell does have however, are shady connections to Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs, who are connected to the Russian mob, and the Kremlin. Normally, something like this would be more than enough to prevent him from even getting a low level security clearance. And this is the man that Trump's wants to trust with the entire treasure trove of Amercan intelligence and classified information??? 😲 In interviews, Lev Parnas described a meeting he and Rudy had in London where they met two associates of indicted Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash, one of whom was on his legal team. The Washington Post reported on that meeting, and a Firtash lawyer confirmed that a meeting with Giuliani happened. Parnas said he was in the meeting, and that Giuliani used it to try to get material from the oligarch that would bolster his attacks on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Trump. Firtash is wanted in this country on multiple felony corruption and bribery charges. DOJ prosecutors say Firtash is an "upper-echelon associate" of Russian Organized Crime. After the meeting, two of Giuliani’s allies joined Firtash’s legal team. Victoria Toensing and Joseph diGenova began representing Firtash in the summer of 2019, and worked to score political gifts for Trump from Firtash. Parnas said they also tried to leverage their Trumpworld connections to help Firtash.  “During the situation that was going on with the Firtash case, Victoria called Ric Grenell because he was the ambassador to Germany and Vienna was in the same orbit there,” Parnas said. “She basically asked him, if he sees any pressure coming from DOJ to extradite Firtash, if he could let us know. She told me that Grenell said he would.”
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  2. Richard Grenell, Trump’s inexplicable pick for the Director of National Intelligence,  has less than zero experience in intelligence or national security. He had even less experience in diplomacy when Trump named him as the Ambassador to Berlin. What Grenell does have however, are shady connections to Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs, who are connected to the Russian mob, and the Kremlin. And this is the man that Trump's wants to trust with the entire treasure trove of Amercan intelligence and classified information?!?!😲 For years, Grenell’s bread and butter had been serving as a political consultant and advisor. He founded Capital Media Partners in 2009, to assist clients with “international strategic communications.” Grenell boasts of having “clients based in the U.S. Iran, and throughout Europe. The former Soviet Republic of Moldova, a little country that few Americans ever think about, became a subject of intense interest to Grenell shortly before our 2016 election. The poorest corner of Europe, Moldova barely has any legitimate economy. Moldova is known for its out-of-control corruption and crime, particularly its lurid role in the illegal trade of 5ex slaves. Moldova’s main industry is the selling of its young women, often children, to human traffickers, who dispatch them around the globe to be exploited. Grenell, who does not seem to have shown any interest in the troubled country before, oddly published four American op-eds between mid-August and mid-October 2016, extolling Moldova’s virtues. To those familiar with Moldova’s nasty politics, it was clear that Grenell was going to bat for Vladimir Plahotniuc, the most powerful political player in Moldova, not to mention the country’s wealthiest oligarch. In the summer of 2016, Plahotniuc’s charmed life as his country’s most feared Oligarch was in trouble. Mihail Gofman, the country’s anti-corruption czar, went public about Plahotniuc's crimes. Seeking safety in America, Gofman explained to the FBI how Plahotniuc oversaw the theft of $1 billion from Moldova’s state treasury—one-eighth of the country’s annual GDP—then laundered it with Kremlin help. Gofman’s fears for his future and safety were warranted. When Moldova’s former Prime Minister Vlad Filat, a critic of the Kremlin, denounced Plahotniuc for his role in the billion-dollar-theft, he was arrested and sentenced to nine years in prison, reportedly on Plahotniuc’s orders. Gofman’s account, which confirmed what many Western intelligence agencies suspected, was that Plahotniuc is deeply in bed with Russian organized crime, specifically the notorious Solntsevo Brotherhood,  led by Semyon Mogilevich, according to INTERPOL.. In his 2016 op-eds, Grenell insisted that Gofman was wrong about Plahotniuc. Grenell even  attacked Congressmen, Randy Weber, a Texas Republican, who tried to assist Gofman in exposing Moldovan crime and corruption, accusing Weber as pro-Kremlin. So why did Grenell develope a sudden and passionate need to defend Vlad Plahotniuc. It wasn’t an act of charity, but Grenell has failed to disclose what motivated his public defense of Moldova’s top oligarch, and crime boss. His financial disclosure forms submitted for his appointment as ambassador to Berlin reveal that over the previous year, Grenell made $688,362 from Capitol Media Partners, i.e. for political consulting. For whom, however, is unclear. This is important since Plahotniuc isn’t just a corrupt oligarch who is accused of robbing his impoverished country blind. He’s also a human trafficker, in fact the leading one in Moldova. INTERPOL admitted his role in human trafficking in 2012. Although Plahotniuc has never been charged with this crime, this isn’t surprising given the influence he possesses over Moldova’s highly corrupt judiciary. What Plahotniuc really is represents one of the worst-kept secrets in Eastern Europe. His criminal enterprises are well known to Western intelligence and police agencies. If Grenell went to bat for Plahotniuc for money, the American public deserves to know how much and from whom.
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