Trump Inaugural Committee Got Foreign Money, Plea Deal Shows

[Anonymous]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-31/patten-caused-foreign-money-to-be-paid-to-inaugural-committee?utm_medium=social&utm_content=politics&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_source=twitter&cmpid%3D=socialflow-twitter-politics

A former Paul Manafort associate who pleaded guilty to a lobbying crime admitted that he helped foreign donors give money to President Donald Trump’s Inaugural Committee.

In a plea agreement made public Friday, prosecutors outlined other crimes that the lobbyist, Sam Patten, admitted to but wouldn’t be charged with. Among them was “causing foreign money” to be paid to the Trump inaugural committee. Patten signed off on the allegation.

Patten pleaded guilty earlier Friday to failing to disclose his lobbying on behalf of Ukraine, and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

According to a court filing, Patten’s Ukrainian client wanted to attend the Trump inauguration in January 2017, but the inauguration committee couldn’t accept money from foreign nationals. Foreign nationals can’t contribute to a presidential inauguration, according to Federal Election Commission rules.

To get around that restriction, Patten enlisted a U.S. citizen to serve as a “straw” buyer, according to the filing. That individual, who wasn’t named, bought four tickets for $50,000, after receiving a check for $50,000 from the consulting firm run by Patten and Konstantin Kilimnik, Manafort’s longtime fixer in Ukraine suspected of having ties to Russian intelligence. That firm, in turn, was reimbursed by a $50,000 wire from the Ukrainian oligarch’s Cypriot bank account, the filing says.

I guess it's possible that Trump and/or his kids didn't know about this business - but, ya know, Occam's razor and all.

[Anonymous]

Just lock them up!

[Anonymous]

Its starting to smell worse than 3-day old fish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just lock them up!

+ 1 million

Like the folks along the border, anyone affiliated with Trump should be presumed guilty until they can prove their innocence.

[Anonymous]

Holy crap!!

[Anonymous]

Does this matter? Honest question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does this matter? Honest question.

does it matter that Trump broke the law? Does it matter that a poor brown person broke immigration law?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does this matter? Honest question.

It matters if it's part of bigger pattern of foreign (ie, Russian, Ukranian, Israeli, Saudi, etc., etc.) money coming into the Trump inaugural fund. And where that money went. You know, pay to play and all that.

https://www.vox.com/2018/7/5/17505728/trump-inauguration-mueller-russians-rick-gates

Yet beyond just Russia, there have long been serious questions about the money behind Trump’s inauguration — and where, exactly, it went. Trump’s inaugural committee raised a truly astonishing $106.7 million, double the previous record set by Barack Obama’s 2009 inaugural. But what they did with it isn’t so clear.

In a report for ProPublica and WNYC by Ilya Marritz earlier this year, the chair of George W. Bush’s second inauguration, Greg Jenkins, said he was baffled. “They had a third of the staff and a quarter of the events and they raise at least twice as much as we did,” he said. “So there’s the obvious question: Where did it go? I don’t know.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does this matter? Honest question.

does it matter that Trump broke the law? Does it matter that a poor brown person broke immigration law?

Does this matter in the context of a complicit senate, is what I meant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does this matter? Honest question.

does it matter that Trump broke the law? Does it matter that a poor brown person broke immigration law?

Does this matter in the context of a complicit senate, is what I meant.

ah.. well, truth always matters and should be brought to light, no matter if some people turn their back on it.

Hopefully, most of the public who are aware will demand that their senators do something, and if they don't they get voted out. Hopefully, and yes, I'm trying to be hopeful, most of the people who are aware demand that our leaders be held to the same standards as the rest of the public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/obama-donor-pleads-guilty-in-foreign-donation-scheme-226147


Obama donor pleads guilty in foreign donation scheme
Illegal payments totaling $80,000 got an Albanian prime minister hopeful an audience with the president.

A Florida man pled guilty Monday to participating in and covering up a bizarre scheme that wound up getting a man hoping to to become prime minister of Albania into to one of President Barack Obama's fundraising events in October 2012, weeks before Obama's re-election.

Appearing in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, businessman William Argeros, 57, admitted to felony charges of aiding and abetting and illegal foreign political donation and making a false statement to a grand jury, court filings show.

Argeros gave $75,800 to the Obama Victory Fund in 2012 and subsequently donated $100,000 to the committee funding Obama's re-inauguration in 2013, federal records show.

In a plea deal with federal prosecutors, Argeros admitted to teaming up with New Jersey limousine driver Bilal Shehu to receive $80,000 "from a foreign source" and route it to the Obama Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee supporting Obama's reelection bid and other Democratic candidates.

The funds were used to get Albanian politician Edi Rama into an Obama fundraiser in San Francisco. Rama later used a photo with Obama to suggest Obama supported Rama's bid for prime minister, a post he won following a parliamentary election in June 2013.

Soon after the photo of Obama and Rama emerged, Rep, Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) called on U.S. authorities to investigate the donation that led to Rama's attendance at the event.

Albanian prosecutors are reportedly investigating Rama for illegal donations in the U.S., but no charges against him have been filed in Albania.

I think a limo driver who whitewashed some cash to try to sneak a foreign donor into an Obama event so the donor could have his photo taken there might be a little different from Trump officials - and perhaps Trump himself - whitewashing cash. Or something something. We don't yet know what exactly.

But your BUT OBAMA is noted. Kay?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/obama-donor-pleads-guilty-in-foreign-donation-scheme-226147


Obama donor pleads guilty in foreign donation scheme
Illegal payments totaling $80,000 got an Albanian prime minister hopeful an audience with the president.

A Florida man pled guilty Monday to participating in and covering up a bizarre scheme that wound up getting a man hoping to to become prime minister of Albania into to one of President Barack Obama's fundraising events in October 2012, weeks before Obama's re-election.

Appearing in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, businessman William Argeros, 57, admitted to felony charges of aiding and abetting and illegal foreign political donation and making a false statement to a grand jury, court filings show.

Argeros gave $75,800 to the Obama Victory Fund in 2012 and subsequently donated $100,000 to the committee funding Obama's re-inauguration in 2013, federal records show.

In a plea deal with federal prosecutors, Argeros admitted to teaming up with New Jersey limousine driver Bilal Shehu to receive $80,000 "from a foreign source" and route it to the Obama Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee supporting Obama's reelection bid and other Democratic candidates.

The funds were used to get Albanian politician Edi Rama into an Obama fundraiser in San Francisco. Rama later used a photo with Obama to suggest Obama supported Rama's bid for prime minister, a post he won following a parliamentary election in June 2013.

Soon after the photo of Obama and Rama emerged, Rep, Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) called on U.S. authorities to investigate the donation that led to Rama's attendance at the event.

Albanian prosecutors are reportedly investigating Rama for illegal donations in the U.S., but no charges against him have been filed in Albania.

oh, and look "Soon after the photo of Obama and Rama emerged, Rep, Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) called on U.S. authorities to investigate the donation that led to Rama's attendance at the event. "..... so the investigation happened and the guy went to jail. Did Obama try to kill the investigation? Did he threaten to fire the investigator? Nope. Unlike Trump and the rest of the sycophant Rs.

[Anonymous]

Here's the link to Patten's plea agreement:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RMBz5td-_DYoGeICoS4lhzWW051kBHk3/view

Patten served as another financial/political link between Trump and Russian/Pro-Russian Ukrainian interests. The Trump connection listed in Patten's plea is Trump's Inaugural Committee, however I'm guessing that Patten will have additional things to say about the work Trump's Campaign Chairman did for Russian/Pro-Russian Ukrainian interests leading up to the election and beyond.

It will be interesting to find out who Patten worked with on Trump's Inaugural Committee ... the plea agreement refers to at least Trump donor (an American "straw" purchaser) and one member of Trump's inaugural committee who also may have knowingly broken laws to help the Ukrainian oligarch gain access to Trump.

[Anonymous]

Obama Accepting Untraceable Donations

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/28/AR2008102803413.html

Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign is allowing donors to use largely untraceable prepaid credit cards that could potentially be used to evade limits on how much an individual is legally allowed to give or to mask a contributor's identity, campaign officials confirmed.

Faced with a huge influx of donations over the Internet, the campaign has also chosen not to use basic security measures to prevent potentially illegal or anonymous contributions from flowing into its accounts, aides acknowledged. Instead, the campaign is scrutinizing its books for improper donations after the money has been deposited.

In recent weeks, questionable contributions have created headaches for Obama's accounting team as it has tried to explain why campaign finance filings have included itemized donations from individuals using fake names, such as Es Esh or Doodad Pro. Those revelations prompted conservative bloggers to further test Obama's finance vetting by giving money using the kind of prepaid cards that can be bought at a drugstore and cannot be traced to a donor.

The problem with such cards, campaign finance lawyers said, is that they make it impossible to tell whether foreign nationals, donors who have exceeded the limits, government contractors or others who are barred from giving to a federal campaign are making contributions.

[Anonymous]

I’m confused why you are blaming Trump, or his campaign for this. The article says “a US citizen that was not named.” That could be anyone.