Witch Hunt? Really?

Witch Hunt? Really?

Here is the truth... If you dare read the truth...

First the latest turns…

CEO of AIM David Pecker… Turned State’s Evidence… Pecker had in his possession tons of dirt on Trump that Trump wanted him to bury and keep secret in his safes in New York and Los Angeles.

CFO for Trump Allen Weisselberg… Turned State’s Evidence… Weisselberg has been Trump’s CEO for decades and if anyone knows about the “Trump money trail” it will be Allen Weisselberg…

So what are the REAL results of this so-called “Witch Hunt”

#1 George Papadopoulos who is the former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser pleaded guilty in October to making false statements to the FBI.

#2 Michael Flynn who is Trump’s former national security adviser pleaded guilty in December to making false statements to the FBI.

#3 Paul Manafort who is Trump’s former campaign chair was indicted in October in Washington DC on charges of conspiracy, money laundering, and false statements which were all related to his work for Ukrainian politicians before he joined the Trump campaign. He’s pleaded not guilty on all counts. Then, in February, Mueller filed a new case against him in Virginia, with tax, financial, and bank fraud charges. He was found guilty of 8 felonies so far.

#4 Rick Gates which is a former Trump campaign aide and Manafort’s longtime junior business partner was indicted on similar charges to Manafort. But in February he agreed to a plea deal with Mueller's team pleading guilty to just one false statements charge and one conspiracy charge and was a key witness against Paul Manafort.

#5 –# 20 Thirteen Russian nationals and three Russian companies were indicted on conspiracy charges with some also being accused of identity theft. The charges related to a Russian propaganda effort designed to interfere with the 2016 campaign. The companies involved are the Internet Research Agency often described as a “Russian troll farm” and two other companies that helped finance it. The Russian nationals indicted include 12 of the agency’s employees and its alleged financier Yevgeny Prigozhin.

#21 Richard Pinedo a California man pleaded guilty  to an identity theft charge in connection with the Russian indictments, and has agreed to cooperate with Mueller.

#22 Alex van der Zwaan a London lawyer pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI about his contacts with Rick Gates and another unnamed person based in Ukraine.

#23 Konstantin Kilimnik a longtime business associate of Manafort and Gates who’s currently based in Russia was charged alongside Manafort with attempting to obstruct justice by tampering with witnesses in Manafort’s pending case this year.

#24 – #35 Twelve Russian GRU officers who are officers of Russia’s military intelligence service were charged with crimes related to the hacking and leaking of leading Democrats’ emails in 2016.

#36 Two ex-Trump advisers lied to the FBI about their contacts with Russians Michael Flynn Mario Tama/Getty

So far no Trump associates have been specifically charged with any crimes relating to helping Russia interfere with the 2016 election. The closest the investigation has come to Trump is that both Papadopoulos and Flynn both now admit that they lied to the FBI about their contacts with people connected to the Russian government (Papadopoulos’s contacts took place before the election, and Flynn’s after it).

Papadopoulos: Back in April 2016 Papadopoulos got a tip from a foreign professor he understood to have Russian government connections that the Russians had “dirt” on Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails.” He then proceeded to have extensive contacts with the professor and a Russian woman during which he tried to plan a Trump campaign trip to Russia. When the FBI interviewed Papadopoulos about all this in January 2017 he repeatedly lied about what happened he now admits. So he was arrested in July and later agreed to plead guilty to a false statements charge and start cooperating with Mueller’s probe.

Flynn: In December 2016 during transition Flynn spoke to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak about sanctions that President Barack Obama had just placed on Russia and about a planned United Nations Security Council vote condemning Israeli settlements. When FBI agents interviewed him about all this in January 2017 Flynn lied to them about what his talks with Kislyak entailed he now admits. In December 2017, Flynn pleaded guilty to a false statements charge and began cooperating with Mueller’s investigation.

Both Papadopoulos and Flynn may now be providing Mueller’s team with information that could incriminate others in Trump’s orbit. But we haven’t seen the fruits of their cooperation just yet. Several Russians were indicted in connection with a propaganda effort. Then in February 2018 Mueller’s team indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies in connection with alleged interference with the 2016 campaign. The indictments’ main emphasis is on the propaganda efforts of one Russian group in particular: the Internet Research Agency. That group’s operations which included social media posts, online ads, and organization of rallies in the US were; the indictment alleges often (but not exclusively) aimed at denigrating Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy and supporting Donald Trump’s.

Specifically indicted were:

• The Internet Research Agency itself
• Two shell companies involved in financing the agency (Concord Management and Concord Catering)
• The alleged financier of the agency, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
• Twelve people who allegedly worked for the agency (Mikhail Bystrov, Mikhail Burchik, Aleksandra Krylova, Anna Bogacheva, Sergey Polozov, Maria Bovda, Robert Bovda, Dzheykhun Ogly, Vadim Podkopaev, Gleb Vasilchenko, Irina Kaverzina, and Vladimir Venkov)

The specific charges in the case include one broad “conspiracy to defraud the United States” count, but the rest are far narrower one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud and six counts of identity theft. It is highly unlikely that the indicted Russian individuals will ever come to the US to face trial, but one company involved, Concord Catering, is fighting back in court. No Americans have been charged with being witting participants in this Russian election interference effort. However, one American, Richard Pinedo of California pleaded guilty to an identity fraud charge, seemingly because he sold bank account numbers created with stolen identities to the Russians. Pinedo agreed to cooperate with the probe as part of his plea deal.

Twelve Russian intelligence officers were indicted in connection with email hackings and leaks. In July, Mueller charged 12 officers of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency, with crimes committed to the high-profile hacking and leaking of leading Democrats emails  during the 2016 campaign. Specifically indicted are:

• Viktor Netyksho, Boris Antonov, Dmitriy Badin, Ivan Yermakov, Aleksey Lukashev, Sergey Moirgachev, Nikolay Kozacheck, Pavel Yershov, Artem Malyshev — all of the GRU’s “Unit 26165,” which Mueller alleges “had primary responsibility for hacking the DCCC and DNC, as well as the email accounts of individuals affiliated with the Clinton Campaign” like John Podesta.
• Aleksandr Osadchuk, Aleksey Potemkin, and Anatoliy Kovalev of the GRU’s “Unit 74455,” which Mueller says “assisted in the release of stolen documents,” “the promotion of those releases,” “and the publication of anti-Clinton content on social media accounts operated by the GRU.”

Then there are former Trump campaign aides Paul Manafort and Rick Gates. The pair were indicted by Mueller’s team indicted last October in Washington, and Mueller piled on yet more charges against them in Virginia this February. The charges against the pair related to nearly a decade of foreign work they did for the Ukrainian government and Ukrainian politicians before they joined Trump’s campaign. Manafort and Gates allegedly “acted as unregistered agents” for the Ukrainians generating “tens of millions of dollars in income,” which they then “laundered” through “scores of United States and foreign corporations, partnerships, and bank accounts,” per their indictment. They were also accused of failing to appropriately disclose their foreign work and foreign assets, committing tax, financial, and bank fraud crimes, some of which took place as recently as last year.

The specific charges Manafort is currently facing are seven counts in Washington DC: One count each of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to launder money, acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign principal, making false and misleading Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) statements, a false statements charge in connection with FARA, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy to obstruct justice. In Virginia he faced 18 felony counts which included 5 counts of filing false income tax returns, 4 counts of failing to report foreign bank and financial accounts, and 9 counts of bank fraud or bank conspiracy in which he was found guilty of 8. 11 jurors would have found him guilty on all 18, but one jury held out on 10 felony counts.

Manafort did his foreign work for Ukraine’s pro-Russia political faction, but so far it is not clear if these charges have any connection to the topic of Russian interference with the 2016 campaign. He has pleaded not guilty on all counts. Gates, meanwhile, has since agreed to a plea deal in which he’ll cooperate with Mueller’s team. Accordingly, the many charges originally brought against him were dropped except for two he pleaded guilty to one conspiracy to defraud the United States charge, and a false statements charge (With the latter, Gates admitted lying to Mueller’s team during a meeting this February). An associate of Gates’s also pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI.

Finally, the probe into Manafort and Gates’ Ukrainian work has ensnared one other person so far: Alex van der Zwaan. Van der Zwaan was a lawyer for the London office of the New York law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. The son-in-law of a Russian oligarch, he worked with Manafort and Gates on behalf of Ukraine’s government in 2012, to write a report defending the government’s prosecution of a former prime minister. In November 2017, Mueller’s investigators interviewed van der Zwaan about his Ukrainian work and according to the charging document Van der Zwaan:

• Lied about when his last communications with Gates and another unnamed person took place
• Lied about deleting and not providing relevant emails to the special counsel’s team
• On February 20, 2018, van der Zwaan pleaded guilty to a false statements charge and he has since served a brief prison sentence and been deported.

Konstantin Kilimnik, a longtime Manafort associate has been charged with obstruction of justice. Finally, Konstantin Kilimnik who worked with Manafort in Ukraine and is now based in Russia was charged alongside Manafort with obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice in June. Mueller argues that, earlier in 2018, Manafort and Kilimnik worked together to contact potential witnesses against Manafort and encourage them to give false testimony. He argues that this is attempted witness tampering, and qualifies as obstruction of justice. The alleged tampering relates to the "Hapsburg Group”, a group of former senior European politicians Manafort paid to advocate for Ukraine’s interests. Both Manafort and Kilimnik tried to contact witnesses to get them to claim the Hapsburg group only operated in Europe (where US foreign lobbying laws don’t apply). But Mueller says there’s ample evidence that the group did work in the US too, and the witnesses thought Manafort and Kilimnik were trying to get them to commit perjury.

Yea… A Nice Witch Hunt… Keep On Bagging Them Witches