Info minus various imagery and supporting links to other media stories on individuals/events.
Fuck tweet storms. What a terrible way to diseminate info in an easily consumable fashion.
- Per @NYMag, Paul Manafort took over the Trump campaign on April 16, just 72 hours before Trump mathematically eliminated his competition.
- The timing was intentional: Manafort, hired in March, was slated to become the campaign’s key player as soon as Trump became the nominee.
- On April 21, 48 hours after clinching, Trump announced the first major foreign policy address of his life. It was scheduled for April 27.
- The speech, arranged by Jared Kushner in mid-March, was to be hosted by the Center for the National Interest, a conservative think tank.
- The Center is widely known to have “ties to the Russian regime of President Vladimir Putin,” per Politico.
- The speech was slated to be at the National Press Club, an august venue with a long history of staging secure events with large crowds.
- Less than 24 hours before the speech, it was cancelled. The Trump campaign (i.e., Manafort) declared the venue was too small and unsafe.
- So Manafort moved the event to the Mayflower Hotel: a smaller, less secure site. The decision confirmed the campaign’s excuses were lies.
- The two things the Mayflower had that the NPC didn’t were (a) 581 private rooms for private meetings, and (b) restricted, VIP-only areas.
- The latter was important because Manafort wanted Trump to hold an intimate, 24-person cocktail hour in the Mayflower’s VIP Senate Room.
- Among the 24 at the event: Trump, CNI event coordinator Heilbrunn, Jeff Sessions, Kushner, Lewandowski, Manafort, and four ambassadors.
- Another VIP at the event was Iran-Contra figure Bud McFarlane, one of America’s chief advocates for a bargain with Russia on oil access.
- The four ambassadors were the only four ambassadors in the world (out of 195 total) that the Putin-linked CNI had invited to the event.
- The biggest oil deal in Russia’s history occurred in December of 2016. It involved the coordination of entities from three countries.
- Individuals from those three countries—RUSSIA, ITALY, and SINGAPORE—negotiated the sale of 19.5% of Russia’s state oil company, Rosneft.
- The #Russiagate scandal involves claims Trump was given 0.5% of Rosneft and aid in getting elected in exchange for lifting US sanctions.
- The Rosneft deal closed Dec. 5-7. During that time McFarlane visited Trump Tower. It’s believed Russian ambassador/spy Kislyak did too.
- WSJ wrote in April 2016 that Trump met separately with the ambassadors at the Mayflower and was effusive. Quote: “Trump Met the Russian Ambassador During the Campaign Even Though He Said He Didn’t. It Was Googleable.” “Donald Trump met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in April, in the heart of his campaign for president. The now-president of the United States has, of course, said he had “zero” involvement with Russian officials during his run…”
- “Trump met at a VIP reception with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak. He warmly greeted Kislyak and 3 other ambassadors."
- The ambassadors at the Mayflower: RUSSIA! ITALY! SINGAPORE! And the Philippines–which is routinely cited as a Rosneft expansion target.
- So Trump warmly, privately chatted with the 3 Rosneft-deal nations at a cocktail hour right before his first big foreign-policy event.
- to be adversaries. We should seek common ground based on shared interests…an easing of tensions and improved relations with Russia…
- is possible…[I hope to] make a deal under my administration that’s great for America but also good for Russia."
- Richard Burt, CNI and Russian Alfa Bank adviser, crafted the speech. He was also Putin’s pipeline lobbyist.
- The only Kislyak meeting Sessions never disclosed to Congress, even after accusations of perjury, was the meeting at the Mayflower.
- But per the organizer of the Mayflower Hotel event, Jacob Heilbrunn of the CNI, a third Sessions-Kislyak meeting definitely occurred.
- Heilbrunn on the VIP event: "At a reception in the Senate Room of the Mayflower, a number of politicians and Trump advisers, such as…
- … Senator Jeff Sessions and ambassadors [from Russia and the other nations] congregated before the event."
- The VIP event wasn’t just a receiving line as Trump claimed. It was a “cocktail meet-and-greet”–a full event.
- That Sessions would feel the need to hide his contact with Kislyak at the Mayflower event after accusations of perjury raises red flags.
- The White House saying it has “no recollection” of any of the VIPs at Trump’s biggest-ever foreign policy event is also a red flag.
- When Kislyak was asked if he’d met Trump or members of his team during the campaign he replied, “What do you consider a campaign?”
- We know Manafort and Kislyak would have known each other, as Manafort indirectly worked for Putin for years.
- We know Manafort set up the Mayflower event and was available for meetings at it–as was Kushner, who later met secretly with Kislyak.
- Congress must investigate any Mayflower meetings between Sessions, Manafort, Kushner, Kislyak and the Italian/Singaporean ambassadors.
- We know the White House lied about Mayflower. We know Sessions has. We know Kislyak has. And we know the Rosneft players were present.
- We know there was ample time/space for “sidelines” meetings. And we know Walid Phares was also there, and Trump Jr., and Stephen Miller.
- So other than the RNC and suspicious Trump Tower meetings in December, the Mayflower Speech should get the most attention in Congress.