588

As noted in (Chapter C) the key thing about Russia collusion to understand and appreciate is that: it wasn’t only involving Russia. As Seth Abramson has shown it was a five country grand bargain. It involved not just Russia and the Trump campaign, but Saudi Arabia-remembering that MBS was at the second Trump Tower collusion meeting of August, 2016 does a lot to explain why Trump will defend MBS’ actions in Khashoggi’s execution to the end-as well as the UAE, QATAR, and Israel.

On foreign policy what the Saudis, Emirates, Qatari, and Israeli clearly wanted was a US regime tougher on Iran than Obama was. But the key was how to win Russia over to this-who had in the past often defended Iran against the U.S. in disputes? And this was what the Grand Bargain was all about: how to square that circle. The answer being give the Russians relief on sanctions and the U.S. turning a blind eye to its incursions into Ukraine and broker a ‘peace deal’ that essentially sanctioned Russia’s annexing  of Crimea.

FN: Seth Abramson’s coming book on it Proof of Conspiracy.

The Trump campaign would get election help and sweetheart business deals in Russia-the failed Moscow Trump Tower deal and the Middle East. Regarding the failed Moscow Trump Tower deal, there’s reason to believe it only fell through after the Trump team was not able to shield Russia from the sanctions. That was what Michael Flynn’s five calls to Kisylak were about that day in late December, 2017 after Obama imposed new Russian sanctions for as punishment for Russia’s 2016 election interference.

Now a new major bombshell, in 2017, soon after Flynn made those calls to Russia ‘Don’t worry about those sanctions, we’ll get rid of them-and around the same time Flynn perjured himself to the FBI-with Sally Yates warning to Don McGahn in the Trump Russia House that were ignored-Flynn also met with Zamel.

Zamel was at that second collusion meeting in August, 2017-which had been organized by Erik Prince (as we saw in chapter D).

Zamel was from the Israeli social media company to whom George Nader- who was the Saudis emissary, and who’s now long been cooperating with Mueller-made a major offer in exchange for Zamel helping the Trump campaign-as Zamel is a foreign national with a foreign social media company company -and this in itself is a major campaign violation and at least gets you in the neighborhood of collusion.

While later they insisted the Trump campaign didn’t take up the offer, it leaves the little pesky loose end of precisely why then did Nader pay Zamel $2 million dollars post election? Just because he appreciated him listening to the offer?

Then there was the infamous Seychelle meeting that Erik Prince attended with Zamel and MBS and has lied and perjured himself so much about (as noted in Chapter C).

That meeting was an attempt to formalize the Grand Bargain on many levels-the fake ‘peace plan’-really just a major giveaway to Russia and a back channel for Russia-setting up a back channel to Russia was an ongoing priority for Team Treason Trump-as shown by Jared Kushner’s infamous December meeting with Kisylak-who else?-about setting up a Russia back channel-Kushner actually suggested setting it up inside the Russian embassy. None dare call it treason.

Now a new report reveals that there were a series of meetings between Michael Flynn, Zamel-who quite possibly interfered in the election for Trump-how else to you explain the $2 million dollar payment?-and: yep, Jared’s best friend, MBS about regime change in Iran. Again, as noted above, regime change in Iran or at least a major crackdown on Iran compared to Obama’s policy was the sweet spot for both the Israeli and Arab Trump co-conspirators.

The key was giving Russia what it wanted-no sanctions, a free hand in Crimea-in exchange for Russia looking the other way while the Trump Russia House cracks down on Iran.

Gen. Assiri, of course, is the chosen scapegoat cum fall guy to keep the heat off of MBS after the execution of Khasshoggi.

“Gen. Ahmed Al-Assiri, the Saudi intelligence chief taking the fall for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, hobnobbed in New York with Michael Flynn and other members of the transition team shortly before Trump’s inauguration. The topic of their discussion: regime change in Iran.”

“Mohammed bin Salman, the powerful Saudi crown prince, dispatched Assiri from Riyadh for the meetings, which took place over the course of two days in early January 2017, according to communications reviewed by The Daily Beast. The January meetings have come under scrutiny by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office as part of his probe into foreign governments’ attempts to gain influence in the Trump campaign and in the White House, an individual familiar with the investigation told The Daily Beast. A spokesperson for Mueller declined to comment.”

Regarding Jhashoggi’s assassination, basically  Gen. Assiri is falling on his sword to protect his prince.

This meeting was also brokered by Nader and Zamel was also present for them.

“The New York meetings were attended and brokered by George Nader, a Lebanese-American with close ties to leaders in the United Arab Emirates who is currently cooperating with Mueller’s team. Also present at the meetings was Israeli social media strategist Joel Zamel, who has been questioned by Mueller for his role in pitching top campaign officials on an influence operation to help Trump win the election—overtures that could have broken federal election laws.”

And-Steve Bannon.

Steve Bannon was involved as well in conversations on Iran regime change during those two days in January, according to the communications.”

As I noted in (Chapter C) there was actually a time when the conventional wisdom was that Bannon wasn’t involved much in Russian collusion.

“The communications show that participants in the meetings discussed a multi-pronged strategy for eroding, and eventually ending, the current Iranian regime—including economic, information, and military tactics for weakening the Tehran government. Earlier this year the New York Times reported Nader was promoting a plan to carry out economic sabotage against Iran and pitched the plan in the Spring of 2017 to Saudi, UAE, and American officials. It’s unclear if that plan ever moved forward or if it was part of the larger project for regime change discussed in these January 2017 meetings.”

There are many problems with these meetings-besides the fact that they were part of a larger Grand Bargain on 5 nation collusion to rig the election for Trump. One is that the actual agenda of Iranian regime change is very wrongheaded. But even if you agreed with the policy the process here is all wrong-it’s being crafted based on a Grand Bargain in exchange for election interference. Beyond that these meetings here were while Obama was still President. 

So we’re talking about violations of the Logan Act.

Either way, former CIA acting director John McLaughlin told The Daily Beast, the get-togethers as described were very unusual.

“It’s concerning to me as a former intelligence official because of the fact that it smacks of covert action planning, which is the most sensitive thing the U.S. government does and is so uniquely the province of the sitting president,” he said.

One line of defense you hear from the Trump apologists is that the Logan Act hasn’t been enforced in 200 years. Exactly-this conduct is unprecedented in our nation’s history.

“The meetings in New York not only reveal details of one of the Trump team’s first encounters with officials from Saudi Arabia—a country that is embroiled in one of the year’s most scandalous and consequential geopolitical incidents—but also sheds more light on Trumpworld’s relationship to Zamel, a self-styled Mark Zuckerberg of the national-security world with deep ties to Israeli intelligence.”

Yes, and again, to underscore, Zamel is central to Russian interference-it’s called Russian interference but just bear in mind all these other nations also interfered in this scandal known as Russian interference.

“Trump’s team drew in Zamel, a young strategist and entrepreneur, during the campaign. Zamel had pitched a plan in August 2016 to Donald Trump Jr. to help Trump win the presidential election, according to The New York Times. It’s unclear if that plan was ever put into action. Trump’s lawyer has previously stated that the president heard Zamel’s plan but did not move forward with it.”

Again-why then did Nader pay him $2 million bucks after the election?

Zamel’s lawyer has also previously denied his client’s involvement in U.S. election or campaign efforts and told The Daily Beast that he is “not a target” of the Mueller investigation.”

Wether he’s a target or not, we do know that Mueller is very interested in what work he did for Trump and where that $2 million came from. According to this WSJ article in May, Mueller has issued a subpoena not for Zamel himself but for his work.

“Special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe is looking more closely into Middle Eastern involvement during Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, as it is now exploring the role of an Israeli entrepreneur with ties to a Gulf monarchy, according to people familiar with the matter.”

“Mr. Mueller has been conducting interviews about the work of Joel Zamel, an Australia-born Israeli businessman with experience in social media and intelligence gathering. Mr. Zamel is the founder of several private consulting firms—including a crowdsourced analysis firm called Wikistrat as well as the Psy Group, a secretive private intelligence firm with the motto “shape reality.”

“A subpoena concerning Mr. Zamel’s work, but not issued to Mr. Zamel, was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.”

“Details of the January 2017 meeting reviewed by The Daily Beast show how Zamel—already a familiar face in Trumpworld for his audacious plan to use social media influence campaigns to help beat Hillary Clinton—had ambitions beyond Trump’s election. According to communications reviewed by The Daily Beast, Zamel flew to New York to help pitch the Iran idea to Assiri and Trump’s team, delivering a bound presentation full of tactics to undercut the country’s government.”

And major tactics have been employed to do just that. The Russia House killed Obama’s Iran deal which had been working and added further Iranian sanctions.

“The meetings in New York were part of a flurry of visits from influential foreigners to Trump Tower. Weeks before, Emirati Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed reportedly discussed Iran policy at Trump Tower with Bannon, Flynn, and Jared Kushner. The meetings appear to be part of Saudi and Emirati efforts to lobby the incoming Trump administration against Qatar and Iran, their top regional competitors. The New York Times reported earlier this year that Nader worked with Republican fundraiser Elliott Broidy to urge the White House to take an aggressive stance against the two countries. (Nader also helped orchestrate the meeting between Blackwater founder and Trump ally Erik Prince and Moscow moneyman Kirill Dmitriev.)”

You have Trump’s support of the Qatar blockade to that end-though it’s plausible Kushner’s father’s rejected loan application with the Qataris also influenced that stance.

“Mohammed bin Salman—known by his initials, MBS— leaned on General Assiri to help carry out conversations with western officials about Iran and the Saudi-led war in Yemen, according to two senior officials in the intelligence community. Assiri was previously the spokesperson for Saudi’s military offensive in Yemen. That effort, in concert with the UAE and backed by the United States and European countries, has drawn enormous outcry from human rights activists and members of Congress. The UN has called it the globe’s worst humanitarian crisis, and UN air chief Mark Lowcock said earlier this week that the war puts 14 million Yemeni people at risk of starvation.”

“Sources familiar with the Saudi footprint in Washington described Assiri as one of MBS’ closest allies and most trusted confidantes. Before joining the intelligence service, he was top officer in the Saudi air force—an elite service branch tasked with shooting down missiles that target the country. A former U.S. defense official told The Daily Beast Assiri was highly regarded in his air force days.”

Now Assiri, the trusted confidant, is left holding the bag on Khashoggi.

UPDATE: At this point I think that we have a decent amount of-at least-circumstantial evidence to show coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia-between the Trump campaign-Roger Stone-Jerome Corsi as well as between the Trump campaign-Peter Smith-Smith also spoke to Corsi on the other. We have Mifsud’s promising the incriminating emails to Papadopoulos, of the added piece of information that Mifsud told the Coffee Boy Russia could help disseminate the emails, the fact that Chicago bar patron Jason Wilson asserts Papadopoulos actually told him that he had told Jeff Sessions about the emails.

Then there was Rob Golstone’s email about dirt on Hillary Clinton ‘as part of the Russian government’s support for your father’s campaign.’ Jr’s response was ‘If it’s what you say, I love it!’

Michael Cohen testified last week that he witnessed Roger Stone inform Trump himself of the DNC emails in advance. On July 23 the Trump campaign directs Roger Stone to find out what else Assange has. Corsi apparently delegated Stone’s delegation to Ted Malloch. On July 27 Trump in his last press conference of the 2016 campaign declares ‘Russia if you’re listening…’

It turns out Russia was listening and actually attempted to hack her server the very day.

FN: No direct link with Trump’s remark was alleged in Mueller’s indictment.

Ok but it’s a hell of a coincidence and you know what Malcom Nance says about them…

On August 2 Corsi gets back to Stone and tells him both the subject-Podesta-and the time-October-of Wikileaks’ next email dump.

On that very same day-August 2, 2016-Manafort and Kilimnik met at the Cigar bar and discussed:

1. Ending Russian sanctions

2. Manafort handed Kilimnik 75 pages of polling data.

3. They also discussed Wikileaks hacks of the DNC. 

Then in October we have the emails between Stone and the Trump campaign-Bannon, et al-well done Bannon told Stone. The perfect timing of the leaking of the Podesta emails-October 7 just 1 hr and 40 minutes after release of Hollywood Access.

4. Then we have Peter Smith’s thread-he emailed Flynn, Bannon, Spicer, Conway, regarding the emails in late September.

In Chapter A we see that he may even have paid off the Russian hackers.

FN: The Mueller Report revealed that the same day as Russia if you’re listening-and the Russian attempt to hack Hillary’s office-Trump directed Flynn to get the emails-and Flynn was Peter Smith’s main point person on the campaign.

There’s a hell of a lot of smoke-virtually impossible to believe there’s no fire. And my assumption is that what we know about Russia Coordination and Conspiracy is just a drop in the bucket to everything Mueller has learned-now wether we’re going to learn what Mueller learned…

Hopefully we will and we also will learn about the August 3 Trump Tower meeting with George Nader, Joel Zamel, put together by Erik Prince.

FN:  We did finally get Mueller’s redacted report though there was little about the August 3 TT meeting and open questions remain about wether Mueller was shutdown early.

I actually may have misread the meaning of the below and therefore it may not belong here-perhaps augmenting another chapter.

Nor do I believe that this is all the evidence of Russian coordination and conspiracy. Clearly the Washington Examiner is engaging in wishful thinking here-in any case this is exactly wrong. 180 degrees:

“In a perfect world, the final report would be a nonevent. Alas, that is not our world, so Mueller’s conclusion will be only the beginning of a free-for-all, featuring Washington hypocrisy at its worst. The special counsel has conducted a legal probe, but the Trump-Russia narrative has always been political, more about ramifications for 2020 than accountability for 2016.

Oh Washington hypocrisy at it’s worst. Actually hypocrisy at its worst is the GOP impeaching Clinton over perjury and obstruction and now dismissing it regarding Trump and his GOP co-conspirators as ‘mere process crimes’-except at the Cohen hearing when you had GOP Congressmen singing ‘liar liar pants on fire’-sadly reading it off notes and still running out of time

Gentleman’s time has expired. 

The Republican party has being daily demonstrating Washington hypocrisy at its worse for 25 years. But her emails! 

Now we have Trey Gowdy declaring the public hearings are a political sham-evidently he’s changed his mind since he grilled Hillary Clinton for 11 hours. When they talk about ‘looking for a crime’ they are projecting as that’s what the nine investigations into Benghazi were-an indictment in search of a crime.

Back to WE but couldn’t let that one go.

In that imaginary, perfect world, the Mueller report would be a nonevent for three reasons.”

What’s the name of that world? Kellyann Conway’s World of Alternative Facts?

First and foremost, the report should not tell us much that we do not already know. Of course, there are fascinating facts to be learned. What was the precise nature of “collusion” between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign? What exactly happened at the Trump Tower meeting between top campaign officials and a lawyer connected to the Putin regime — the meeting at which Donald Trump Jr. expected to receive information that might devastate Hillary Clinton’s candidacy, but that we’ve been led to believe was a dud? Did the president obstruct the Russia investigation by firing FBI Director James Comey? Did he obstruct justice by earlier leaning on Comey to drop the investigation of retired Gen. Michael Flynn, the national security adviser Trump had just fired for allegedly misleading Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S.?

All interesting questions. But they’re not supposed to be answered publicly unless charges are filed.

Again-Washington hypocrisy at its worst-the Washington Examiner and the rest of Trump’s GOP co-conspirators surely were’t complaining about Comey’s  extremely careless press conference.

 

 

 

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