Thursday, October 10, 2019

News Dump

Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two business associates of Rudolph Giuliani, have been charged with a scheme to route foreign money into U.S. elections, according to a newly unsealed indictment. The two men, who helped Giuliani investigate former vice president Joe Biden, were arrested Wednesday night in Virginia, according to a person familiar with the charges. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman have been under investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan and are expected to appear in federal court in Virginia later Thursday.
https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/U.S.v.LevParnasetalIndictment.pdf
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/giuliani-associates-indicted-on-campaign-finance-charges
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/10/us/politics/lev-parnas-igor-fruman-arrested-giuliani.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/two-business-associates-of-trumps-personal-lawyer-giuliani-have-been-arrested-and-are-in-custody/2019/10/10/9f9c101a-eb63-11e9-9306-47cb0324fd44_story.html

At and around the same time PARNAS and FRUMAN committed to raising those funds for Congressman-1 PARNAS met with Congressman-1 and sought his assistance in causing the U.S. government to remove or recall the then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine. PARNAS's efforts to remove the ambassador were conducted, at least in part, at the request of one or more Ukrainian government officials.
https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/U.S.v.LevParnasetalIndictment.pdf

One of these "officials" is almost certain to be Yuriy Lutsenko. According to NPR, Parnas was born in Ukraine, is one of Rudy's "fixers", and was directly involved in pressuring both Ukrainian prosecutors involved in the conspiracy to blackmail the Ukrainian government to fabricate an investigation against Biden:
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/27/765026582/meet-the-businessman-helping-giuliani-find-dirt-on-democrats-in-ukraine

Maria Yovanovitch is the ambassador whom Trump said "was going to go through some things" in his July call with Zelenskyy. Her firing by Donald Trump was the "quid" in the original "quid pro quo" conspiracy that Giuliani arranged in March 2019 with Ukraine's top prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko. In March of 2019, Yovanovitch gives a speech blasting the failure of Ukraine's anticorruption prosecutors, and advocated for the removal of Lutsenko. Two weeks later, Lutsenko fabricated dirt on Yovanovitch and laundered it through a conspiracy theorist/pretend journalist at the Hill named John Solomon. At the same time Giuliani forges a deal with Lutsenko: we will get Yovanovitch terminated (a firing Donald Trump personally ordered), and in exchange Lutsenko fabricates the investigations Giuliani requests to help Trump politically (again, laundered through conspiracy theorist Solomon). In April, The deal falls apart when Zelenskyy wins a landslide election on an anti-corruption platform and fires Lutsenko. In May, Giuliani blasts the Lutsenko firing, praising him as "a much more honest guy" than his predecessor Victor Shokin, who hilariously is the guy Biden helped get fired. Giuliani travels to Ukraine for the expressed purpose of preserving the quid pro quo with Lutsenko's successor. In July they decide that Trump himself needs to pressure Zelensky directly. In the July phone call, Trump personally admonishes Zelenskyy for screwing up the Lutsenko deal. The rest is history. Zelenskyy asks about military aid, Trump says "I would like you do us a favor, though", and then directly asks Zelenskyy for the same investigations into Biden and the Black Ledger that they had originally extracted from Lutsenko in exchange for Yovanovitch's termination. Lutsenko himself, now with no hope of getting his job back, readily admits the allegations of wrong doing by Hunter Biden were fabrications.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/26/us/politics/yovanovitch-trump-ukraine-ambassador.html
https://www.rferl.org/a/u-s-envoy-urges-ukraine-to-sack-top-anticorruption-official-seriously-tackle-graft/29807081.html
https://www.rferl.org/a/us-rejects-top-ukrainian-prosecutors-dont-prosecute-accusation/29834853.html
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/434875-top-ukrainian-justice-official-says-us-ambassador-gave-him-a-do-not-prosecute
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-ordered-ukraine-ambassador-removed-after-complaints-from-giuliani-others-11570137147
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/434892-senior-ukrainian-justice-official-says-hes-opened-probe-into-us-election
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48007487
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/giuliani-turns-honest-ukrainian-prosecutor-who-says-bidens-did-nothing-n1060941
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/09/us/politics/giuliani-ukraine-trump.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/giuliani-turns-honest-ukrainian-prosecutor-who-says-bidens-did-nothing-n1060941
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/25/764164340/trump-asked-ukrainian-president-for-a-favor-on-biden-doj-says-no-charges
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/former-ukraine-prosecutor-says-hunter-biden-did-not-violate-anything/2019/09/26/48801f66-e068-11e9-be7f-4cc85017c36f_story.html

The homemade sub-machine gun used in the Halle synagogue attack yesterday was built from a manual uploaded by a British gun rights activist
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/halle-attack-smg-designed-by-british-activist-p3dcbrt0z

ISIS has a plan to bust out 70,000 supporters from Kurdish jails now that the US has abandoned the area to the Turkish military
https://www.businessinsider.com/isis-prison-escape-kurdish-jail-us-turkey-2019-10

Harris and Blumenthal Demand Entire Trump Cabinet Cooperate with Ongoing Investigations, Protect Whistleblowers and Inspectors General - Letter Warns That Efforts to Destroy Evidence or Intimidate Whistleblowers Would Be Evidence of Obstruction of Justice
https://www.harris.senate.gov/news/press-releases/harris-and-blumenthal-demand-entire-trump-cabinet-cooperate-with-ongoing-investigations-protect-whistleblowers-and-inspectors-general

The United Nations warned that it may not be able to pay its staff on time because the US owes it $1 billion
https://www.businessinsider.com/un-may-not-be-able-pay-staff-us-budget-cuts-2019-10

The Actual Laws Trump Has Broken, Just With the Ukraine and China Affairs, Could Land Him 10 Years in Prison
https://theintercept.com/2019/10/10/trump-crimes-law/

Trump supporters outnumbered at Utah anti-impeachment event
https://www.ksl.com/article/46653205/trump-supporters-outnumbered-at-utah-anti-impeachment-event

Trump’s Trillion-Dollar Hit to Homeowners: By reducing deductions for real estate taxes, Trump’s 2017 tax plan has harmed millions — and helped give corporations a $680 billion gift.
https://www.propublica.org/article/trumps-trillion-dollar-hit-to-homeowners

Amy McGrath, the Democrat challenging Mitch McConnell, raises $10.7 million in third quarter
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/465171-mcgrath-raises-nearly-11-million-in-third-quarter-for-bid-to-unseat

Beto O’Rourke to stage counter-rally during Donald Trump’s visit to Dallas
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2019/10/10/beto-orourke-to-stage-counter-rally-during-president-donald-trumps-visit-to-dallas/

Coal demand to plunge to 42-year low.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/10/business/coal-power-trump/index.html

The Trump administration wasn’t rooting out corruption in Ukraine. It was encouraging it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/10/10/trump-administration-wasnt-rooting-out-corruption-ukraine-it-was-encouraging-it/

Don't know about Normandy, but actually some of the ethnic groups being shelled today in NE Syria did fight on the allied side in the Second World War, against pro-Nazi Iraqis in 1941 and throughout the war. It is a tenuous but very real connection through the "Iraqi Levies." 1/3
https://twitter.com/AlbertoMiguelF5/status/1182257239517798400

The Iraqi Levies/RAF Levies were colonial troops raised by the British in Iraq from the 1920s to the 1940s. Eventually they were made up mostly of Assyrian Christians but during WW2 also included Kurdish and Yazidi units. And hundreds of Syrian Assyrians joined up too. 2/3
https://twitter.com/AlbertoMiguelF5/status/1182257963660185600

When I did my research on the Khabur villages in NE Syria in 1995-96, I actually met one of these elderly Assyrian RAF veterans and he showed me certificates, a medal and a unit badge that looked something like this.
https://twitter.com/AlbertoMiguelF5/status/1182259434933964801

Congressional investigators expect that Marie Yovanovitch, the former ambassador to Ukraine, will appear as planned for a Friday deposition in the House’s ongoing impeachment inquiry, despite the White House’s emphatic pledge not to cooperate with Democrats’ efforts to investigate President Trump, according to congressional officials involved with the process.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/ousted-ukraine-envoy-expected-to-testify-in-impeachment-probe-despite-white-house-vow-not-to-cooperate-congressional-aides-say/2019/10/09/c46aebe8-eabc-11e9-85c0-85a098e47b37_story.html

Conservative Republican Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen has been indicted in an adoption fraud case, accused of arranging for dozens of pregnant women from the Marshall Islands to come to the U.S. to give their children up for adoption. Utah also has charged him on multiple felony counts, including human smuggling, sale of a child and communications fraud.
https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/arizona-official-indicted-paul-peterson-adoption-marshall-islands-11371652

An Arizona grand jury indicted Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen for multiple counts of fraud relating to his black market adoption business. In a press conference on Wednesday, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said Petersen stands accused of illegally arranging travel for 29 pregnant women from the Marshall Islands from November 2015 to May 2019 with the intention of adopting out their babies for a fee. Petersen is also accused of falsely representing the women as Arizona residents to bilk $800,000 of Arizona tax dollars to pay for their health care costs.
https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/arizona-official-indicted-paul-peterson-adoption-marshall-islands-11371652

A U.S. senator wants Braidy Industries CEO Craig Bouchard to explain how a controversial Russian company that used to be under federal sanctions ended up investing in the aluminum rolling mill that Bouchard's company plans to build near Ashland, Kentucky. U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, sent Bouchard a letter Tuesday with a series of questions about what preceded United Co. Rusal's declaration that it would invest $200 million in return for a 40% stake in the roughly $1.7 billion mill. Rusal is partly owned by Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch. American sanctions on Rusal and its parent company, En+ Group, were lifted earlier this year. Then, in April, the Russian aluminum company's new partnership with Braidy was announced.
https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2019/10/09/braidy-industries-ceo-questioned-senator-russian-investment/3921275002/
https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2019/04/15/braidy-industries-kentucky-aluminum-mill-lands-russian-investors/3470777002/

Death Toll Climbs as Turkish Offensive in Syria Enters 2nd Day - At least 16 Kurdish fighters were reported to have been killed as Turkish ground forces assaulted towns in northeastern Syria.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/10/world/middleeast/syria-turkey-offensive.html

Trump calling McConnell as often as 3 times a day
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/10/09/donald-trump-impeachment-inquiry-mitch-mcconnell-ac-vpx.cnn

Devin Nunes is a conspiracy theorist. Our own Justice Dept. says so
https://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/marek-warszawski/article235960452.html

Trump reportedly offered to sell F-35 jets to Turkey in exchange for not attacking Kurdish forces in Syria
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-sell-turkey-f-35-jets-for-no-syria-invasion-2019-10

More than 1600 Polling Places Have Closed Since the Supreme Court Gutted the Voting Rights Act (750 in Texas)
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/09/report-more-than-1600-polling-places-have-closed-since-the-supreme-court-gutted-the-voting-rights-act/

The Phillies have dismissed Gabe Kapler
https://twitter.com/JSalisburyNBCS/status/1182301503555588097?s=19

Rudy Giuliani Likes Fox News Poll Tweet Showing Record Support for Trump’s Impeachment
https://lawandcrime.com/awkward/rudy-giuliani-likes-fox-news-poll-tweet-showing-record-support-for-trumps-impeachment/

Former House Republican Pete Sessions is Congressman 1 in indictment of Rudy Guliani associates: The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Sessions, in his capacity as House Rules Committee chairman, advocated for the ouster of Yovanovitch.
https://www.texastribune.org/2019/10/10/pete-sessions-congressman-1-guliani-associates-indictment/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-ordered-ukraine-ambassador-removed-after-complaints-from-giuliani-others-11570137147

House Intelligence Committee Subpoena of Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman - October 10, 2019 | "Your clients are private citizens who are not employees of the Executive Branch. They may not evade requests from Congress for documents and information necessary to conduct our inquiry. They are required by law to comply with the enclosed subpoenas. They are not exempted from this requirement merely because they happen to work with Mr. Giuliani, and they may not defy congressional subpoenas merely because President Trump has chosen the path of denial, defiance, and obstruction. "
https://intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/2019-10-09.eec_engel_schiff_to_parnas_fruman_re_subpoena.pdf

Sierra Club sues EPA over claim that climate change 'is 50 to 75 years out'
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/465191-sierra-club-sues-epa-to-back-claims-that-climate-change-is-50-to-75

Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were arrested at Dulles International airport last night as they attempted to leave the country, a DOJ official tells @PierreTABC. AG Barr was told last night they were being arrested.
https://twitter.com/KFaulders/status/1182305091346452480

Barr likely tipped them off.

Turkey's Erdogan threatens to send 'millions' of refugees to Europe if EU calls his Syria offensive 'invasion'
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/10/turkeys-erdogan-threatens-send-millions-refugees-europe-eu-calls/

China plans to restrict visas for U.S. visitors with 'anti-China' links
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-china-visas/china-plans-to-restrict-visas-for-u-s-visitors-with-anti-china-links-idUSKBN1WO0L7

German Synagogue shooter's homemade rifle repeatedly failed, saving lives: "In the livestream of the attack, the assailant apologizes to the viewers repeatedly for his failure to kill. "
https://www.dw.com/en/police-investigate-anti-semitism-links-in-halle-shootings/a-50764327

Deutsche Bank told court it does not hold Trump's tax returns |  Current and former bank officials had previously told The Times that Deutsche Bank had portions of Mr. Trump’s personal and corporate tax returns, which it collected as it decided whether to lend him and his companies hundreds of millions of dollars for real estate and other development projects. When Mr. Trump was sworn in as president, he owed the bank more than $300 million, making it his largest creditor. It is unclear when Deutsche Bank stopped retaining the tax returns.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/10/business/deutsche-bank-trump-tax-returns.html

This means they destroyed them because they told the court they had them

A guy who has sued you and defaulted on your loans several times before owes you $300 million, so naturally you just start disposing of records that illuminate his ability to repay them should you see him in court again.
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-inc-podcast-deutsche-bank-donald-trump

"We lent millions of dollars to a serial conman with a long rap sheet of bankruptcies without reviewing his tax returns first because we are a totally legitimate bank and not a money laundering front."

600 former EPA officials demand investigation into Trump administration over California threats
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-10-10/former-epa-officials-trump-versus-california-pollution

Rick Perry subpoenaed by House Intelligence Committees | Recently, public reports have raised questions about any role you may have played in conveying or reinforcing the President's stark message to the Ukrainian President. These reports have also raised significant questions about your efforts to press Ukrainian officials to change the management structure at a Ukrainian state-owned energy company to benefit individuals involved with Rudy Giuliani's push to get Ukrainian officials to interfere in our 2020 election.
https://oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/documents/2019-10-10.EEC%20Engel%20Schiff%20to%20Perry-DOE%20Joint%20Cover%20Letter%20re%20Subpoena.pdf

Some Kurds did fight in World War II
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/10/10/actually-president-trump-some-kurds-did-fight-world-war-ii/

“Thousands flee, hundreds reported dead in Turkish attack on U.S.-allied Kurds in Syria”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-security-turkey-usa-idUSKBN1WP0VH

Diplomat removed after upholding protocol, ex-official says | Yovanovitch refused to do “all this offline, personal, informal stuff” and made clear that the U.S. government had formal ways to request foreign governments’ help with investigations, according to a former diplomat who has spoken with her
https://apnews.com/01c10d68553b4d3c8a26525630c80be3

Trump's former Russia aide set to give revealing testimony on Giuliani, Sondland | Fiona Hill’s appearance next week before Congress has stoked fear among people close to the president. | Fiona Hill, who was until recently President Donald Trump’s top aide on Russia and Europe, plans to tell Congress that Rudy Giuliani and E.U. ambassador Gordon Sondland circumvented the National Security Council and the normal White House process to pursue a shadow policy on Ukraine, a person familiar with her expected testimony told NBC News.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-s-former-russia-adviser-set-give-damning-testimony-giuliani-n1064846

At least four national security officials were so alarmed by the Trump administration’s attempts to pressure Ukraine for political purposes that they raised concerns with a White House lawyer both before and immediately after Trump’s July 25 call with that country’s president, according to U.S. officials and other people familiar with the matter.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/at-least-four-national-security-officials-raised-alarms-about-ukraine-policy-before-and-after-trump-call-with-ukrainian-president/2019/10/10/ffe0c88a-eb6d-11e9-9c6d-436a0df4f31d_story.html

Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is joining the advisory board of Higher Ground Labs, an accelerator and venture capital firm for startups that sell technology to progressive campaigns and causes. Higher Ground Labs has invested in startups like voter engagement platform MobilizeAmerica, polling group ChangeResearch, and political messaging tool Swayable, among others. The fund has raised $15 million since it was founded in 2017. Patrick will serve as an honorary member on the incubator’s advisory board.
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/10/deval-patrick-joins-higher-ground-labs-venture-capital-043785
https://highergroundlabs.com/

Our sons were killed by the Islamic State. Don’t let ISIS prisoners in Syria go free.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/10/10/dont-let-isis-prisoners-syria-go-free/

So Graham betrays the Kurds and knows about the Zarrab stuff that Trump told Tillerson to intervene in.: Graham labeled the Kurds a “threat” to Turkey in the call, seemingly contradicting what he has said publicly in recent days. Graham also mentions Trump’s personal interest in a “Turkish bank case” in the call that appears to refer to a U.S. case involving Reza Zarrab, an Iranian-Turkish gold trader and client of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. 
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/10/lindsey-graham-trump-hoax-call-043991

Oversight Committee Readies Subpoenas to USCIS and ICE on Deporting Critically Ill Children
https://oversight.house.gov/news/press-releases/release-oversight-committee-readies-subpoenas-to-uscis-and-ice-on-deporting

Trump's children take in millions overseas as president slams Biden's son
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-10-10/trumps-adult-children-do-business-overseas-as-president-slams-biden

Michael McKinley, a career diplomat and senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, has resigned his position amid rising dissatisfaction and plummeting morale inside the State Department over what is seen as Pompeo’s failure to support personnel ensnared in the Ukraine controversy.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/senior-adviser-to-pompeo-resigns/2019/10/10/0d771aa2-ebb5-11e9-85c0-85a098e47b37_story.html

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