It's about the money. What a surprise.

Rikkitic:

 

It's about the money. What a surprise.

 

There is a body of evidence out there to strongly suggest that the Trump collusion story doesn't just involve Russia, and that Trump and Saudi Arabia are also intrinsically tied.

 

 

(THREAD) Pre-election Russia collusion may take down Trump. It's equally possible the Trumps' pre- and post-election collusion with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Israel will do it—a course of collusion also connected to the Kremlin. I explain here. I hope you'll read on and retweet. pic.twitter.com/OqgLcKjpNP

 

— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) November 20, 2018

"Dear Mister Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, that was very very naughty of you to order a hit on that fella Khashoggi in that embassy somewhere. But with all the money you're flicking our way, I'll forgive you. But please don't go killing Khashoggi again or I might have to send you another letter. With love, The Prez."

DarthKermit:

 

"Dear Mister Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, that was very very naughty of you to order a hit on that fella Khashoggi in that embassy somewhere. But with all the money you're flicking our way, I'll forgive you. But please don't go killing Khashoggi again or I might have to send you another letter. With love, The Prez."

 

+1  

Batman: I wonder if President Trump will send crooked Ivanka to jail.

I couldn't resist re-posting this one. 

geekIT:

 

Trump Refuses to Pardon White House Turkey After Accusing It of Working for Soros

 

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) - In a startling break with Thanksgiving tradition, Donald J. Trump refused to pardon the White House turkey after claiming that it was working as a secret operative of the billionaire George Soros. ...

 

Sideface:

 

The Washington Post - Trump’s statement smearing Jamal Khashoggi and giving Saudi Arabia a pass

 

November 20

 

President Trump on Tuesday pretty much erased any doubt that he wouldn’t hold the Saudi royal family accountable for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi - even as the CIA has concluded with high confidence that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was behind it.

 

The New York Times - In Pardoning Saudi Arabia, Trump Gives Guidance to Autocrats

 

November 20

 

WASHINGTON - President Trump has long viewed foreign policy as a series of business deals, stripped of values and idealism.

 

But his 633-word statement on Tuesday about the brutal killing of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi showed the extent to which he believes that raw, mercantilist calculations should guide the United States’ decisions about the Middle East and the wider world.

 

Mr. Trump made clear that he sees alliances as transactional, based on which foreign partners buy the most weapons. American jobs outweigh American values. ...

 

EDIT:  PS New York Times editorials -

Trump Stands Up for Saudi Arabian Values

Trump’s Black Friday Sale: Oil, Guns and Morals

Donald Trump Fails, Again

This is a long thread of Tweets by Seth Abramson. They're all about the same subject: Trump's involvement with Russia, pre-election. But it's way worse and way more complex than anyone thought. I urge everyone to read it. NOTE: The last link is to Seth Abramson's bio. The man is very accomplished, very reputable, very genuine.

Thread by SethAbramson: Pre-election Russia collusion may take down Trump.

(THREAD) Pre-election Russia collusion may take down Trump. It's equally possible the Trumps' pre- and post-election collusion with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Israel will do it—a course of collusion also connected to the Kremlin. I explain here. I hope you'll read on and retweet.

1/ I must stress how unbelievably complex the "Grand Bargain" theory of the Trump-Russia case is—a different thing from saying it's not substantiated. It's substantiated in *almost every single particular*—it just *also* happens to be very confusing. Not byzantine—just confusing.

2/ The basics: Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the UAE all view Iran as their chief regional enemy. Iran is propped up by Russia. Therefore the Saudis, Israelis, and Emiratis all need a US government willing to find a way to get the Kremlin to *stop* supporting Iran in the Middle East.

3/ The best way to get Russia to stop supporting Iran—or reduce support—was/is to drop all sanctions on Russia over its 2014 annexation of Crimea, as that'd be worth *trillions* to the Kremlin over the next decade. Everyone knew that Clinton wouldn't do this—and that Trump would.

4/ Per the NYT, on August 3, 2016, Donald Trump Jr. met secretly at Trump Tower with a Saudi and Emirati emissary, George Nader, as well as an Israeli intelligence expert, Joel Zamel, with *significant* ties to both Israeli intelligence *and* Russian oligarchs allied with Putin.

5/ Per the NYT, Nader and Zamel both—effectively on behalf of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Israel, and Russia—offered the Trumps clandestine collusive assistance to win the 2016 election. Jr. reacted favorably to this offer—which got into the specifics of how the collusion would work.

6/ Zamel specifically offered a domestic disinformation campaign in the United States that would use fake social media accounts to sway "micro-targeted" U.S. voters toward Trump—basically *exactly* what ended up happening. Zamel has been connected to Bannon's Cambridge Analytica.

7/ Nader was an emissary from the Saudi Crown Prince ("MBS") and the Emirati Crown Prince ("MBZ"), while Zamel was connected to a Trump-linked Russian oligarch (Rybolovlev), Israeli intel, and Cambridge Analytica. Together they had money, microtargeting, and "dark" intel methods.

8/ Jesus... this is where it gets insane. I'm going to post five articles now that are absolutely necessary to what I'm about to say. This is... serious stuff, and it needs to be right. Please take a look at the following five articles:

9/ KEY ARTICLE 1:

Trump Jr. and Other Aides Met With Gulf Emissary Offering Help to Win Election The Trump Tower meeting and follow-ups are the first indication that countries beyond Russia may have offered help to the Trump campaign. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/19/us/politics/trump-jr-saudi-uae-nader-prince-zamel.html

10/ KEY ARTICLE 2:

Saudis Close to Crown Prince Discussed Killing Other Enemies a Year Before Khashoggi’s Death During discussions in Riyadh in 2017, Saudi intelligence officials discussed hiring private companies to kill the head of Iran’s Quds force and other Iranian operatives. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/11/world/middleeast/saudi-iran-assassinations-mohammed-bin-salman.html?login=email&auth=login-email

11/ KEY ARTICLE 3:

Top Cheney Aide in Muellers Sights as Probe Expands Mueller’s investigators have examined an array of operatives with ties to Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the UAE—including John Hannah, Dick Cheney’s former national security adviser. https://www.thedailybeast.com/top-cheney-aide-in-muellers-sights-as-probe-expands

12/ KEY ARTICLE 4:

Abbas rival hired American mercenaries to kill in Yemen for UAE: report Dahlan who grew up in Gaza refugee camps, made his way close to the top among Palestinian leadership https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/186610-181018-abbas-rival-hired-israeli-american-s-mercenaries-to-kill-in-yemen-for-uae

13/ KEY ARTICLE 5

Dahlan ‘cover-up team’ from Lebanon helps hide traces of Khashoggi murder The same team dispatched by Dahlan to Istanbul is said to have been behind the assassination of senior Hamas member Mahmood al-Mabhih in 2010 https://www.yenisafak.com/en/news/dahlan-cover-up-team-from-lebanon-helps-hide-traces-of-khashoggi-murder-3466673

14/ Upshot: the Saudis and Emiratis formed a plot in 2015 to systematically assassinate Iranians and Iranian allies they considered a threat. To do this they needed the help of US mercenaries and quality intel—two things it now appears the Trumps and their allies helped provide.

15/ In other words, the Saudis, Emiratis, Israelis, and Russians didn't offer the Trumps pre-election collusive assistance for free—indeed they asked for a lot. The Russians would get trillions once the 2014 sanctions were dropped, and the other nations would get... other things.

16/ Trump adviser Erik Prince—who was *also* at the secret meeting with Nader, Zamel, and Don Jr. at Trump Tower in August '16—ran a mercenary army. Elliott Broidy, who had enormous access to Trump as a lobbyist and RNC finance co-chair, also was connected to a mercenary company.

17/ Jared Kushner—who wasn't at the August '16 meeting but *would* attend a followup in December with MBZ (who secretly entered the US for the meeting), Bannon, and the Zamel-connected Mike Flynn—struck up a very close "friendship" with MBS (the other Crown Prince) post-election.

18/ Numerous reports say Kushner got intel from his father-in-law's Presidential Daily Briefing—which only Trump could permit him to take—and gave it to MBS. The intel—a list of MBS' enemies—allowed MBS to target his domestic enemies and kill some of them.

Saudi crown prince says Jared Kushner handed him U.S. intelligence Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman has been boasting about his close relationship with the president's son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, sources tell DailyMail.com. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5575395/Saudi-crown-prince-brags-Jared-Kushner-handed-U-S-intelligence.html

19/ MBS subsequently told friends that Kushner was "in his pocket." And why would he think otherwise? Trump had (apparently) declassified intel for MBS' use as part of his program of domestic and international assassination. It was that very program that targeted Jamal Khashoggi.

20/ So *no one* was surprised when—despite the CIA concluding that MBS ordered Khashoggi killed—Trump gave his "I'm colluding with this guy" response, saying (as he had of Putin) that he believed MBS wasn't involved in the killing because... wait for it... MBS told him he wasn't.

21/ This five-party collusion explains why Trump went to Saudi Arabia first on his first trip abroad and immediately sold them weapons; why Kushner uses WhatsApp for all his MBS communications (it frustrates oversight); why Prince was Trump's envoy to Russia in the Seychelles...

22/ ...why Broidy was given $1 billion in business by Nader; why Nader met with White House officials repeatedly in the first 60 days of Trump's administration; why Mueller originally suspected Papadopoulos as an Israeli spy; why Flynn, Barrack, Gates, and other Trump allies...

23/ ...began lobbying Trump as soon as he was elected to send nuclear tech to Saudi Arabia (partly to build new nuclear reactors, but with a longer-term goal of letting Saudi Arabia and the UAE develop nuclear weapons as a deterrence of Iran); why Trump ripped up the Iran deal...

24/ ...even though Iran was in compliance; and more. Look: we know Trump's top aides were willing to assist foreign nations in assassinating people living in the U.S., because that's *exactly* what Mike Flynn was caught trying to do—extradite a Turkish cleric to be killed abroad.

25/ The reason this is all so confusing is that *some* of the motives in play may have been reasonable. Iran *is* a state sponsor of terrorism—so it's not so far out of bounds to think that a U.S. government might want to assist Iran's many enemies in the Middle East if possible.

26/ But many of the motives involved were *illegal*, too. Namely—as was the case with Russia—the Trumps (plus Kushner) are *easily* bribed, and willing to set U.S. policy on the basis of bribes. With Putin, it was billions in real estate deals in Moscow that easily bribed Trump.

27/ With Saudi Arabia, Trump and Jared being the *only* people in the White House who supported the Saudi blockade of Qatar suggests that—when Qatar shortly thereafter turned around and "loaned" Jared $1 billion—they were being strong-armed by secret Trump-Saudi Arabia collusion.

28/ Just so, the Trumps are trying to expand (and *have* expanded) their real estate empire into the UAE, which makes pleasing the Emiratis important as a business proposition. And since Trump doesn't care how many people the Saudis or Emiratis assassinate, why not help them out?

29/ This sort of Bribery—a federal crime—is of course impeachable under the Constitution. But if a story that just came out in the Middle East Eye—which has been *very* accurate on the Khashoggi case—is correct, the Trumps may have just crossed the line into something far darker.

30/ If this BREAKING NEWS is accurate, the Trumps *actively* participated in the Saudi-Emirati-Israeli assassination scheme—which, remember, per the links in this thread, both Nader and Zamel were part of—in order to get financial benefits on the back end.

Pompeo handed Riyadh a plan to shield MBS from Khashoggi fallout, says source US secretary of state gave Mohammed bin Salman a roadmap to insulate himself from the scandal, a senior Saudi source tells MEE https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudis-using-pompeos-plan-shield-leadership-khashoggi-fallout-says-source-1684431379

31/ Simply put, under circumstances in which you know MBS is criminally responsible for the murder of a Washington Post journalist, you *can't* assist him in escaping detection by delivering to him a plan to do just that. That'd be Accessory After the Fact to First-Degree Murder.

32/ *Obviously* I want to see the Middle East Eye story reported elsewhere also, but again, the Middle East Eye has repeatedly broken news in the Khashoggi case. Plus, their scoop fits with *all the other evidence* we have of this plot dating back (at least) to early August 2016.

33/ I can't help but recall, now, how Pompeo was the CIA director, and then Tillerson was pushed out at State so Pompeo could replace him, and then Trump started singing his praises in terms of his *loyalty*. Well, it'd take that sort of "loyal" person to do something like this.

34/ There are too many angles here to count: for instance, one wouldn't normally think Bannon would be at all the planning meetings for Trump-Russia-Saudi-Emirati-Israeli collusion—but it makes sense when you understand that Zamel and Cambridge Analytica were crucial to the plan.

35/ Flynn's involvement might also be a mystery, until you learn that Zamel had previously tried to recruit him for *his* intel outfit (Flynn had one too), and Flynn thereafter became an *energy lobbyist* trying to bring nuclear energy (thus, eventually, weapons) to Saudi Arabia.

36/ A list of the people relevant to this plot:

Trump Sr.  Trump Jr.  Kushner  Bannon  Flynn  Nader  Broidy  Prince  Zamel  MBS  MBZ  Rybolovlev*
Barrack  Gates  McFarlane  Dmitriev  + others

*There's credible evidence Rybolovlev had two secret meetings with Trump in the 10 days pre-election.

37/ My point in writing this thread *isn't* thinking I can explain every aspect of this to all of you on Twitter—the 5- (really 6-) nation "Grand Bargain" requires, literally, an entire book to explain properly. And—as importantly—to document with reliable, major-media reporting.

38/ The important thing to understand is that all the major-media reporting you've read saying that Mueller is looking at *multi-state collusion*—not just a "bipolar" collusion between the Trumps and Russia—is not just correct but *richly* supported by reams of *public* evidence.

39/ This also means that when you see continued reporting on the Khashoggi case, you shouldn't see it as merely the tail-end of a story from weeks ago that is losing steam... but quite possibly the *beginning* of a story that will ultimately lead to the end of Trump's presidency.

40/ I've been saying forever that "Trump-Russia"—which is now the catch-all term for all pre- and post-election collusive activities orchestrated by the Trumps and their allies—is about *greed*. These are really *really* bad people, folks—and we'll soon learn just *how* bad.

UPDATE/ This thread continues, with additional *significant* evidence of the "Grand Bargain," here:

https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1064904175761403906?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1064904175761403906&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthreadreaderapp.com%2Fthread%2F1064726398307315712.html

http://www.sethabramson.net/bio

EDIT: A short excerpt from the BIO:

"In October 2018, the National Council for the Training of Journalists named Seth, as a freelancer, to its annual list of the "most-respected journalists" in the United States and the United Kingdom. Voted on by working British journalists, the NCTJ listing featured nine freelancers; others honored by the NCTJ in 2018 included Pulitzer Prize winners Bob Woodward and Ronan Farrow and Emmy- and Murrow Award-winning CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour.

​In November of 2018, Simon & Schuster published Seth's report on Trump-Russia collusion, Proof of Collusion, which takes readers through the last four decades of Trump-Russia ties with a special emphasis on key events surrounding the 2016 presidential election. The 450-page book contains 1,655 endnotes, nearly 2,000 cites, and a massive online index."

yup, and after all these "reveals", nothing will happen, nothing will change. I don't think not even the Democrats being in control will change anything; if there were in the same boat, they'd do the same thing but not via tweeting the obvious for the world to see.

Honestly, I hardly know what to say. If all this is true, It feels like whatever was left of democratic government in America has already been overthrown. How can Trump or anyone else ever be held to account?

Rikkitic:

 

Honestly, I hardly know what to say. If all this is true, It feels like whatever was left of democratic government in America has already been overthrown. How can Trump or anyone else ever be held to account?

 

 

 

umm this has been going on since the beginning of time ... it's nothing new. the only new thing is that this president can't keep his mouth shut.

Sounds a bit like the good old "but they're both as bad as each other" argument.  It's utter bullsh*t:

Since 1969, Republican presidential administrations have 121 criminal indictments and 89 convictions, while Democrats have had 3 and 1 respectively.

And if he lost the 2020 election by way of a 50.5% vs 49.5% margin, he would be gone, but it still reflects badly on American voters

What would be interesting is to see the Trump campaign for the nomination. I assume that still happens for a sitting President seeking the second term?