Monday, May 11, 2020

Speaker Pelosi should be prepared if Pence can't carry out his responsibilities.

May 11, 2020
By Kaitlan Collins and Kevin Liptak

Trump administration officials (click here) spent the weekend scrambling after two staffers tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the pandemic closer to President Donald Trump even as he works to reopen parts of the country.

On Saturday and Sunday, aides attempted to conduct contact tracing for Katie Miller, Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary who tested positive for coronavirus last week. But they had not identified who Miller contracted the virus from as of Sunday, raising concerns inside the White House about how to contain the outbreak.

On Monday, staffers were advised in a memo they would be required to wear a face covering when entering the West Wing, a person familiar said. The memo said face coverings would be available in the White House medical office and told staffers to follow social distancing guidelines....

Continued from previous entry.

Page 112-114 and pages 120-122 on the PDF

Grand Jury  675  

Natalia Veselnitskaya is in the center of the picture in a beige dress next to Ambassador McFaul.

The   Grand Jury   mentioned by Emin Agalarov was Natalia Veselnitskaya.676 From approximately 1998 until 2001, Veselnitskaya worked as a prosecutor for the Central Administrative District of the Russian Prosecutor’s Office,677 and she continued to perform government-related work and maintain ties to the Russian government following her departure.678 She lobbied and testified about the Magnitsky Act, which imposed financial sanctions and travel restrictions on Russian officials and which was named for a Russian tax specialist who exposed a fraud and later died in a Russian prison.679 Putin called the statute “a purely political, unfriendly act,” and Russia responded by barring a list of current and former U.S. officials from entering Russia and by halting the adoption of Russian children by U.S. citizens.680 Veselnitskaya performed legal work for Denis Katsyv ((click here),681 the son of Russian businessman Peter Katsyv, and for his company Prevezon Holdings Ltd., which was a defendant in a civil-forfeiture action alleging the laundering of proceeds from the fraud exposed by Magnitsky.682 She also appears to have been involved in an April 2016 approach to a U.S. congressional delegation in Moscow offering “confidential information” from “the Prosecutor General of Russia” about “interactions between certain political forces in our two countries.”683 

Shortly after his June 3 call with Emin Agalarov, Goldstone emailed Trump Jr.684 The email stated:

Within minutes of this email, Trump Jr. responded, emailing back: “Thanks Rob I appreciate that. I am 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?”685 Goldstone conveyed Trump Jr.’s interest to Emin Agalarov, emailing that Trump Jr. “wants to speak personally on the issue.”686 

On June 6, 2016, Emin Agalarov asked Goldstone if there was “[a]ny news,” and Goldstone explained that Trump Jr. was likely still traveling for the “final elections . . . where [T]rump will be ‘crowned’ the official nominee.”687 On the same day, Goldstone again emailed Trump Jr. and asked when Trump Jr. was “free to talk with Emin about this Hillary info.”688 Trump Jr. asked if they could “speak now,” and Goldstone arranged a call between Trump Jr. and Emin Agalarov.689 On June 6 and June 7, Trump Jr. and Emin Agalarov had multiple brief calls.690 

Don, Jr. was eager to receive information from the Russians.

Also on June 6, 2016, Aras Agalarov called Ike Kaveladze and asked him to attend a meeting in New York with the Trump Organization.
691 Kaveladze is a Georgia-born, naturalized U.S. citizen who worked in the United States for the Crocus Group (click here) and reported to Aras Agalarov.

I think Kaveladze is an interesting study in the extent to which Russia goes to achieve an impact in the USA. Crocus is a company in Moscow. Yet, an employee Mr. Kaveladze is a naturalized citizen to the USA. As an American, I would expect someone from a communist country would be asking to be in the USA to rid themselves of that government and any contact with it. Yet, Kaveladze never intended to leave Russia behind as he became a naturalized citizen to the USA. Kaveladze has voting rights. In this instance, he was recruited to work on behalf of Russian interests. He never left Russia behind. He is basically a naturalized USA citizen that works as an agent to Russia. Here again, contact with this man never was red-flagged as an introduction of Russia into the campaign's interest. I find it astounding that Flynn is a man in the Trump campaign, former military intelligence, never raising concerns regarding the influence of Russia, no matter who it was. That is amazing. Is anyone sure Flynn isn't a naturalized Russian citizen?

692 Kaveladze told the Office that, in a second phone call on June 6, 2016, Aras Agalarov asked Kaveladze if he knew anything about the Magnitsky Act, and Aras sent him a short synopsis for the meeting and Veselnitskaya’s business card. According to Kaveladze, Aras Agalarov said the purpose of the meeting was to discuss the Magnitsky Act, and he asked Kaveladze to translate.693
........................................................................................................

Footnote 675  Grand Jury

Footnote 676 In December 2018, a grand jury in the Southern District of New York returned an indictment charging Veselnitskaya with obstructing the Prevezon litigation discussed in the text above. See Indictment,United States v. Natalia Vladimirovna Veselnitskaya, No. 18-cr-904 (S.D.N.Y.). (click here) The indictment alleges, among other things, that Veselnitskaya lied to the district court about her relationship to the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office and her involvement in responding to a U.S. document request sent to the Russian government.

Footnote 677 Veselnitskaya 11/20/17 Statement to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary (click here), at 2;   Grand Jury  

Footnote 678 Testimony of Natalia Veselnitskaya Before the Senate Committee on Judiciary (Nov. 20, 2017) at 33; Keir Simmons & Rachel Elbaum, Russian Lawyer Veselnitskaya Says She Didn’t Give Trump Jr.Info on Clinton, NBC News (July 11, 2017) (click here); Maria Tsvetkova & Jack Stubbs, Moscow Lawyer Who MetTrump Jr. Had Russian Spy Agency As Client, Reuters (July 21, 2017) (click here); Andrew E. Kramer & SharonLaFraniere, Lawyer Who Was Said to Have Dirt on Clinton Had Closer Ties to Kremlin than She Let On,New York Times (Apr. 27, 2018) (click here)

Footnote 679 See Pub. L. No. 112-208 §§ 402, 404(a)(1), 126 Stat. 1502, 1502-1506. (click here) 


[[Page 126 STAT. 1502]]

SEC. 302. TERMINATION OF APPLICATION OF TITLE IV OF THE TRADE ACT 
                        OF 1974 TO PRODUCTS OF MOLDOVA.

    (a) Presidential Determinations and Extension of Nondiscriminatory 
Treatment.--Notwithstanding any provision of title IV of the Trade Act 
of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2431 et seq.), the President may--
            (1) determine that such title should no longer apply to 
        Moldova; and
            (2) after making a determination under paragraph (1) with 
        respect to Moldova, proclaim the extension of nondiscriminatory 
        treatment (normal trade relations treatment) to the products of 
        Moldova....

Sergei Magnitsky (click here) was a Russian tax specialist who worked for William Browder, a former investment fund manager in Russia. Browder hired Magnitsky to investigate tax fraud by Russian officials, and Magnitsky was charged with helping Browder embezzle money. After Magnitsky died in a Russian prison, Browder lobbied Congress to pass the Magnitsky Act. 

Russia's favorite strategy, turning the tables against the truth. AKA PROPAGANDA.

See, e.g., Andrew E. Kramer, Turning Tables in Magnitsky Case, RussiaAccuses Nemesis of Murder, New York Times (Oct. 22, 2017) (click here); Testimony of Natalia Veselnitskaya Before the Senate Committee on Judiciary (Nov. 20, 2017), Exhibits at 1-4; Rosie Gray, Bill Browder’s Testimonyto the Senate Judiciary Committee, The Atlantic (July 25, 2017)(click here)

Footnote 680 Ellen Barry, Russia Bars 18 Americans After Sanctions by US, New York Times (Apr. 13, 2013) (click here);Tom Porter, Supporters of the Magnitsky Act Claim They’ve Been Targets of Russian Assassination andKidnapping Bids, Newsweek (July 16, 2017) (click here)

Footnote 681 Testimony of Natalia Veselnitskaya Before the Senate Committee on Judiciary (Nov. 20, 2017), at 21. 

Footnote 682 See Veselnitskaya Decl., United States v. Prevezon Holdings, Ltd., No. 13-cv-6326 (S.D.N.Y.); see Prevezon Holdings, Second Amended Complaint; Prevezon Holdings, Mem. and Order; Prevezon Holdings, Deposition of Oleg Lurie. (click here for 86 pages of deposition)

Footnote 683 See Gribbin 8/31/17 302, at 1-2 & 1A (undated one-page document given to congressional delegation). The Russian Prosecutor General is an official with broad national responsibilities in the Russian legal system. See Federal Law on the Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation (1992,amended 2004 (click here)

Footnote 684 RG000061 (6/3/16 Email, Goldstone to Trump Jr.); 
DJTJR00446 (6/3/16 Email, Goldstone to Donald Trump Jr.); 
@DonaldJTrumpJr 07/11/17 (11:00) Tweet. 

Footnote 685 DJTJR00446 (6/3/16 Email, Trump Jr. to Goldstone); @DonaldJTrumpJr 07/11/17 (11:00) Tweet; 
RG000061 (6/3/16 Email, Trump Jr. to Goldstone).

Footnote 686  Grand Jury  RG000062 (6/3/16 Email, Goldstone & Trump Jr.). 

Footnote 687 RG (Rod Goldstone) 000063 (6/6/16 Email, A. Agalarov to Goldstone); 
RG000064 (6/6/16 Email, Goldstone to A. Agalarov). 

Footnote 688 RG000065 (6/6/16 Email, Goldstone to Trump Jr.); DJTJR00446 (6/6/16 Email, Goldstone to Trump Jr.). 

Footnote 689 DJTJR00445 (6/6/16 Email, Goldstone and Trump Jr.); Grand Jury  RG000065-67 (6/6/16 Email, Goldstone and Trump Jr.);  Grand Jury 

Footnote 690 DJTJR00499 (Call Records of Donald Trump Jr   Grand Jury    ); Call Records of Donald Trump Jr.  Grand Jury  

Footnote 691 Kaveladze 11/16/17 302, at 6;   Grand Jury  

Footnote 692 Kaveladze 11/16/17 302, at 1-2 Grand Jury     
Beniaminov 1/6/18 302, at 2-3  Grand Jury    

Footnote 693 Kaveladze 11/16/17 302, at 6. Tweet; 
RG000068 (6/7/16 Email, Goldstone to Trump Jr.); Grand Jury 

Continued in a further entry tomorrow. Thank you.

President Obama is correct to be concerned for our democracy.

May 9, 2020
By Kevin Freking

Former President Barack Obama (click here) harshly criticized President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic as an “absolute chaotic disaster” during a conversation with ex-members of his administration, according to a recording obtained by Yahoo News.

Obama also reacted to the Justice Department dropping its criminal case against Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, saying he worried that the “basic understanding of rule of law is at risk.”

More than 78,400 people with COVID-19 have died in the United States and more than 1.3 million people have tested positive, according to the latest estimates from the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University....

And Trump's retaliation is TYPICAL. Trump's old tricks aren't going to work anymore. It is so common for Trump to retaliate against anyone who sees reality instead of his contrived alternate truth that it could be indictable.

May 11, 2010
By Tom Porter

President Donald Trump (click here) on Sunday launched a series of attacks on Twitter against Barack Obama and resurfaced a conspiracy theory that the former president was behind an FBI plot to undermine Trump's presidency.

The attacks came hours after Yahoo News reported on a leaked conversation between Obama and former officials, in which Obama criticized the Justice Department's decision to drop charges against Michael Flynn, Trump's former national-security adviser.

Flynn had twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his communications with Russia's ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak, before Trump became president in January 2017. The FBI had been probing allegations of collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and the Russian government....

Continued from previous entry

The Special Counsel Report (click here)

Page 111 of the report and 119 on the PDF


On June 3, 2016, Emin Agalarov called Goldstone, Emin’s then-publicist.669 Goldstone (click here) (Goldstone arranged the June 9th meeting between the Trump Campaign and the Russians) is a music and events promoter who represented Emin Agalarov from approximately late 2012 until late 2016.670 While representing Emin Agalarov, Goldstone facilitated the ongoing contact between the Trumps and the Agalarovs—including an invitation that Trump sent to Putin to attend the 2013 Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow.671 Grand Jury  672 Goldstone understood   Grand Jury      Russian political connection, and Emin Agalarov indicated that the attorney was a prosecutor.673 Goldstone recalled that the information that might interest the Trumps involved Hillary Clinton  Grand Jury   674   Grand Jury 

What is extremely curious about Bill Barr's involvement in dropping charges left and right AFTER a Grand Jury was RECOMMENDING charges against all the people the Special Counsel brought before them.

A Grand Jury is people within our country hearing the information and votes on whether or not there is enough information for the prosecutions to go forward. That is why Barr's corruption is so alarming. It basically states all these people once indicted by a Grand Jury of the people are not material to the egregious assault on the 2016 elections. Barr is undermining the RULE OF LAW of which the Grand Jury was the presiding principle of this democracy. It isn't up to Barr to drop charges willy-nilly. The charges are brought by the American people and if innocent that is what the Due Process is all about.
.............................................................................................................................................

Of course, the footnotes are as important as the statements of the report. They are the evidence that exists. The evidence ranges from emails to phone calls. Of course, the "Grand Jury" references are redacted words that are important to prosecutions. 

Footnote 669 Call Records of Robert Goldstone   Grand Jury   Goldstone 2/8/18 302, at 6

670 Goldstone 2/8/18 302, at 1-2;  Grand Jury    Beniaminov 1/6/18 302 at 3.

Days before the infamous Trump Tower meeting in June 2016, (click here) a low-profile real estate figure with ties to powerful Russians alerted a meeting participant that the topic of “dirt” on Hillary Clinton could come up, The Daily Beast has learned.

That figure, Roman Beniaminov, didn’t attend the meeting himself. But he had close ties to several figures in and around it, including Emin Agalarov, the Azeri-Russian pop star who helped set up that Trump Tower confab and whose father is an ally of Vladimir Putin....

Footnote 671 Goldstone 2/8/18 302, at 1-5;   Grand Jury    
DJTJR (Donald John Trump, Jr.) 00008 (2/29/19 Email, Goldstone to Trump Jr.); 
Beniaminov 1/6/18 302, at 3; 
Shugart 9/25/17 302, at 2; 
TRUMPORG_18_001325 (6/21/13 Email, Goldstone to Graff); TRUMPORG_18_001013 (6/24/13 Email, Goldstone to Graff); TRUMPORG_18_001014 (6/24/13 Email, Graff to Shugart); TRUMPORG_18_001018 (6/26/13 Email, Graff to Goldstone); TRUMPORG_18_001022 (6/27/13 Email, Graff to L. Kelly); TRUMPORG_18_001333 (9/12/13 Email, Goldstone to Graff, Shugart); MUO00004289 (7/27/13 Email, Goldstone to Graff, Shugart). 

Footnote 672    Grand Jury   see Goldstone 2/8/18 302, at 6-7.
Footnote 673    Grand Jury 
Footnote 674    Grand Jury 

The June 9th meeting took place. The Trump campaign including Trump, Jr. was there with the Russians to receive "dirt" on Clinton. The proof Jr. asked for never solidified in the following days. The problem Mueller faced was that the proof did not come forward in having enough EVIDENCE for charges. The Russians knew that. But, that doesn't dissolve the fact the meeting occurred and Jr. was definitely interested in all the dirt the Russians could provide. There was a relationship between the Trump Campaign and the Russians. It isn't prosecutable, that's all. The Trump Campaign received significant help with the 2016 campaign for president of the USA. The Russians were INSTRUMENTAL in Trump taking the White House.

That is what makes Flynn so curious. He was involved with the campaign and never started his own investigation to Russian involvement. The Russians were every place. Flynn didn't care.

Continued in a following entry.
Page 45 and 46

c. The GRU’s Transfer of Stolen Materials to WikiLeaks Both the GRU and WikiLeaks sought to hide their communications, which has limited the Office’s ability to collect all of the communications between them. Thus, although it is clear that the stolen DNC and Podesta documents were transferred from the GRU to WikiLeaks

The Office (Mueller's office) was able to identify when the GRU (operating through its personas Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks) transferred some of the stolen documents to WikiLeaks through online archives set up by the GRU. Assange had access to the internet from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, England.

The point is Mueller stated early on in his report that the Russians were directly involved in stealing the emails from the Clinton Campaign, DNC and the DCCC. There is no doubt about this at all. They are known to have sent them to Wikileaks after obtaining them. There was also no doubt that Russians were in contact with the Trump Campaign through US activist identities.

Page 33

b. Contact with Trump Campaign Officials in Connection to Rallies Starting in June 2016, the IRA contacted different U.S. persons affiliated with the Trump Campaign in an effort to coordinate pro-Trump IRA-organized rallies inside the United States. In all cases, the IRA contacted the Campaign while claiming to be U.S. political activists working on behalf of a conservative grassroots organization. The IRA’s contacts included requests for signs and other materials to use at rallies,107 as well as requests to promote the rallies and help coordinate logistics.108 While certain campaign volunteers agreed to provide the requested support (for example, agreeing to set aside a number of signs), the investigation has not identified evidence that any Trump Campaign official understood the requests were coming from foreign nationals.

* * * 

In sum, the investigation established that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election through the “active measures” social media campaign carried out by the IRA, an organization funded by Prigozhin and companies that he controlled. As explained further in Volume I, Section V.A, infra, the Office concluded (and a grand jury has alleged) that Prigozhin, his companies, and IRA employees violated U.S. law through these operations, principally by undermining through deceptive acts the work of federal agencies charged with regulating foreign influence in U.S. elections. 

Flynn was involved with the campaign. Why didn't he figure out this stuff? He was former US military intelligence. He didn't know the methods of the Russians?

There were materials and rallies provided by Russian AGENTS. At no point in time did Flynn wonder who these people were? I find that odd, UNLESS, as Barr states "...winning is all that matters."

I might point to the fact that the Russians that were under indictment were material to the Russian OPERATIONS in the USA regarding the 2016 Elections. They are no longer facing charges. Barr's AG office is corrupt. It is obvious.

Michael Flynn isn't discussed until page 194. I haven't gotten there yet.

So my last reading ended with Footnote 668 and the beginnings of the discussion by the Special Counsel of the June 9th meeting.

Continued from previous entry - thank you

I believe this is where I left off from reading the Mueller Report.

During the August 17 meeting, Simes provided Kushner the Clinton-related information that he had promised.658 Simes told Kushner that (PP Personal Privacy)  659  Simes claimed that he had received this information from former CIA and Reagan White House official Fritz Ermarth,...

Fritz Ermarth - Former Chairman, National Intelligence Council  (click here)

On the C-SPAN Networks: (click here)
Fritz Ermarth was an Analyst for Russia in the Central Intelligence Agency with four videos in the C-SPAN Video Library; the first appearance was a 1999 House Committee. Most appearances with Dimitri K. Simes (2).


NOTE TO FRITZ ERMARTH FROM ROBERT M. GATES  (click here for CIA file) 

Direct Link to Memo (click here) Below is the memo. Gates was never with the campaign. Manafort was. This is what is supposed to happen. When an American is contacted by anyone with worrisome backgrounds, identities or authorities; the agencies are supposed to be notified. The memo is dated November of 1985. It goes to prove how long these people have been involved with each other. 


Just received alarm for severe weather. 3:29 pm. Should not be terribly long, 4:00pm - the air is so dry where I am that the rain actually dissipated into the hot air. The clouds weren't carrying rain or wind by the time it reaches this area. There is turbulence south of here where it hasn't been so dry. No lie, the grasses are brown. The rain would be welcome.

Well, with each passing cloud the air receives more and more water vapor It will rain eventually. I listen to the alarms. I never disregard them. The warnings started early this morning, so I knew it was coming. 


...who claimed to have learned it from the U.S. intelligence sources, not from Russians.660

Simes perceived that Kushner did not find the information to be of interest or use to the Campaign because it was, in Simes's words, "old news."...

So, Kushner would have been interested if it were new news. The Trump Campaign wasn't looking for a policy, they were looking for DIRT. Poor Fritz actually thought he was going to be helpful.

...661 When interviewed by the Office, Kushner stated that he believed that there was little chance of something new being revealed about the Clintons given their long career as public figures, and that he never received from Simes information that could be "operationalized" for the Trump Campaign.662 Despite Kushner's reaction, Simes believed that he provided the same information at a small group meeting of foreign policy experts that CNI organized for Sessions.663

5. June 9, 2016 Meeting at Trump Tower

On June 9, 2016, senior representatives of the Trump Campaign met in Trump Tower with a Russian attorney expecting to receive derogatory information about Hillary Clinton from the Russian government. The meeting was proposed to Donald Trump Jr. in an email from Robert Goldstone,...


September 25, 2018
By Miles Parks

British publicist Rob Goldstone sent an email to Donald Trump Jr. that proclaimed "Russia and its government's support" for President Trump in the summer of 2016. Goldstone has become a surprisingly crucial part of the Russia imbroglio.

Rob Goldstone, (click here) the man who sent the email to Donald Trump Jr. that proclaimed "Russia and its government's support" for the Trump campaign, now says he had no idea what he was talking about.

In fact, not only did he not know the Russian government had launched a broader program of "active measures" against the 2016 election, Goldstone also says he made up some of the most important details in the message.

Yes, Goldstone says, his client, Russian pop singer Emin Agalarov, did ask him to reach out to Trump Jr. and communicate the offer of help that Emin's father, Aras, said he'd received from someone influential.

But the email's reference to "the crown prosecutor of Russia" — which led subsequent reports to identify the person as Yuri Chaika, Russia's chief federal prosecutor — was all Goldstone, he now says....

...at the request of his then-client Emin Agalarov, (click here) the son of Russian real-estate developer Aras Agalarov (click here). Goldstone relayed to Trump Jr. that the "Crown prosecutor of Russia ... offered to provide the Trump Campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia" as "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump." Trump Jr. immediately responded that "if it's what you say I love it," and arranged the meeting through a series of emails and telephone calls.'

Don, Jr. loved the idea of receiving incriminating information FROM THE RUSSIANS that would compromise the Clinton campaign. That is nothing? That is more than nothing, it shows a strong willingness to be corrupt to the core.

Donald J. Trump as a presidential candidate was probably the only person that could have raised the "idea" there was DIRT somewhere on Hillary Clinton. It would be a small miracle to find any negative information on Hillary Clinton. I think she has been treated very badly over these recent years. She was loved as Secretary of State and all of a sudden she is the evil that Trump has to vanquish. SHE WAS TREATED VERY BADLY.

The evil that Trump MANIFESTED during this time were involved with 30,000 emails from her personal server as a Former US Senator, Secretary of State and Former First Lady. Her lawyers provided the emails from the server to the US Government. I think it was the FBI. The 30,000 emails that were erased were personal emails that included her daughter's wedding. The number 30,000 doesn't surprise me, not for Hillary Clinton.

Trump latched onto the idea there were 30,000 emails erased that would never be found and in those 30,000 emails contained incriminating information. He hoped to find illegal activity because of the Clinton Foundation. There were people running the organization. The Clinton's made money by providing their experience and expertise through speeches they make to organizations requesting it.

Donald J. Trump is a master of "the lie" and "deception." If there was any entity that could MANUFACTURE adverse information on Hillary Clinton it was Russia. So, with Trump, Sr. running his mouth about Hillary Clinton's 30,000 emails, of course, Don, Jr. would hope the Russians had either actual adverse information or had manufactured it.

Even after being elected to the presidency, Trump continued to TREAT HILLARY CLINTON VERY, VERY BADLY. EVEN TODAY, he is finding political revenue in TREATING HILLARY CLINTON VERY, VERY BADLY.

So, when Trump, Sr. called on Russia to find the 30,000 missing emails, they went to work. No different than the meeting at Trump Tower. The campaign hoped that Russia would come up with something and soon.

It shows the mindset of the campaign. While they didn't exactly break the law all this time, they sure as heck gave plenty of signals the Russians should proceed in helping Trump become President.

I asked myself, "Would Hillary Clinton take a meeting with the Russians to find DIRT on Donald J. Trump?" The answer was obvious and it was a complete and absolute no. Besides that with all of Trump's dirty dealings with women and in his business and bankruptcies, she wouldn't have to risk getting information from the Russians even if someone in the campaign was. Trump had plenty of dirt right there in the open.

...Trump Jr. invited campaign chairman Paul Manafort and senior advisor Jared Kushner to attend the meeting, and both attended. Members of the Campaign discussed the meeting before it occurred, and Michael Cohen recalled that Trump Jr. may have told candidate Trump about an upcoming meeting to receive adverse information about Clinton, without linking the meeting to Russia. According to written answers submitted by President Trump, he has no recollection of learning of the meeting at the time, and the Office found no documentary evidence showing that he was made aware of the meeting--or its Russian connection-before it occurred. The Russian attorney who spoke at the meeting, Natalia Veselnitskaya,...


There is beautiful, young Natalie. Donald J. Trump's Achilles heel. She was charged with money laundering (click here) until Bill Barr vacated the charges.

She also spent time in the US Capital at hearings about Russia and she lobbied against the Magnitsky Act.

July 10, 2017
By Miles Parks

Donald Trump Jr. (click here) insisted on Monday that his meeting with a Russian lawyer in the middle of the campaign last year was benign, but the lawyer has a number of ties to Russian government officials.

Natalia Veselnitskaya met with Trump Jr., as well as Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort in June 2016, according to a statement Trump Jr. provided NPR. The New York Times reported late Monday that Trump Jr. was informed in an email that material damaging to Hillary Clinton promised in the meeting was part of a Russian government effort to help his father's campaign.


Veselnitskaya has a history of advocating for the Russian government. Her clients include "state-owned businesses and a senior government official's son," reports the New York Times.

She also was married to a former deputy transportation minister in the Moscow region....

...had previously worked for the Russian government and maintained a relationship with that government throughout this period of time. What Russian doesn't maintain a relationship with Russia? She claimed that funds derived from illegal activities in Russia were provided to Hillary Clinton and other Democrats. Trump Jr. requested evidence to support those claims, but Veselnitskaya did not provide such information. 

To me that is a conspiracy. Because Ms. Veselnitskaya never provided evidence there was no conspiracy. I am sure they tried to manufacture information against Hillary, but, knew it was fake and would not stand up to scrutiny. 

She and her associates then turned to a critique of the origins of the Magnitsky Act, a 2012 statute that imposed financial and travel sanctions on Russian officials and that resulted in a retaliatory ban on adoptions of Russian children....

The Dima Yakovlev Law (click here)

...Trump Jr. suggested that the issue could be revisited when and if candidate Trump was elected. After the election, Veselnitskaya made additional efforts to follow up on the meeting, but the Trump Transition Team did not engage.

a. Setting Up the June 9 Meeting 

i. Outreach to Donald Trump Jr. 

Aras Agalarov is a Russian real-estate developer with ties to Putin and other members of the Russian government, including Russia's Prosecutor General, Yuri Chaika.664 


October 27, 2017
By Natasha Bertrand and Sonam Sheth

Russia's top prosecutor (click here) and " master of kompromat" has been working since at least last year to overturn legislation passed by President Barack Obama in 2012 that levied punishing sanctions and travel restrictions on high-level Kremlin officials suspected of human rights abuses and corruption.

Yuri Chaika, who served as Russia's justice minister during Putin's first term and was appointed prosecutor general in 2006, is far from a household name in the United States.

But his contact with the Russophile congressman Dana Rohrabacher and his relationship with a Russian lawyer named Natalia Veselnitskaya has raised questions about what role, if any, Chaika played in Russia's efforts last year to help elect President Donald Trump....

...Magnitsky soon discovered that Hermitage was only a small pawn in a vast, $230 million tax fraud scheme that implicated high-level Kremlin officials and allies of President Vladimir Putin. The scandal, exposed in 2008, quickly snowballed into one of the biggest corruption scandals of Putin's tenure, and Moscow has been working to discredit Browder ever since....

...There is no such thing as a "crown prosecutor" in Russia. But "the analogue would be the top federal prosecutor of Russia, and that is Yury Chaika," The Atlantic's Julia Ioffe explained recently. Chaika's position in Russia now is comparable to that of the US Attorney General, she noted, and "Chaika has been extremely loyal to Putin."...

...Aras Agalarov is the president of the Crocus Group, a Russian enterprise that holds substantial Russian government construction contracts and that- as discussed above, Volume I, Section IV.A.I, supra worked with Trump in connection with the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow and a potential Trump Moscow real-estate project.665 The relationship continued over time, as the parties pursued the Trump Moscow project in 2013-2014 and exchanged gifts and letters in 2016. 666 For example, in April 2016, Trump responded to a letter from Aras Agalarov with a handwritten note.667 Aras Agalarov expressed interest in Trump's campaign, passed on "congratulations" for winning in the primary and according to one email drafted by Goldstone-an "offer" of his "support and that of many of his important Russian friends and colleagues[,] especially with reference to U.S./Russian relations."668

I am taking a break from this. 

continued in a following entry

Footnote 658 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 29-30; Simes 3/27/18 302, at 6; Kushner 4/11/18 302, at 12.
Footnote 659 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 30; Simes 3/27 /l 8 302, at 6.
Footnote 660 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 30.
Footnote 661 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 30; Simes 3/27/18 302, at 6.
Footnote 662 Kushner 4/11/18 302, at 12.
Footnote 663 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 30.
Footnote 664  Grand Jury    Goldstone 2/8/18 302, at 4.
Footnote 665 Grand Jury  Kaveladze 11/16/17  302, at 3; Shugart 9/25/17 302; at 2-3  Grand Jury 

Footnote 666  Grand Jury Goldstone 2/8/18 302, at 10;  Grand Jury Kaveladze 11/16/17 302, at 5-6; 4/25/16 Email, Graff to Goldstone.

Footnote 667 RG000033-34 (4/25/16 Email, Graff to Goldstone (attachment)).
Footnote 668  DJTJR (2/29/16 email Goldstone to Trump, Jr. et.al.)  Grand Jury 

Robert Mueller's full testimony to House Judiciary committee