Giuliani 2

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">see RudyGiu 3 bak</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">rudy tag 918 congrats feck on opioids
</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see g and bracewell for older, lots of coal polluters</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
promoted 11/9&nbsp; CCA trump pal atty gen'l?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">capt 920 code fix html&nbsp;</font><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;Paleofuture</span><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RS</font></div><div><div class="c-content t-copy" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; line-height: 1.75rem; width: 709.125px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.9375rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;">r<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/rudy-giuliani/" id="auto-tag_rudy-giuliani" data-tag="rudy-giuliani" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; transition: color 0.24s cubic-bezier(0.215, 0.61, 0.355, 1) 0s; text-decoration-line: none; position: relative; font-weight: 600;">udy Giuliani</a>&nbsp;has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/giuliani-consulted-on-ukraine-with-imprisoned-paul-manafort-via-a-lawyer/2019/10/02/7a6dc542-e486-11e9-b7da-053c79b03db8_story.html" rel="nofollow" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; transition: color 0.24s cubic-bezier(0.215, 0.61, 0.355, 1) 0s; text-decoration-line: none; position: relative; font-weight: 600;"><span class="s2" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;">consulted with&nbsp;</span></a><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/paul-manafort/" id="auto-tag_paul-manafort" data-tag="paul-manafort" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; transition: color 0.24s cubic-bezier(0.215, 0.61, 0.355, 1) 0s; text-decoration-line: none; position: relative; font-weight: 600;">Paul Manafort</a>&nbsp;“several times”</span>&nbsp;in recent months as he quests to smear Joe Biden and boost&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/what-is-the-crowdstrike-conspiracy-theory-890459/" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; transition: color 0.24s cubic-bezier(0.215, 0.61, 0.355, 1) 0s; text-decoration-line: none; position: relative; font-weight: 600;">a debunked conspiracy theory</a>&nbsp;that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/ukraine/" id="auto-tag_ukraine" data-tag="ukraine" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; transition: color 0.24s cubic-bezier(0.215, 0.61, 0.355, 1) 0s; text-decoration-line: none; position: relative; font-weight: 600;">Ukraine</a>&nbsp;and Democrats — not Russia — were the ones who did the real malfeasance ahead of the 2016 election, The&nbsp;<i style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;">Washington Post</i>&nbsp;reported on Wednesday.</font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; padding: 0.9375rem 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;">This isn’t exactly a great look for Trump’s personal lawyer-turned-global conspiracy theory propagator, as Manafort is currently in prison for a smorgasbord of financial crimes, many related to his dealings in Ukraine. So w</span><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;">hy exactly was Rudy seeking guidance from Trump’s disgraced former campaign manager? It’s complicated.</span></font></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; padding: 0.9375rem 0px;"><span class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Giuliani has been in touch with Trump’s former campaign manager (through a lawyer) because of their shared interest in discrediting the Mueller investigation, which led to Manafort’s imprisonment, and the role a controversial “black ledger” could play in proving the probe was a hoax — just as Trump, Hannity, and the rest of the GOP’s crackpot crew has been saying all along.</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; padding: 0.9375rem 0px;" /><p style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><p class="p1" data-gtm-vis-recent-on-screen-9326027_26="2063039" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-9326027_26="2063040" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-9326027_26="100" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-9326027_26="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; padding: 0.9375rem 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;">The ledger, which was obtained by Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau, contained evidence of Manafort receiving over $12 million in off-the-books payments from the political party of Viktor Yanukovych, the Putin-friendly former Ukrainian president whom Manafort helped get elected. Manafort resigned as Trump’s campaign manager after the existence of the ledger was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/15/us/politics/paul-manafort-ukraine-donald-trump.html" rel="nofollow" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; transition: color 0.24s cubic-bezier(0.215, 0.61, 0.355, 1) 0s; text-decoration-line: none; position: relative; font-weight: 600;">reported by the&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;">New York Times</em></a>&nbsp;in August 2016, and now</span><span class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;">&nbsp;Giuliani is out to prove the ledger was fraudulent and part of a joint effort by Ukraine and the Democratic Party to to sink Trump’s campaign.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; padding: 0.9375rem 0px;" /><div class="l-article-contentpull l-article-contentpull--left" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 2.1875rem 2.1875rem 0px calc(-14.2857% - 0.6875rem); max-width: 11.875rem; float: left;"><div class="c-related variant-original" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 15px 1.5625rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0.8125rem 0.3125rem; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.16) 0px 0.125rem 0.25rem; background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); float: left; width: 12.5625rem; border-top: 0.3125rem solid rgb(211, 37, 49);"><h4 class="c-relatedheading t-bold t-bold--upper" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; padding: 0.4375rem 0px 0.5rem; display: flex; align-items: center; justify-content: flex-start; text-transform: uppercase; line-height: 1; letter-spacing: 0.025rem;"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman">RELATE
</font></font></h4><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/guiliani-crony-documents-released-parnas-ukraine-937834/" class="c-relatedlink" data-index="1" target="blank" data-label="related-article" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; transition: color 0.24s cubic-bezier(0.215, 0.61, 0.355, 1) 0s; text-decoration-line: none; position: relative; display: block; align-items: center; padding: 0px;" /><h5 class="c-relatedcaption t-bold" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-9326027_25="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; padding: 0.8rem 0px 0.8rem 0.625rem; position: relative; line-height: 1.15rem; display: inline !important;"><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/guiliani-crony-documents-released-parnas-ukraine-937834/" class="c-relatedlink" data-index="1" target="blank" data-label="related-article" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; transition: color 0.24s cubic-bezier(0.215, 0.61, 0.355, 1) 0s; text-decoration-line: none; position: relative; display: block; align-items: center; padding: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/guiliani-crony-documents-released-parnas-ukraine-937834/" class="c-relatedlink" data-index="1" target="blank" data-label="related-article" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; transition: color 0.24s cubic-bezier(0.215, 0.61, 0.355, 1) 0s; text-decoration-line: none; position: relative; display: block; align-items: center; padding: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/guiliani-crony-documents-released-parnas-ukraine-937834/" class="c-relatedlink" data-index="1" target="blank" data-label="related-article" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; transition: color 0.24s cubic-bezier(0.215, 0.61, 0.355, 1) 0s; text-decoration-line: none; position: relative; display: block; align-items: center; padding: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/guiliani-crony-documents-released-parnas-ukraine-937834/" class="c-relatedlink" data-index="1" target="blank" data-label="related-article" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; transition: color 0.24s cubic-bezier(0.215, 0.61, 0.355, 1) 0s; text-decoration-line: none; position: relative; display: block; align-items: center; padding: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/guiliani-crony-documents-released-parnas-ukraine-937834/" class="c-relatedlink" data-index="1" target="blank" data-label="related-article" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; transition: color 0.24s cubic-bezier(0.215, 0.61, 0.355, 1) 0s; text-decoration-line: none; position: relative; display: block; align-items: center; padding: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/guiliani-crony-documents-released-parnas-ukraine-937834/" class="c-relatedlink" data-index="1" target="blank" data-label="related-article" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; transition: color 0.24s cubic-bezier(0.215, 0.61, 0.355, 1) 0s; text-decoration-line: none; position: relative; display: block; align-items: center; padding: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/guiliani-crony-documents-released-parnas-ukraine-937834/" class="c-relatedlink" data-index="1" target="blank" data-label="related-article" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; transition: color 0.24s cubic-bezier(0.215, 0.61, 0.355, 1) 0s; text-decoration-line: none; position: relative; display: block; align-items: center; padding: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/guiliani-crony-documents-released-parnas-ukraine-937834/" class="c-relatedlink" data-index="1" target="blank" data-label="related-article" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; transition: color 0.24s cubic-bezier(0.215, 0.61, 0.355, 1) 0s; text-decoration-line: none; position: relative; display: block; align-items: center; padding: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/guiliani-crony-documents-released-parnas-ukraine-937834/" class="c-relatedlink" data-index="1" target="blank" data-label="related-article" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; transition: color 0.24s cubic-bezier(0.215, 0.61, 0.355, 1) 0s; text-decoration-line: none; position: relative; display: block; align-items: center; padding: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/guiliani-crony-documents-released-parnas-ukraine-937834/" class="c-relatedlink" data-index="1" target="blank" data-label="related-article" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; transition: color 0.24s cubic-bezier(0.215, 0.61, 0.355, 1) 0s; text-decoration-line: none; position: relative; display: block; align-items: center; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hiding?'</font></a></h5></div></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; padding: 0.9375rem 0px;" /><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; padding: 0.9375rem 0px;"><span class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Manafort is, not surprisingly, happy to offer his assistance. “I said, ‘Was there really a black book? If there wasn’t, I really need to know. Please tell him I’ve got to know,’” Giuliani told the&nbsp;<i style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;">Post</i>&nbsp;of his conversations with Manafort’s lawyer. “He came back and said there wasn’t a black book.”</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; padding: 0.9375rem 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The only problem is that there is no actual evidence the ledger is fraudulent. If there was, as the&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;">Post</em>&nbsp;points out, it probably would have been brought up by Manafort’s defense team when he was on trial last year, and before he admitted to receiving $60 million in payments for his work in Ukraine, $30 million of which he laundered. As Ukrainian journalist Serhiy Leschenko, who played a central role in exposing the ledger,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/09/21/why-is-rudy-giuliani-trying-drag-my-countrys-president-into-trumps-reelection-campaign/" rel="nofollow" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; transition: color 0.24s cubic-bezier(0.215, 0.61, 0.355, 1) 0s; text-decoration-line: none; position: relative; font-weight: 600;">wrote for the&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;">Post</em></a>&nbsp;in September, the idea the ledger is fake is nothing more than a scam meant to muddy the waters and raise suspicion. “Giuliani’s entire approach is built on disinformation and the manipulation of facts,” he wrote.&nbsp;“Giuliani has developed a conspiracy theory in which he depicts my revelations about Manafort as an intervention in the 2016 U.S. election in favor of the Democratic Party.”</font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; padding: 0.9375rem 0px;"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sadly, Giuliani’s efforts have indeed raised suspicion in some Senate Republicans, who have added some kindling to the conspiracy theory in the form of a congressional inquiry. “Ukrainian efforts, abetted by a U.S. political party, to interfere in the 2016 election should not be ignored,” wrote Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) of their new investigation into the matter. “Such allegations of corruption deserve due scrutiny, and the American people have a right to know when foreign forces attempt to undermine our democratic processes,” the senators wrote in the letter.</font></span></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; padding: 0.9375rem 0px;"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In other words, this conspiracy theory probably isn’t going away anytime soon. After all, Republicans don’t have much left to cling onto as they try to position themselves on the side of the president.</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; padding: 0.9375rem 0px;" /><p style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; padding: 0.9375rem 0px;"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Despite having no official government role, Giuliani has emerged as one of the central figures in the scandal surrounding Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine into interfering in the 2020 election. He’s long been in contact with a host of shadowy Ukrainian figures, and his name was mentioned several times in both the whistleblower complaint and the president’s July 25th call to Ukrainian President Zelensky. “Rudy very much knows what’s happening and he is a very capable guy,” Trump told Zelensky, according to a partial readout of the call released by the White House. “If you could speak to him that would be great.”</font></span></p><p class="p3" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; padding: 0.9375rem 0px;"><span class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Monday, House Democrats subpoenaed Giuliani for documents related to his efforts in Ukraine, going back to early 2017. “Our inquiry includes an investigation of credible allegations that you acted as an agent of the president in a scheme to advance his personal political interests by abusing the power of the office of the president,” Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), and Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) wrote in a letter to the former mayor.</font></span></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; padding: 0.9375rem 0px;"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Giuliani likened the request to McCarthyism. “We’re getting really close to, if we haven’t met, the standard of the McCarthy hearings where nobody seems to care about things like attorney-client privilege,” he&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/30/us/politics/impeach-giuliani-subpoena.html" rel="nofollow" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; transition: color 0.24s cubic-bezier(0.215, 0.61, 0.355, 1) 0s; text-decoration-line: none; position: relative; font-weight: 600;"><span class="s2" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;">told the&nbsp;<i style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;">Times</i></span></a>. Though Giuliani has not said explicitly that he won’t comply with the subpoena, it doesn’t appear he’s going to. On Tuesday, he hired former Watergate prosecutor Jon Sale to represent him.</font></span></p></div><footer style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="c-tags" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; padding: 0.625rem 0px; line-height: 1.3125rem;"><p class="t-semibold" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-weight: 600;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In This Article:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/paul-manafort/" title="Paul Manafort" class="c-tagsitem" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; transition: color 0.24s cubic-bezier(0.215, 0.61, 0.355, 1) 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Paul Manafort</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/rudy-giuliani/" title="Rudy Giuliani" class="c-tagsitem" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; transition: color 0.24s cubic-bezier(0.215, 0.61, 0.355, 1) 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Rudy Giuliani</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/ukraine/" title="Ukraine" class="c-tagsitem" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; transition: color 0.24s cubic-bezier(0.215, 0.61, 0.355, 1) 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Ukraine</a></font></p></div></footer></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/giuliani-foreign-clientele-possible-conflicts-231413" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/giuliani-foreign-clientele-possible-conflicts-231413</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">g<span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" rem="rem" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">iuliani took money from Qatar, Venezuela, Iranian exiles</span></font></b></div><div class=" story-intro format-s" itemscope="" itemprop="mainEntityOfPage" itemtype="http://schema.org/Article" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.25em; margin-right: 344.859px;"><div class="summary " style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.25em;"><header class="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p class="subhead" style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.2em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">His foreign clientele could present conflicts of interest as secretary of state.</font></p></header><footer class="meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-box-align: center; align-items: center; margin-top: 0.5em;"><div itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/Person" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><p class="byline" style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.2em; display: inline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By ISAAC ARNSDORF</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;<p class="timestamp" style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.2em; display: inline;"><time itemprop="datePublished" datetime="2016-11-15 11:33:39" style="box-sizing: border-box;">11/15/2016&nbsp;</time></p></span></div></footer></div></div><p style="margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rudy Giuliani's paid consulting for foreign governments would present conflicts of interest as the nation's top diplomat that would make the Clinton Foundation look trifling.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since leaving the New York mayor's office, Giuliani has made millions as a lawyer and consultant, including for some clients at odds with U.S. foreign policy. When some of those ties s...w those concerns have no doubt been eclipsed by Donald Trump's own web of business entanglements, which are still not completely known to the public. Giuliani's participation in Trump's transition and contention for the job of secretary of state poses a direct challenge to Trump's promises to root out Washington self-dealing and ban his administration's officials from lobbying for foreign governments.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In 2011, an exiled Iranian political party called the Mujahedin e-Khalq, known as the MEK,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704810504576307102942382660" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s;">paid</a>&nbsp;Giuliani to give a speech in Washington calling on the State Department to remove the group from its list of terrorist organizations.</b>&nbsp;The MEK recruited a host of other formal officials to its cause and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/22/world/middleeast/iranian-opposition-group-mek-wins-removal-from-us-terrorist-list.html?mtrref=en.wikipedia.org&gwh=B5B9DFACCDA9536BB90D49001B1472DC&gwt=pay" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s;">succeeded</a>&nbsp;in reversing the terrorist designation in 2012.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A subsidiary of Giuliani's consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, advised Qatar's state-run oil company on security at a natural gas plant, The Wall Street Journal&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB119440640166884884" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s;">reported</a>. Qatar is a U.S. ally that hosts a major American military base but once stifled an attempt to arrest Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, who went on to mastermind the Sept. 11 attacks, according to the 9/11 commission report.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The same subsidiary, Giuliani Security & Safety, provided security advice to a Singapore gambling project on behalf of a partnership that included a tycoon close to the North Korean regime who is considered an organized crime figure by the U.S., according to&nbsp;<a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2007-11-21/news/0711210085_1_giuliani-partners-rudolph-giuliani-clients/2" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s;">a report in the Chicago Tribune</a>. "I think the person involved, if it's correct, was a 1 percent owner that had no involvement with us, we never worked for, had nothing to do with," Giuliani&nbsp;<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/09/AR2007120901185.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s;">told</a>&nbsp;NBC's Tim Russert at the time.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Giuliani Partners also&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/07/nyregion/07giuliani.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s;">advised</a>&nbsp;TransCanada, which sought to build the Keystone XL pipeline that President Barack Obama rejected but Trump has said he wants to approve.&nbsp;</b>And Giuliani helped the maker of the&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">OxyContin</span>&nbsp;painkiller, Purdue Pharma,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/us/politics/28oxycontin.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s;">settle</a>&nbsp;a Drug Enforcement Administration investigation with a fine.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Houston-based law firm Giuliani joined as a named partner in 2005&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/us/politics/15rudy.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s;">lobbied</a>&nbsp;in Texas for&nbsp;<b>Citgo, the U.S. subsidiary of the Venezuelan state oil company</b>&nbsp;then controlled by President Hugo Chavez, The New York Times reported in 2007. The firm also&nbsp;<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/15/AR2007051500191_pf.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s;">did work</a>&nbsp;for Saudi Arabia's oil ministry, according to The Associated Press.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The law firm, Bracewell & Giuliani, lobbied at the federal level during Giuliani's time there for&nbsp;<b>energy companies</b>&nbsp;including Southern Company, Duke Energy, Energy Future Holdings, Arch Coal, Chesapeake Energy and NuStar Energy, records show. It also represented Cornell Companies, a private prison operator that later merged with GEO Group. Giuliani never personally registered as a lobbyist. He left the firm for rival<b>&nbsp;Greenberg Traurig&nbsp;</b>this year, and currently is on leave.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Giuliani's assistant at Greenberg Traurig and the Trump transition didn't answer requests for comment.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Clinton Foundation has been hounded by Republican suspicions of selling access to Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, and the nonprofit did accept big bucks from foreign governments. But Clinton's defenders point out there's no proof she ever made an official act to benefit a foundation donor, and, unlike Giuliani, she never personally profited from the foreign contributions to her charity.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When Giuliani ran for president, he reported assets of $18.1 million to $70.4 million.</font></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/the-web-of-crazy-that-may-bring-down-a-president/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/the-web-of-crazy-that-may-bring-down-a-president/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The web of crazy that may bring down a president</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Heather Digby Parton / Salon October 4, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Last weekend, for the first time, one of Donald Trump’s former insiders appeared on television and openly discussed the metastasizing Ukraine scandal in clear and concise terms. Former homeland security adviser Tom Bossert appeared on ABC’s “This Week”:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This Week</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@ThisWeekABC</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Former Homeland Security adviser Tom Bossert on impeachment inquiry against Pres. Trump: "It is a bad day and a bad week for the president and for this country if he is asking for political dirt on an opponent." https://abcn.ws/2mhOgOy&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Embedded video</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@ThisWeekABC</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tom Bossert says Pres. Trump needs to "move forward" from focus on 2016 collusion allegations: "If he continues to focus on that white whale, it's going to bring him down. Enough." https://abcn.ws/2ojcGb3&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Embedded video</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1,036</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">6:21 AM - Sep 29, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">545 people are talking about this</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bossert was talking about two of the strands of what turns out to be a convoluted set of interlocking conspiracy theories, all of which involve Rudy Giuliani and all of which are, quite frankly, completely nuts.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There’s the one about former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and the “Black Ledger,” which forms one strand of the ludicrous “Ukraine framed Russia to help Hillary Clinton” 2016 collusion theory. Manafort knows his way around Ukraine and Giuliani has reportedly been consulting with him in prison, where Manafort is serving time for various felonies he committed during his work there.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The “CrowdStrike scandal” mentioned by Bossert intersects with the “Black Ledger” theory. This one holds that the security firm that first identified the Russians as being behind the Democratic National Committee hack was actually owned by a Ukrainian (it isn’t and never has been) and was in on the plot — as were the FBI and the DNC, including murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich, who supposedly did the actual hacking as an “inside job.” All of it is utter nonsense. (The New York Times’ Scott Shane did a nice report on how Trump got hooked on this stuff.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There’s also Attorney General William Barr’s “investigation of the investigation” which has him gallivanting all over the globe trying to prove that the CIA had it in for Trump and set up the bogus Russia investigation to trap him. This must also means that Robert Mueller was in on the scheme, since his team indicted a whole bunch of Russians.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As I said, Rudy Giuliani is at the center of all of these conspiracy theories, working under the influence of a couple of Ukrainian conmen in Florida with the full participation of his client, the president of the United States. They are both wallowing in the right-wing fever swamps and it’s as fetid and poisonous as Chernobyl during the meltdown.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Of course, there is also the other big Ukraine scandal that has gotten Trump into such hot water: the alleged influence-peddling extravaganza around Joe and Hunter Biden. As is his wont, Trump has blurted out a confession of wrongdoing, admitting that he asked the Ukrainian president to gather some dirt on his potential political rival as Trump was inexplicably holding up promised military aid. On Thursday, he said it again, adding that he thinks China should investigate the Bidens as well — in the same breath that he made new threats about the ongoing trade war.&nbsp; He just can’t quit self-impeaching.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Later on Thursday evening, the House Intelligence Committee released transcripts of Trump’s Ukraine and EU ambassadors and envoys texting back and forth about Trump’s “crazy” quid pro quo, which makes clear that they were all aware of what was going on and were either trying to document their displeasure or cover the whole business up. They worked very hard to get Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to sign a statement saying his government was taking up the investigation of Joe and Hunter Biden. in exchange for a visit to the White House and the release of nearly $400 million in military aid. To his credit, Zelensky didn’t do it, perhaps understanding that he was dealing with people who were unreliable.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Unlike all the other Ukraine scandals, this Biden conspiracy didn’t spring from the right-wing fever swamps, nor did Rudy Giuliani “uncover it” as he likes to brag he did. This one was a professional hit job carried out by the same team that brought you “Clinton Cash,” the book about the Clinton Foundation that formed the basis of the “Crooked Hillary” campaign.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This time it was a book called “Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends,” by “Clinton Cash” author Peter Schweizer, who is now an editor at Breitbart News and president of the Government Accountability Institute, a nonprofit he founded with Steve Bannon and right-wing billionaire Rebekah Mercer. Its purpose is clear enough: To launder far-right smears and dirty tricks.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I wrote about this gang back in 2015 for Salon when Schweizer gulled the New York Times and the Washington Post into partnering with him on the Clinton story, apparently convincing them that the man who wrote “Architects of Ruin: How Big Government Liberals Ruined the Global Economy and Will Do It Again if We Don’t Stop Them” was a straight journalist just looking for a little accountability.&nbsp; The book was a huge success at what it set out to do: Tar Hillary Clinton as a corrupt criminal. Why not do it again with Joe Biden, who everyone knew was likely to run against Trump in 2020?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This time, with the notable exception of a couple of dubious stories in the New York Times, the media didn’t bite on the Biden story with quite the same eagerness. Bloomberg’s Joshua Green points out in this article on the subject that while it didn’t catch on in the mainstream press, it was huge in the conservative media, which apparently bothered Bannon a great deal. After all, the GAI was formed to push its smears into the mainstream.&nbsp; Stories that exist only in the conservative bubble simply don’t have the same power to move the broader electorate.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Green notes that because Trump mainlines conservative media, he saw the story as very beneficial to his cause, adding that “what differentiates Trump from other power-consumers of conservative media is that he’s the president and was willing to use his governmental powers to attack a political rival.” Indeed he was. And it was a big mistake — it finally got the Democrats off the dime on impeachment.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Schweizer denies working with Giuliani or the White House. But then, he didn’t have to. He planted the seeds and then Fox News and Rush Limbaugh and the Trump and Rudy show made it grow. Green writes:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[T]here’s no question the anti-Biden effort has boomeranged on Trump, who is suddenly under siege from the Democrats’ fast-moving impeachment inquiry. … At this point, no one can say what effect all this will have on the 2020 election. But it looks increasingly like it won’t be the one that Biden’s antagonists, from Trump to Schweizer, were aiming for.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s possible this will end up hurting Joe Biden, as these smears almost always do. But it’s hurting Trump even more. And to be honest, I’m not sure that Schweizer and company care that much. If a pain in the neck like Donald Trump gets caught in the crossfire I doubt they’ll lose any sleep over it. Political hitmen aren’t sentimental. They just move on to their next assignment.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Heather Digby Parton, also known as “Digby,” is a contributing writer to Salon. She was the winner of the 2014 Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis Journalism.</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</font><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/fox-news-outs-two-network-analysts-for-working-off-the-books-with-trump-and-giuliani-to-find-biden-dirt/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/fox-news-outs-two-network-analysts-for-working-off-the-books-with-trump-and-giuliani-to-find-biden-dirt/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">kos</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace broke a bit of genuine news on Sunday morning when he reported that two of Fox News’ own frequent guests and Trump supporters may themselves be enmeshed in the Trump-Ukraine scandal.</font><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Lawyers Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing have been working with Rudy Giuliani in his attempts to conduct opposition research on former Vice President Joe Biden,</span>&nbsp;<a title="" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/joe-digenova-and-victoria-toensing-worked-with-rudy-giuliani-to-dig-up-ukraine-dirt-on-joe-biden-report?ref=scroll&via=twitter_page" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">said Wallace</a>. “According to a top U.S. official, all three were working off the books apart from the administration. The only person in government who knows what they were doing is President Trump.” This is a significant nugget for several reasons. First, Rudy Giuliani is still flatly denying he worked with other lawyers to collect Biden “dirt”; the Fox News anchor is therefore calling Giuliani a liar. Well, even more of a liar.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>And second, the top-of-the-program callout of two of the network’s own frequent guests and analysts for undisclosed, “off the books” involvement in one of the scandals the network has been hosting them to opine on is, regardless of the obvious conflict of interest, nearly unheard of.</b>&nbsp;From Lou Dobbs to Sean Hannity, the network has taken a notably lax attitude when it comes to network mouths splitting their time between the network and the needs of the Trump administration. They normally wouldn’t so much as peep about overtly conflicted guests!</font></p><div class="alt_ad_block story-page-in-content-graph-4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div id="lightbox-inline-form-b00052c7-64de-4049-944f-8160479112fb" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Whatever’s going on, diGenova and Toensing seem to have peeved someone in the network off mightily.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That’s not quite the idle speculation it would appear to be. DiGenova appeared recently on Tucker Carlson’s show to defend Trump in the Ukraine scandal—an appearance that&nbsp;<a title="" href="https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-attacks-fox-colleague-shep-smith-says-smiths-program-partisan-opinion" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">led to Carlson directly attacking “straight news” anchor Shepard Smith’s credibility</a>. But Fox News as an entity relies on maintaining a largely fictional separation between the loud-mouthed opinion hosts and the self-described “trustworthy” news side of the business; if Tucker is going to threaten that separation by suggesting that the news side is itself biased, it’s going to threaten the paychecks of everyone in the building.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Wallace’s high-profile knifing of Tucker’s recent guest diGenova might signify, then, that the “straight news” producers have had just about enough lip from the likes of Tucker and his guests. Fox has been doing&nbsp;<a title="" href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/revisiting-fox-straight-news-sides-big-whistleblower-exclusive" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">next to no original reporting</a>&nbsp;on the Ukrainian scandal; suddenly, though,&nbsp;it has a line on new scandal participants that just happen to be two of its own network’s favorite guests?</font></p><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p></div></div></div></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 919</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Who fed Donald Trump his bogus Ukraine conspiracy theories?</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by David Atkins / Washington Monthly September 30, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the more bizarre elements of Donald Trump’s self-inflicted Ukraine scandal is his seemingly genuine belief that some nefarious Democratic scheme is hidden on Ukrainian computers. And one of the most important questions we should be asking is where he got that information.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">First, some context: while most of attention has focused on the White House’s hamfisted attempt to gather dirt on the Biden family and its apparently widespread (and illegal) misuse of classification to hide politically damaging and legally incriminating information, there is also<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;another sideplot: his conspiracy theory that Clinton’s missing emails, and perhaps other nefarious things, are somehow being stored on Ukrainian servers. This is a reference to what is known as the “Crowdstrike” conspiracy theory, a very fringe right-wing conspiracy theory so bizarre it barely makes it way onto onto Fox News.&nbsp;</span>Rachel Sandler breaks it down at Forbes thus:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Silicon Valley-based CrowdStrike was hired in 2016 by the DNC to investigate the origins of the hack. The company didn’t give the DNC’s physical server to the FBI, which has been seized on by conspiracy theorists as evidence of a cover up.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According to the theory, which has been prominent on right-wing blogs and news websites and repeated by Trump and former campaign consultant<b>&nbsp;Roger Stone,</b>Democrats and CrowdStrike concocted evidence to frame Russia for the hack in order to discredit Trump’s win in 2016.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The supposed evidence of Russia’s innocence relies on the belief that a DNC server has been hidden in Ukraine, possibly by CrowdStrike’s cofounder Dmitri Alperovitch.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That belief may stem from a statement by President Trump in a 2017 interview with the Associated Press, in which he questioned why the FBI didn’t look at the DNC server, that CrowdStrike is owned by “a very rich Ukrainian.”&nbsp;<b>Alperovitch is actually a Russian-born American citizen.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The theory is, of course, totally bogus. It’s also an attempt to absolve Russia of its culpability in the hacking of the DNC:</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Ultimately, the president seems to be alluding to an idea that alt-right commentators and pro-Russia sympathizers have pushed for years: that CrowdStrike was wrong about Russia hacking the DNC—and, moreover, that CrowdStrike intentionally blamed Russia for political reasons. CrowdStrike’s findings have, of course, been repeatedly affirmed by the intelligence community, the Justice Department, members of Congress, and the office of Robert Mueller. Last year the government indicted a dozen Russian intelligence officers for their role in the hacking plot…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>These straw-grasping claims and distortions of fact are fuel for the fire of disinformation.</b>&nbsp;Further, the notion that there is some missing “server,” and that the server might exist somewhere—like in Ukraine—has no basis in reality. The DNC’s network consisted of many servers and computers which either had be put out to pasture, rebooted, or rebuilt to rid them of malware and intruders.&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As the DNC explained in a 2018 lawsuit filed against the Russian government, it had to “decommission more than 140 servers, remove and reinstall all software, including the operating systems, for more than 180 computers, and rebuild at least 11 servers” as a result of the hacking.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The unanswered question in all this is how Donald Trump came to believe in this nonsense, and why he continues to believe it. His own employees and administration official tried again and again to disabuse him of these notions, but he refused to give them up:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Trump was repeatedly warned by his own staff that the Ukraine conspiracy theory that he and his lawyer were pursuing was “completely debunked” long before the president pressed Ukraine this summer to investigate his Democratic rivals, a former top adviser said on Sunday.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Thomas P. Bossert, who served as Mr. Trump’s first homeland security adviser, said he told the president there was no basis to the theory that Ukraine, not Russia, intervened in the 2016 election</b>&nbsp;and did so on behalf of the Democrats. Speaking out for the first time, Mr. Bossert said he was “deeply disturbed” that Mr. Trump nonetheless tried to get Ukraine’s president to produce damaging information about Democrats.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Rudy Giuliani has been significantly involved in the obsession over Ukraine, as his bizarre spiels on cable news networks have amply demonstrated.&nbsp;</b>Most recently he claimed to have been attempting to prove that Donald Trump (and, by extension, the Russians) was “framed by the Democrats”–a notion that Trump recently promoted on twitter.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But it seems unlikely Giuliani has been Donald Trump’s primary conspiracy theory conduit. Rather, he seems to have been roped into it by Trump, and enjoys the cable news limelight.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One might think that Trump got the information from random corners of the internet. But the problem there is that the president barely knows how to use a computer, and has to have articles printed out for him and put on his desk.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So who was feeding him these conspiracies? Why did he continue to believe them even as his own intelligence services and White House staff were attempting to disabuse him of them?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We still don’t know. But we deserve to find out.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">David Atkins is a writer, activist and research professional living in Santa Barbara. He is a contributor to the Washington Monthly’s Political Animal and president of The Pollux Group, a qualitative research firm.</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">romanian prosectutor?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">selected stories</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/state-department-throws-rudy-giuliani-under-the-bus-after-he-says-he-was-on-a-mission-from-the-u-s-government/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/state-department-throws-rudy-giuliani-under-the-bus-after-he-says-he-was-on-a-mission-from-the-u-s-government/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">R<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">udy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s personal attorney, appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show on Monday to try to spin away from the growing scandal enveloping the White House. Giuliani told Hannity someone from the State Department rang him up and asked him to meet with a senior aide to&nbsp;President-elect Zelensky of Ukraine. Giuliani neglected to mention, and Hannity neglected to follow-up, on reporting from the&nbsp;</span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-defends-conversation-with-ukraine-leader-11568993176" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Wall Street Journal</a></em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;that Donald Trump asked President-elect Zelensky&nbsp;</span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">eight times</em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;to meet with Rudy Giuliani, a private citizen who has not been elected nor confirmed for any role representing the United States.</span></font></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the clip below, Giuliani basically paints himself as a patriot, saying the State Department called to ask for his help and he gave it. But, the&nbsp;<a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/462761-giuliani-says-state-department-asked-him-to-take-call-from-ukrainian-official" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">State Department had a little teeny bit of a different take</a>&nbsp;on the situation than Giuliani, one that should be causing Rudy Giuliani to start losing a whole lot of sleep.

When reached for comment, a State Department spokesperson said, “Mr. Giuliani is a private citizen and acts in a personal capacity as a lawyer for President Trump. He does not speak on behalf of the U.S. Government.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Folks, that is the sound of a bus the size of Ukraine driving right over Rudy Giuliani. You are on your own, Rudy. And when push comes to shove, just wait’ll you see the bus Donald Trump throws you under....Rudy Giuliani just said the State Department asked him to “go on a mission” AND WHY IN THE HELL IS STATE DEPT ASKING THE PRESIDENTS PERSONAL LAWYER TO GO TO UKRAINE WTF IS HAPPENING&...For the record, the statement from a State Department spokesperson is quite different than Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s comments on Sunday talk shows. In this clip from CBS’s&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Face the Nation</em>, Pompeo refused to get into the details of Giuliani’s involvement and tried to spin this back to being about Biden.</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If Mike Pompeo was involved in setting up the&nbsp;meeting for Rudy Giuliani and the Ukrainian official, which took place away from cameras in the Spanish countryside, he’s likely going to have to answer to Congress as well.</font></font></p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-error" data-twitter-extracted-i1569424668805760316="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; background: rgb(245, 245, 245); border: none !important;"><p dir="ltr" lang="en" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The U.S. Secretary of State endorses Rudy Giuliani’s efforts to seek help from a foreign government to investigate President Trump’s political opponent&nbsp;<a href="https://t.co/hE8jHum8ib" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">pic.twitter.com/hE8jHum8ib</a></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— Josh Campbell (@joshscampbell)&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/joshscampbell/status/1175771817602093056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">September 22, 2019</a></font></font></p></blockquote><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">cf trms on odd russia timeline, myst phone call promise</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/impeachment-resignation-treason-federal-charges-reaction-to-the-stunning-trump-ukraine-news/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/impeachment-resignation-treason-federal-charges-reaction-to-the-stunning-trump-ukraine-news/</font></a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...T<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">hursday ended with the absolutely bombshell news that Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani allegedly schemed to withhold military and financial aid to Ukraine—unless the newly elected prime minister found some kind of dirt on Joe Biden’s son Hunter, who has done work in Ukraine. You could and should read more about this scandal from my colleague, Mark Sumner, who</span><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/9/19/1886645/-Trump-has-been-extorting-U-S-ally-Ukraine-and-we-ve-known-it-for-months" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">&nbsp;</a></strong><a title="" href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/9/19/1886645/-Trump-has-been-extorting-U-S-ally-Ukraine-and-we-ve-known-it-for-months" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">has a great summary of the situation and a complete timeline of the scandal.&nbsp;</a></font></font></div><div class="p1_46" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For what it’s worth, we aren’t talking small funds here. We are talking $250 million in aid that the&nbsp;<a title="" href="https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2019/09/19/ukraine-military-aid-extension-passes-us-house-after-white-house-delay/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">White House blocked this summer</a>, which was, coincidentally, releasedtues?

Almost immediately after the news skyrocketed to the top trending topic on social media,<b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255,&nbsp;

lost his mind and admitted he was a co-conspirator in a&nbsp;Ukraine deal">. More incredibly, Giuliani then ran to Twitter to not just affirm his role; he also directly implicated Donald Trump.</b></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></div></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/deranged-police-state-fever-dream-internet-explodes-over-rudy-giulianis-incredibly-fascist-video-for-9-11/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/deranged-police-state-fever-dream-internet-explodes-over-rudy-giulianis-incredibly-fascist-video-for-9-11/</font></a></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div style=""><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>‘Deranged police state fever dream’: Internet explodes over Rudy Giuliani’s ‘incredibly fascist’ video for 9/11</b></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by David Badash / The New Civil Rights Movement<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>September 11, 2019</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Former New York City mayor, now President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani observed the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks by posting a chilling, creepy, and many are saying “fascist” video in the early morning, tweeting “GOD BLESS AMERICA!” in all-caps.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The highly-edited video opens with staged images of people protesting fascism, as a young child slowly sings “America the Beautiful.”</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The camera closes in on a lone police officer starting at the protestors, who are exercising their First Amendment rights.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In an apparent flashback the officer seems to be remembering his life: a police badge is pinned on his shirt, a flag-draped coffin of a U.S. service member is carried past him, and a young boy sits in front of a television set watching footage reminiscent of fire fighters raising a flag in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">He then flips down the clear shield on his helmet, and the camera shows him whipping out a club – just as the protestors jump the barricade.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The words “This We’ll Defend” flash on the screen.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rudy Giuliani</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">?</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@RudyGiuliani</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;GOD BLESS AMERICA!</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;Embedded video</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The video is looped, repeating until the user stops it.</b></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NBC News’ Ben Collins explains the video is “a ‘banned from the Super Bowl’ ad that skirted the rules and got conservative media attention.”</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ben Collins</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">?</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@oneunderscore</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;· 2h</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;Jesus. https://twitter.com/RudyGiuliani/status/1171663086178185217 …</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rudy Giuliani</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">?</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@RudyGiuliani</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GOD BLESS AMERICA!</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;Embedded video</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ben Collins</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">?</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@oneunderscore</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is not the start of a dystopian David Fincher movie about a cop who lost his mind (good guess!).</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It's a "banned from the Super Bowl" ad that skirted the rules and got conservative media attention. He cut off the logo of the t-shirt company at the endhttps://twitter.com/RudyGiuliani/status/1171663086178185217 …</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rudy Giuliani</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">?</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@RudyGiuliani</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GOD BLESS AMERICA!</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;Embedded video</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Response to the disturbing clip was astonishment, confusion, anger, and outrage – and with many decrying it as clear fascism.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Take a look:</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">southpaw</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@nycsouthpaw</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;This video from Rudy honors the Republican tradition of using the memory of 9/11 to attack people who had absolutely nothing to do with it, and it’s incredibly fascist to boot. https://twitter.com/rudygiuliani/status/1171663086178185217 …</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">??? ???????? ?????????</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@JewishWorker</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;Rudy Giuliani was always a fascist. Now he's just more comfortable being open about it. https://twitter.com/RudyGiuliani/status/1171663086178185217 …</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Anthony L. Fisher</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">?</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@anthonyLfisher</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;Rudy Giuliani was never more popular than the 3 months after 9/11/01. It was because he displayed empathy, compassion, and stoicism — not this deranged police state fever dream. https://twitter.com/RudyGiuliani/status/1171663086178185217 …</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Michelangelo Signorile</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">?</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@MSignorile</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;Wtf, Giuliani?&nbsp; On 9/11.&nbsp;</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The theme moving forward — we’ll defend our minority rule, via all means necessary.&nbsp;</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Frightening. https://twitter.com/RudyGiuliani/status/1171663086178185217 …</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">?</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@longwall26</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;Rudy's been an out-fascist for a long, long time https://twitter.com/RudyGiuliani/status/1171663086178185217 …</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bad Fox Graphics</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@BadFoxGraphics</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;Once upon a time, Rudy Giuliani was an attorney who understood the First Amendment. https://twitter.com/rudygiuliani/status/1171663086178185217 …</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alex Griswold</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">?</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@HashtagGriswold</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;Well... Rudy is certainly on brand</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tom Tomorrow</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">?</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@tomtomorrow</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;welp it's just Mayor 9/11 celebrating fascism on 9/11 day https://twitter.com/RudyGiuliani/status/1171663086178185217 …</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rudy Giuliani</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">?</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@RudyGiuliani</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GOD BLESS AMERICA!</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;Embedded video</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">346</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">7:04 AM - Sep 11, 2019</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">105 people are talking about this</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bobby Lewis</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@revrrlewis</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;nothing says "i remember 9/11 and respect the freedoms that were attacked" more than a video comparing social justice protesters to terrorists https://twitter.com/RudyGiuliani/status/1171663086178185217 …</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">283</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">7:09 AM - Sep 11, 2019</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">61 people are talking about this</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Patrick Blanchfield</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">?</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@PatBlanchfield</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;not sure what's more risible here: Giuliani's slobbering fascism, or the fact that he has to use an unattributed commercial for a shitty clothing brand to do it https://twitter.com/RudyGiuliani/status/1171663086178185217 …</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Regular UltraDavid</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@ultradavid</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;This is an ad for fascism, holy shit. I think Giuliani sucks, I've been worried about the right's nationalism, etc, but I'm still floored at how explicitly pro-fascist this is. These protesters are protesting fascism, it's on their sign, & this cop is gonna maul them for it. Wtf! https://twitter.com/RudyGiuliani/status/1171663086178185217 …</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@jessesingal</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;I'm sorry but this is deranged https://twitter.com/RudyGiuliani/status/1171663086178185217 …</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cass OMalley ??????</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@CassOMalley1</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;Gaslighting America on 9/11? Now this is DEPLORABLE https://twitter.com/RudyGiuliani/status/1171663086178185217 …</font></font></div></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[bunch more twts]</font></font></div><div style=""><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">OMG</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">mirror/whataboutism?</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/trump-and-his-henchmen-have-eagerly-dug-for-a-biden-scandal-in-ukraine-now-its-coming-back-to-bite-them"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/trump-and-his-henchmen-have-eagerly-dug-for-a-biden-scandal-in-ukraine-now-its-coming-back-to-bite-them</font></a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump and his henchmen have eagerly dug for a Biden scandal in Ukraine. Now it’s coming back to bite them</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Bob Cesca / Salon September 10, 2019</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As Donald Trump grows noticeably more desperate, he’s blundering his way into more unforced errors, metaphorically stepping on a series of rakes scattered on the White House lawn. With each careless step onto another rake, he keeps clobbering himself in the face again and again. In particular, Trump appears to be setting a trap for Joe Biden, should the former vice president win the Democratic nomination next year. But it’s a plot that’s already backfiring. After all, my rule remains: Trump always makes things worse for Trump.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Before we dig into the latest harrowing developments on this front, let’s review. Back in May, I wrote about a story originally reported by the New York Times involving Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden and Ukraine.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Late in the Obama administration, Joe Biden was dispatched to Kiev, armed with a relatively severe ultimatum. While there, the Times reported, Biden threatened to withhold a billion dollars in government loans unless the then-prosecutor general, Viktor Shokin, was fired. Shortly thereafter, Shokin was indeed fired and replaced by Yuriy Lutsenko. The cash was released.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Here’s where it gets hinky — but not really. Prior to Biden arriving in Kiev, an investigation had been underway by prosecutor Shokin into a natural gas company called Burisma Holdings. One of the corporation’s board members was Hunter Biden, the vice president’s son and a New York lawyer who apparently pulled down a salary of $50,000 per month for his position with the company.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">While it may look as if Biden exploited the loan money as leverage in order to kill an investigation into a corporation that employed his son, Bloomberg learned that the Burisma investigation had been shuttled to the back burner in 2015 before Biden’s trip and, the report added, the Obama administration’s intention was to convince the Ukrainian government to crack down on corruption in general.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A former Ukrainian official, Vitaliy Kasko, told Bloomberg, “There was no pressure from anyone from the U.S. to close cases against [Mykola] Zlochevsky.” Zlochevsky is the founder and owner of Burisma.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Fast forward to 2019. Somewhere around the time Rudy Giuliani held meetings with prosecutor Lutsenko in New York, Ukraine reopened the case against Burisma in March of this year (although Bloomberg disputes this detail as well). The Times also reported that Lutsenko took up the case again in order “to curry favor from the Trump administration for his boss and ally.”</b></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bloomberg and the New York Times agree in their reporting that Burisma was a topic of conversation between Giuliani and Lutsenko in Manhattan.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">However, since Ukraine elected a new president, 41-year-old Volodymyr Zelensky, a reformer who’s not beholden to the Kremlin, prosecutor Lutsenko was replaced by Ruslan Riaboshapka in late August. So this means the Trumpers have to start from scratch, trying to convince the new Ukrainian government to keep digging into Hunter and Joe Biden. Naturally, Rudy answered the call, meeting with officials from the Zelensky administration in Madrid, according to the Times and confirmed by Giuliani, where Trump’s TV lawyer tried once again to convince Ukraine to focus on the Bidens.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>The meeting must’ve gone badly because Trump has decided Prime Minister Zelensky isn’t an ally, and it probably doesn’t help that Zelensky isn’t a Putin disciple. Consequently, Trump has withheld $250 million in promised military aid to Ukraine, all while Ukraine continues to fight off Putin’s loyalists in that region. Trump also refuses to invite Zelensky to the White House.</b></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yes, it’s another gigantic, sloppy tongue-kiss for Putin from the president, further confirming Trump’s ongoing status as Putin’s puppet, endangering U.S. national security and undermining democracy here and elsewhere. And that’s not all …</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>It’s also collusion in plain sight</b>.&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trump and Giuliani are busily blackmailing Ukraine, leaving it vulnerable to Putin’s aggression, in order to strong-arm Zelensky into helping the Trump campaign defeat Joe Biden by manufacturing the whopper Democratic scandal of the 2020 election cycle.</span></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As the Washington Post editorial board observed last week, “Mr. Trump is not just soliciting Ukraine’s help with his presidential campaign; he is using U.S. military aid the country desperately needs in an attempt to extort it.”</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Fortunately, the House Intelligence Committee, along with both the Foreign Affairs and Oversight Committees, will launch simultaneous investigations into Trump’s and Giuliani’s attempted collusion with Ukraine. Intelligence Committee chair&nbsp;<b>Adam Schiff, D-Calif.,</b>&nbsp;said in a statement:</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A growing public record indicates that, for nearly two years, the President and his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, appear to have acted outside legitimate law enforcement and diplomatic channels to coerce the Ukrainian government into pursuing two politically-motivated investigations under the guise of anti-corruption activity. As the 2020 election draws closer, President Trump and his personal attorney appear to have increased pressure on the Ukrainian government and its justice system in service of President Trump’s reelection campaign, and the White House and the State Department may be abetting this scheme.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What separates this investigation from the ongoing 2016 Trump-Russia collusion probe is the clear-as-crystal fact that Giuliani confessed to meeting with Andrii Telizhenko in May, and with Ukrainian official Andriy Yermak in August to try to make it all happen. The Trumpers stupidly wanted everyone to know what they were doing in order to hamfistedly inject the Biden story into the conservative-entertainment complex.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ever the impulsive, erratic doofuses, the Trump team badly botched the story and instead of keeping their powder dry, they circled back for more. I guess William Barr’s factually inaccurate summary of the Mueller report convinced Trump that he could get away with anything, no matter how obviously corrupt it was. As a result, we’re looking at yet another impeachment article added to the conga-line of high crimes committed by this White House.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Of course, none of this will keep Trump from amplifying the Biden story when the time comes. Regardless of the facts and irrespective of further revelations from the congressional committees, Trump will frame the story as Biden colluding with Ukraine. The Republicans are never afraid of projection, that’s for sure. Worse, Trump will accuse the House committees of also colluding with Ukraine if and when documents are requested from Kiev, including a transcript of Trump’s July 25 phone call with Zelensky.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The good news is that the story is complicated and therefore not easily summarized by a Trump tweet or with a rally zinger for Trump’s Red Hats to repeat like the dutiful fanboys they are. Democrats will have plenty of time to prepare a defense, knowing exactly where Trump is headed with this non-scandal. There’s also the distinct possibility this will all end up as another rake handle to Trump’s face, magnifying the fact that he’s not just grossly unfit for re-election, but grossly unfit to continue serving his first term as well.</font></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></div></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-friends/fox-friends-rudy-giuliani-links-911-terrorism-venezuela"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-friends/fox-friends-rudy-giuliani-links-911-terrorism-venezuela</font></a></span></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">video:</font></font></div><div style=""><h1 class="editorial-full__title page-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 0.45455em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Fox & Friends, Rudy Giuliani links 9/11 terrorism to Venezuela</font></span></font></h1><p class="subtitle" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Giuliani: “We have to get rid of Maduro”</font></font></p></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></span></font></div><div style=""><p class="yiv0560478744headline3" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" margin="margin" padding="padding"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">T<a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click1.e.alternet.org/zwsdlgfvftzkzlqqkbpffkfqqbkqvswcdtfzprgsbpb_izghyczcwymmcgngdmh.html?a=&b=248&c=21989&d=2" style="">rump’s Roy Cohns: William Barr has the power, but Rudy Giuliani slings the mud</a></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Georgia, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" font-style="font-style" italic="italic" color="color" rgb="rgb" margin="margin" padding="padding"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While he was in Japan, Donald Trump demanded that the…</font></font></p></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 519</font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></div><div style=""><p class="yiv6050557005headline3" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" margin="margin" padding="padding"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">T<a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click1.e.alternet.org/cdgqlkmvmnhfhlzzfgpmmfmzzgfzvcjsqnmhptkccml_rvnrclwlpcgglcnltkn.html?a=&b=262&c=21989&d=2" style="">his one act by Giuliani and his friends in the FBI could have been responsible for Trump’s win</a></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Georgia, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" font-style="font-style" italic="italic" color="color" rgb="rgb" margin="margin" padding="padding"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">How Rudy Giuliani engineered the infamous "Comey letter" of October…</font></font></p></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/world/rudy-giuliani-lobbyists-joseph-kabila-democratic-republic-congo">https://www.alternet.org/world/rudy-giuliani-lobbyists-joseph-kabila-democratic-republic-congo</a></font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div style=""><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;Tuesday,&nbsp;<u>The Independent&nbsp;</u><a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/rudy-giuliani-congo-sanctions-trump-us-joseph-kabila-lobbying-human-rights-corruption-a8677376.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">reported</a>&nbsp;that President Donald Trump's attorney, Rudy Giuliani, met with lobbyists from the Democratic Republic of the Congo for a reception at a D.C. hotel in July:</font></font></p><blockquote style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An invitation for the reception billed it as an opportunity to learn about "the role Africa plays in gaining access to critical minerals, such as cobalt" and to discuss "the strategic relationship" between the United States and the nations of Africa.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In fact, the reception was part of an aggressive $8 million lobbying and public relations campaign that used lobbyists with ties to the Trump administration to try to ease concerns about Congolese President Joseph Kabila, whose government was facing threats of additional sanctions from the Trump administration for human rights abuses and corruption.</font></font></p></blockquote><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.unwatch.org/dr-congo-elected-top-u-n-rights-body-despite-widespread-human-rights-violations/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Joseph Kabila</a>&nbsp;became leader of the Democratic Republic of the Congo following the assassination of his father, Laurent-Désiré Kabila. His second term was supposed to end in 2016 and he is constitutionally barred from running again, but he has resisted any transition of power or free elections, which were finally scheduled to take place&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newvision.co.ug/new_vision/news/1491096/congo-elections-calm-storm" style="text-decoration-line: none;">later this month</a>. Kabila's regime has been accused of extrajudicial arrests and killings, torture, political corruption, use of child soldiers, and persecution of women and LGBTQ persons.</font></font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><interaction data-token="5b96855f8198b4e625350260" data-context="true" data-tags="" data-fallback="true" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></font></font><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Trump administration has imposed sanctions and tariffs on a number of countries. Some of these, like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-venezuela/u-s-sanctions-venezuela-officials-trump-slams-maduro-idUSKCN1M51WC" style="text-decoration-line: none;">targeted sanctions against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro</a>, arguably serve a purpose, while others, like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/insulting-and-unacceptable-justin-trudeau-delivers-stunning-rebuke-trump-labeling" style="text-decoration-line: none;">tariffs on Canada</a>, make no sense.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Autocratic regimes facing sanctions, however, have stepped up their lobbying efforts to fight back, and per&nbsp;<em>The Independent</em>, they have been spurred "by the willingness projected by Mr Trump and his team to make deals around sanctions and tariffs exemptions."</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The worry is that while previous administrations had career officials following strict guidelines to review foreign lobbying efforts free of political concerns, this president and his officials are uniquely responsive to personal gain. Trump has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.alternet.org/trump-reportedly-skeptical-cia-determination-saudi-crown-prince-ordered-khashoggi-murder" style="text-decoration-line: none;">dragged his feet</a>&nbsp;on condemning the Jamal Khashoggi killing by Saudi Arabia, a country whose royal family is&nbsp;<a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/4545128/donald-trump-saudi-arabia-business-ties/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">heavily invested</a>&nbsp;in his real estate empire. And it is increasingly looking like one of Trump's motivations for his close ties to Russia was his&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2018/11/30/18119670/michael-cohen-trump-tower-moscow-explained" style="text-decoration-line: none;">desire to build real estate in Moscow</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The American people, and the whole international order, deserve assurances that the Trump administration is not going to decide how strongly to pursue human rights issues based on the flattery and perks offered his team by lobbyists.</font></p></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">trump inc broadcast, many connections to russia, armenian geoncide and manafort client cty</font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/one-biggest-fraud-cases-ever-trump-biographer-david-cay-johnston-uncovers-rudy-giulianis-alleged">https://www.alternet.org/one-biggest-fraud-cases-ever-trump-biographer-david-cay-johnston-uncovers-rudy-giulianis-alleged</a></font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></font></div><div style=""><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">human rights organization has asked Dutch prosecutors to open a criminal investigation into multi-billion dollar money laundering schemes that they say were aided by Donald Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and his old law firm.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.dcreport.org/2018/10/31/group-calls-investigation-of-guiliani-trump-money-laundering-scheme/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="">This story first appeared at DC Report.</font></a></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The&nbsp;<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JbYNPb4fusoOnGegmVDh5mcmRtNUROnD/view?usp=sharing" style="text-decoration-line: none;">complaint is clearly aimed at examining how much money stolen from a former Soviet satellite ended up benefitting Trump</a>. He is named 16 times in the complaint’s footnotes.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The complaint describes “one of the biggest fraud cases ever” in which “some of these money flows ultimately ended up in the Netherlands” because “Dutch service providers helped to cover up the money laundering acts."</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The money laundering network started in Kazakhstan, where a figure of up to USD 10 billion was purportedly embezzled,” the complaint asserts. “This money was subsequently circulated by two Kazakh oligarch families via a worldwide network of shell companies. A number of these companies were established in the Netherlands. The money was subsequently invested in real estate projects in the United States and Europe, after which it was paid out as ‘profits’ via – once again – a network of shell companies.”</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Netherlands banks and other firms play a significant role in illicit flows of cash around the world through sophisticated techniques to hide income and corporate profits. Many of these techniques appear to push the envelope on legal tax avoidance. When money laundering is involved these aggressive techniques could cross a line into aiding and abetting criminal tax evasion.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The complaint asserts that a small slice of the missing billions was run through Dutch shell corporations with help from Rudy Giuliani’s old law firm, Bracewell & Giuliani. Until 2016, Giuliani was a partner in the 470-lawyer firm.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Neither Giuliani nor anyone at his firm&nbsp;<a href="https://www.giulianisecurity.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Giuliani Security & Safety LLC</a>&nbsp;responded to requests for his side of the story. Multiple requests for comment prompted no response from Greg M. Bopp, managing partner of&nbsp;<a href="https://blogs.wsj.com/law/2016/01/19/bracewell-giuliani-is-losing-giuliani/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">what was then Bracewell & Giuliani</a>&nbsp;but is now called only&nbsp;<a href="https://bracewelllaw.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Bracewell</a>.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The complaint was filed by&nbsp;<a href="https://secure.avaaz.org/page/en/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Avaaz</a>, a global human rights organization in Washington which claims 48 million members. It has issued an open call to prosecutors around the world to investigate “the giant web of corruption” that it says propelled Trump’s rise.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Avaaz says it has approximately 290,000 members in the Netherlands. The complaint was filed Oct. 22 with J.J.M. van Dis-Setz of the Dutch Public Prosecution Service by Barbara van Straaten, a lawyer in Amsterdam.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The complaint filed with the Netherlands Public Prosecution Service in Amsterdam relies on court records from several countries that were dug up by investigative journalists, including James S. Henry, the investigative economics editor of DCReport.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Dutch television program Zembla aired an&nbsp;<a href="https://zembla.bnnvara.nl/nieuws/the-dubious-friends-of-donald-trump-the-russians" style="text-decoration-line: none;">investigative piece on Trump and his Russian associates</a>&nbsp;in 2017. It followed up with&nbsp;<a href="https://zembla.bnnvara.nl/nieuws/trump-business-partner-accused-of-involvement-in-dutch-based-money-laundering-scheme" style="text-decoration-line: none;">an expose of a Trump business partner’s role in a Dutch money laundering scheme</a>.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The complaint is aimed at uncovering the full details of Russian money flowing to various Trump projects using so-called anonymous wealth companies. Those are shell companies created to hide the identities of the owners. Trump and his family are known to have received vast sums from shell companies and have bragged about how much of it came from people in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet empire. Trump contends the deals were all lawful and he has no knowledge of any money laundering.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A criminal investigation by Dutch prosecutors could help that country avoid banking sanctions and loss of reputation by showing that Amsterdam enforces its own laws and respects laws on transnational crimes.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Roughly $10 billion was stolen from Kazakhstan, a former Soviet satellite located in Central Asia. The current Kazakh government is in court in Switzerland and elsewhere trying to recover the money and prosecute members of two families it says stole the money and laundered it in the West. Other lawsuits connected to the stolen money are being litigated in London, Paris, New York and Los Angeles.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The $10 billion theft was uncovered by PricewaterhouseCoopers during its 2009 audit of BTA Bank, the largest in Kazakhstan. In addition, there is about $300 million missing from Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Court documents identify the suspected thieves as Viktor Khrapunov and Mukhtar Ablyazov, oligarchs whose families are bound not just by extensive business ties, but also by marriage. Khrapunov is the former mayor of Almaty. His son Illyas is married to Ablyazov’s daughter.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“There are strong indications that the revenues of these crimes were probably mixed via a complex money-laundering network, and there was a great deal of mutual overlap” between the companies and people suspected of the crimes, the complaint states.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Both Khrapunov and Ablyazov are fugitives.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Khrapunov, who was tried in absentia in Kazakhstan, has been convicted of corruption.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ablyazov, who was president of the looted bank, had his worldwide assets with an estimated value of $4.9 billion frozen six years ago by a British High Court.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump has done business since 1983 with Russian oligarchs and wealthy former officials and business people in former Soviet satellites, including Kazakhstan, Georgia and Azerbaijan. A number of mobsters – American, Russian and others – live in Trump Tower apartments. The building has long been known to local, federal and international law enforcement as a nest of criminal residences.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 1987 the Kremlin, then still a communist state, provided Trump and his first wife Ivana with a luxury trip to Russia.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While a number of journalistic investigations have looked into Trump’s dealings with oligarchs and their money using public records and sources they were limited to public records, which are often scant. Dutch prosecutors, however, have the power to subpoena banking and other records, forcing their disclosure to prosecutors and, potentially, the public.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump is known to have done deals with some of those mentioned in the complaint, including Felix Sater, a violent Long Island felon who was born in Russia. For years Sater traveled extensively with Trump working on deals named in the complaint and handing out his Trump Organization business card. Despite these long ties and both videos and still photos showing the men together, Trump claimed during the presidential campaign that he would not recognize Sater if they were in the same room.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sater is believed to be&nbsp;<a href="https://newrepublic.com/minutes/143736/trump-worry-felix-sater-cooperating-federal-investigators" style="text-decoration-line: none;">cooperating with Robert Mueller</a>, the American special prosecutor investigating Trump.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In one deal involving Sater, millions of dollars from the Trump SoHo hotel and apartment tower disappeared into an Icelandic bank that was under the control of a Russian oligarch. That bank was part of a multi-billion-dollar scheme to defraud Dutch and British pension funds. Trump has testified that he was due 18% of profits from the building.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The faux gold letters bearing the name, under an agreement reached a year ago, have been&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-name-is-coming-off-his-soho-hotel-as-politics-weigh-on-presidents-brand/2017/11/22/2f179bb2-cfc1-11e7-9d3a-bcbe2af58c3a_story.html?utm_term=.653804bd8249" style="text-decoration-line: none;">pried from the building façade</a>.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Just three weeks before the 2016 election, a massive expose of Trump’s role in helping Kazakh oligarchs hide their illicit money appeared in The Financial Times, a British business newspaper.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Dirty Money: Trump and the Kazakh Connection” described “evidence a Trump venture has links to alleged laundering network.”</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The newspaper said its investigation found that Trump had “assembled an eclectic collection of backers and collaborators. Some had chequered pasts, with links to organized crime or fraud schemes. But perhaps the biggest risk for Mr. Trump’s complex, often opaque, business empire was that it might be used for a purpose US officials fear is rife in the country’s real estate sector: laundering dirty money.”</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump’s SoHo project “has multiple ties to an alleged international money laundering network. Title deeds, bank records and correspondence show that a Kazakh family accused of laundering hundreds of millions of stolen dollars bought luxury apartments in a Manhattan tower part-owned by Mr. Trump and embarked on major business ventures with one of the tycoon’s partners,” the British newspaper&nbsp;<i>The Financial Times</i>reported after an extensive investigation.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump and his partners, the FT asserted, engaged in condo sales that appear to have violated the Patriot Act, the post 9/11 law that requires banks, developers and others to know who their customers are and the sources of their money.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Investigations to identify anonymous buyers of luxury apartments in New York and Florida to determine the extent of any money laundering were announced in January 2016 by the federal government’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Three months later the FinCEN director, Jennifer Shasky Calvery, spoke about her years of work on transnational&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fincen.gov/news/speeches/jennifer-shasky-calvery-director-financial-crimes-enforcement-network-6" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Russian organized crime networks</a>. Much of her work involved Russian crime families “laundering their funds through the U.S. financial system. Often, this involved the suspected purchase of personal residences with criminal proceeds.”</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In July 2016, the month the GOP nominated Trump, FinCen announced it&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fincen.gov/news/news-releases/fincen-expands-reach-real-estate-geographic-targeting-orders-beyond-manhattan" style="text-decoration-line: none;">would be investigating sales of luxury apartments beyond New York</a>&nbsp;and Florida because of its growing concern about flows of illicit cash disguised in real estate deals.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While Giuliani calls himself Trump’s personal lawyer, his role is primarily to spread Trumpian disinformation about Special Prosecutor Mueller’s investigations into Russian collusion and related matters concerning Trump and his 2016 presidential campaign. Because Giuliani appears on so many cable and other television shows, but not in court, MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell calls the former New York City mayor “Trump’s TV lawyer."</font></font></p></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/rudy-giulianis-repeated-travel-russia-and-former-soviet-countries-while-serving">https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/rudy-giulianis-repeated-travel-russia-and-former-soviet-countries-while-serving</a></font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div style=""><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Giuliani has had many identities in his time on the public stage. A crusading federal prosecutor who struck terror in mobsters and Wall Street titans alike. A sometimes-cantankerous New York City mayor who became a national hero for his stirring leadership after the 9/11 attacks. And, currently, President Donald Trump’s unpaid attorney in the Russia collusion investigation being led by Robert Mueller.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/trump-inc-rudy-inc?" style="text-decoration-line: none;">this week’s episode</a>&nbsp;of “Trump, Inc.,” we’re digging into a part of Giuliani’s work that has occurred largely outside of the spotlight: He has often traveled to Russia or other former Soviet states as guests of powerful players there. And since Trump was elected, he appears to have stepped up the frequency of those trips.</font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Just last week, for example,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Giuliani appeared in the former Soviet republic of Armenia, which has close trade ties with Russia. He was invited, according to local press accounts, by Ara Abramyan, an Armenian businessman who lives in Russia. Abramyan once helped reconstruct the Kremlin and also received a medal for “merit to the fatherland” from President Vladimir Putin of Russia.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Giuliani said he was in Armenia as a private citizen, but on a local TV news show, Abramyan implied that he expected Giuliani to carry a message for him to Trump. (The conversation was in Armenian, so it’s not clear whether Giuliani understood what Abramyan was saying.)</span></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></font></p></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/08/exclusive-senators-are-demanding-information-about-giulianis-opioid-lobbying/">https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/08/exclusive-senators-are-demanding-information-about-giulianis-opioid-lobbying/</a></font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">many docs</font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">More than a decade ago, OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma approached Rudy Giuliani, then fresh off a stint as&nbsp;the lauded mayor of New York City, asking for help:&nbsp;The little-known pharmaceutical company needed a trusted lawyer to help fight growing public relations and legal battles. It was 2002,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> and <b>Purdue was facing its first lawsuits accusing the company of underplaying the addictive effects of its signature drug</b>. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">By the time Purdue sought Giuliani’s guidance,&nbsp;he&nbsp;was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/us/politics/28oxycontin.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">reportedly</a>&nbsp;helping raise money for a&nbsp;museum dedicated to the Drug Enforcement Administration and his consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, was consulting the Justice Department on reorganizing its major drug investigations.</span></font></font></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Recent developments cast a new light on the arrangement: Today, Giuliani serves as President Donald Trump’s lawyer, and Purdue Pharma is largely&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/the-family-that-built-an-empire-of-pain" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">viewed</a>&nbsp;as responsible for helping&nbsp;<a href="https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2017/12/a-brief-blood-boiling-history-of-the-opioid-epidemic/" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">sow the seeds</a>&nbsp;of&nbsp;the current overdose epidemic, which killed roughly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/08/overdoses-2017-record-high/" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(">72,000 Americans</a>&nbsp;last year. Purdue employed Giuliani Partners for years, clad with&nbsp;its founder’s shiny post-9/11 reputation and political connections. When a federal investigation in the mid-2000s threatened company executives with the<b> prospect of felonies and jail time</b>, the firm helped Purdue’s top brass get off with misdemeanor “misbranding”&nbsp;<a href="http://www.vawd.uscourts.gov/OPINIONS/JONES/107CR00029.PDF" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">convictions</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/29/health/purdue-opioids-oxycontin.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">community service</a>&nbsp;in 2007.<b><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">&nbsp;</span>Purdue Pharma’s parent company, Purdue Frederick, pleaded&nbsp;<a href="http://www.vawd.uscourts.gov/OPINIONS/JONES/107CR00029.PDF" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">guilty</a>&nbsp;to a misbranding felony that cost it $600 million, but Giuliani helped strike a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/may/22/rudy-giuliani-opioid-epidemic-oxycontin-purdue-pharma" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">deal</a>&nbsp;that enabled Purdue Pharma to continue&nbsp;selling its blockbuster painkiller OxyContin.</b>&nbsp;“Among Mr. Giuliani’s missions was the job of convincing public officials that <b>they could trust Purdue because they could trust him</b>,” as the&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">New York Times</em>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/us/politics/28oxycontin.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">put it</a>&nbsp;that year.&nbsp;</span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Wednesday, Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) sent letters to the Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration requesting information on the respective agencies’ contact with Giuliani Partners. The letters, shared with&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Mother Jones</em>,&nbsp;draw heavily on a recent&nbsp;<b style=""><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">New York Times</em>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/29/health/purdue-opioids-oxycontin.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">investigation</a>&nbsp;</b>finding that federal prosecutors knew about OxyContin’s widespread abuse and originally recommended that Purdue executives be charged with felonies, including conspiracy to defraud the United States.<b> But top Justice Department officials in the George W. Bush administration pushed back—deciding instead to settle the case in 2007 rather than take it to trial. </b>The letters also&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/us/politics/28oxycontin.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">cite</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/08/05/oxycontin-purdue-pharma-federal-investigation-dopesick-excerpt-219158" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">investigations</a>&nbsp;suggesting that <b>Giuliani used his political connections to influence the relatively lenient outcome of the federal suit,</b> <b>as well as the&nbsp;lax approach the Drug Enforcement Administration took in curbing misuse of the drug.&nbsp;</b></font></span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition to asking for documentation of communications between the federal agencies and Giuliani Partners, the letters ask pointed questions about Giuliani himself, such as “What steps were taken to ensure that Giuliani’s other relationships with DOJ and its components did not improperly influence plea negotiations?”</font></font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In recent years, dozens of states and municipalities have filed lawsuits against opioid makers and distributors including Purdue, alleging that the overdose epidemic has caused a strain on public resources. Last week, Trump&nbsp;<a href="http://major%20lawsuit/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">asked</a>&nbsp;Attorney General Jeff Sessions to bring a separate, “major lawsuit” against opioid companies.&nbsp;</font></span></font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: inherit;">“Given that Mr. Giuliani has emerged as one of the President’s closest advisors, it’s important that we determine whether his past work on behalf of Purdue, a company that misled prescribers and patients alike about the addictive nature of its drug OxyContin, will influence this administration’s actions in terms of holding Purdue accountable for the devastating impact of its aggressive marketing of this drug,” wrote Ricki Eshman,</span><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: inherit;">&nbsp;Hassan’s press secretary.</span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Read the full letters below:...</font></font></p><div style=""><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">am 1st</font></font></p><p gotham="Gotham" narrow="Narrow" ssm="SSm" r="r" arial="Arial" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="user-select: text; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">another question from February, as shown in the above screenshot from one of the group's reports, respondents were reminded that&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">large companies had given out employee bonuses before they were asked if they agreed with House Minority Leader&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/nancy-pelosi/" gotham="Gotham" narrow="Narrow" ssm="SSm" r="r" style="user-select: text; text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">Nancy Pelosi</a>'s comment that worker bonuses were "crumbs" compared with corporate windfalls.</span>&nbsp;The results were surprising: A plurality of voters agreed with Pelosi, despite the lopsided question. This would suggest that for Republicans, using the "crumbs" comment as an attack line against Democrats in 2018 campaigns, which Trump has suggested they do, may not be a good idea.</font></font></p><p gotham="Gotham" narrow="Narrow" ssm="SSm" r="r" arial="Arial" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="user-select: text; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Over the past six months,<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;CNBC monitored<b>&nbsp;America First Policies</b>' website and found hundreds of pages of polling and research paid for by donors whose names are permitted to be kept secret. Much of this polling has since been removed from the site, but a portion of the removed documents are still available online.</span></font></font></p><p gotham="Gotham" narrow="Narrow" ssm="SSm" r="r" arial="Arial" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="user-select: text; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">America First Policies is not the first nonprofit group created to advance a president's priorities, nor is it the first to conduct intensive polling. Two Obama-linked groups, Priorities USA and Organizing for Action, did the same thing. Priorities USA did not disclose its donors, but OFA did voluntarily, releasing quarterly donor lists.</font></font></p><p gotham="Gotham" narrow="Narrow" ssm="SSm" r="r" arial="Arial" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="user-select: text; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But by hiring the Trump campaign's pollsters to conduct such a large and secretive Trump-focused data operation, and paying for it with dark money, America First Policies is going well beyond what previous outside nonprofit groups have done.</font></font></p><p gotham="Gotham" narrow="Narrow" ssm="SSm" r="r" arial="Arial" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="user-select: text; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While a political committee such as the RNC is designed and expected to collect information that helps to win elections, a nonprofit group such as&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">America First Policies — permitted to operate tax-free and accept unlimited donations from donors whose names can be kept secret — is not.</span></font></font></p><p gotham="Gotham" narrow="Narrow" ssm="SSm" r="r" arial="Arial" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="user-select: text; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"So you have a situation where large donors are contributing to America First Policies with the understanding that their secret donations are going to be seen as valuable by the president, because this group appears to work so closely with the White House,</span>" said Campaign Legal Center's Fischer. "And because these donors are secret, the public and Congress will never know if the White House later took action to advance a donor's interests."</font></font></p><p gotham="Gotham" narrow="Narrow" ssm="SSm" r="r" arial="Arial" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="user-select: text; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition to a slew of senior advisors with ties to Trump, America First Policies has three board members, all of whom are also close to the Trump White House. Its chairman, Tommy Hicks Jr., is the son of a billionaire and a good friend of Donald Trump Jr.&nbsp;<a class="inline_asset" href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/aramroston/trump-campaign-co-chair-was-part-of-team-pushing-to?utm_term=.guRplmAwN#.tb5M8pwxB" title="https://www.buzzfeed.com/aramroston/trump-campaign-co-chair-was-part-of-team-pushing-to?utm_term=.guRplmAwN#.tb5M8pwxB" gotham="Gotham" narrow="Narrow" ssm="SSm" r="r" style="user-select: text; text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">He has also reportedly brokered White House introductions for companies</a>&nbsp;seeking business with the Trump administration.</font></font></p><p gotham="Gotham" narrow="Narrow" ssm="SSm" r="r" arial="Arial" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="user-select: text; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another board member<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">, Dallas financial executive Roy Bailey, serves as managing director and founding partner of Giuliani Partners LLC, </span>along with former New York City mayor and longtime Trump ally Rudy Giuliani<b>. The newest board member is Harold Hamm, a shale oil billionaire&nbsp;<a class="inline_asset" href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-energy-hamm/oil-mogul-hamm-tops-trump-list-for-u-s-energy-secretary-sources-idUSKBN1392AU" title="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-energy-hamm/oil-mogul-hamm-tops-trump-list-for-u-s-energy-secretary-sources-idUSKBN1392AU" gotham="Gotham" narrow="Narrow" ssm="SSm" r="r" style="user-select: text; text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">who was Trump's top pick for energy secretary</a>&nbsp;but reportedly turned down the job.</b></font></font></p></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
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</font></font><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">bunch of stuff i missed?</font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">old prutt nom</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Industry representatives expressed satisfaction with the choice Wednesday.&nbsp;</b><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">"The office he headed was present and accounted for in the battle to keep EPA faithful to its statutory authority and respectful of the role of the states in our system of cooperative federalism," said</span><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">&nbsp;Scott Segal, head of the policy group at the lobbying and legal firm Bracewell</span><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">. "Given that we are almost two decades overdue for an overhaul of the Clean Air Act, there is interest on both sides of the aisle to look at that statute."</span></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.gq.com/story/spygate-conspiracy-theory-explained" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.gq.com/story/spygate-conspiracy-theory-explained</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">escalator</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no many lnx</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Spygate: How Right-Wing Media Creates a Conspiracy Theory Out of Thin Air</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">BY JAY WILLIS</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>This is how conservative media transformed a small news item into a full-blown conspiracy theory that the president (apparently) believes to be true.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>The plot goes like this:</b>&nbsp;During the summer of 2016, on the clandestine orders of then-president Barack Obama, the FBI and CIA hatched an ambitious plan to topple the Trump campaign from the inside. In a scandal of unprecedented scope, Democratic politicians commandeered American counterintelligence resources to spy on their primary political opponent and boost Hillary Clinton's chances of winning the election. The Russia investigation that has dominated headlines for nearly two years is, in fact, a desperate smokescreen conjured up by terrified Deep State actors to conceal evidence of their own wrongdoing, and to frame the president for heinous crimes he didn't commit.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">On May 8, The Washington Post reported on the White House's decision to back the Justice Department's withholding of information from House Intelligence Committee&nbsp;<b>chairman Devin Nunes,</b>&nbsp;on the grounds that disclosure would expose the identity of "a U.S. citizen who has provided information to the FBI and CIA." The authors added, though, that the individual had been a source of information used by the special counsel's office—and that it was unclear whether Trump knew this "key fact" when his administration chose to side with law enforcement.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It didn't take long for him to find out. Almost immediately, the right-wing-media ecosystem began laundering and repackaging this news item, weaving its constituent elements together with Trumpian talking points until a full-blown conspiracy theory worthy of the president's tweets emerged on the other side. This metamorphosis is what would happen if a word cloud sourced from a Trump rally were used in a giant game of telephone—but one in which the gibberish end result were then broadcast as news to hundreds of millions of recipients.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">How did this happen?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">May 10</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Two days after the initial report, citing "the Washington Post's unnamed law-enforcement leakers," The Wall Street Journal publishes an analysis by conservative commentator Kim Strassel</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. "[W]e might take this to mean that the FBI secretly had a person on the payroll who used his or her non-FBI credentials to interact in some capacity with the Trump campaign." Such a development, she writes, "would amount to spying, and it is hugely disconcerting." Strassel continues (all emphasis mine):</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">[W]hen precisely was this human source operating? Because if it was prior to that infamous Papadopoulos tip, then the FBI isn’t being straight. It would mean the bureau was spying on the Trump campaign prior to that moment. And that in turn would mean that the FBI had been spurred to act on the basis of something other than a junior campaign aide’s loose lips.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This is at once cautious and bold, introducing the salacious vocabulary of espionage to a detail about an intelligence source—but only, she clarifies, if the allegations are true. Strassel does not offer a reason for entertaining her hypothetical, other than her characterization of the players' accounts of the investigation as "suspiciously vague."</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">She is, in the classic style of&nbsp;<b>well-compensated public intellectuals</b>&nbsp;filling up column inches, just asking question</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">s.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That night, other journalists are happy to offer answers. On&nbsp;<b>Sean Hannity's Fox News show, journalist Sara Carter, citing Strassel,&nbsp;</b>tells listeners of “concern that the FBI actually had a spy within the Trump campaign.” Hannity is dumbfounded: “What? What?” he splutters.&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"Yes," replies Carter. Blogs like Gateway Pundit kick off the breathless hyperbole category. "Now we know why the Deep State has been working so hard to take down President Trump and the republic," said the post, linking to and block-quoting Strassel. "OBAMA DEEP STATE HAD A SPY INSIDE THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN!"</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">May 11</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The baton is passed to Fox News, which syndicates Strassel's article and changes the headline from “About that FBI ‘source’” to “Did the FBI place a mole inside the 2016 Trump campaign?” On Fox & Friends, the president's morning program of choice, Pete Hegseth weighs in, hesitantly at first.&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"Did the FBI have a spy in the Trump campaign? Just asking the question. There’s an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal about it." Ainsley Earhardt quotes at length from the column before positing that it means the FBI and DOJ had someone "paid to go and spy on President Trump."</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>On his radio show, Rush Limbaugh picks up the thread,</b>&nbsp;encouraging the conflation of the FBI and President Obama. Strassel's article mentions Obama only once, and only in passing. But this is Rush Limbaugh, not a major newspaper; he can say things like this without fear of repercussions.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">When I say “the FBI,” I mean the Obama administration. They infiltrated the Trump campaign with a spy, and while they had that spy implanted, they were unmasking and leaking and obtaining FISA spying warrants and conducting criminal investigations of Trump advisers. This is a big deal...For our purposes, folks, the important thing is that the Obama administration infiltrated the Trump campaign with a spy.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The buzz grows louder online. "Did the FBI have a spy in the Trump campaign?"<b>&nbsp;asks Andrew McCarthy, praising Strassel's column as "essential reporting," in a National Review article t</b>hat published early the next morning.<b>&nbsp;Right-wing blog ZeroHedge makes an affirmative statement</b>—“WSJ: The FBI Hid a Mole in the Trump Campaign”—out of his question.&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Also citing Strassel, Tucker Carlson refers to a "government spy" and a "mole" sent by "the Obama administration." His guest, NRATV personality Dan Bongino, reveals that he believes there to have been more than one spy, referring to "reporting." He does not elaborate on-air.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">May 14</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The week begins with lawmakers joining the fray. On Fox & Friends, GOP congressman Ron DeSantis calls for a follow-up investigation into the matter.</b>&nbsp;"I know that we’re actively trying to get the underlying documents that would tell us: Did they spy on the Trump campaign or not?” he asks, implicitly treating the premises of that query as if they were beyond dispute.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;To Lou Dobbs on Fox Business Network, Matt Gaetz expresses unease with "reports" he'd heard "about potential human intelligence being collected on a rival presidential campaign."</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>These men are egged on by, among others, Rush Limbaugh,&nbsp;</b>who asserts he knows the identity of the spy that the FBI "put in the Trump campaign," and Hannity, whose radio guest David Limbaugh—Rush's younger brother—opines that "an official policy inserting a confidential source into a presidential campaign" would be "unprecedented" and "worse than Watergate." Like DeSantis, he includes a soft qualifier, though: "If it happened! We have to get to the bottom of it."</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">May 15</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Nunes appears on the Fox & Friends set, hinting that the campaign might have been "set up" by the FBI.</b>&nbsp;“I believe they never should have opened a counterintelligence investigation into a political party,” he explains. And although he at first avoids using the word "spy," his hosts are happy to put it in his mouth. Steve Doocy suggests that Nunes's narrative implies that Trump was "framed," while Earhardt adds that "it makes it sound like there was a spy."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Some 12 hours later, Hannity is again agape at the "possibility of an FBI mole that was inside the Trump campaign." He runs snippets of the "stunning" Nunes interview, scarcely able to believe his ears. "The powerful tools of intelligence used to spy on an opposition party candidate, and those powerful tools used against Americans?" he muses. "No, that can't happen here.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">May 16</div><div style=""><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On Laura Ingraham's show, Rudy Giuliani </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">at once broaches the subject of the FBI "possibly placing a spy in the Trump campaign"</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;while admitting that he doesn't know if the gossip is true. The next morning, on Fox & Friends, he’ll again dip his toes in the water before retreating to solid ground. "That would be the biggest scandal in the history of this town—at least, involving law enforcement," Giuliani warns.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">He's intrigued by the possibility, though. "Maybe two spies!" he wonders aloud.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Meanwhile, outside the MAGAsphere, a New York Times article helps breathe new life into the conspiracy theory.</b>&nbsp;The authors of that report—an account of the 2016 law-enforcement inquiry into the Trump campaign—note that “at least one government informant met several times with Mr. Page and Mr. Papadopoulos.” Referring to the preceding week of innuendo, they characterize this detail as a “politically contentious point, with Mr. Trump’s allies questioning whether the F.B.I. was spying on the Trump campaign or trying to entrap campaign officials.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As noted by USA Today's Brad Heath, FBI guidelines allow agents to use informants, among many other methods of information-gathering, when assessing whether a matter warrants a full criminal investigation. The Bureau's partial reliance on a "source" here isn't especially remarkable.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Furthermore, given their knowledge of the Kremlin's election-meddling efforts, it isn't difficult to understand why the intelligence community might have an interest in a campaign's ties to Russia, regardless of the candidate's political affiliation.&nbsp;<b>Marco Rubio—</b>a man not known for being fond of Hillary Clinton—said as much after reviewing the underlying evidence along with the rest of the members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which found no secret political motivation for opening the inquiry. “There was a growing body of evidence that a foreign government was attempting to interfere in both the process and the debate surrounding our elections, and their job is to investigate counterintelligence,” he reasoned in comments cited by the Times. “That’s what they did.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">It doesn't matter. One little opening is all it takes.&nbsp;<b>Breitbart</b>, mentioning the May 8 Post story and Strassel's follow-up, proclaims that the Times report "confirmed" that the FBI ran a "spy operation on the Trump campaign that involved government informants, secret subpoenas, and possible wiretaps." (The article itself mentions only the FISA warrant on Page, but the headline's<b>&nbsp;plural form—"wiretaps"</b>—does its job of making things sound especially ominous.)</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">May 17</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Other right-wing outlets aggregating the Times&nbsp;</b>report draw the same conclusions Breitbart did. “FBI officials admit they spied on the Trump campaign,” blares The Federalist, which justifies its assertion with a helpful explanatory aside.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This paragraph [in the Times report] is noteworthy for the way it describes spying on the campaign—“at least one government informant met several times with Mr. Page and Mr. Papadopoulos”—before suggesting that might not be spying. The definition of spying is to secretly collect information, so it’s not really in dispute whether a government informant fits the bill.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Note that the write-up does not actually suggest that the FBI "planted" anyone in the campaign. But by setting out an expansive definition of "spying," articles like this one allow other publications—ones that might not so carefully define their terms—to use the word in that more specific (and more nefarious) context.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>It is the National Review's coverage—assisted by cable news—that finally allows this story to reach the hallways of the Executive Residence.&nbsp;</b>"With the blessing of the Obama White House," writes Andrew McCarthy, again attributing the actions of law-enforcement officials to affirmative decisions of the then-president, the FBI "took the powers that enable our government to spy on foreign adversaries and used them to spy on Americans—Americans who just happened to be their political adversaries."</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">He continues:</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Obviously, Russia was trying to meddle in the election, mainly through cyber-espionage—hacking. There would, then, have been nothing inappropriate about the FBI’s opening up a counterintelligence investigation against Russia. Indeed, it would have been irresponsible not to do so. That’s what counterintelligence powers are for.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But opening up a counterintelligence investigation against Russia is not the same thing as opening up a counterintelligence investigation against the Trump campaign.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">This is the thrust of his argument, and it is nonsensical. McCarthy seems to assume that counterintelligence investigations "against Russia" and counterintelligence investigations "against the Trump campaign" must be mutually exclusive propositions,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;and that under no circumstances could a Russia-related intelligence probe look at the activities of Russia-related Trump officials. (His analysis is aided by a gross oversimplification of a key provision of FISA.) It would be "irresponsible," he urges, not to investigate what Russia may have been doing. But by virtue of their affiliation with a politician, everyone on the campaign should be insulated from any attendant scrutiny.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Before his column publishes, McCarthy hops on Fox & Friends to promote it.</b>&nbsp;“There’s probably no doubt that they had at least one confidential informant in the campaign,” he says in a strange moment of confidence and timidity. (In a fun, incestuous right-wing-media aside, while listing McCarthy's credentials, F&F co-host Brian Kilmeade adds, "Hopefully a Fox News contributor soon.") Not long afterward, Trump takes to Twitter to express his outrage, shouting out McCarthy by name for a job well done.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Donald J. Trump</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">@realDonaldTrump</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;Wow, word seems to be coming out that the Obama FBI “SPIED ON THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN WITH AN EMBEDDED INFORMANT.” Andrew McCarthy says, “There’s probably no doubt that they had at least one confidential informant in the campaign.” If so, this is bigger than Watergate!</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">...</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Law-enforcement pushback begins in earnest.&nbsp;</b>Sources tell CNN that, no, the source was not placed within the Trump campaign. The Times provides even more details about the timeline, affirming that the informant spoke to campaign members only after the FBI learned of their dubious contacts with Russia. "No evidence has emerged," it reiterates, "that the informant acted improperly when the F.B.I. asked for help in gathering information on the former campaign advisers, or that agents veered from the F.B.I.’s investigative guidelines and began a politically motivated inquiry, which would be illegal."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>It's too late.</b>&nbsp;Because Donald Trump is president of the United States, the content of his tweets becomes breaking news regardless of its accuracy. "Trump: Justice Department planted spy in 2016 campaign," declares an AP headline that runs, among other places, in The Washington Post and U.S. News & World Report. The body text notes that Trump's "own lawyer" has said that the allegation "might not be true."<b>&nbsp;But for readers inclined to believe what Donald Trump says, or for those who only saw the headline as they scrolled through their social feeds, it might as well have been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Epilogue: May 18–20</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The next day, the president tweets again, and again, with grateful acknowledgements for the hard work put in by Fox News personalities Lou Dobbs, David Asman, and Gregg Jarrett.</span></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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sorta meltdown disaster on cohen reimbursment
</font><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Greenberg Traurig big bush2 donor, jack a raised $ too</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">5/18 dumps rudy g

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</font><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/rudy-giuliani-and-few-hard-questions-james-comey">https://www.alternet.org/rudy-giuliani-and-few-hard-questions-james-comey</a></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font><div style=""><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;particulate holocaust:</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The top-billed witness scheduled to provide testimony at the House hearing on Tuesday is a lawyer named&nbsp;<b>Jeffrey Holmstead, who has has worked to block the EPA’s efforts to limit mercury pollution</b>&nbsp;while representing coal companies including Duke Energy, Progress Energy, and Southern Company. Meanwhile,<b>&nbsp;Lamar Smith, the Texas Republican chair of the House Science Committee who has been zealously promoting the“secret science” bill,</b>&nbsp;is also in the pocket of the energy companies. Though he’s also received funding from Koch Industries and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/stories/2003/03/17/daily14.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">iHeartMedia</a>&nbsp;(formerly Clear Channel Communications), Smith’s biggest contributors are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/industries.php?cycle=2016&cid=N00001811&type=I" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">oil and gas</a>&nbsp;companies, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Also testifying on Tuesday will be Kimberly White&nbsp;of the American Chemistry Council, the chemical industry trade group.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This bald industry bid to subvert public health-based regulations that can cut into profit isn’t new. What’s new is that this upside-down environmental attack, in which those who benefit directly from polluting industries are policing the independent scientists who can show the harms of their products, could now succeed. Although the House passed the secret science bill in 2014 and 2015, it never made it to the Senate floor. After it passed the House in 2015, Barbara Boxer called the bill “<a href="http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/240365-senators-vote-to-block-epas-use-of-secret-science" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">insane</a>,” Bernie Sanders called it “laughable,” and President Obama promised to veto it. This time, it’s not a joke. With a Republican majority in both houses and Trump in the White House, the secret science act could easily become law</font></p><div data-reactid=".ti.1.0.1.2.0.0.1.0.4.$p-0" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The small group of lawyers and PR strategists orchestrating the secret science effort are closely tied to those attacking the EPA from within. All have connections to either big tobacco, oil, or both — and almost all have been affiliated with a small, right-wing group called the&nbsp;<a href="https://eelegal.org/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><b>Energy & Environment Legal Institute</b></a>.</span>&nbsp;It’s interesting that E&E should fixate on transparency since the group has gone to great lengths to conceal its donors. Nevertheless, public records document some of the group’s&nbsp;ties to big coal companies, including the now bankrupt&nbsp;<a href="https://theintercept.com/2015/08/25/chris-horner-coal/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">Alpha Natural Resources</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/06/13114/peabody-coal-bankruptcy-reveals-extensive-funding-climate-denial-network" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">Peabody Coal</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/bankruptcy/2016/03/11/arch-coal-made-10000-gift-to-energy-environment-legal/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">Arch Coal</a>.</font><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" /><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">E&E senior policy fellow&nbsp;<b>Steve Milloy,</b>&nbsp;a former tobacco industry attorney, has perhaps written the most — at least publicly — about the secret science strategy, both in an&nbsp;<a href="http://junkscience.com/2016/12/new-book-by-steve-milloy-scare-pollution-why-and-how-to-fix-the-epa/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">ebook</a>&nbsp;and for Steve Bannon’s&nbsp;<a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/07/14/epas-fraudulent-science/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">Breitbart News</a></span>. Milloy calls Myron Ebell, who oversaw Trump’s EPA transition team, his “<a href="https://twitter.com/JunkScience/status/804533797828038656" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">friend and hero</a>.” In the late 1990s, Milloy and Ebell&nbsp;were both members of the American Petroleum Institute’s Global Climate Science Communications Team, which laid out the oil industry’s strategy to undermine the science of global warming.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;Meanwhile, three of Milloy’s colleagues from E&E are also members of the EPA landing team. Among them are David Schnare, E&E’s general counsel, who is perhaps best known for harassing Michael Mann and other environmental scientists with FOIA requests, and Amy Oliver Cooke, an energy industry think tanker who created MILF,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq8XaTm6ddA" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">Mothers In Love with Fracking</a>.</span></font></p><p class="caption overlayed" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.27273; letter-spacing: 0.01em; word-spacing: -0.25em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[vid]:amy Oliver Cooke describes her love for fracking.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Two other E&E associates have been wrapped up in the secret science strategy for years. The first is Christopher Horner,&nbsp;</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">a senior fellow at both E&E and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, who is also a member of Trump’s EPA landing team. Back in the 1990s, Horner worked for Bracewell LLP, the law firm (formerly known as Bracewell &&nbsp;<a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2016/01/19/mayor-giuliani-to-leave-houston-based-law-firm.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">Giuliani)</a>supplying the top witness at Tuesday’s&nbsp;hearing.</span>&nbsp;The dawning awareness of the dangers of second-hand smoke was putting tobacco companies on the defensive, including Horner’s client, the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. In a 1996&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3445520-Horner-to-RJR-Reynolds-1996-Bracewell-Giuliani.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">memo</a>,&nbsp;which seems to be the earliest known reference to the secret science strategy, Horner laid out a plan to fight back.</font></p></div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump’s Manhattan properties and business partners, including former Soviet Union-connected oligarchs, were involved in a larger international money-laundering scheme involving upward of $1 billion, according to Dutch filmmakers whose third installment in an investigative series aired on public TV in Holland Wednesday.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We wanted to know in depth how money was transferred from Kazakhstan to the United States and how this could relate to Donald Trump, the Trump Organization and Trump’s real estate,” said Sander Rietveld, director of&nbsp;<em><a href="https://zembla.bnnvara.nl/nieuws/the-controversial-friends-of-donald-trump-part-iii-the-billion-dollar-fraud" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">The Dubious Friends of Donald Trump, Part III: The Multibillion-Dollar Fraud</a></em>, broadcast on Zembla, a program of the VARA Broadcasting Association.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The documentary was produced based on a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.occrp.org/en/investigations/7046-documentary-explores-dodgy-financial-ties-of-trump-associate" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">three-month collaboration</a>between Zembla, The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (<a href="https://www.occrp.org/en" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">OCCRP</a>)—known for the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.occrp.org/en/panamapapers/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Panama Papers</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mcclatchydc.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">McClatchy</a>&nbsp;newspaper's Washington bureau (including Kevin Hall, who won a Pulitzer Prize for the Panama papers). &nbsp;</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We investigated hundreds of company records, court documents in the U.S., Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Belize, etc., and interviewed dozens of sources,” he said. “The result is a follow-the-money documentary revealing the connections between several people in Trump’s orbit and an alleged multibillion-dollar fraud. Also the pivotal role of the Netherlands as an offshore haven gets attention. With Dutch help, Kazakh oligarchs allegedly were able to divert and launder huge amounts of money.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the international financiers profiled went to court in the Netherlands on Tuesday to stop the documentary from airing on public TV, but lost, Rietveld said: “Kazakh multimillion[aire] businessman-oligarch Ilyas Khrapunov tried to block this broadcast in court yesterday (Monday). Judge turned down his request and allowed airing documentary.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[vid]</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The filmmakers found that money taken out of Kazakhstan by energy oligarchs was used to buy some of Trump’s high-end Manhattan apartments and was also used to create the business partnership, called Bayrock, for Trump’s SoHo Tower project, said James Henry, a financial industry&nbsp;<a href="https://www.the-american-interest.com/2016/12/19/the-curious-world-of-donald-trumps-private-russian-connections/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">investigative reporter</a>&nbsp;and editor at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.dcreport.org/2017/02/25/another-cabinet-pick-with-secret-ties-to-putin-and-oligarchs/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">DCReport.org</a>&nbsp;who worked with Rietveld’s team and appears in the documentary.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The significant thing is they have got the Kazakh government saying that Bayrock was a money launderer for these guys,” Henry told AlterNet. “What is interesting, if [special counsel Robert] Mueller wants to take a look at this, is we have [Trump’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.alternet.org/election-2016/will-mob-connected-hustler-be-first-person-spill-beans-trump" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">mob-connected business partner</a>] Felix Sater laundering criminal money.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">U.S. laws such as the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/foreign-corrupt-practices-act" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Foreign Corrupt Practices Act</a>&nbsp;make it a crime to launder money tied to prior illegal acts, Henry said. The documentary, whose reporting was also developed in collaboration with McClatchy News’ Washington office, traces how investing in Trump’s Soho Tower included concealing illegal money-laundering activities. Trump did not tell other investors about any of this, as required under U.S. financial law, he said, “a continuing cover-up of money laundering.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The program is the third installment in the series profiling Trump’s business deals with international investors that appear to have violated U.S. and foreign financial laws. The first installment focused on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bEdMuKq30I" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Trump’s Russian investors</a>. Installment two looked at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvd7PqI_Lx0" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Trump family links to Kremlin-connected diamond dealers</a>. The third installment returns to Trump’s partners in his downtown New York City project, according to its online summary.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Will Donald Trump go down due to his dubious ties to the former Soviet Union?” Zembla's summary says, recapping the filmmakers’ previous findings. “The president seems to be getting in deeper and deeper. Special prosecutor Robert Mueller, who is investigating if Trump colluded with Russia in order to win the elections, is also digging into Trump’s past as a businessman. In that past, one of Donald Trump’s business partners plays a crucial role: Felix Sater, a convicted felon who has ties with the Russian mafia. Last May, Zembla disclosed how an American real estate company, run by Sater, used Dutch mailbox companies within a network, which has been suspected of laundering money. Allegedly $1.5 million had been diverted. Donald Trump developed&nbsp;hotels and apartment complexes with this suspicious company.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“In the last few months Zembla received indications of a greater fraud,” it continued. “A billion-dollar fraud. And here Sater, Trump’s questionable business partner shows up, as well. The money trail leads to Kazakhstan, to real estate projects in New York and again to the Netherlands. Zembla investigates: How compromising is this case for the current president of America?”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Dutch documentary raises questions most American TV networks have not broached, Henry said. For one, what was the role of Trump ally and ex-New York City mayor<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Rudolph Giuliani,</b></span><b>&nbsp;who represented Sater a</b>nd raised money for his presidential campaign in Kazakhstan?</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another intriguing question involved others in Trump’s orbit as a real estate magnate and president. Wilbur Ross, Trump’s commerce secretary, was vice-chairman of a bank based on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus favored by Russian oligarchs, Henry has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.dcreport.org/2017/02/25/another-cabinet-pick-with-secret-ties-to-putin-and-oligarchs/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">reported</a>. “I’m saying, ‘Let’s see Mueller do his job,'” he said. “Here’s more leads.” &nbsp;&nbsp;</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">
</font><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump's inner circle has gotten rich, really rich in some cases, thanks to foreign connections. A front-runner for secretary of state, Rudy Giuliani, came under scrutiny when he ran for president over his own foreign entanglements. In a disastrous "Meet the Press" interview, Giuliani squirmed and dodged as the late Tim Russert grilled him on ties to Qatar:</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MR. RUSSERT: And here's an article that was written by The Wall Street Journal. "Giuliani could face questions about his business ties if he wins his party's nomination. The Qatar contract offers a window into the" political "potential complications. While Qatar is a U.S. ally, it has drawn scrutiny for its involvement in the U.S. effort to combat terrorism. In " '96, "<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">the FBI went to Qatar to arrest al-Qaeda operative Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, then under indictment in New York for a plot to blow up U.S.-bound jetliners. But Mr. Mohammad slipped away, apparently tipped off by an al-Qaeda sympathizer in the Qatari government,</span> U.S. officials told the bipartisan" September 11th "commission. Mr. Mohammad went on to mastermind the September 11th, 2001 attacks."</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Salon.com asked you this question: "Are you aware that the interior minister appointed in 2001 and reappointed this year by the emir of Qatar is Abdullah al-Thani, the former minister of Islamic affairs and a strict Wahhabi Muslim who has been identified in U.S. press and government reports as a protector of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?"</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Are you?</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MR. GIULIANI: Am I aware of it?</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MR. RUSSERT: Yes.</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MR. GIULIANI: I-I'm, I'm aware of it now.</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MR. RUSSERT: Why would you do business with people who helped Khalid Sheikh Mohammad?</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MR. GIULIANI: The reality is that Qatar is an ally of the United States. There are a significant number of American troops that are stationed in Qatar. What we did for them and do for them is security for their facilities. And this is a country that is an ally of ours in the, in the, in the Middle East to the extent that it has a very significant number of American troops stationed there.</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Russert marched Giuliani through the list of shady characters with whom he and/or his law firm had done business — Hugo Chávez, a "Las Vegas developer that you worked with who had a close partnership with Hong Kong billionaire who was close to Kim Jong Il," etc.</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Perhaps Giuliani, who famously recommended Bernie Kerik for homeland security (Kerik never made it and instead was convicted for corruption) and was ensnared in allegations about misuse of public money (when he was having an affair with his then-mistress, now current wife), makes it through the nomination process. Republicans seem all too ready to roll over for the new administration. But isn't Giuliani precisely the sort of character Trump and Bannon would rail against? Isn't he the model for the American operator who would get rich from dealings with America's foes?</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Add in the crew of advisers who've made money off of Russian ties (e.g. Ret. Gen. Mike Flynn), and you begin to see a pattern among Trump and his closest advisers: While they dabble in conspiracy theories, give comfort to the alt-right and cozy up to the national-front parties in Europe (which are invariably pro-Vladimir Putin), their own portfolios are rife with shady connections and their views run counter to long-standing American interests. Maybe Hillary Clinton should have run against all that.</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">
</font><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">The documentary shows how Trump not only helped hide the identity of his mobster business partner, prompting an ongoing lawsuit accusing Trump of criminal racketeering, but also how <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trump used that internal company crisis to demand more money.</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">&nbsp;It goes on to show how Russian oligarchs saw Trump's properties as a way to get their money out of Russia, and describes the international financial networks that are akin to a pyramid scheme for money laundering</span><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">. It also notes how the law firm of Trump's political adviser, former New York City mayor <b>Rudy Guiliani</b>, helped set up a money-laundering account in the Netherlands used by Bayrock.&nbsp;</span></span></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">
</font><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">8/16</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see main for older and lobby co</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/giuliani-seeks-rescue-irans-money-man">http://www.alternet.org/giuliani-seeks-rescue-irans-money-man</a></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">nce upon a time, Rudy Giuiani was tough on Iran.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Last August, when the Obama administration returned $440 million from frozen Iranian bank accounts to Iran as part of the international deal to shutter Iran’s nuclear weapons program, Giuliani said, “I call that&nbsp;<a href="http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/rudy-giuliani-iran-money-laundering/2016/08/04/id/742166/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">trading with the enemy</a>."</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now Guiliani is defending in U.S. federal court a wealthy Turkish businessman who sought to flout U.S. and international sanctions on behalf of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. Last month Giuliani joined the legal defense team of Reza Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian dual national who is under indictment for, you guessed it,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/file/834146/download" style="text-decoration-line: none;">trading with the enemy</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Zarrab, who is being held in New York, has pleaded not guilty to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/file/834146/download" style="text-decoration-line: none;">four counts</a>&nbsp;of conspiring to process hundreds of millions of dollars in financial transactions for Iranian businesses or Iran’s government from 2010 to 2015.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Iran's Money Man</font></strong></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to the indictment, Zarrab's staff drafted a letter to Ayatollah Khamenei in 2013, praising him for “<a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/file/834146/download" style="text-decoration-line: none;">neutralizing</a>"&nbsp;U.S. sanctions. The letter expressed the hope that “the efforts and cooperation of the zealous children of Islamic Iran will result in an upward increase in the progress of our dear nation in all international and financial arenas.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Zarrab and his network of companies sold gold to the Iranians and generated phony invoices for food and medicine. The transactions enabled the Iranians to evade international sanctions and move large amounts of money in and out of the country, ostensibly for its nuclear program, according to a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/1.588017" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Turkish prosecutor’s brief</a>&nbsp;reviewed by Reuters.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Zarrab was first arrested in Turkey in December 2013 and charged with bribing cabinet ministers, triggering a national scandal. Zarrab’s commercial ventures reportedly generate over $11 billion annually.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Turkish president Recep Erdogan denounced the charges as a baseless conspiracy of his rivals. He fired the police and prosecutors who brought the case. Though charges against Zarrab and 13 other defendants were dropped, three ministers in Erdogan’s government had to resign. Erdogan and his family were personally implicated in Zarrab’s operation.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/10/turkish-referendum-all-you-need-to-know" style="text-decoration-line: none;">national referendum</a>&nbsp;on Erdogan's powers coming up for a vote on April 16, the Zarrab affair remains a vulnerability for the incumbent strongman. Getting the charges against Zarrab dismissed before April 16 would fortify his regime.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Giuliani for the Defense</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Zarrab thought he was untouchable until his arrest at Miami International Airport on March 19, 2016 as he took his pop star wife and daughter on vacation to Disneyland.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">You might think Rudy Giuliani, the Iran hawk, would support U.S. law enforcement efforts to bring Zarrab to justice and expose the mechanism Iran used to evade sanctions on its nuclear program....</font></p></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">energizer bunny of gop?</font></div><div style=""><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2017/1/13/headlines/trump_names_rudy_giuliani_to_cybersecurity_post_despite_conflicts">https://www.democracynow.org/2017/1/13/headlines/trump_names_rudy_giuliani_to_cybersecurity_post_despite_conflicts</a></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donald Trump has named former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani as his administration’s top cybersecurity adviser. Giuliani said Thursday he will accept the position but won’t step down as CEO of his security consulting firm, Giuliani Partners. He also plans to remain chair of the cybersecurity practice at the law firm Greenberg Traurig. Speaking to Politico on Thursday, Giuliani acknowledged that he will be connecting business associates with President Trump, but denied that presents a conflict of interest. Because Giuliani will serve as a volunteer rather than a federal employee, his position won’t be subject to federal ethics laws.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no link</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/12/us/politics/rudy-giuliani-cyber-security-trump.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/12/us/politics/rudy-giuliani-cyber-security-trump.html</a></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ASHINGTON — For a brief moment, it looked as if America’s mayor just might become America’s diplomat.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But for Rudolph W. Giuliani, the bombastic former mayor of New York City, a wild year of being one of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s most passionate surrogates did not, in the end, land him the high-profile administration job he has long coveted.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Instead, Mr. Trump announced on Thursday that he would enlist Mr. Giuliani to share his “expertise and insight as a trusted friend” on the issue of cybersecurity. Mr. Giuliani, who has spent the last 16 years as a private security consultant, will “from time to time” assemble meetings between Mr. Trump and corporate executives who face cyberthreats, the transition team said.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We’ve let our defense fall behind,” Mr. Giuliani told reporters on Thursday during a conference call. “Our offense is way ahead of our defense.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mr. Giuliani put on a happy face during the call, declaring it a “great privilege” to be taking on the role.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>But the announcement — almost an afterthought, coming the day after lawmakers grilled Rex W. Tillerson, Mr. Trump’s nominee to be secretary of state, in his confirmation hearing — reflected how far Mr. Giuliani had fallen in the Trump universe.</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He remains a close friend of Mr. Trump’s, according to associates. But he will not be moving to Washington, as he once hoped, and instead of having his political career rejuvenated after his failed run for president in 2008, he will continue to run his consulting firm.</font></p><p><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">From the start of Mr. Trump’s campaign, Mr. Giuliani was there: loudly defending the candidate against scandals, attacking Hillary Clinton and President Obama, lashing out at the news media, and boldly asserting that Mr. Trump would be the solution to the nation’s problems on race, terrorism, the economy, gender issues, health care and just about everything else.</font></p><p><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">At the Republican National Convention, where Mr. Trump secured his party’s nomination, Mr. Giuliani waved his arms, shouted, clenched his fists and thundered against Mr. Trump’s Democratic opponent. “Hillary Clinton is for open borders,” Mr. Giuliani claimed, warning ominously of “operatives who are terrorists, who are going to come to Western Europe and here and kill us.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It was a classic Giuliani performance that lit up the crowd in Cleveland at a high point for Mr. Trump. And months later, when the release of an “Access Hollywood” tape revealed Mr. Trump speaking graphically about assaulting women, Mr. Giuliani was one of the few people to publicly defend the candidate.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mr. Trump rewarded that loyalty by seriously considering Mr. Giuliani for a series of posts in the administration. Transition officials informally discussed with Mr. Giuliani the positions of attorney general, secretary of homeland security, and director of national intelligence. Mr. Giuliani wanted none of them.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What he did want was secretary of state, and his decision to make that plain as day to anyone who asked might have helped scuttle his chances. Some transition officials were also concerned that Mr. Giuliani, 72, might not have the stamina for the globe-trotting job.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the end, Mr. Giuliani removed his name from consideration in mid-December after the drawn-out public audition, shortly before Mr. Trump announced he had chosen Mr. Tillerson.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now, the ill-defined cybersecurity post may be Mr. Giuliani’s best hope of adding some Trump administration luster to his private security business. But his previous forays into the national and international security arena have been less than a success.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>After leaving the mayor’s office, he received a multimillion-dollar signing bonus to join a Houston-based law firm with oil industry connections, but spent a majority of his time working on a fast-growing international security business called Giuliani Partners.</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2004, Mr. Giuliani pushed President George W. Bush to choose Bernard Kerik, his former police commissioner and an associate at Giuliani Partners, as homeland security secretary. Mr. Kerik’s nomination was abruptly pulled after it was revealed that he had employed an unauthorized immigrant as a nanny. Mr. Giuliani’s influence with the Bush team evaporated, and Mr. Kerik was later sentenced to four years in prison on federal tax charges.</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; -webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em; line-height: 18.5714px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump&nbsp;<a href="http://nypost.com/2016/05/11/trump-wants-giuliani-to-lead-his-anti-muslim-brigade/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); background-color: transparent;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">told</span></a>&nbsp;Fox News that former New York City mayor and failed presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani might be his choice to head up a commission to review his proposal for a temporary Muslim ban.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; -webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em; line-height: 18.5714px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What You Need To Know</font></em></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; -webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em; line-height: 18.5714px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Giuliani has a long history of anti-Muslim comments and statements. He&nbsp;<a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2016/05/11/trump-considers-tapping-rudy-giuliani-lead-anti-muslim-commission/210357" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); background-color: transparent;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">argued</span></a>&nbsp;in favor of Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) idea that one way to fight terrorism is to “patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods,” said sexual assault in Germany proved that “these [Syrian] refugees are inherently a problem,” and praised Rep. Peter King (R-NY) for holding anti-Muslim hearings in Congress.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; -webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em; line-height: 18.5714px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Speaking before Trump at a campaign rally, Giuliani said, “Under those eight years before Obama came along, we didn’t have any successful radical Islamic terrorist attack in the United States,” omitting the September 11, 2001, attacks. PolitiFact&nbsp;<a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/aug/16/rudy-giuliani/aside-from-911-rudy-giuliani-wrong-about-no-terr/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: 700; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); background-color: transparent;">rated</a>&nbsp;this claim “false.”</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman">alec stooge BS</font></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">President-elect Trump just&nbsp;</span><a href="http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/313932-giuliani-says-hes-forming-cybersecurity-team-for-trump" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">named</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani as the chair of a White House cybersecurity task force. Given the mayor’s private sector experience as chair of a law firm’s cybersecurity and privacy&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.gtlaw.com/Experience/Practices/Cybersecurity-Privacy-and-Crisis-Management" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">practice group</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, along with his experience as a security consultant, his selection by the president-elect is good.</span></font></font></font></p><h1 class="title" id="page-title" style="line-height: 1; margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Giuliani well-equipped to lead the White House on cybersecurity</font></font></font></h1><div class="submitted-wrp" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px 20px; padding-bottom: 20px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 223, 228); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="submitted-by" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; border-bottom: none !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BY JONATHON HAUENSCHILD, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR -&nbsp;<span class="submitted-date" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; border-bottom: none !important;">01/13/17 01:10 PM EST</span></font></span></font></font></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://gizmodo.com/rudy-giuliani-is-forming-a-cybersecurity-team-for-trump-1791109633">http://gizmodo.com/rudy-giuliani-is-forming-a-cybersecurity-team-for-trump-1791109633</a></font></font></font></font></p></div><div style=""><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Noted Tech Genius Rudy Giuliani to Form Trump's Cybersecurity Team</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">mo link img</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Matt Novak</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rudy Guiliani on Fox & Friends talking about the plan to form a cybersecurity team of private sector companies for the Trump administration</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Silicon Valley has always had close ties with the US government. But it appears the Trump administration would like to make those ties even more explicit: This morning, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani announced that he’s forming a new cybersecurity team for President-elect Trump, comprised of various private tech companies.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The team’s precise role in the new administration is still unclear, but the move will reportedly be formally announced later this morning.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The President-elect decided that he wanted to bring in, on a regular basis, the people in the private sector, the corporate leaders in particular, the thought leaders, who were working on security for cyber,” Rudy Giuliani said this morning on Fox & Friends. “Because we’re so far behind.”</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“It’s his belief, which I share, that a lot of the solutions are out there, we’re just not sharing them. It’s like cancer. You know, there’s cancer research going on all over the place—you’d almost wish they’d get together in one room and maybe we’d find a cure,” Giuliani said, with clearly no idea what the hell he’s talking about.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Previously, it had been assumed that Peter Thiel, the founder of PayPal and a billionaire with some rather strange beliefs about the world, was leading the charge in this area as a member of Trump’s transition team. </b>(Thiel is the founder of his own company that’s deeply enmeshed in government cybersecurity contracts, Palantir.) So it’s a bit odd that Giuliani would be spearheading something like this. And as we’ve noted before, he’s not exactly the best choice.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“So the idea here is to bring together corporate leaders and their technological people. The president will meet with them on an ongoing basis as well as anybody else in the administration,” he said, explaining that he would be coordinating the new initiative.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">From Google to Palantir to Oracle (which started as a CIA project), the private sector has always found deep pockets in Washington to spend on technology. But some high profile members of Silicon Valley have been rather reluctant to work with the incoming administration, given the nouveau fascistic flavor that Trump seems to give everything. This is the guy, after all, who has proposed building a registry for all Muslims.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">But much like Republicans who were skeptical of Trump at first, it wouldn’t be a great shock if Silicon Valley fell in line. The heads of companies like Apple are obliged to care little about anything outside of making money. And the new administration has plenty of cash to throw their way in any number of ways.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s pretty clear that if the new administration wanted to build a “Muslim registry,” it wouldn’t really need to build anything new at all. They’d just need the cooperation of a few private companies that already know virtually everything about what you watch, what you buy, and where you go.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Update, 9:48am: The Transition team just sent out an official statement on the matter. As it notes, Guiliani is the head of “Greenberg Traurig and the Chairman and CEO of Giuliani Partners, an international security consulting firm.”</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">President-elect Trump is very pleased to announce former Mayor Rudy Giuliani will be sharing his expertise and insight as a trusted friend concerning private sector cyber security problems and emerging solutions developing in the private sector. This is a rapidly evolving field both as to intrusions and solutions and it is critically important to get timely information from all sources.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition, from time to time because of the changing nature of this problem, it is contemplated that the President-elect will be hosting a series of meetings with senior corporate executives from companies which have faced or are facing challenges similar to those facing the government and public entities today, such as hacking, intrusions, disruptions, manipulations, theft of data and identities, and securing information technology infrastructure.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The President-elect’s intent is to obtain experiential and anecdotal information from each executive on challenges faced by his/her company, how the company met the challenges, approaches which were productive or successful, and those which were not. The attendees may or may not change from session to session, but the specific agenda subjects will likely change because of the rapidly evolving field of cyber security, and frequent developments, both positive and negative. No consensus advice or recommendations resulting from group deliberations or interaction is expected or will be solicited.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cyber intrusion is the fastest growing crime in the United States and much of the world. Its impact is felt from the individual citizen whose identity is stolen to the large private and government entities that have seen their confidential information seriously compromised. It is also a major threat to our national security.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As the use of modern communications and technology has moved forward at unparalleled speed the necessary defenses have lagged behind. The President-elect recognizes that this needs immediate attention and input from private sector leaders to help the government plan to make us more secure.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mr. Giuliani was asked to initiate this process because of his long and very successful government career in law enforcement and his now sixteen years of work providing security solutions in the private sector.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mr. Giuliani is the chairman of the global cyber security practice at Greenberg Traurig and the Chairman and CEO of Giuliani Partners, an international security consulting firm.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Matt Novaknovak@gizmodo.com@paleofuture</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Matt Novak is the editor of Gizmodo's Paleofuture blog</font></font></font></div></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">==</font></font></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>