The Robert Mueller Investigation

[SuingToGetAMessageBoard? 3861]

 It would sort of be the ultimate recognition that this is a political issue. Mueller would do it all but leave the last big decision in the legislature’s hands. 

[sheeeit 129]

43 minutes ago, GW Hayduke said:

Bribery is already something that trump can’t be a part of. It seems by turning the definition of emoluments into bribery, you’ve effectively made the emoluments requirement disappear. Brilliant!

Wow.  Nice leap there.  If Trump took bribes he should go down.  If he accepted gifts from foreign govts he should go down.  If foreign govts paid over market rates for trump properties he should go down.  Nowhere did I try and turn the  definition of emoluments into bribery. Sheesh. 

[Buzzrock 14870]

And again you ignore my point. The Mueller investigation is simply one of the issues. He has violated the emoluments clause. Period. End of discussion. He should be removed from office for it. I don’t know if emoluments is criminal in nature, I doubt it, but it certainly makes him different than Hillary and anything but “squeaky clean”.
If Mueller says no crime then so be it. He has more info than I do. I’ll accept that. What I won’t accept are the other things he is doing that he should be impeachable for that morons like you simply ignore with “but Hillary”. The only lack of critical thinking here is coming from you.

How can it be “end of discussion” until the courts rule? One case has been dismissed already. It looks like there is a lot of wiggle room on what is a gift or “emolument”.

[Brisketexan 104557]

See, President Chevrolet didn’t violate the emoluments clause, cuz nobody paid over sticker price. Sure, a buncha foreign officials just HAPPENED to order loaded Corvettes and Suburbans, loaded with every possible option, for themselves...their wives...children...nieces...nephews....cousins...guys who are friends with their cousins...guys who one met a friend of their cousins. But they didn’t pay a penny over sticker, so no emoluments issue.

And hey, all those local sales in DC that the Ford guys lost, well, that doesn’t mean anything.

You have to love the trolls. Define every wrongful act in such an extreme way that they can already exonerate Trump. Good stuff. Many chuckles.

[sheeeit 129]

1 hour ago, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:

Ugh.  If it was over market, in exchange for other stuff, that’s just bribery. Emoluments  can also happen without over market pricing. If Trump properties are leased a 100% occupancy all the time now because everyone wants to stay in a trump property because they want the approval that comes  from the president knowing that you are willing to give him money, that ain’t cool either.  That also has the problem of being exactly what is happening. 

Really?    I did a 30 second Google search and found the following. 

https://www.google.com/amp/www.newsweek.com/trump-hotel-prices-drop-organization-717189%3famp=1

 Rental rates for his properties are down everywhere and the prime hotel that is the center of the allegations, is one in Washington DC, has a 20% lower occupancy rate than the other hotels in its class. What the fuck are you even talking about. 

[Buzzrock 14870]

I want to go ahead and call my shot now. Mueller will indict some more people but won't indict Trump, because DOJ regs say that a sitting president cannot be indicted, and he will issue a report indicating that Trump knew of the collusion and approved of it. The Republican Congress will do nothing in response, those of us who aren't MAGA dipshits will get angry about that, and Buzzrock and his dipshit MAGA ilk will go "SEE, MUELLER DIDN'T INDICT TRUMP AND YOU DIDN'T ACCEPT THAT!"

I find it endlessly entertaining that some of you think I am a Trump voter or supporter.

I’m up to “moron” and “dipshit” so far today!

[Buzzrock 14870]

Really?    I did a 30 second Google search and found the following. 
https://www.google.com/amp/www.newsweek.com/trump-hotel-prices-drop-organization-717189%3famp=1
 Rental rates for his properties are down everywhere and the prime hotel that is the center of the allegations, is one in Washington DC, has a 20% lower occupancy rate than the other hotels in its class. What the fuck are you even talking about. 

Dave Chappelle says he makes a swell hotel. Free handful of pussy with every stay!

[Ted Lange 16041]

Oh, Sheeeit is back now that the pages where  he got called on Natalia I mean Nataliya are 7 pages past....

[Biff Tannen 45491]

Buzzrock, I think the disturbing part to all of us is that you are basically willing to give a president the benefit of the doubt when it is blatantly obvious, BLATANTLY, that he is the most corrupt president in history.  Based on the rest of your posting history (and your Chris Cornell avatar), I think you are probably a good guy in general.  But god damn man.  This isn't just a "pain in the ass, run of the mill, bullshit politician".  It's so much bigger than that.  I guarantee you that 99% of us would be fine with almost every other republican jackass on the 2016 ticket being president (fuck you Chris Christie).  This is a different bird.  Bill Maher, whom a lot of people dislike, including people on the left, is correct in saying, this isn't fucking normal.  The youngsters need to know this is the most critical point in American political history and is not fucking normal.

[Jack Burton 35]

GJ voter

[RayDog 682]

The DOJ and FBI need to clarify with Shera Bechard whether her affair was with Broidy or Trump. The new information on Broidy and his KSA and UAE dealings makes it looks like Broidy was paying Trump on behalf of the gulf princes by paying off the playmate.

This article lays it out.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/05/more-evidence-that-broidy-was-covering-for-trump-in-affair.html

[NameAlreadyInUse 5106]

Jesus Christo.

[Judge Roybeanbag 11806]

1 minute ago, RayDog said:

The DOJ and FBI need to clarify with Shera Bechard whether her affair was with Broidy or Trump. The new information on Broidy and his KSA and UAE dealings makes it looks like Broidy was paying Trump on behalf of the gulf princes by paying off the playmate.

This article lays it out.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/05/more-evidence-that-broidy-was-covering-for-trump-in-affair.html

It would be crazy spectacular if true, but I find it hard to believe trump could frolic with a porn star while President in this day and age without it leaking, given his administration is leakier than his contemporaries Chinese Depends.  

[Lurch 5921]

It would be crazy spectacular if true, but I find it hard to believe trump could frolic with a porn star while President in this day and age without it leaking, given his administration is leakier than his contemporaries Chinese Depends.  

It’s leaking.

[sheeeit 129]

57 minutes ago, Ted Lange said:

Oh, Sheeeit is back now that the pages where  he got called on Natalia I mean Nataliya are 7 pages past....

Where did I get called out on Natalia (other than I am bad at spelling apparently?  My stance on her has not changed at all.

[JimmyJames 12271]

9 minutes ago, sheeeit said:

Where did I get called out on Natalia (other than I am bad at spelling apparently?  My stance on her has not changed at all.

If I recall correctly you kept spelling her name in a way that nobody else does but actually accurate. Basically that you’re a Russian troll. I’m sure someone will let me know if I’m misremembering. 

[atomheartbevo 89407]

In thinking about it, assuming this isn’t some kind of wish-fulfillment fantasy/rhetoric....

If he was leaking inside classified information, wouldn’t he be violating the Espionage Act?

[Judge Roybeanbag 11806]

8 minutes ago, JimmyJames said:

If I recall correctly you kept spelling her name in a way that nobody else does but actually accurate. Basically that you’re a Russian troll. I’m sure someone will let me know if I’m misremembering. 

I think he also insisted she didn’t lie about her affiliation with the Russian government. 

[sheeeit 129]

Just now, Judge Roybeanbag said:

I think he also insisted she didn’t lie about her affiliation with the Russian government. 

And she did not.  Are you guys talking about the interview?  The one where she claimed to be an informer for the russian govt?  You realize she never said that right?  She was speaking russian and they interpreted her words in english.  Watch the WHOLE interview.  She is indignant that she never lied at all in her testimony.  

She disclosed her relationship with the russian govt in her testimony.  She worked for the GPO early in her career and then interacted with them on a case she was defending in the US that involved a russian company.  She disclosed all of that in her testimony.

[Pods 7526]

sheeit has always been a long-winded troll with a casual relationship with the truth. 

[TwiceHorn 31262]

1 hour ago, Anastasis said:

I could see this.  But if Mueller's report includes a definitive statement on Trumps involvement in collusion, he gets removed from office.  If Muellers conclusion is not definitive and there is some wiggle in the wording of Mueller's findings, the Senate will not remove him from office.   

As Hugo said, if Trump would otherwise be criminally liable for collusion or whatever, presumably he would be a conspirator and the tidiest way for Mueller to handle this would be to make him an unindicted co-conspirator and explain that in the Report:  he is unindicted because he is a sitting President and for no other reason.

Second-best would seem to be, "the facts support indictment, but the OSC has declined to indict the sitting President."

Edited May 22, 2018 by TwiceHorn

[Pods 7526]

 

[wildcat09 29224]

Their defense strategy of “these are the crimes he definitely committed so you cannot ask about them!” will never stop being funny.

[Degenerate Gardner 4081]

The audacious criminality of this administration can be overwhelming.  I know I'm tired of thinking about it.  

SIAP

 

There Is Only One Trump Scandal

The myriad Trump scandals can obscure the fact that they’re all elements of one massive tale of corruption.

 

The sheer volume of Trump scandals can seem difficult to keep track of.

There’s the ongoing special-counsel investigation into whether the Trump campaign aided a Russian campaign to aid Trump’s candidacy and defeat his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton; there’s the associated inquiry into whether the president obstructed justice when he fired former FBI Director James Comey, whom he had asked not to investigate his former national-security adviser; there are the president’s hush-money payments to women with whom he allegedly had extramarital affairs, made through his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, and facilitated by corporate cash paid to influence the White House; there is his ongoing effort to interfere with the Russia inquiry and politicize federal law enforcement; there are the foreign governments that seem to be utilizing the president’s properties as vehicles for influencing administration policy; there’s the emerging evidence that Trump campaign officials sought aid not only from Russia, but from other foreign countries, which may have affected Trump’s foreign policy; there are the ongoing revelations of the president’s Cabinet officials’ misusing taxpayer funds; there is the accumulating evidence that administration decisions are made at the behest of private industry, in particular those in which Republican donors have significant interests.

The preceding wall of text may appear to some as an abridged list of the Trump administration’s scandals, but this is an illusion created by the perception that these are all separate affairs. Viewed as such, the various Trump scandals can seem multifarious and overpowering, and difficult to fathom.

There are not many Trump scandals. There is one Trump scandal. Singular: the corruption of the American government by the president and his associates, who are using their official power for personal and financial gain rather than for the welfare of the American people, and their attempts to shield that corruption from political consequences, public scrutiny, or legal accountability.

 

Full article:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/05/there-is-only-one-trump-scandal/560825/

[RayDog 682]

55 minutes ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

It would be crazy spectacular if true, but I find it hard to believe trump could frolic with a porn star while President in this day and age without it leaking, given his administration is leakier than his contemporaries Chinese Depends.  

The affair and her abortion were well before the election.

 

[David Dennison 18651]

8 minutes ago, Degenerate Gardner said:

The audacious criminality of this administration can be overwhelming.  I know I'm tired of thinking about it.  

SIAP

 

There Is Only One Trump Scandal

The myriad Trump scandals can obscure the fact that they’re all elements of one massive tale of corruption.

 

The sheer volume of Trump scandals can seem difficult to keep track of.

There’s the ongoing special-counsel investigation into whether the Trump campaign aided a Russian campaign to aid Trump’s candidacy and defeat his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton; there’s the associated inquiry into whether the president obstructed justice when he fired former FBI Director James Comey, whom he had asked not to investigate his former national-security adviser; there are the president’s hush-money payments to women with whom he allegedly had extramarital affairs, made through his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, and facilitated by corporate cash paid to influence the White House; there is his ongoing effort to interfere with the Russia inquiry and politicize federal law enforcement; there are the foreign governments that seem to be utilizing the president’s properties as vehicles for influencing administration policy; there’s the emerging evidence that Trump campaign officials sought aid not only from Russia, but from other foreign countries, which may have affected Trump’s foreign policy; there are the ongoing revelations of the president’s Cabinet officials’ misusing taxpayer funds; there is the accumulating evidence that administration decisions are made at the behest of private industry, in particular those in which Republican donors have significant interests.

The preceding wall of text may appear to some as an abridged list of the Trump administration’s scandals, but this is an illusion created by the perception that these are all separate affairs. Viewed as such, the various Trump scandals can seem multifarious and overpowering, and difficult to fathom.

There are not many Trump scandals. There is one Trump scandal. Singular: the corruption of the American government by the president and his associates, who are using their official power for personal and financial gain rather than for the welfare of the American people, and their attempts to shield that corruption from political consequences, public scrutiny, or legal accountability.

 

Full article:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/05/there-is-only-one-trump-scandal/560825/

It's all going to come out. The politics of it are going to be fascinating.

[Judge Roybeanbag 11806]

21 minutes ago, RayDog said:

The affair and her abortion were well before the election.

 

I must have missed that amongst the remaining shitshow.  When was it, seriously?

[RayDog 682]

11 minutes ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

I must have missed that amongst the remaining shitshow.  When was it, seriously?

I don't think we know as the principles have not said. Some assume that since the payment was in late 2017 that the abortion occurred just prior. I don't think we can make that assumption particularly if it was Trump.

[Judge Roybeanbag 11806]

3 minutes ago, RayDog said:

I don't think we know as the principles have not said. Some assume that since the payment was in late 2017 that the abortion occurred just prior. I don't think we can make that assumption particularly if it was Trump.

True.  I wonder if the NDA with her and Dennison is unsigned like trumps?  

[Pods 7526]

10 minutes ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

True.  I wonder if the NDA with her and Dennison is unsigned like trumps?  

Keith Davidson represented her too. Since he was conspiring with Cohen, the NDA may not be binding. 

[Lurch 5921]

She’s going to stay silent through next year so she can collect the full $1.6M

[Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand 13546]

1 hour ago, Degenerate Gardner said:

The audacious criminality of this administration can be overwhelming.  I know I'm tired of thinking about it.  

SIAP

 

There Is Only One Trump Scandal

The myriad Trump scandals can obscure the fact that they’re all elements of one massive tale of corruption.

 

The sheer volume of Trump scandals can seem difficult to keep track of.

There’s the ongoing special-counsel investigation into whether the Trump campaign aided a Russian campaign to aid Trump’s candidacy and defeat his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton; there’s the associated inquiry into whether the president obstructed justice when he fired former FBI Director James Comey, whom he had asked not to investigate his former national-security adviser; there are the president’s hush-money payments to women with whom he allegedly had extramarital affairs, made through his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, and facilitated by corporate cash paid to influence the White House; there is his ongoing effort to interfere with the Russia inquiry and politicize federal law enforcement; there are the foreign governments that seem to be utilizing the president’s properties as vehicles for influencing administration policy; there’s the emerging evidence that Trump campaign officials sought aid not only from Russia, but from other foreign countries, which may have affected Trump’s foreign policy; there are the ongoing revelations of the president’s Cabinet officials’ misusing taxpayer funds; there is the accumulating evidence that administration decisions are made at the behest of private industry, in particular those in which Republican donors have significant interests.

The preceding wall of text may appear to some as an abridged list of the Trump administration’s scandals, but this is an illusion created by the perception that these are all separate affairs. Viewed as such, the various Trump scandals can seem multifarious and overpowering, and difficult to fathom.

There are not many Trump scandals. There is one Trump scandal. Singular: the corruption of the American government by the president and his associates, who are using their official power for personal and financial gain rather than for the welfare of the American people, and their attempts to shield that corruption from political consequences, public scrutiny, or legal accountability.

 

Full article:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/05/there-is-only-one-trump-scandal/560825/

They forgot about the raping the 13 year old case.

[RayDog 682]

2 minutes ago, Lurch said:

She’s going to stay silent through next year so she can collect the full $1.6M

She can't stay silent when questioned by federal investigators. And the Cohen documents probably have more details that will come out when the ag indicts Cohen.

[woohorn 1131]

I don't think we know as the principles have not said. Some assume that since the payment was in late 2017 that the abortion occurred just prior. I don't think we can make that assumption particularly if it was Trump.

Why the fuck did you say well before the election? Do the fucking math. The pmt. wasn't in late 2017, the first of EIGHT fucking quarterly pmts was Nov 30, 2017. 98% of abortions are done before 21st week. How long do you think these scheming shysters took to cut and paste from Stormy's agreement-10 months?

Also, the D part of the NDA had maximum leverage before election. If this happened in 2016, she woulda gotten PAID before election.

[RayDog 682]

6 minutes ago, woohorn said:

Why the fuck did you say well before the election? Do the fucking math. The pmt. wasn't in late 2017, the first of EIGHT fucking quarterly pmts was Nov 30, 2017. 98% of abortions are done before 21st week. How long do you think these scheming shysters took to cut and paste from Stormy's agreement-10 months?

Also, the D part of the NDA had maximum leverage before election. If this happened in 2016, she woulda gotten PAID before election.

My mistake on the dates of the affair as I thought I had read something to that effect.

But for you to claim that the abortion must correspond to the first payment is illogical. 

[DiceHands 349]

Idk about yall but if someone is squealing to investigators to get themselves out of 125 years in prison, the info they have must be pretttttty damn good.

[woohorn 1131]

My mistake on the dates of the affair as I thought I had read something to that effect.
But for you to claim that the abortion must correspond to the first payment is illogical. 

Stormy was paid 11 days before the election for an affair that happened 10 years earlier because disclosure would hurt Drumpf in the election.

Your logic is that Shera affaired and aborted before election, but waited over a year to get a dime. Who Is illogical?

[ShaggyBevo RIP 3868]

4 hours ago, GW Hayduke said:

Gotta love little flynn

Quite the monkey wrench.

[DiceHands 349]

facts and trump defenders just dont mix.  the past couple of pages is a bunch of them pulling off redactions and "oh I misread it".  

lol

 

[hayden_horn 11360]

7 minutes ago, DiceHands said:

Idk about yall but if someone is squealing to investigators to get themselves out of 125 years in prison, the info they have must be pretttttty damn good.

yeah. that's quite a reduction, and prosecutors aren't likely to agree to such a reduction unless there is at least 240 more years of prison for other peeps.

[bolverk 29397]

Their defense strategy of “these are the crimes he definitely committed so you cannot ask about them!” will never stop being funny.

If the president did it, then it can't be against the law.

[Anastasis 23393]

2 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

As Hugo said, if Trump would otherwise be criminally liable for collusion or whatever, presumably he would be a conspirator and the tidiest way for Mueller to handle this would be to make him an unindicted co-conspirator and explain that in the Report:  he is unindicted because he is a sitting President and for no other reason.

Second-best would seem to be, "the facts support indictment, but the OSC has declined to indict the sitting President."

Either of those imo results in removal from office. If Mueller uses one of those formulations, and it does not result in removal from office, burn the shit to the ground. 

[JimmyJames 12271]

3 hours ago, sheeeit said:

And she did not.  Are you guys talking about the interview?  The one where she claimed to be an informer for the russian govt?  You realize she never said that right?  She was speaking russian and they interpreted her words in english.  Watch the WHOLE interview.  She is indignant that she never lied at all in her testimony.  

She disclosed her relationship with the russian govt in her testimony.  She worked for the GPO early in her career and then interacted with them on a case she was defending in the US that involved a russian company.  She disclosed all of that in her testimony.

Soooo, I guess you understand the Russian language pretty well then? So well you can tell if someone speaking it has been misinterpreted!? 

Interesting. 

[Sawbonz 27398]

Nm

Edited May 23, 2018 by Sawbonz

[Brisketexan 104557]

Either of those imo results in removal from office. If Mueller uses one of those formulations, and it does not result in removal from office, burn the shit to the ground. 

Neither of those results in removal. Nothing will. Someday, you’ll realize that.

[Hugo Stiglitz 23356]

So trump is upset about American spies but all the Russian spies in his campaign were cool.

#America 1ST

[JimmyJames 12271]

4 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

So trump is upset about American spies but all the Russian spies in his campaign were cool.

#America 1ST

Trump is a anti Russian spies unless they are helping him make money and then he’s pro Russian spies. 

[Pods 7526]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-22/mueller-targeted-flows-of-money-to-israeli-social-media-company

Mueller Asked About Money Flows to Israeli Social-Media Firm, Source Says
By Michael Riley  and Lauren Etter
May 22, 2018, 12:35 PM CDT
 PSY Group’s work included fake personas, firm’s documents show
 Founder is reported to have met with Donald Trump Jr. in 2016

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team has asked about flows of money into the Cyprus bank account of a company that specialized in social-media manipulation and whose founder reportedly met with Donald Trump Jr. in August 2016, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

The inquiry is drawing attention to PSY Group, an Israeli firm that pitched its services to super-PACs and other entities during the 2016 election. Those services included infiltrating target audiences with elaborately crafted social-media personas and spreading misleading information through websites meant to mimic news portals, according to interviews and PSY Group documents seen by Bloomberg News.

The person doesn’t believe any of those pitches was successful, and it’s illegal for foreign entities to contribute anything of value or to play decision-making roles in U.S. political campaigns.

One of PSY Group’s founders, Joel Zamel, met in August 2016 at Trump Tower with Donald Trump Jr. and an emissary to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to discuss how PSY Group could help Trump win, the New York Times reported on Saturday.

Marc Mukasey, a lawyer for Zamel, said his client “offered nothing to the Trump campaign, received nothing from the Trump campaign, delivered nothing to the Trump campaign and was not solicited by, or asked to do anything for, the Trump campaign.” He also said reports that Zamel’s companies engage in social-media manipulation are misguided and that the firms “harvest publicly available information for lawful use.”

Donald Trump Jr. recalls a meeting at which he was pitched “on a social media platform or marketing strategy,” said his attorney, Alan Futerfas, in an emailed statement. “He was not interested and that was the end of it.”

Trump Jr. Meetings Test Laws on Foreigners, Campaigns: QuickTake

Following Trump’s victory, PSY Group formed an alliance with Cambridge Analytica, the Trump campaign’s primary social-media consultants, to try to win U.S. government work, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg News.

FBI agents working with Mueller’s team interviewed people associated with PSY Group’s U.S. operations in February, and Mueller subpoenaed bank records for payments made to the firm’s Cyprus bank accounts, according to a person who has seen one of the subpoenas. Though PSY Group is based in Israel, it’s technically headquartered in Cyprus, the small Mediterranean island famous for its banking secrecy.

Shortly after those interviews, on Feb. 25, PSY Group Chief Executive Officer Royi Burstien informed employees in Tel Aviv that the company was closing down. Burstien is a former commander of an Israeli psychological warfare unit, according to two people familiar with the company. He didn’t respond to requests for comment.

PSY Group developed elaborate information operations for commercial clients and political candidates around the world, the people said.

‘Poisoning the Well’

Tactics deployed by PSY Group in foreign elections included inflaming divisions in opposition groups and playing on deep-seated cultural and ethnic conflicts, something the firm called “poisoning the well,” according to the people.

In a contracting proposal for the U.S. State Department that PSY Group prepared with Cambridge Analytica and SCL Group, Cambridge’s U.K. affiliate, the firm said that it “has conducted messaging/influence operations in well over a dozen languages and dialects” and that it employs “an elite group of high-ranking former officers from some of the world’s most renowned intelligence units.”

Although the proposal says that the company is legally bound not to reveal its clients, it also boasts that “PSY has succeeded in placing the results of its intelligence activities in top-tier publications across the globe in order to advance the interests of its clients.”

That proposal was the result of a collaboration that gelled after Trump’s victory -- a mutual non-disclosure agreement between Cambridge and PSY Group is dated Dec. 14, 2016 -- but the documents don’t indicate how the companies initially connected or why they decided to work together.

Companies Shut Down

Cambridge Analytica and the elections division of SCL shut down this month following scrutiny of the companies’ business practices, including the release of a secretly recorded interview of Cambridge CEO Alexander Nix saying he could entrap politicians in compromising situations.

The joint proposal for the State Department’s Global Engagement Center was for a project to interrupt the recruitment and radicalization of ISIS members, and it provides insight into PSY Group’s use of fake social-media personas.

The company spent months preparing for the proposal by developing a persona for “an average Chicago teenager” named Madison who converted from Christianity to Islam and became alienated from her parents. Over a period of many weeks, Madison interacted with an ISIS recruiter, received instructions for sending money to fighters in Syria, and began an extended flirtation with a fighter in Raqqa, Syria.

Among the long-term objectives of Madison’s persona were obtaining names and contacts of “radical Turkish Islamic elements” and obtaining bank accounts and routing numbers for donating to ISIS, according to the proposal seen by Bloomberg News.

The State Department’s Global Engagement Center entered into a contract with SCL Group last year, but it didn’t include provisions for work to be performed by any subcontractors, according to a department spokesman. That contract didn’t involve social media and was focused on in-person interviews, according to an earlier department briefing.

Tower Meeting

The Trump Tower meeting in August 2016 included Zamel, the PSY Group founder, and George Nader, an adviser to the ruling families of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, according to the New York Times report. PSY Group’s decision to shut down appears to have come the same week that Nader testified before the grand jury working with Mueller, according to the timing of that testimony previously reported in the Times.

Following the election, Nader hired a different company of Zamel’s called WhiteKnight, which specializes in open-source social media research and is based in the Caribbean, according to a person familiar with the transaction.

The person described WhiteKnight as a high-end business consulting firm owned in part by Zamel that completed a post-election analysis for Nader that examined the role that social media played in the 2016 election.

There is little public information about WhiteKnight or its products, and the company does not appear to have a website.

Another person familiar with PSY Group’s operations said that months ago, there was discussion about rebranding the firm under a different name.

The name being discussed internally, according to the person, was WhiteKnight.

[Pods 7526]

Looks like Zamel and PsyGroup worked for Cambridge Analytica. When Alexander Nix referred to working with Israelis on camera, he was probably talking about PsyGroup. 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/israeli-intelligence-company-formed-venture-with-trump-campaign-firm-cambridge-analytica-1527030765

Israeli Intelligence Company Formed Venture With Trump Campaign Firm Cambridge Analytica
Psy-Group is owned by entrepreneur Joel Zamel, who has been questioned by special-counsel investigators

By Byron Tau and Rebecca Ballhaus

Updated May 23, 2018 1:00 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON—A company owned by Joel Zamel, an Israeli entrepreneur whose work has drawn the scrutiny of special counsel Robert Mueller, formed a strategic partnership with a data firm for President Donald Trump’s campaign in a joint bid to win business from the U.S. government and other clients after the 2016 election, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Psy-Group, one of Mr. Zamel’s firms, signed a memorandum of understanding with Cambridge Analytica LLC, a digital media firm that helped propel Mr. Trump to the presidency, these people said. Facebook Inc. in March suspended Cambridge over allegations that it improperly harvested the data of millions of Facebook users, accusations that in part led to the firm’s closure earlier this month.

 

The Dec. 14, 2016, memorandum, as described to The Wall Street Journal, outlines a partnership whereby the two firms could cooperate on a case-by-case basis to provide intelligence and social-media services, or pitch business to an array of clients.

A person familiar with the work of Psy-Group, a private intelligence firm, said the partnership was intended in part to help win government contracts—something that Cambridge and its parent company, SCL Group, were aggressively seeking to do as their allies in the Trump administration took power, according to people familiar with the efforts.

The existence of the memorandum is an example of how the president’s allies sought to gain entry and influence in Washington after the election.

SCL Group won a $500,000 contract from the State Department starting in February 2017 aimed at providing “target audience research,” according to federal records. No government contracts have been awarded to the Psy-Group, according to public records, though not all government contracts—for example, in the arena of intelligence and foreign policy—are publicly disclosed.

A spokesman for SCL and for Cambridge Analytica didn’t respond to requests to comment.

Marc Mukasey, a lawyer for Mr. Zamel, said his client “had nothing to do with Cambridge Analytica.” He has previously said investigators have told him Mr. Zamel isn’t a target of the Mueller investigation.

A person familiar with the memo between Cambridge and Psy-Group, which was first reported by Bloomberg, said it was signed without Mr. Zamel’s involvement. It was unclear whether Mr. Zamel was aware of the deal at the time it was reached.

Mr. Zamel has met with Mr. Mueller’s investigators, who appear to have expanded their inquiries to questions about the influence of a Gulf monarchy during the 2016 election, the Journal has previously reported. Mr. Mueller is investigating whether Trump associates colluded with Russia in the 2016 U.S. election. Mr. Trump denies colluding with Russia, and Moscow denies that it meddled in the election.

In the months before the 2016 election, Mr. Zamel met with Donald Trump Jr. , Mr. Trump’s eldest son, at Trump Tower along with George Nader, a top adviser to the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates, to discuss an offer from Messrs. Zamel and Nader to help boost the campaign, the Journal has previously reported. Mr. Zamel is said to be close to top officials in the U.A.E.

Cambridge Analytica earlier this month announced it was shutting down its operations, along with its U.S. and U.K. affiliates SCL Group and SCL Elections. The firm is liquidating its assets, an administrator for the firm said Tuesday.

Cambridge Analytica faced mounting legal fees in the U.K.’s investigation of the data firm and was rapidly losing clients, according to people familiar with the matter. In March, it suspended its chief executive, Alexander Nix, after undercover journalists at British broadcaster Channel 4 released a video that depicted him describing campaign tactics he said the company had used, among them entrapping political opponents with bribes and sex.

In the video, Mr. Nix said Cambridge Analytica used Israeli companies in its campaign efforts. “We use some British companies, we use some Israeli companies,” he said. “From Israel. Very effective in intelligence gathering.”

Mr. Nix has said he regretted his role in the video, and Cambridge Analytica has said it didn’t use the tactics he described.

One person familiar with the work of both firms said Mr. Nix in the video appeared to be referring to Psy-Group, which does work that tracks closely with Mr. Nix’s description. The intelligence firm’s website says the company’s motto is “shape reality.”

Some of Psy-Group’s work involves setting up “honey traps”—real-world scenarios where people are caught saying embarrassing or incriminating things to gain leverage over them—sometimes using the promise of a romantic relationship as part of the approach, which often begins online, according to people familiar with the firm’s operations.

“The general aim is to get their trust, take that relationship to the next level,” said one person who was familiar with the company’s work. “In many cases, they are able to take that relationship offline. Then they can meet in real life.”

After the 2016 election, Cambridge Analytica aggressively pitched federal agencies, often partnering with larger corporations, according to a person familiar with the efforts.

A wave of negative publicity over the course of 2017 slowed the company’s efforts. When news first emerged last fall that Mr. Nix had contacted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during the election, some companies told Cambridge Analytica they no longer wanted its involvement in pitching the government, the person said. Recent revelations over the company’s alleged use of Facebook data brought about “the biggest drop-off,” the person said.

Sometime around 2014, Mr. Zamel began making contacts in the U.A.E., becoming close to the national security adviser there, people familiar with the matter said. A Zamel-owned consulting firm, Wikistrat, which aimed to crowdsource expert opinions on geopolitical problems for corporate clients and governments, conducted war-games scenarios for the government of the U.A.E., though many of the company’s employees remained in the dark about who they were working for, they said. Former employees say that it became increasingly clear that the U.A.E. government was one of the firm’s major clients.

At some point during this time period, Mr. Zamel also launched Psy-Group. In early 2016, the firm began using a London-based headhunter to look for a head of sales—possibly based in the U.S., according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The head of sales position was marked “confidential,” and a pitch in the documents described Psy-Group as a firm that is “founded and is managed by an experienced group of former high-ranking officers from elite units of some of the world’s most renowned intelligence agencies.”

“Their team has a proven track record in information gathering, analysis, research, special intelligence operations and technology in the physical and cyber domains,” the document said.

Mr. Zamel’s interest in running Wikistrat began to wane around the same time. The firm had one year of profitability, according to one person familiar with its balance sheets, and in 2015 had approximately $6 million in gross revenues, the person said. Mr. Zamel put Wikistrat up for sale in 2015, sending a prospectus to a number of companies looking for a buyer, according to a person who has seen the document.

The person said Mr. Zamel was seeking about $25 million for the company. It hasn’t found a buyer.

 

 

Edited May 23, 2018 by Pods

[RayDog 682]

4 hours ago, woohorn said:

Stormy was paid 11 days before the election for an affair that happened 10 years earlier because disclosure would hurt Drumpf in the election.

Your logic is that Shera affaired and aborted before election, but waited over a year to get a dime. Who Is illogical?

You are.

She could have waited until after the election to start asking for money. She could have been pushing for more money and not accept the Stormy settlement. It took a while for the pieces to fall in place so Cohen could pay her using Broidy's money, so that could have delayed payments a year. She and Trump could have had a relationship and abortion in the 2012-2013 time frame. We don't know.

We will likely find out the timeline in the next few months and have the answer.