Any political chaos on the homefront paralyzes us in foreign affairs. China and Russia want us focused on ourselves and not on them doing shit we don't want them doing. Like, taking over the South China Sea or re-annexing Ukraine.
I'd argue the Chinese are far more pragmatic of the two and better long term thinkers than Putin. Putin probably doesn't care if the world is burning down if he believes he has the best deal. Sure a weaker US would be in China's interest, but they also value stability and Trump brings nothing but chaos and it's chaos that could easily fuck them over in the process. Given how bugfuck insane the GOP is, they don't need Trump in office to weaken the US. The GOP being out of touch with reality, while holding one chamber of Congress, will do more than enough to cripple US efforts abroad and do so without cause a messy global catastrophe that fuck's them over.
Since President Trump won the Republican nomination, the majority of his companies’ real estate sales are to secretive shell companies that obscure the buyers’ identities, a USA TODAY investigation has found.
Over the last 12 months, about 70% of buyers of Trump properties were limited liability companies – corporate entities that allow people to purchase property without revealing all of the owners’ names. That compares with about 4% of buyers in the two years before.
The increasing share of opaque buyers comes at a time when federal investigators, members of Congress and ethics watchdogs are asking questions about Trump's sales and customers in the U.S. and around the world. Some Congressional Democrats have been asking for more detail about buyers of Trump’s domestic real estate since USA TODAY’s initial report.
Their concern is that the secretive sales create an extraordinary and unprecedented potential for people, corporations or foreign interests to try to influence a President. Anyone who wanted to court favor with the President could snap up multiple properties or purposefully overpay, without revealing their identity publicly.
The real estate cache, which Trump has never fully revealed and is not required by law to disclose, offers unique opportunity for anyone to steer money to a sitting President. The increase in purchasers shielded by LLCs makes it far more difficult to track who is paying the President and his companies for properties ranging in price from $220,000 to $10 million – or more.
The clear post-nomination shift since last year to more shell-company purchases is unique to sales by Trump’s companies, even in his own towers and neighborhoods. Condos owned by others in the same buildings, and sold during the same time period, were bought by LLCs in no more than 20% of the transactions. In some areas, the share was far less.
“If what’s going on is somebody is buying something from The Trump Organization to buy favor, there’s no way you’d ever figure out who that person is or what favor they’re trying to buy,” said Jack Blum, a Washington attorney specializing in offshore tax evasion and financial crime and former staff lawyer for two U.S. Senate committees.
Spoit on
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
Exactly what we've all been worried about ever since he first didn't divest himself, and then second didn't release his financials.
Trump partner said in running to build FBI headquarters
A company that owns buildings with Donald Trump and the family of Jared Kushner is a finalist for a $1.7 billion contract to build the FBI’s new headquarters.
Vornado Realty Trust is one of three finalists to build a replacement for the bureau’s current headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C., the massive J. Edgar Hoover Building, according to Garth Beall, manager of Renard Development. Renard is hoping the federal agency running the bidding process, the General Services Administration, will choose a Renard site in Greenbelt, Maryland, for the new headquarters.
Vornado is a partial owner with the Trump Organization in two buildings, one each in New York and San Francisco. It is also a major investor in 666 Fifth Ave., the flagship skyscraper of the Kushner Cos.
Vornado is run by Steven Roth, who has been advising Donald Trump on his plans to revamp the nation’s infrastructure. He also is consulting with the White House Office of American Innovation, which is being led by Kushner.
That's pretty much the definition of a conflict of interest? Whoever is deciding who gets the building contract should immediately remove Vornado from competition.
Trump partner said in running to build FBI headquarters
A company that owns buildings with Donald Trump and the family of Jared Kushner is a finalist for a $1.7 billion contract to build the FBI’s new headquarters.
Vornado Realty Trust is one of three finalists to build a replacement for the bureau’s current headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C., the massive J. Edgar Hoover Building, according to Garth Beall, manager of Renard Development. Renard is hoping the federal agency running the bidding process, the General Services Administration, will choose a Renard site in Greenbelt, Maryland, for the new headquarters.
Vornado is a partial owner with the Trump Organization in two buildings, one each in New York and San Francisco. It is also a major investor in 666 Fifth Ave., the flagship skyscraper of the Kushner Cos.
Vornado is run by Steven Roth, who has been advising Donald Trump on his plans to revamp the nation’s infrastructure. He also is consulting with the White House Office of American Innovation, which is being led by Kushner.
That's pretty much the definition of a conflict of interest? Whoever is deciding who gets the building contract should immediately remove Vornado from competition.
Access to the president or congress doesn't give you access to the contract officers who make the decisions. It may provide you other, less visible advantages, but if those people attempt to influence the award they're breaking a whole different set of rules.
The conflict of interest rules I'm aware of are very narrow. They essentially boil down to "If you have been contracted to advise on requirements for X, you may not provide a solution for X," and vice versa. If the contractor "knows someone," then I believe the onus is on that person to remove themselves from the process, rather than disqualify the contractor (because that would also be an unfair competition).
Since President Trump won the Republican nomination, the majority of his companies’ real estate sales are to secretive shell companies that obscure the buyers’ identities, a USA TODAY investigation has found.
Over the last 12 months, about 70% of buyers of Trump properties were limited liability companies – corporate entities that allow people to purchase property without revealing all of the owners’ names. That compares with about 4% of buyers in the two years before.
The increasing share of opaque buyers comes at a time when federal investigators, members of Congress and ethics watchdogs are asking questions about Trump's sales and customers in the U.S. and around the world. Some Congressional Democrats have been asking for more detail about buyers of Trump’s domestic real estate since USA TODAY’s initial report.
Their concern is that the secretive sales create an extraordinary and unprecedented potential for people, corporations or foreign interests to try to influence a President. Anyone who wanted to court favor with the President could snap up multiple properties or purposefully overpay, without revealing their identity publicly.
The real estate cache, which Trump has never fully revealed and is not required by law to disclose, offers unique opportunity for anyone to steer money to a sitting President. The increase in purchasers shielded by LLCs makes it far more difficult to track who is paying the President and his companies for properties ranging in price from $220,000 to $10 million – or more.
The clear post-nomination shift since last year to more shell-company purchases is unique to sales by Trump’s companies, even in his own towers and neighborhoods. Condos owned by others in the same buildings, and sold during the same time period, were bought by LLCs in no more than 20% of the transactions. In some areas, the share was far less.
“If what’s going on is somebody is buying something from The Trump Organization to buy favor, there’s no way you’d ever figure out who that person is or what favor they’re trying to buy,” said Jack Blum, a Washington attorney specializing in offshore tax evasion and financial crime and former staff lawyer for two U.S. Senate committees.
Not an expert, could be totally normal, seems unlikely: I was looking at Kushner's financial disclosure a few weeks back. Guy is the president/CEO/board member of literally hundreds of LLCs.
I have little doubt there're a lot of shell games going on, and I'm curious how immediately obvious they are to trained investigators.
Since President Trump won the Republican nomination, the majority of his companies’ real estate sales are to secretive shell companies that obscure the buyers’ identities, a USA TODAY investigation has found.
Over the last 12 months, about 70% of buyers of Trump properties were limited liability companies – corporate entities that allow people to purchase property without revealing all of the owners’ names. That compares with about 4% of buyers in the two years before.
The increasing share of opaque buyers comes at a time when federal investigators, members of Congress and ethics watchdogs are asking questions about Trump's sales and customers in the U.S. and around the world. Some Congressional Democrats have been asking for more detail about buyers of Trump’s domestic real estate since USA TODAY’s initial report.
Their concern is that the secretive sales create an extraordinary and unprecedented potential for people, corporations or foreign interests to try to influence a President. Anyone who wanted to court favor with the President could snap up multiple properties or purposefully overpay, without revealing their identity publicly.
The real estate cache, which Trump has never fully revealed and is not required by law to disclose, offers unique opportunity for anyone to steer money to a sitting President. The increase in purchasers shielded by LLCs makes it far more difficult to track who is paying the President and his companies for properties ranging in price from $220,000 to $10 million – or more.
The clear post-nomination shift since last year to more shell-company purchases is unique to sales by Trump’s companies, even in his own towers and neighborhoods. Condos owned by others in the same buildings, and sold during the same time period, were bought by LLCs in no more than 20% of the transactions. In some areas, the share was far less.
“If what’s going on is somebody is buying something from The Trump Organization to buy favor, there’s no way you’d ever figure out who that person is or what favor they’re trying to buy,” said Jack Blum, a Washington attorney specializing in offshore tax evasion and financial crime and former staff lawyer for two U.S. Senate committees.
Not an expert, could be totally normal, seems unlikely: I was looking at Kushner's financial disclosure a few weeks back. Guy is the president/CEO/board member of literally hundreds of LLCs.
I have little doubt there're a lot of shell games going on, and I'm curious how immediately obvious they are to trained investigators.
To be fair, the trend of foreign nationals snapping up property with cash (typically via corporate vehicles like LLCs) has been skyrocketing for the last 3 years anyways. They have all this cash to spend, and view US property as an investment. It's one of the things that's driving the massive spikes in real estate prices in large and desireable cities across the US. Cities like Seattle, NYC, San Francisco have been dealing with this for a long time now.
Further compounding the fact is that ever since the housing bubble, and increasing moreso in the last two years has been the explosion of capital investment into the residential rental markets. Not just limited to large apartment buildings, single family homes and condos are being snapped up with cash buyers and turned over to management companies.
Now it very well could be corruption (and kind of hope it is, and is uncovered), but the trends in the greater markets show this happening all over the place.
I technically bought my house from a company in the Caymans that was really just two local people. Insulating real estate losses through an llc is probably just a thing.
To be fair, the trend of foreign nationals snapping up property with cash (typically via corporate vehicles like LLCs) has been skyrocketing for the last 3 years anyways. They have all this cash to spend, and view US property as an investment. It's one of the things that's driving the massive spikes in real estate prices in large and desireable cities across the US. Cities like Seattle, NYC, San Francisco have been dealing with this for a long time now.
Further compounding the fact is that ever since the housing bubble, and increasing moreso in the last two years has been the explosion of capital investment into the residential rental markets. Not just limited to large apartment buildings, single family homes and condos are being snapped up with cash buyers and turned over to management companies.
Now it very well could be corruption (and kind of hope it is, and is uncovered), but the trends in the greater markets show this happening all over the place.
Yeah no. This isn't that.
It went from 2% over two years, to 70% since his nomination this time last year.
I technically bought my house from a company in the Caymans that was really just two local people. Insulating real estate losses through an llc is probably just a thing.
And when dealing with Trump, you really want as much insulation from him as possible (and money/goods in advance).
To be fair, the trend of foreign nationals snapping up property with cash (typically via corporate vehicles like LLCs) has been skyrocketing for the last 3 years anyways. They have all this cash to spend, and view US property as an investment. It's one of the things that's driving the massive spikes in real estate prices in large and desireable cities across the US. Cities like Seattle, NYC, San Francisco have been dealing with this for a long time now.
Further compounding the fact is that ever since the housing bubble, and increasing moreso in the last two years has been the explosion of capital investment into the residential rental markets. Not just limited to large apartment buildings, single family homes and condos are being snapped up with cash buyers and turned over to management companies.
Now it very well could be corruption (and kind of hope it is, and is uncovered), but the trends in the greater markets show this happening all over the place.
Yeah no. This isn't that.
It went from 2% over two years, to 70% since his nomination this time last year.
That is not subtle.
The percentage alone seemed misleading initially, but while total overall sales are down 212 to 41 total LLC sales have increased 9 to 29 in half the time. That's pretty stark. It's not just the mixture that changed, it's the non-obfuscated market cratering. It paints a picture of normal buyers running away from him, not just changing the way they do business.
I'm curious what the numbers are post inauguration, as those could qualify directly as emolument violations.
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
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BlackDragon480Bluster KerfuffleMaster of Windy ImportRegistered Userregular
Except in Mueller's case, he can keep adding Ethels to his staff (and he has been, frequently), till there are enough people on the investigation team they could form a top 10 international law firm all on their own.
As for LLC's obfuscating that much, if this was a simple audit and was on a tight time table, they might help conceal some malfeasance, but given the experience and numbers Mueller can throw at this, it'll just take a little longer to connect the dots, but far from impossible. While it varies slightly from state to state, I can petition for the board and ownership breakdown on an LLC registered in the state of Missouri for nothing more than the cost of a stamp to mail an official form to Jefferson City, doesn't even need anything like a FoIA reqquest. Granted, I'm sure any decent Russian proxy will be funneling from Russia, to Eastern Europe, to Western Europe, to US, to the state they want to purchase in, but an LLC is simply US jargon for a private limited company, something with a shitload of international statutes governing them, so while the shell game can distract, eventually you will get to a legit kingpin/operator that is on file somewhere in the world.
BlackDragon480 on
No matter where you go...there you are. ~ Buckaroo Banzai
Since President Trump won the Republican nomination, the majority of his companies’ real estate sales are to secretive shell companies that obscure the buyers’ identities, a USA TODAY investigation has found.
Over the last 12 months, about 70% of buyers of Trump properties were limited liability companies – corporate entities that allow people to purchase property without revealing all of the owners’ names. That compares with about 4% of buyers in the two years before.
The increasing share of opaque buyers comes at a time when federal investigators, members of Congress and ethics watchdogs are asking questions about Trump's sales and customers in the U.S. and around the world. Some Congressional Democrats have been asking for more detail about buyers of Trump’s domestic real estate since USA TODAY’s initial report.
Their concern is that the secretive sales create an extraordinary and unprecedented potential for people, corporations or foreign interests to try to influence a President. Anyone who wanted to court favor with the President could snap up multiple properties or purposefully overpay, without revealing their identity publicly.
The real estate cache, which Trump has never fully revealed and is not required by law to disclose, offers unique opportunity for anyone to steer money to a sitting President. The increase in purchasers shielded by LLCs makes it far more difficult to track who is paying the President and his companies for properties ranging in price from $220,000 to $10 million – or more.
The clear post-nomination shift since last year to more shell-company purchases is unique to sales by Trump’s companies, even in his own towers and neighborhoods. Condos owned by others in the same buildings, and sold during the same time period, were bought by LLCs in no more than 20% of the transactions. In some areas, the share was far less.
“If what’s going on is somebody is buying something from The Trump Organization to buy favor, there’s no way you’d ever figure out who that person is or what favor they’re trying to buy,” said Jack Blum, a Washington attorney specializing in offshore tax evasion and financial crime and former staff lawyer for two U.S. Senate committees.
Not an expert, could be totally normal, seems unlikely: I was looking at Kushner's financial disclosure a few weeks back. Guy is the president/CEO/board member of literally hundreds of LLCs.
I have little doubt there're a lot of shell games going on, and I'm curious how immediately obvious they are to trained investigators.
There no way to find some member of some subcommittee to just send invites to all these CEOs and book them in for sequential hearings, so they can be asked about how much contact they have with Trump?
Since President Trump won the Republican nomination, the majority of his companies’ real estate sales are to secretive shell companies that obscure the buyers’ identities, a USA TODAY investigation has found.
Over the last 12 months, about 70% of buyers of Trump properties were limited liability companies – corporate entities that allow people to purchase property without revealing all of the owners’ names. That compares with about 4% of buyers in the two years before.
The increasing share of opaque buyers comes at a time when federal investigators, members of Congress and ethics watchdogs are asking questions about Trump's sales and customers in the U.S. and around the world. Some Congressional Democrats have been asking for more detail about buyers of Trump’s domestic real estate since USA TODAY’s initial report.
Their concern is that the secretive sales create an extraordinary and unprecedented potential for people, corporations or foreign interests to try to influence a President. Anyone who wanted to court favor with the President could snap up multiple properties or purposefully overpay, without revealing their identity publicly.
The real estate cache, which Trump has never fully revealed and is not required by law to disclose, offers unique opportunity for anyone to steer money to a sitting President. The increase in purchasers shielded by LLCs makes it far more difficult to track who is paying the President and his companies for properties ranging in price from $220,000 to $10 million – or more.
The clear post-nomination shift since last year to more shell-company purchases is unique to sales by Trump’s companies, even in his own towers and neighborhoods. Condos owned by others in the same buildings, and sold during the same time period, were bought by LLCs in no more than 20% of the transactions. In some areas, the share was far less.
“If what’s going on is somebody is buying something from The Trump Organization to buy favor, there’s no way you’d ever figure out who that person is or what favor they’re trying to buy,” said Jack Blum, a Washington attorney specializing in offshore tax evasion and financial crime and former staff lawyer for two U.S. Senate committees.
Not an expert, could be totally normal, seems unlikely: I was looking at Kushner's financial disclosure a few weeks back. Guy is the president/CEO/board member of literally hundreds of LLCs.
I have little doubt there're a lot of shell games going on, and I'm curious how immediately obvious they are to trained investigators.
There no way to find some member of some subcommittee to just send invites to all these CEOs and book them in for sequential hearings, so they can be asked about how much contact they have with Trump?
Well, as a practical matter, it would be more useful to book them for sitdowns with the investigators. Also the issue of the people not being in the US probably.
Except in Mueller's case, he can keep adding Ethels to his staff (and he has been, frequently), till there are enough people on the investigation team they could form a top 10 international law firm all on their own.
After they finish with Trump, we should turn them into a permanent political corruption investigation unit, like in The Wire.
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
Saturday’s event in Beijing was hosted by the Chinese company Qiaowai, which connects U.S. companies with Chinese investors. The tagline on a brochure for the event: “Invest $500,000 and immigrate to the United States.”
That pitch attempting to exploit Jared's status and sell visas and real estate was made by Kushner Companies, which belongs to Charles Kushner (Jared's dad).
This pitch attempting to exploit Jared's status and sell visas and real estate:
“Work hand-in-hand with Trump son-in-law Kushner,” said the pitch, which hasn’t previously been reported. It told the investors that by putting $500,000 in the planned apartment tower at 235 Grand Street, they could qualify for a U.S. resident visa through a program known as EB-5, aimed at attracting foreign funds to help develop neglected areas and promote jobs.
Was made a week later by Kushner Real Estate Group, owned by Murray Kushner, Jared's uncle.
Well someone finally put a stop to at least one of these shady pitches, because Charles and Murray are not friends.
Charles filed a cease and desist against his brother, on, I'm guessing, the grounds that this was his golden goose, and he'll be damned if anyone else gets to imply they have undue influence over the president via his son.
I have to imagine there's no shortage of talented legal minds who would love nothing more than have "Took down a president" on their CV for Mueller to pick from
U.S. Attorney Chris Christie negotiated a plea agreement with Kushner, under which he pleaded guilty to 18 counts of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering. The witness-tampering charge arose from Kushner's act of retaliation against William Schulder, his sister Esther's husband, who was cooperating with federal investigators; Kushner hired a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, arranged to record an encounter between the two, and had the tape sent to his sister.
Witness tampering alone carries a max of 20 years. But what did the Honorable Mr. Christie feel was appropriate for the whole lot?
Kushner was sentenced to two years in prison and served 14 months at Federal Prison Camp, Montgomery in Alabama before being sent to a halfway house in Newark, New Jersey, to complete his sentence. He was released from prison on August 25, 2006.
Fourteen months. Because that whole "blackmailing a federal witness" thing was basically just a prank. Jeez, lighten up already, The Defendant's Own God Damned Sister.
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HakkekageSpace Whore Academysumma cum laudeRegistered Userregular
U.S. Attorney Chris Christie negotiated a plea agreement with Kushner, under which he pleaded guilty to 18 counts of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering. The witness-tampering charge arose from Kushner's act of retaliation against William Schulder, his sister Esther's husband, who was cooperating with federal investigators; Kushner hired a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, arranged to record an encounter between the two, and had the tape sent to his sister.
Witness tampering alone carries a max of 20 years. But what did the Honorable Mr. Christie feel was appropriate for the whole lot?
Kushner was sentenced to two years in prison and served 14 months at Federal Prison Camp, Montgomery in Alabama before being sent to a halfway house in Newark, New Jersey, to complete his sentence. He was released from prison on August 25, 2006.
Fourteen months. Because that whole "blackmailing a federal witness" thing was basically just a prank. Jeez, lighten up already, The Defendant's Own God Damned Sister.
There's a bit more to this crazy story. Charles Kushner was a major major MAJOR NJ Democratic donor. I'm convinced that if he was not a major democratic donor or a republican donor Christie, as US attorney, would have delicately declined to prosecute no matter how many prostitutes he hired to blackmail his Brother in Law
U.S. Attorney Chris Christie negotiated a plea agreement with Kushner, under which he pleaded guilty to 18 counts of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering. The witness-tampering charge arose from Kushner's act of retaliation against William Schulder, his sister Esther's husband, who was cooperating with federal investigators; Kushner hired a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, arranged to record an encounter between the two, and had the tape sent to his sister.
Witness tampering alone carries a max of 20 years. But what did the Honorable Mr. Christie feel was appropriate for the whole lot?
Kushner was sentenced to two years in prison and served 14 months at Federal Prison Camp, Montgomery in Alabama before being sent to a halfway house in Newark, New Jersey, to complete his sentence. He was released from prison on August 25, 2006.
Fourteen months. Because that whole "blackmailing a federal witness" thing was basically just a prank. Jeez, lighten up already, The Defendant's Own God Damned Sister.
There's a bit more to this crazy story. Charles Kushner was a major major MAJOR NJ Democratic donor. I'm convinced that if he was not a major democratic donor or a republican donor Christie, as US attorney, would have delicately declined to prosecute no matter how many prostitutes he hired to blackmail his Brother in Law
Aye. The general take I've seen on it after the fact (cause I didn't know shit about the situation till Kushner the Stupider came to prominence with Trump) is that Christie went after him because he was a major Democratic party political donor and that he was such a big donor mostly because those are the kinds of palms you need to grease in the NY area to get your shady shit done in realestate.
Someone brought up that giant stack of fake documents Trump trotted out as evidence of him divesting himself in another thread, which got me wondering... Has Trump actually taken any actual action at all to give even the slightest appearance of separating himself from his businesses?
We don't even know which or how many companies Trump is a party to. He has bragged/bemoaned the fact that his tax returns are hundreds(thousands?) of pages long. This would indicate to me that he has lots and lots of S-corp, C-corp, partnerships, LLCs, and whatever else his attorneys have cooked up for him. And since he hasn't released his tax returns, we will never know what those companies are and where they might be receiving and sending money. Still the thing that pisses me off the most, personally. I was certain he would drop his candidacy the moment he needed to reveal his financial information like what was expected of a candidate for the past few decades. But nope! His base didn't care so therefore America didn't care and here we are.
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MayabirdPecking at the keyboardRegistered Userregular
There were an awful, awful lot of Trump companies listed in the Panama Papers. Granted, could be someone else, but if anyone's stupid enough to slap his name on secret questionably legal offshore holding companies, it's Donald J. Trump.
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
There were an awful, awful lot of Trump companies listed in the Panama Papers. Granted, could be someone else, but if anyone's stupid enough to slap his name on secret questionably legal offshore holding companies, it's Donald J. Trump.
Hey! He's a newbie to business, you shouldn't expect him to know all the rules immediately! Give him a chance to learn the ropes first!!
Peace to fashion police, I wear my heart
On my sleeve, let the runway start
There were an awful, awful lot of Trump companies listed in the Panama Papers. Granted, could be someone else, but if anyone's stupid enough to slap his name on secret questionably legal offshore holding companies, it's Donald J. Trump.
Hey! He's a newbie to business, you shouldn't expect him to know all the rules immediately! Give him a chance to learn the ropes first!!
Posts
I'd argue the Chinese are far more pragmatic of the two and better long term thinkers than Putin. Putin probably doesn't care if the world is burning down if he believes he has the best deal. Sure a weaker US would be in China's interest, but they also value stability and Trump brings nothing but chaos and it's chaos that could easily fuck them over in the process. Given how bugfuck insane the GOP is, they don't need Trump in office to weaken the US. The GOP being out of touch with reality, while holding one chamber of Congress, will do more than enough to cripple US efforts abroad and do so without cause a messy global catastrophe that fuck's them over.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/06/13/trump-property-buyers-make-clear-shift-secretive-llcs/102399558/#
Wonderful.
Mueller is going to have his hands full.
That's pretty much the definition of a conflict of interest? Whoever is deciding who gets the building contract should immediately remove Vornado from competition.
Maybe that's the plan. Just keep doing wildly illegal shit so they can never finish the investigation.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Sort of a legal* version of Three Stooges Syndrome.
*Legal as in law-related, not the other kind.
That gambit only works until the investigator has enough evidence on enough crimes to satisfy him. They don't need to get all of them after a point.
No one said it was a good plan.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Access to the president or congress doesn't give you access to the contract officers who make the decisions. It may provide you other, less visible advantages, but if those people attempt to influence the award they're breaking a whole different set of rules.
The conflict of interest rules I'm aware of are very narrow. They essentially boil down to "If you have been contracted to advise on requirements for X, you may not provide a solution for X," and vice versa. If the contractor "knows someone," then I believe the onus is on that person to remove themselves from the process, rather than disqualify the contractor (because that would also be an unfair competition).
Not an expert, could be totally normal, seems unlikely: I was looking at Kushner's financial disclosure a few weeks back. Guy is the president/CEO/board member of literally hundreds of LLCs.
I have little doubt there're a lot of shell games going on, and I'm curious how immediately obvious they are to trained investigators.
My guess is "very".
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
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Further compounding the fact is that ever since the housing bubble, and increasing moreso in the last two years has been the explosion of capital investment into the residential rental markets. Not just limited to large apartment buildings, single family homes and condos are being snapped up with cash buyers and turned over to management companies.
Now it very well could be corruption (and kind of hope it is, and is uncovered), but the trends in the greater markets show this happening all over the place.
Yeah no. This isn't that.
It went from 2% over two years, to 70% since his nomination this time last year.
That is not subtle.
And when dealing with Trump, you really want as much insulation from him as possible (and money/goods in advance).
The percentage alone seemed misleading initially, but while total overall sales are down 212 to 41 total LLC sales have increased 9 to 29 in half the time. That's pretty stark. It's not just the mixture that changed, it's the non-obfuscated market cratering. It paints a picture of normal buyers running away from him, not just changing the way they do business.
I'm curious what the numbers are post inauguration, as those could qualify directly as emolument violations.
in which Lucy is Mueller and the chocolates are scandals
I do have a BA in History...if I can ever find a graduate program I agree with, it'll go on my thesis short list.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
Except in Mueller's case, he can keep adding Ethels to his staff (and he has been, frequently), till there are enough people on the investigation team they could form a top 10 international law firm all on their own.
As for LLC's obfuscating that much, if this was a simple audit and was on a tight time table, they might help conceal some malfeasance, but given the experience and numbers Mueller can throw at this, it'll just take a little longer to connect the dots, but far from impossible. While it varies slightly from state to state, I can petition for the board and ownership breakdown on an LLC registered in the state of Missouri for nothing more than the cost of a stamp to mail an official form to Jefferson City, doesn't even need anything like a FoIA reqquest. Granted, I'm sure any decent Russian proxy will be funneling from Russia, to Eastern Europe, to Western Europe, to US, to the state they want to purchase in, but an LLC is simply US jargon for a private limited company, something with a shitload of international statutes governing them, so while the shell game can distract, eventually you will get to a legit kingpin/operator that is on file somewhere in the world.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
There no way to find some member of some subcommittee to just send invites to all these CEOs and book them in for sequential hearings, so they can be asked about how much contact they have with Trump?
Well, as a practical matter, it would be more useful to book them for sitdowns with the investigators. Also the issue of the people not being in the US probably.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
To keep Marriot from getting a 4 year headstart on Trump Resorts in Havana.
From WaPo
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/with-policy-shift-on-cuba-trump-could-undercut-his-rivals-in-the-hotel-industry/2017/06/15/d77a8b2c-5148-11e7-be25-3a519335381c_story.html?utm_term=.45f39c8057be
(no, really, someone check, he's old)
Then he's lying and/or grifting.
After they finish with Trump, we should turn them into a permanent political corruption investigation unit, like in The Wire.
That pitch attempting to exploit Jared's status and sell visas and real estate was made by Kushner Companies, which belongs to Charles Kushner (Jared's dad).
This pitch attempting to exploit Jared's status and sell visas and real estate:
Was made a week later by Kushner Real Estate Group, owned by Murray Kushner, Jared's uncle.
Well someone finally put a stop to at least one of these shady pitches, because Charles and Murray are not friends.
Charles filed a cease and desist against his brother, on, I'm guessing, the grounds that this was his golden goose, and he'll be damned if anyone else gets to imply they have undue influence over the president via his son.
Me too! But in hindsight, that was silly to assume, given he is a rich white guy.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Kushner#Criminal_conviction
Witness tampering alone carries a max of 20 years. But what did the Honorable Mr. Christie feel was appropriate for the whole lot?
Fourteen months. Because that whole "blackmailing a federal witness" thing was basically just a prank. Jeez, lighten up already, The Defendant's Own God Damned Sister.
There's a bit more to this crazy story. Charles Kushner was a major major MAJOR NJ Democratic donor. I'm convinced that if he was not a major democratic donor or a republican donor Christie, as US attorney, would have delicately declined to prosecute no matter how many prostitutes he hired to blackmail his Brother in Law
NNID: Hakkekage
Aye. The general take I've seen on it after the fact (cause I didn't know shit about the situation till Kushner the Stupider came to prominence with Trump) is that Christie went after him because he was a major Democratic party political donor and that he was such a big donor mostly because those are the kinds of palms you need to grease in the NY area to get your shady shit done in realestate.
Hey! He's a newbie to business, you shouldn't expect him to know all the rules immediately! Give him a chance to learn the ropes first!!
On my sleeve, let the runway start
ffs it's just his first day
PSN: ShogunGunshow
Origin: ShogunGunshow