Trump Associate Boasted That Moscow Business Deal ‘Will Get Donald Elected’

[Zippyjuan]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/28/u...r.html?mcubz=0

WASHINGTON — A business associate of President Trump promised in 2015 to engineer a real estate deal with the aid of the president of Russia, Vladimir V. Putin, that he said would help Mr. Trump win the presidency.

The associate, Felix Sater, wrote a series of emails to Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, in which he boasted about his ties to Mr. Putin. He predicted that building a Trump Tower in Moscow would highlight Mr. Trump’s savvy negotiating skills and be a political boon to his candidacy.

“Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it,” Mr. Sater wrote in an email. “I will get all of Putins team to buy in on this, I will manage this process.”

The emails show that, from the earliest months of Mr. Trump’s campaign, some of his associates viewed close ties with Moscow as a political advantage. Those ties are now under investigation by the Justice Department and multiple congressional committees.

American intelligence agencies have concluded that the Russian government interfered with the 2016 presidential election to try to help Mr. Trump. Investigators want to know whether anyone on Mr. Trump’s team was part of that process.

Mr. Sater, a Russian immigrant, said he had lined up financing for the Trump Tower deal with VTB Bank, a Russian bank that was under American sanctions for involvement in Moscow’s efforts to undermine democracy in Ukraine. In another email, Mr. Sater envisioned a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Moscow.

“I will get Putin on this program and we will get Donald elected,” Mr. Sater wrote.

Mr. Sater said he was eager to show video clips to his Russian contacts of instances of Mr. Trump speaking glowingly about Russia, and said he would arrange for Mr. Putin to praise Mr. Trump’s business acumen.

“If he says it we own this election,” Mr. Sater wrote. “Americas most difficult adversary agreeing that Donald is a good guy to negotiate.”

There is no evidence in the emails that Mr. Sater delivered on his promises, and one email suggests that Mr. Sater overstated his Russian ties. In January 2016, Mr. Cohen wrote to Mr. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, asking for help restarting the Trump Tower project, which had stalled. But Mr. Cohen did not appear to have Mr. Peskov’s direct email, and instead wrote to a general inbox for press inquiries.

The project never got government permits or financing, and died weeks later.

[dannno]

lol...obviously he didn't know about the uranium

[timosman]

Zippy delivers again. This should destroy Trump.

[timosman]

I am having suspicion Zippy's boss is also incompetent.

[oyarde]

The oyarde tower was put in at moscow about the same time as moscow trump tower. You guys can get reservations to stay at your choice by sending me a pm for the address to mail your 100 dollar cash deposit to . Part of your deposit will go to charity .

[Anti Federalist]

Why is that the same people that are upset at outside influences from Russia tilting the election are also the same people that refuse to acknowledge the need for confirming that a voter is, in fact, a citizen and eligible to vote?

[timosman]

Why is that the same people that are upset at outside influences from Russia tilting the election are also the same people that refuse to acknowledge the need for confirming that a voter is, in fact, a citizen and eligible to vote?

This is very simple. One thing is racist and the other isn't.

[bunklocoempire]

Why is that the same people that are upset at outside influences from Russia tilting the election are also the same people that refuse to acknowledge the need for confirming that a voter is, in fact, a citizen and eligible to vote?

Ignoring natural rights is naturally inconsistent.

Attempting to enslave one's fellow man by voting to wield the gun, is totally consistent.

Just pointing a gun in my face would be the honest thing to do. Cowards can't afford to be honest.

[angelatc]

Give it a rest, Zip.

We're libertarian capitalists - we want to do business with everybody. Well, except you, it appears.

[nikcers]

Obvious time travel is why Trump is president.Someone obviously changed something in the past and that's why Trump is president.

[timosman]

Obvious time travel is why Trump is president.Someone obviously changed something in the past and that's why Trump is president.

I think everything is just going according to the plan.

[KingNothing]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/28/u...r.html?mcubz=0

And? What's the story here?

Who cares?

[Swordsmyth]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/28/u...r.html?mcubz=0

Since the Russians killed the project doesn't that prove they were not colluding with the campaign? or even trying to get on Dump's good side?

[Swordsmyth]

Man Cited As Trump's "Russian Link" Actually Works For The FBI

Sater went from a "Wall Street wunderkind" working at Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, to getting barred from the securities industry over a barroom brawl which led to a year in prison, to facilitating a $40 million pump-and-dump stock scheme for the New York mafia, to working telecom deals in Russia - where the FBI and CIA tapped him as an undercover intelligence asset who was told by his handler "I want you to understand: If you’re caught, the USA is going to disavow you and, at best, you get a bullet in the head."

Sater - whose code name was "The Quarterback," ended up providing such valuable information to U.S. intelligence agencies - such as five of Osama bin Laden's satellite phone numbers (by flipping Mullah Omar's personal secretary, "who was living inside a cave with bin Laden") - that the FBI and two federal prosecutors showed up at his trial after the $40 million stock scheme caught up with Sater - and vouched for him.

In 2009, 11 years after he formally started cooperating, the US government was finally going to hold up its end of the bargain. Sater headed to a federal courthouse in Brooklyn in October 2009 for his sentencing in the stock fraud scheme.
Two federal prosecutors and four FBI agents showed up to vouch for him. A transcript of that hearing is heavily redacted, but it makes clear that Sater was no ordinary cooperating witness.
Finally, it was Sater’s turn to face the judge. “Yes, I am guilty of the things that I have done,” he said. But, he added, “I am trying to rehabilitate myself.”
US District Court Judge I. Leo Glasser, who had sentenced dozens of people to prison based on information Sater had provided to the FBI, told him, “For 11 years, I would suspect you had gone to bed every night or every other night sleeping a little restlessly and wondering what your sentence is going to be. So, in effect, there has been a sentence which already has been imposed.” -BuzzFeed

Sater ended up paying a $25,000 penalty for the scheme.
Meanwhile, Sater is still working for the FBI, according to two current FBI agents. Moreover, he has relationships with at least six members of Robert Mueller's team, "some going back more than 10 years."

To this day, Sater continues to cooperate with the FBI and Justice Department, he said in his statement to the House Intelligence Committee. He wouldn't disclose additional details, except to say that he works on “international matters.” Two US officials confirmed Sater continues to be a reliable asset.
As for his regular life, when he relocated back to the US in 2010, he recalled, “Donald said, ‘Where have you been?’” Sater said Trump asked him to join the Trump Organization. “That's when I became senior advisor to him,” he said. The Trump Organization and the White House declined to comment. -BuzzFeed

In effect, Sater - at least according to BuzzFeed, is more or less a rockstar opportunist spy with a shady past, who redeemed himself as an asset for the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the FBI.

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...ally-works-fbi

[FSP-Rebel]

[enhanced_deficit]

Let's not rush to assumptions and wait as long as it takes for facts to come out.

[Firestarter]

After a yearlong “investigation”, Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee have completed a draft report concluding there was no collusion between Donald Trump's campaign and Russia.
Texas Rep. Mike Conaway announced on Monday the report will now be shared with Democrats:

We found no evidence of collusion.
We found perhaps some bad judgment, inappropriate meetings, inappropriate judgment in taking meetings. But only Tom Clancy or Vince Flynn or someone else like that could take this series of inadvertent contacts with each other, or meetings or whatever, and weave that into sort of a fiction page-turner, spy thriller.

The report will blame officials in President Barack Obama's administration for a "lackluster" response and look at leaks from the intelligence community to the media.
The report is also expected to turn the subject of collusion to the Clinton campaign, saying THE dossier by former British spy Christopher Steele was designed by the Democrats to hurt Trump.

Conaway said there will be a second report dealing with the “credibility” of the intelligence assessment.
The top Democrat on the intelligence panel, California Rep. Adam Schiff, suggested that wrapping up the probe was to protect Trump and called the development a "tragic milestone" and said history would judge them harshly.

The congressional investigations are separate from “special counsel” Robert Mueller's probe, which is likely to take much longer: https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/201...-congress.html

[enhanced_deficit]

Give it a rest, Zip.

We're libertarian capitalists - we want to do business with everybody. Well, except you, it appears.

This story could be a distraction to divert attention away from the scandal that historic free markets leader did not want to do business directly with Peggy Peterson but instead his lawyer used a shell company to conduct business days before 2016 election.