Original Slate article on October 31, 2016 (click here)
May 5, 2018
By Jonathan O'Connell, David A Fahrenthold and Jack Gillum
In the nine years (click here) before he ran for president, Donald Trump's company spent more than $400 million in cash on new properties — including 14 transactions paid for in full, without borrowing from banks — during a buying binge that defied real estate industry practices and Trump's own history as the self-described "King of Debt."...
When taking on the biggest bully in the world, it gets dicey. Doesn't it? This is not circumstantial. Not at all.
So there it is. Whether one wants to realize the truth or not, it is right there in front of everyone. The only thing the Trump Organization can do is lie, manipulate the truth and obstruct the facts and they will do it to the nth degree.
Prostitutes had nothing to do with this. The issue with his Russian prostitute is a character issue. President Trump lied and he continues to lie. It seems no matter the woman Donald is shrouded in lies, except his wife, of course.
The Ultimate Deal: $100 million borrowed from Russian banks and complete forgiveness of the debt once President and sanctions are dissolved. Or at least that was the original plan.
November 2, 2016
By Franklin Foer
...The story (click here) required voyaging deep into the arcana of the internet. The key piece of evidence for the server’s strange behavior was a set of logs of Domain Name Server, or DNS, look-ups. These are the communications between servers that enable an email to reach its destination. The computer scientists had no actual examples of email exchanged between Trump and Alfa—only inferences about that prospect, based on their close reading of the logs. I spoke with many DNS experts. They found the evidence strongly suggestive of a relationship between the Trump Organization and the bank but not conclusive. It was a subject that I believed deserved public airing and further exploration.
Publication of my article was quickly followed by responses from the Trump campaign and Alfa Bank, both of which offered more detailed accounts of the server activity than they had provided when I’d asked them for comment. My piece also elicited a series of valuable objections and credible alternate theories from technology reporters and other computer scientists. I take these seriously and believe they also deserve public airing and exploration. Several of the critiques of the hypothesis offered by the experts in my piece offer simpler, more benign explanations for the server activity. I’ll describe them here....
It comes full circle. If James Comey was getting close to the truth, it was important to Trump to end the investigation. Then within hours, the Russians were in the Oval Office receiving classified material. For me, there really isn't anything else to know. Trump and his gang of renowns will wage war against the truth. The truth has to stand strong.
Why is this necessary? Why is it important the truth stand strong? Because of NATO and Ukraine to begin the list. If the USA turned to be Russia's ally what happens? The balance of power changes and say goodbye to democracy. People's lives would be in danger.
February 20, 2018
By Spencer S. Hsu and Roselind S. Helderman
...The Dutch son-in-law (click here) of one of Russia’s wealthiest men pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in Washington to making false statements in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Alex van der Zwaan was charged with lying to the FBI about his contacts with Rick Gates, who served as a top official on President Trump’s campaign and a longtime business partner of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
Based in London, van der Zwaan worked for the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, which worked with Manafort and Gates when they served as political consultants in Ukraine.
Van der Zwaan is the son-in-law of German Khan, a billionaire and an owner of Alfa Group, Russia’s largest financial and industrial investment group....
President Donald Trump has enormous character issues and cannot be a strong president. Yes, cannot. He has too many conflicts in his life to protect the USA and all it encompasses.