How Many Other Grifters and Spies Have Incredibly Damning Recordings of Donald Trump?
In Lev Parnas’ interview with Rachel Maddow, he confirmed a previously reported story that in April 2018, he incited President Trump to try to fire Marie Yovanovitch by (falsely) telling Trump that the Ambassador was badmouthing him.
For days, Republicans have been dismissing such claims, in part by emphasizing that Parnas (like Trump) is under indictment.
It turns out that Parnas has receipts, in the form of a recording of the incident someone shared with ABC.
A recording reviewed by ABC News appears to capture President Donald Trump telling associates he wanted the then U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch fired – and speaking at a small gathering that included Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman — two former business associates of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani who have since been indicted in New York.
The recording appears to contradict statements by President Trump and support the narrative that has been offered by Parnas during broadcast interviews in recent days. Sources familiar with the recording said the recording was made during an intimate April 30, 2018 dinner at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Trump has said repeatedly he does not know Parnas, a Soviet-born American who has emerged as a wild card in Trump’s impeachment trial, especially in the days since Trump was impeached.
“Get rid of her!” is what the voice that appears to be President Trump’s is heard saying. “Get her out tomorrow. I don’t care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. Okay? Do it.”
On the recording, it appears the two Giuliani associates are telling President Trump that the U.S. ambassador has been bad-mouthing him, which leads directly to the apparent remarks by the President. The recording was made by Fruman according to sources familiar with the tape.
[snip]
Parnas appears to say: “The biggest problem there, I think where we need to start is we gotta get rid of the ambassador. She’s still left over from the Clinton administration,” Parnas can be heard telling Trump. “She’s basically walking around telling everybody ‘Wait, he’s gonna get impeached, just wait,” he said.
According to the Daily Beast, Igor Fruman made the recording.
A recently-indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani taped President Donald Trump calling for the firing of Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, according to the lawyer for a second Giuliani associate.
Joseph Bondy, a lawyer for Florida businessman Lev Parnas, told The Daily Beast that the recording was made by former partner Igor Fruman. Both men were arrested in October and charged with campaign finance violations.
TDB also quotes Fruman’s lawyer refusing to comment about the recording. That may be because he is in a joint defense agreement with Rudy Giuliani (and by association the President). Which means this recording came from someone else, either Congress or Parnas himself (though he has only modified the protection order for stuff on his own phones).
This is utterly damning for the President’s claims — which were transparently false — that he didn’t know Parnas.
But they’re also an indication of how easily Trump can be put into compromising situations. April 2018, when this exchange occurred, was just a month after Parnas and Fruman started buying their way into elite crowds with Donald Trump. It was weeks before they gave $325,000 to Trump’s SuperPAC (which, given that they are accused of buying this access in order to get Yovanovitch fired, sure looks like payoff). And they were reportedly doing this at the behest of a still as yet unnamed Ukrainian.
Yet they had to do little more than lie about Yovanovitch to get Trump to order that she be fired. While Republicans in the Senate may not give a damn, the video will, at a minimum, make it harder for Bill Barr to protect the president.
So on top of everything this does for Trump’s legal woes, this video raises real questions about who else has such damning recordings of Trump. Mar-a-Lago has already been demonstrated to be a nest of spying. And Trump has chosen not to bring handlers with him into key meetings with foreign leaders — including, but not just, Putin.
I promise you, this is not the only utterly damning recording of the President out there.
The question is what those who have such damning recordings are doing with the leverage they give over the President.
How many others? All of them, Katie.
And every one of them that feels as if Trump screwed them somewhere along the way (likely, most of them) has a powerful incentive to return the favor.
“It’s nothing personal, Donald. It’s just business.”
Well, in addition to Vlad we have MBS, Erdogan, Modi, Bibi, Rodrigo, and Xi who all have interests in keeping a compliant POTUS under their thumbs so they can do what they feel like without any push back from the US. Likewise, the Iranians probably have stuff from when Ivanka was playing financial footsie with them in Azerbaijan.
Let’s also consider the spawn and their dealings, even the (relatively, and it’s a low bar) smart Ivanka has enough fingers in enough pies to be compromised on the money at least. DJTJr and Eric probably have more to look at as well, let’s remember why Jr divorced Vanessa – because his mistress Aubrey wanted a kid and they were trying…. So, that kind of stuff is out there to be leveraged and one wonders just who Individual-1 would be willing to save especially if it is a choice between him and them. I think only Ivanka is safe.
No doubt that some of the incriminating stuff has been “shared”.
It’s not just foreign powers, not by a long shot. There are bound to be more domestic dealings like the McDougal/Daniels coverups. For that matter, his finances are such a mess that anyone who extended him credit is a potential blackmailer.
Half the diners at Mar-a-Lago might have recordings, not to mention quite a few lobbyists and corporations.
As for the Don, I guess he’s never heard of trust, but verify. As president, he could easily have checked what some Russian grifter told him about anything. But he is so easily conned – and so personally threatened should he be seen not to know something – he believes everything that suits him. Faux Noise must have that written above the portal to its inner sanctum.
not even Ivanka is safe. Trump doesn’t care who he throws under the bus, well perhaps Putin is an exception. He has the capacity to extract revenge. We know how Putin gets even.
My only hope for the sake of the nation is that it’s like the Three Stooges routine where all of the Stooges are in such a rush to get through the door that they jam up each other simultaneously and none of them get through.
Realistically, though, not everyone trying to get through to Trump is a Stooge.
Another analogy is a large mass of protoplasm (let’s call it a trump) trying to get enough to eat and procreate. And at the same time there are all these parasites (viruses, russians, sa/royals, israelis, bacteria) trying to infect the trump blob.
It’s a hard job. Staying alive and eating/f’ng while everyone is poking at your blob for a good infection.
No wonder he doesn’t want to eat food from furrin places. (Has anyone told him that 80% of the workers in these joints aren’t US born?)
Aristocrat to Curly:
“What kind of fool do you take me for??
Curly:
“How many kinds are there?”
today’s live blog at Kos starts here:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/1/24/1913761/-House-managers-wrap-up-their-opening-argument-for-impeachment-Live-coverage-1
how….>i>inconvenient for the GOPolgists
I am having difficulty sorting out Parnas’s behavior. It would appear that he is bankrolled/controlled/in the service of Firtash and thereby the Russia Mafia/Putin. I therefore am suspicious of his motives in exposing Trump’s criminal behavior at the same time the GRU is hacking Burisma. Aren’t those two actions at cross purposes ?
I’m sure that just general chaos in the US government is to the benefit of Putin & Associates, but going into this election do they just want to undermine the overall perception or are they cutting Trump loose ?
To me, I think it makes loads more sense if you think of the true Ukraine quid pro quo as between Trump and Firtash/Russian Mafia. Trump gives Firtash the means to control the Naftogaz board with Perry’s associates, and thus allow RU/Mafia state to consolidate the natural gas pipelines in Ukraine. In addition, Barr sees to Northern District of IL dropping Firtash corruption charges.
Firtash gets RU hackers to plant phony Burisma evidence of Biden wrongdoing and possibly “find” missing Clinton emails/have Crowdstrike “evidence” of Ukrainian hacking of DNC servers. This also provides cover for Manafort/Stone pardons, as it implies entire Mueller investigation was a sham.
Ultimately, with Mueller investigation undermined, Manafort/Stone pardoned, Trump could then ask that Russian sanctions be lifted, and allow for Firtash, Yanukovich and Deripaska to carve up Ukraine like they originally wanted to do during the 2016 campaign. Billions of dollars flow to Trump and his cronies in corrupt deals as a reward.
Since it seems like that’s all unlikely to happen now, I think plan B is to sow chaos and undermine confidence in Trump. Plan C is likely to cut Trump loose, but maybe not just yet.
That is a very concise analysis, thanks. You have given me something to ruminate over.
I agree with almost everything you’ve laid out.
Don’t forget that one week ago, Larry Kudlow confirmed that Trump is looking at “changes” to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which is legislation they’re using to prosecute Firtash. Kudlow was asked because Tillerson is on the record, in that new “A Very Stable Genius” book, saying that Trump wanted to ditch FCPA altogether, because not being able to bribe foreign governments puts American businesses at a competitive disadvantage.
Also, breaking news, Trump just upped tariffs on steel and aluminum again tonight. One realm of Firtash’s corrupt business deals was mining titanium out of India. Interesting?
The only thing I disagree with you is that Trump & co. are unlikely to see their plan carried out. I think they’ll be able to absorb the blow of Parnas’s evidence and testimony, because they practically control every single source of information for almost half of the country. And that’s if Parnas’s offerings weren’t indeed part of Firtash/Putin’s plan, which may involve undermining Trump to hold his feet to the fire.
Not to disagree with viget’s comment, but let us also not forget the power of the simple desire for revenge. Parnas no doubt sees himself caught between some very powerful forces, and if he blames Rudy and Rudy’s boss for putting him in that very difficult spot, he might be more than a little upset with Rudy’s boss.
And when he realized that he can make life more than a little bit difficult for Rudy’s boss, I suspect a smile began to break across his face for the first time since he was arrested at the airport.
Speaking of revenge, I would also add Zelinsky is only human as well.
Zelinsky’s honeymoon got totally f’d over by the party of Trump and I think it is important to note the smell of the characters Ukraine Rooty & Co teamed up with.
Parnas did a great job of painting Zelinsky as the earnest underdog, but some of Zelenski biggest benefactors are far from clean and may have a dog in this race as well.
While I am just throwing that shit out there as speculation, I do know that Zelinsky, and at least a couple of people around him know exactly what happened and will have an email or two to back it up.
So if your listening Zelinsky…….
That’s a joke folks.
Just asking….
This was a recording made by Fruman.
At some point Fruman would have had to forward a copy of the recording to Parnas for Parnas to be responsible (via himself a friend or congress) for it getting out correct?
If that’s the case, Fruman could have sent it to other people as well?
I assume Fruman leaking the recording would violate basic ground rules of any joint defense agreement, what would be the price for a double cross, compared to the recordings potential blackmail power?
If congress had this information since Parnas handed it to them, and congress is responsible for the leak, why now? Why not lead with it?
I don’t understand how a particular journalist/media outlet is chosen to be rewarded with a scoop like this?
Trust and existing relationships seem obvious, but it’s hard to ignore that it’s a thing of value, and something may be asked for in return.
Is there a pattern that would give clues to people familiar enough with the process to see them?
If so, do people truly wanting to hide their identity deliberately use various outlets to avoid this?
A totally wild a$$ guess:
Another possibility is that the source of the recording is either a US intelligence or DOJ employee who has taken it upon themselves to get senate repubs off the dime and to start doing their sworn duty to the balance of the country. That could explain why the recording isn’t available for distribution, only the transcript.
It gets pretty lonely when you’re at risk and others are undeservedly living large. Case in point: the original whistleblower.
Let’s just tack it all up to the human condition. Or blame it on the neutrinos. One thing is certain, though, our brains are not as smart as they think they are.
On a more mundane level, ambitious attorneys, who may or may not be ethical, may do this to advance their own interests or that of their clients. Choosing the news outlet sometimes has to do with the best way to get the dominoes to flip. Exposure, the appearance of credibility, and the impetus to move the narrative forward may all come into play.
Add to that the current technical options for any concerned inside person to get access. Or, these days, any number of hacking possibilities, internally or externally.
Fruman may have come around to Parnas’s fear that he was being set up. That could mean this is either a sign of backing out of an agreement, or a warning against screwing him over.
Or, as I think emptywheel is intimating on her TL, Fruman’s boss may be leaking it.
Ultimately, both Fruman and Parnas are still beholden to Firtash first. He’s the mob guy. Firtash still hasn’t gotten his end of the quid pro quo here yet, he’s still stuck in Vienna. Barr hasn’t cleared him yet. All of these shenanigans seem designed to pressure Trump and Barr. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Would Trump/Barr really be so brazen as to let a notorious RU mobster off scot-free?
Would Trump and Barr be so brazen to as to let mobsters off scot-free?
If it saved their bacon, I have zero doubt. They are both completely transaction driven and care only for themselves. Screw anyone that gets in the way.
It appears the media is cushioning the blow/paving the way for when hopeful Americans have to witness “the four republicans” betray our constitution.
I’m not sure who to be more pissed at.
There is too much at stake for any self indulgent anger so time to admit that the only way to solve a problem is with empathy.
Think like a scared, self absorbed politician….
They know if they stray from the herd they will get picked off immediately.
Enough of them need to break off together so that they can protect each other.
I think it’s reasonable to ask these senators what they think the next loyalty demand will be after this one?
As I write this, their guy is being trolled by mobsters.
He’s also an idiot.
They have to consider the odds of this blowing up in their faces.
Trump uses an un-secured Iphone.
Seriously, what are are the chances that this ends well?
Right here, right now they are being given an out.
If they move together they will be safe.
They can shape the narrative, look at the freaking material they have been handed, the true a-h*les can paint themselves heros.
Maybe even get on the ballot.
Or how about the simplest explanation: If Fruman is responsible for the recording, he shared it with Parnas that very night (April 30, 20180?
Loading up on popcorn and butter ;-)))
“Betraying trust to a foreign power…”
The Trump-Putin presser in Helsinki 2018 is worth watching – Putin broke his demeanor about 5 times. He loved every minute.
Who needs “secret” video. Betraying trust to a foreign power is in plain view.
I have been working in computer security for 20 years. A good friend of mine (who has been working in it for even longer) and I have an informal bet about exactly how many foreign security services have thoroughly owned up Mar-a-Lago. Based on what is known about the resort’s opsec from public sources, I would guess at least five.
I’d say that the Russians are a given. Not going to guess at the others.
I’ll guess a few others:
– Israeli – that’s a natch
– Saudi Arabia – they have a special grip on “us”
– Jared Kuschner and “friends”
– China
But the hardest to id are non-state/persons.
– corporations – multinational, shell, multi-level
– vested interests and externally funded – NRA, RW hate, fox,
OTOH, if Lev’s patrons have tasked him with disrupting and disinforming the American state, he and they are doing just fine.
I think it is very generous to interpret this as Trump wanting Parnas and Fruman’s help in firing the ambassador. I don’t think he needed their help to fire an ambassador. He might need their help to take her out or get rid of her, or words he actually said. I could be wrong. But I’m not wrong that the media is changing his words without saying they’re doing it.
1]
2] Robert Hyde to Lev Parnas
3/26/2019 10:05:11 PM (UTC+0)
[two messages with the same time stamp]
https://twitter.com/TheViewFromLL2/status/1217217120330711041
Trump sounds desperate.
And what is that “I don’t care” about?
He doesn’t care about…what?
Since he had the power to fire her, and didn’t need outside help to do that, it’s being assumed that he had something else in mind, like any mobster with a gang of underlings. (See also the “heads on pikes” message and all the others where the word from the WH is “do violence to them”.)
I think there are only two ways to interpret Trump’s words and both should scare the crap out of every American, especially the senators who soon will be voting on impeachment.
The first choice is that this is another example of Trump ruthlessly doing what needs to be done to build his power.
The second, is that all it takes for a foreign party to bend the United States to it’s will, is to whisper in our leader’s ear that a woman was publically dissing him.
Oh and Trump is a coward he doesn’t fire people he tells others to
New, about Hyde [via Wendy Siegelman]:
Trump supporter from Europe sues Robert Hyde for defamation
Anthony de Caluwe’s suit relates to text messages Hyde sent to a Rudy Giuliani associate suggesting the Ukrainian ambassador was under surveillance.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trump-supporter-europe-sues-robert-hyde-defamation-n1122371
Jan. 24, 2020, 5:17 PM EST
Lol. These are two litigants that deserve each other.
The sum of my knowledge of the law:
A warped surface cannot be sheathed in wood nor very many other materials.
The context is corrupt – and creepy. Trump was having a private dinner about personal business at his DC hotel with Rudy G, Parnas, and Fruman. Trump’s ace consultants tell him that Yovanovitch is a pain in the ass. She is badmouthing Trump (a lie) and her Girl Scout anti-corruption efforts are keeping their deals from getting off the ground (probably true). Their patrons are unhappy. Everyone knows they act badly when made to wait.
Trump panics. He acts the potentate to compensate: “Get her out,” “Take her out,” “Now!” The story is that Trump’s handlers tell him, you can’t do that, sir. Mike Pompeo hasn’t been confirmed, yet. Let’s wait until he is. Then, this will be his baby, if anything goes wrong. (That should make Mikey a little uncomfortable.)
Even if true, who acts that way beside a mob boss? If the issue had been about US policy, a presidential aide would have called the acting SecState. He would have brought Yovanovitch home and recommended candidates to replace her. Confusing to everyone at State, but mission accomplished.
Problem is, Trump always needs a cut-out, be it Mickey Cohen or Mikey Pompeo. It’s what mob bosses do, it’s a Roy Cohn rule, and it gives Trump someone to blame when failure inevitably comes calling. We have the failures, but the cut-outs seem to be missing. Bad news for Donny.
The WH Aide at issue was John DeStefano, who left the WH in May of 2019–the same month and year that Ambassador Yovanovitch was abruptly recalled.
They still say that timing is everything; don’t they?
Wonder if the eagle eye of Sekulow on Lyndsey G during his presser was a result of Lyndsey’s handshake and kind words to Shiff?
https://apple.news/AoIFAPBEZRZqFgulbklcqnQ
Pompeo got angry/abusive/threatening with NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly for asking him about Ukraine/Yovonavitch.
1] https://twitter.com/lourdesgnavarro/status/1220834185843236865
5:22 PM ET · Jan 24, 2020
2] https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1220837170484797445
5:33 PM ET · Jan 24, 2020
Screenshot, transcribed:
The part with the map is really creepy.
Pompeo goes full pompeo. Hilarious and creepy.
Here’s a link to the original short clip, with captions:
https://twitter.com/davidgura/status/1220756761289904128
12:14 PM ET · Jan 24, 2020
VERY happy to see the press pushing back and not just shuffling away with their hat in their had. This is good practice for the election campaign for th rest of the year. Somehow the British press manages to push back and stillgt interviews. We need to also.
And, not surprisingly, it’s a pattern:
https://twitter.com/JennaMC_Laugh/status/1220846140402425861
6:09 PM ET · Jan 24, 2020
Mikey is a stock character found in every military and corporate melodrama. He kisses those above him, and shites on everyone below him. He is useful for peacetime ladder climbing, but not a guy you want in a fox hole when there’s a new moon and the cicadas stop singing.
For him, a Mensch is the guy to blame when it hits the fan. He and Trump share the same attitude about doing the right thing: “Never heard of it.”
Wendy Siegelman Retweeted https://twitter.com/vermontgmg/status/1220852341693407233
3:34 PM – 24 Jan 2020
can Pompeo even find Kansas on a map?
He was a congresscritter in the 4th CD there, so I *hope* he can.
I was just waiting for him to click his red heels together…
Not sure the people around Wichita want him back.
Remember his florid denials? “I don’t know him” and so on for a couple of minutes.
Long ago I filed those under #MeThinksHeDothProtestTooMuch and #ConsciousnessOfGuilt.
Hilarious in light of subsequent revelations.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/dont-trump-lev-parnas-68335946
I’m not at all convinced that Fruman made the recording, nor am I convinced that his team leaked it. Obviously SOMEONE is smart enough to record their conversations with the President, and I have to admit that I’m glad to see that there’s at least one person involved in all of this who’s familiar with 21st century technology and is sensible enough to use it.
What I DON’T understand is pretty much any part of the conversation. Is there someone else there that Trump could be talking to? Why the hell is he saying this to these bozos? He could have Yovanovitch recalled with one phone call to the right person and have her replaced with one of his own stooges. Hell, he could have made the call DURING that dinner, and he could have said he wanted Fruman or Parnas to BE the new Ambassador. Why is he telling THEM to do it?
What is he telling them to do?
Bondy says he’s turned over the recording to the House Intelligence Committee.
Parnas said he “found” it in his cloud account. My guess is he has a bunch of stuff squirreled away in different places to protect against a single point of failure.
(Bondy is on Maddow discussing this+ right now)
EW says it blows up his claims about the delays in responding to the House subpoena.
Well, if you can tolerate some oversimplification, there are a number of factors that explain the nonsense. It’s still nonsense, but it’s somewhat-predictable nonsense. For one thing, he has the attention span of a gnat. If he doesn’t make the phone call during dinner, he will forget to make it later. Secondly, he may not know whom he should call. He is a slow learner, and hasn’t figured out the levers of power. He has a ten times firmer grasp now than three years ago, but still ten times less than a competent executive would have.
In late 1952, Truman pointed to his desk in the Oval Office and said: “He’ll sit right here and he’ll say do this, do that! And nothing will happen. Poor Ike — it wont be a bit like the Army. He’ll find it very frustrating.” And the bureaucracy has gotten more viscous since then. There are many high-level vacancies. Bannon vowed to “destroy the administrative state” and greatly impaired its ability to carry out its proper functions … but also impaired its ability to respond to improper whims. There are no more adults in the room, but there is still a lot of viscosity.
There’s a lot more to the story, but you can see the outline of how to understand the nonsense.
Nice comment; the historical reference classes up the whole situation more than imagining, say, a spaghetti-covered Trump, in highchair, banging utensils on the tray for ~ ‘more’ or ‘different’ or whatever he wants.
Aaaaaaaaand I’m totally wrong again. It was Parnas’ lawyer who leaked it. Has anyone seen any mention of other people at the table aside from Fruman, Parnas, and Trump.
Seems confusing as to whom or to what Trump is talking to at this point. Suspect anyone tasking Giuliani with a mission would be capable of inappropriately tasking anyone though it seems more likely it was addressed to another “fixer”.
“Get rid of her!” is what the voice that appears to be President Trump’s is heard saying. “Get her out tomorrow. I don’t care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. Okay? Do it.”
Trmp seems to be incapable of firing people face-to-face. He has others do that. (But in this case, she was already out of Ukraine.)
Confusion reigns. The recording was in April 2018, one year before Yovanovitch was fired in May of 2019.
He still could have fired her himself. Or had her reassigned.
Sadly, just months later, this attack happened:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46091074
“get rid of her” “take her out”, where I live that usually means kill her. Leaves me wondering why Trump hasn’t been “interviewed’ by the police. Oh, right he’s above the law.
When you think back to his statement regarding shooting some one on 5th Ave. and not loosing a vote, omg Trump may have spent too much time watching “gangster movies” like the Godfather. Like Sonny he may be “killed” due to his own impulsiveness.
“still unnamed ukrainian”?
i guess former prosecutor general yuriy lutsenko is as likely as any.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/12/23/the-ukrainian-prosecutor-behind-trumps-impeachment
https://twitter.com/KlasfeldReports/status/1220909404540805120
7:21 PM – 24 Jan 2020
Iggy and Fru-Fru and Martina Butina all implement same strategy, insinuate your way into the inner circle. Notice they strive to place themselves in the vicinity of an occasion to inter act. They fit right in at the events where every other person is also a kiss ass. To this day I believe it was pre arranged for Butina to get the microphone at that gun event. She was precocious, charming, and intelligent enough to place herself in easy reach of the cameras. 2o feet more she would have been in the same frame as the president. Their astute political sense is always on the hunt. Get the shot. Don’t come back without the footage.
The Russians roam the halls of congress. Two burly guys had the balls to attend a couple of homeland security meetings before being asked to leave. They operate with impunity. They can’t believe how easy it is to infiltrate the psyche of the American political animal. They know an Elliott Broidy when they see one, just as Trump knew a Big Dick Toilet Salesman when he saw one. None of these people have a cause or care about anything other than themselves.
Not unreasonable to think there are hundreds of Russian operatives at work in this country.
Maybe it wasn’t Trump who made the Katie Johnson/Trump/Epstein child rape case go away. Maybe Putins’ operatives visited the New Jersey attorney who latched onto the Katie Johnson case. It is only a short ride from Brighton Beach to the offices of plaintiff’s counsel,Thomas Francis Meagher. The poor girl can be dead right now, who knows. If the Russians handled it she is probably hanging out with Nastya Rybka .
This is the type of out there pernicious speculation that normally should drive us nuts and serves no useful purpose generally, except in this thread- OF COURSE THERE’S MORE MATERIAL-
THEY’RE CALLED TRUMP CARDS.
https://www.snopes.com/news/2016/06/23/donald-trump-rape-lawsuit/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46922420
it does leave me wondering how stupid is Trump and his. (O.K. I know) Perhaps its not stupidity, but ignorance. He doesn’t seem to understand not all will “love” him forever and that like himself, they are going do what is best for them. It simply boggling how he permits this lack of security to continue.
In meetings you don’t permit recordings. You leave all that at the door. where are his security people?. Makes me wonder how many of these meetings has Barr recorded.
If you’re a prominent politician or business person on the world stage you need to expect just about any one and everyone will try to record you on tap.
The tape does demonstrate how “stupid” Trump is. He can be fed lies as if they were truths and he doesn’t stop to question any of it.
All those Senators might want to ask themselves, how safe are they from Trump? It might be in their own interests to get rid of him, they still have Pence to maintain “control” over their political agenda.
Is it Parnas or Fruman who keeps trying to have an ongoing discussion about marijuana and banking laws later on? He seems to be sitting close to Trump who is barely paying attention.
Reading Ilya Marritz’s thread, it’s Lev. I don’t know what brought it up, but the discussion started with banking restrictions in states with legal pot.
starts here: https://twitter.com/ilyamarritz/status/1221167804587659265
I haven’t read that thread, but the grifters’ pot-angling has always reminded me of Jeff Sessions’ DOJ’s enforcement announcements, like the big one on January 4, 2018. e.g.:
Anyway, it might be worth looking at the timeline of Sessions’ DOJ actions here (earlier activity contrasted with relative silence later in Sessions’ appointment, IIRC), and those of Barr’s DOJ, in light of the grifters’ and their overlords’ financial planning. Domestic pot policy apparently dovetailing with a more complicated ‘foreign policy’ than we may have realized.
At minimum, it seems part of the plotline.
Was Sessions merely unfurling his policy preference, or was he also trying to be An Adult In The Room in some way on this issue as with Mueller-investigation related ones? Was this type of policy loudness just accidentally inconvenient for the foreign donors, later to be tamped down? Etc.
e.g. March 2018, seemed kind of a PR reply/ _somewhat_ of a walk-back at the time:
I’m just not seeing how this is helping Parnas unless it’s blackmail.
Or perhaps it’s helping someone else?
Lev’s lawyer was on with Anderson Cooper this evening, this whole thing is odd but there was a particularly strange moment when Bondy said HE would be very disappointed if no witnesses were called, and then something to the effect that there were 3 more days to change people’s minds.
I would assume lawyers should not be using clients to achieve political goals, and I also have a lot of questions if Parnas is paying a lawyer to get Trump impeached.