Swamp Watch News

[_Icarus]

Russian mob money built Trump's businesses?

https://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/Washington ... 1AT9gRXS3M

[_Icarus]

JUST IN: Trump’s State Department official, Mina Chang got her job with embellished resume, fake Time magazine cover, she ran a fraudulent non profit and faked her Harvard diploma (per NBC news). She’s making 6-figure income at taxpayers dime. Why is she still employed?

[_EAllusion]

JUST IN: Trump’s State Department official, Mina Chang got her job with embellished resume, fake Time magazine cover, she ran a fraudulent non profit and faked her Harvard diploma (per NBC news). She’s making 6-figure income at taxpayers dime. Why is she still employed?

As plenty of people have noted, I think the bigger story within this story is how she managed to make it through the vetting process. Since the Trump admin has overridden the careerists in the case of Kushner and other close associates, the question is if that has spread further to outer-ring political appointees.

[_moksha]

Trump campaign workers fleece feds at $380/hr.

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/12/federal-health-funneled-dollars-trump-allies-069638

[_canpakes]

The Justice Department Inspector General’s office has told witnesses who are set to review draft sections of its long-awaited report on the FBI investigation of President Trump’s 2016 campaign that they will not be allowed to submit written feedback — one in a series of unusual restrictions that some fear could make the final document less accurate, people familiar with the matter said.

As is the case in most inspector general probes, witnesses are being invited to review draft sections of the report and offer comments and corrections, the people said. But — unlike most cases — they are being told those comments must be conveyed only verbally, the people said.
Even though Attorney General William P. Barr and other officials have been working in recent weeks to determine what should be redacted from the report as classified or private information, people familiar with the process said that the entire draft document is marked “Top Secret,” so anyone who discusses its contents outside a secure government room could be committing a crime.

Witnesses, they said, are being asked to review their sections in a secure area, after signing nondisclosure agreements, according to people familiar with the matter. The witnesses have also been told they will not be allowed to remove any notes they make about the document, the people said.

The moves have left some witnesses concerned their objections might not be recorded precisely and incorporated into the inspector general’s findings, the people said. The witnesses, they said, are also concerned that the process gives the inspector general complete control in characterizing any comments witnesses make — and leaves witnesses with no ability to create a paper trail that might help them show their words were captured inaccurately.

The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the political and legal sensitivity of the matter. A spokeswoman for the inspector general declined to comment.

[_canpakes]

Washington(CNN) The House of Representatives is now investigating whether President Donald Trump lied to special counsel Robert Mueller in written answers he provided in the Russia investigation, the House's general counsel said in federal court Monday.

"Did the President lie? Was the President not truthful in his responses to the Mueller investigation?" House general counsel Douglas Letter told the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit about why the House now needs access to grand jury material Mueller collected in his investigation.

The House's arguments Monday draw new focus to whether Trump had lied to Mueller following public revelations at Roger Stone's trial this month.

Former Trump deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates testified that Trump and Stone talked about information that was coming that could help the campaign in mid-2016, at a time when Stone was attempting to get secret details about stolen Democratic documents WikiLeaks had.

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort also apparently told the Mueller grand jury what Trump's approach to WikiLeaks had been in 2016, according to the Mueller report.

But Trump told Mueller in his written statements he didn't recall discussing WikiLeaks with Stone.

The Gates testimony adds further significance to Congress' desire to see the redacted material.

The question of whether Trump obstructed justice, including potentially lying to Mueller, has for months been a part of the House Judiciary Committee's wider review of potential obstruction in the wake of the Mueller report. The House previously reviewed most of what Mueller had written in his final report, including parts kept from the public.

But the House hasn't been able to see what Manafort told the grand jury, which Mueller apparently described in his report. In the Mueller report, grand jury details are redacted related to a sentence describing Manafort speaking with Trump after WikiLeaks' first release, in July 2016.

[_canpakes]

Via the Washington Post, 11/26:

When Rudolph W. Giuliani went to Madrid in August to meet with a top aide to the Ukrainian president and press for political investigations sought by President Trump, he made the trip at the behest of a previously unidentified client with very different interests.

While in Spain, Giuliani stayed at a historic estate belonging to Venezuelan energy executive Alejandro Betancourt López, who had hired Trump’s personal attorney to help him contend with an investigation by the Justice Department into alleged money laundering and bribery, according to people familiar with the situation.

A month later, Giuliani was one of several lawyers representing Betancourt in Washington. The lawyers met with the chief of the Justice Department’s criminal division and other government attorneys to argue that the wealthy Venezuelan should not face criminal charges as part of a $1.2 billion money-laundering case filed in Florida last year, said the people, who, like others in this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.

The criminal complaint alleges that top officials of the Venezuelan state-owned oil company, elite business leaders and bankers conspired to steal money from the company and then launder it through Miami real estate purchases and other investment schemes.

Betancourt is not one of the eight men charged in the case, a group that includes his cousin. But a person familiar with the matter said that he is referred to in the criminal complaint as a uncharged co-conspirator, as previously reported by the Miami Herald.

Giuliani’s representation of Betancourt — which has not been previously disclosed — is a striking example of how Trump’s lawyer has continued to offer his services to foreign clients with interests before the U.S. government while working on behalf of the president. And it shows how Giuliani — who says he was serving as Trump’s attorney pro bono — has used his work for paying clients to help underwrite his efforts to find political ammunition in Ukraine to benefit the president.

In response to questions about his relationship with Betancourt, Giuliani wrote in a text, “This is attorney client privilege so I will withstand whatever malicious lies or spin you put on it.”

Eric Creizman, an attorney for Giuliani, declined to comment.

[_canpakes]

In a huge blow to Trump, the DOJ watchdog found no evidence to support the claim that the FBI spied on his 2016 campaign

Sonam Sheth and Eliza Relman Nov 27, 2019, 1:25 PM

-- The Justice Department's inspector general found no evidence to support President Donald Trump's claim that the FBI inserted spies in his 2016 presidential campaign, The New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with a draft of the report.

-- Trump has repeatedly and baselessly alleged that the FBI inserted covert operators in his campaign.

-- He also alleged, without evidence, that former President Barack Obama had intelligence officials tap his phones, a claim the report is also expected to undercut.

-- Sources told The Times and The Washington Post that while the report undermines Trump's most extreme claims, it also faults the FBI for making bureaucratic mistakes when applying for a warrant to surveil Carter Page, a former Trump campaign aide.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
The Justice Department's inspector general found no evidence to support President Donald Trump's claim that the FBI spied on his 2016 presidential campaign while investigating whether the campaign was conspiring with the Russian government to interfere in the election, The New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with a draft of the report.


The Times article builds on reporting from The Washington Post, which broke the story last week.

Trump has repeatedly and baselessly alleged that the FBI inserted covert agents in his campaign. Trump and his allies dubbed this purported scandal "Spygate."

He has also alleged, without evidence, that President Barack Obama ordered US intelligence officials to tap his phones, a claim the report is also expected to undercut.

After taking office, Trump ordered the DOJ to investigate his claims. The inspector general, Michael Horowitz, is set to release his full report on the matter on December 9.

https://www.businessinsider.com/justice ... 16-2019-11

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

The net tightened again last week when it emerged a grand jury had issued a broad subpoena for documents relating to Giuliani’s international consulting business as part of an investigation of alleged crimes including money laundering, wire fraud, campaign finance violations, making false statements, obstruction of justice, and violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

Holy crap that’s a lot of... things. Good thing Trump has no idea what Rudy was doing in Ukraine!

- Doc

[_canpakes]

The prosecutor handpicked by Attorney General William P. Barr to scrutinize how U.S. agencies investigated President Trump’s 2016 campaign said he could not offer evidence to the Justice Department’s inspector general to support the suspicions of some conservatives that the case was a setup by American intelligence, people familiar with the matter said.

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s office contacted U.S. Attorney John Durham, the prosecutor Barr personally tapped to lead a separate review of the 2016 probe into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia, the people said. The inspector general also contacted several U.S. intelligence agencies.

Among Horowitz’s questions: whether a Maltese professor who interacted with a Trump campaign adviser was actually a U.S. intelligence asset deployed to ensnare the campaign, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the inspector general’s findings have not been made public.

But the intelligence agencies said the professor was not among their assets, the people said. And Durham informed Horowitz’s office that his investigation had not produced any evidence that might contradict the inspector general’s findings on that point.

Spokespersons for the inspector general’s office, Durham and the Justice Department all declined to comment