Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) suggested Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has some sort of financial influence over former President Trump.
In an interview with MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki,” Pelosi said Putin is the “richest person in the world” and has “stiff competition” to being named the most evil person in the world.
Pelosi asked “what does he have on Donald Trump that he’d have to constantly be catering to Putin?”
Her comments came just after Trump doubled down on his criticism of NATO and said he would encourage Russia to attack U.S. allies who fail to reach the alliance’s defense spending goals. Trump has also declined to criticize Putin for the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a Russian prison last week.
Not my original work, and its outdated, from like 2019.
Trump was over a billion in debt and the Russians bailed him out.
►Trump was first compromised by the Russians in the 80s. In 1984, the Russian Mafia began to use Trump real estate to launder money. In 1987, the Soviet ambassador to the United Nations, Yuri Dubinin, arranged for Trump and his then-wife, Ivana, to enjoy an all-expense-paid trip to Moscow to consider possible business prospects. Only seven weeks after his trip, Trump ran full-page ads in the Boston Globe, the NYT and WaPO calling for the dismantling of NATO.
►In 1984, David Bogatin — a convicted Russian mobster and close ally of Semion Mogilevich, a major Russian mob boss — met with Trump in Trump Tower right after it opened. Bogatin bought five condos from Trump at that meeting. Those condos were later seized by the government, which claimed they were used to launder money for the Russian mob. (NY Times, Apr 30, 1992)
►Felix Sater is a Russian-born former mobster, and former managing director of NY real estate conglomerate Bayrock Group LLC located on the 24th floor of Trump Tower. He is a convict who became a govt cooperator for the FBI and other agencies. He grew up with Michael Cohen–Trump’s former “fixer” attorney. Cohen’s family owned El Caribe, which was a mob hangout for the Russian Mafia in Brooklyn. Cohen had ties to Ukrainian oligarchs through his in-laws and his brother’s in-laws. Felix Sater’s father had ties to the Russian mob. This goes back more than 30 years.
►Trump was $4 billion in debt after his Atlantic City casinos went bankrupt. No U.S. bank would touch him. Then foreign money began flowing in through Bayrock. Bayrock was run by two investors: Tevfik Arif, a Kazakhstan-born former Soviet official who drew on sources of money from the former Soviet republic; and Felix Sater, a Russian-born businessman who had pleaded guilty in the 1990s to a huge stock-fraud scheme involving the Russian mafia. Bayrock partnered with Trump in 2005 and poured money into the Trump organization under the legal guise of licensing his name and property management.
►In July 2008, the height of the housing bust, Trump sold a mansion in Palm Beach for $95 million to Dmitry Rybolovlev, a Russian oligarch. Trump had purchased it four years earlier for $41.35 million. The sale price was nearly $54 million more than Trump had paid for the property. Again, this was the height of the recession when all other property had plummeted in value.
►Semion Mogilevich was the brains behind the Russian Mafia. Mogilevich operatives have been using Trump real estate for decades to launder money. Many of them owned condos in Trump Towers and other properties. They were running operations out of Trump’s crown jewel.
►From Craig Unger: “Early on, a source told me that all this was tied to Semion Mogilevich, the powerful Russian mobster. I had never even heard of him, but I immediately went to a database that listed the owners of all properties in NY state and looked up all the Trump properties. Every time I found a Russian sounding name, I would Google, and add Mogilevich. When you do investigative reporting, you anticipate drilling a number of dry holes, but almost everyone I googled turned out to be a Russian mobster. Again and again. If you know New York you don’t expect Trump Tower to be a high crime neighborhood, but there were far too many Russian mobsters in Trump properties for it to be a coincidence.”
►According to a Bloomberg investigation (3/16/2017) into Trump World Tower, “a third of units sold on floors 76 through 83 by 2004 involved people or limited liability companies connected to Russia and neighboring states.”
►In 2013, Federal agents busted an “ultraexclusive, high-stakes, illegal poker ring” run by Russian gangsters out of Trump Tower. They operated card games, illegal gambling websites, and a global sports book and laundered more than $100 million. A condo directly below one owned by Trump reportedly served as HQ for a “sophisticated money-laundering scheme” connected to Semion Mogilevich.
►The Russia Mafia is part and parcel of Russian intelligence. So the fact that they have been operating out of the home of the president of the United States is deeply disturbing.
►Rudy Giuliani famously prosecuted the Italian mob while he was a federal prosecutor, yet the Russian mob was allowed to thrive. Giuiani appointed Semyon Kislin to the NYC Economic Development Council in 1990, and the FBI described Kislin as having ties to the Russian mob.
►A lot of Republicans in Washington are implicated. Boatloads of Russian money went to the GOP–often in legal ways. The NRA got as much as $70M from Russia, then funneled it to the GOP. The Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee lead by McConnel got millions from Leonard Blavatnik. In the 90s, the Russians began sending money to top GOP leaders, like Speaker of the House Tom Delay. Unger’s book alleges that most of the GOP leadership has been compromised by RU money.
►At the Cityscape USA’s Bridging US and the Emerging Real Estate Markets Conference in Manhattan, in September 2008, Trump Jr. was frank about the tide of Russian money supporting the family business, saying “…And in terms of high-end product influx into the US, Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets.”
►Eric Trump told golf reporter James Dodson in 2014 that the Trump Organization was able to expand during the financial crisis because “We don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.”
►Russian oligarchs co-signed Trump’s Deutsche bank loans.
Trump now takes cues from Putin:
►At the end of 2018, Putin and his allies started making a strong push for a resolution that would justify their country’s 1979 invasion of Afghanistan and reverse an 1989 vote backed by Mikhail Gorbachev that condemned it. The Putinists’ goal was to pass the resolution by Feb. There is no one on this side of the Atlantic who thinks the USSR was justified in invading Afghanistan. And out of nowhere, on January 2nd, Trump came out strongly supporting Russia’s 1979 invasion of Afghanistan.
►Trump went against American intelligence on North Korean missiles. He told the FBI he didn’t believe their intelligence because Putin told him otherwise. “I don’t care, I believe Putin”
►Trump met in secret with Putin the G20 summit in November 2018, without note takers. 19 days later, he announced a withdrawal from Syria. As a note, Trump conducted FIVE completely private meetings and conferences with Putin, and has gone to great lengths to prevent literally anyone, even people in his administration, from learning what was discussed.
►Trump refused to enforce sanctions legally codified into law - and in some cases reversed standing sanctions on Russian companies.
►He has denounced his own intelligence agencies in a press conference with Putin on election meddling - and publicly endorsed Putin’s version of events.
►Trump pulled out of the INF treaty, which allows Putin to create long-range hypersonic missiles that threaten Europe with impunity. The US already has all the weaponry that the INF would ban the development of, so this offers us nothing, while allowing Russia to develop powerful new weapons to challenge our allies.
►Demanded Russia get invited back into G7
►Pushed the CIA to give American intelligence to the Kremlin.
►Withdrew from the Open Skies treaty
►Received intelligence in 2019 that Russia was paying bounties for dead American soldiers, and hasn’t done anything about it by the time of this writing.
►Announced troop withdrawal from Germany (America’s missile defense from Russia and forward operating base against Russian aggression)
►And of course, Trump continues to threaten to pull out of NATO. Suffice to say, pulling out of NATO would be like the only guy in a prison yard with a shotgun just throwing it over the fence for absolutely no reason, suddenly giving the people with crude homemade shivs complete power.
We are fucking doomed.
We are as long as people will keep vote for either red or blue
We are as long as people will keep vote for
either red or blueconservatives who use every tool they have to block progress and make our lives worse.both red and blue are ruled by conservatives leaders who use every tool they have to block progress and make people live miserable
And how much of the Democratic Party has blocked progressive legislation? Is it 100%? No it’s not. Guess what that percentage is on the other side of the aisle? Oh the entire Republican party is on board with this shit? Sounds like we should purge the GOP from government and replace them with progressive representatives so we can move forward. You’re on board with that right??
Purge the government from corrupted criminals such red and blue party members
This is easily one of the top 5 best comments I have ever read on any social media platform in my life. Absolutely fascinating, and completely fucking terrifying. Do you have any research/reading materials you can provide to go along with this?
And I found the “would rather be a Russian than a democrat” shirt in that thread again haha.
I know that man personally (the one on the left) so I get a kick out of it every time I see that photo.
I love to embarrass his granddaughter by sending her a screenshot every time I encounter it.
Any citations? I mean, the more recent stuff is obvious, because Trump just comes out and says it. He basically admits he’s a Russian agent.
But what about the 1987 full page ad? Is that referring to this: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ilanbenmeir/that-time-trump-spent-nearly-100000-on-an-ad-criticizing-us
If so, that ad doesn’t say anything about NATO. The ad recommends pulling support for Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf, and most of all Japan. Although Trump’s ad is fucking stupid, this ad doesn’t say anything about any NATO countries.
Did you send the wrong link? This doesn’t mention a full page ad for NATO.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Biden%2C_berlusconi_and_medvedev.jpeg
Here’s the current ceo of usa shaking hands and laughing with someone usa government knew had ties with the mafia and the former ceo of russia. Pretty much every billionare in the world have ties with the mafia, russia or china. They are all scum.
Red and blue foreign politics have been always the same, military presence in the world over the past years under both red and blue presidents didn’t got weaker. Learn what NATO is from wikipedia and look at what USA is doing and what they have been doing since the end of WWII
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War
Trump met in secret with Putin the G20 summit in November 2018
Hey man, I found this picture of you and your false equivilancy.
Both parties are equally corrupt
This kind of adroit aloofness to reality is why Democrats struggle so hard.
The easiest to punch opponents they’ll ever have, but they wont take a meaningful swing.
Come out and full throatedly say that voting Republican in 2024 is anti-Democratic and fascist. Fight while we’ve still got a chance.
It doesn’t help that she’s accusing everyone of being paid off by Putin or the Chinese. The last ones she accused were pro-ceasefire activists because she can’t imagine anyone would organically come to the conclusion that bombing babies is bad.
She is herself full of Chinese influence
I read about Germany and the street fights against the Nazi party brownshirts and wonder how much further until we start doing the same with red hat wearing people…
What do you think 2016-2021 was? Just because you weren’t out in the streets punching Nazis and confronting racism and fascism directly doesn’t mean that others weren’t.
I would say we’re on the other side of that page.
Where I live protests are usually about strikes. Unfortunately a large reason is because this once blue state is now orange around the mouth.
Deplorables, right?
They’re all domestic terrorists now.
Im not a fan of Trump but where exactly is the evidence?
We won’t have true democracy until there’s just one Democrat name on the ballot.
What does the CIA even do, if not investigate and handle exactly this situation?
Traffic narcotics.
Hahahaha 😆 (no /s)
They probably killed Kennedy and MLK but now they’ve lost their edge?
CIA loves to prop up tyrants. Kennedy and MLK were opposed to tyrants.
📠
I feel like this would be the FBI? They were the ones tracking all the Trump campaign’s connections with Russia in 2016.
I have no reason to think she’s wrong here, but I also think people shouldn’t be “suggesting” and “hinting at” these things. Instead, people should present the evidence to the prosecutors and let the man go to prison. You don’t need any media circus for this to happen.
But then again, I guess everything is a presidential race now.
The problem is time. Trump doesn’t need any more criminal charges to send him to jail, he just needs the courts to finish doing their job, which takes time.
Did I slide to a dimension where trump hasn’t spent most of his adult life in business with Russian oligarchs? Is your response to hearing Pelosi’s lucid musings anything other than “no titty fucking shit Sherlock”? Did trump seriously not have a giant money laundering casino for Russians named the Taj Mahal here???
I am going to enjoy this reality. 😊 Checks Wikipedia 🙄 Oh, nvm. I forgot that I already live in the dimension where a preponderance of evidence isn’t enough to establish a preponderance of evidence. My bad.
She is probably right, but she also likes to accuse anyone who disagrees with her of being a Putin shill so they should find someone with better credibility.
Water is wet
Grass is green, sky is blue. More at 11!
Duh! And/or Hello!?
Cool! Now are we gonna get any laws to prohibit this national security threat? Maybe ban shady donations from billionaires both American and abroad? Because if we just ban Putin from donating directly, they can just make a shell company in New York and fund him.
We’re going to get the laws put into place to stop this, right? Anything to stop Trump from getting into the office again?
Next she’s going to suggest Alphabet has financial influence over Google!
In other news the sun is hot.
This is always said so dismissively. Like, even if everyone knows it, if it’s still a problem it’s a good idea to keep talking about it.
Better would be doing something about it, which she’s not doing. But still.
And I like beer
NO FUCKING SHIT NANCY
I’m inclined to believe this. But I wouldn’t dare repeat it without better journalistic integrity.
Any staunch political operative saying anything at all about their opponent should be treated like nothing at all had been said, much less as news.
This goes for literally every statement that comes off of Trump’s mouth and fingers too.
Any staunch political operative saying anything at all about their opponent should be treated like nothing at all had been said, much less as news.
I mean, this statement would carry more weight from someone who wasn’t the in Leadership for 30 years thanks entirely do to her prodigious fundraising abilities. For Nancy Pelosi, a woman who coordinated $37M from disgraced cryptocurrency con-artist Sam Bankman Fried in exchange for carte blanche legislative authorship, to complain about someone being financially influenced…
It isn’t that she’s wrong, its that - from Ted Cruz to Adam Schiff - getting fat stacks for your campaign / private business / family in exchange for influence over public policy is totally normal. Democrats are orders of magnitude more terrified of AIPAC than any MAGA Republican is of a Russian influence peddling campaign. And they’re all bent over and cheeks spread to JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and the rest of the mega-banks.
The only thing that makes this news is the national understanding that getting kickbacks from a billionaire psychopath in Saudi Arabia or Korea is cool and good but getting them from a National Enemy like Putin is unacceptable.
I mean, there’s a lot of evidence to support the accusation.
What other evidence do you require? All of his very well documented deals in Russia are only allowed if the Kremlin approves the contracts. Trump personally profits directly from those deals and he refused to put his holdings into a blind trust, casually continuing to profit off of dealings with the enemy.
Do these people have a multi-year brain lapse of this stuff? We suspected and had a good idea about this 4 years ago (and longer). And only now does Pelosi figure it out?
More reason to not have old farts around.
What makes you think she just figured it out? Good chance she was asked to not confirm it/talk about it publicly for some reason or didn’t feel like it was right do so. Why? No mother fucking clue (and I’m not defending her) but guaranteed people at the cia, fbi, etc have known about this for decades which would mean anyone with a security clearance probably knew as well.
Remember when we were the crazy conspiracy nut jobs because we “knew” russia helped get trump elected with a social media psy op campaign? Pepperidge farms remembers.
We all had a good idea about this when he first first ran for president. It’s been known since well before that as well.
And by “financial influence over” she means “has him by the balls”?
this is one of those things that are fairly obvious if you thought about it for a while even if there was no evidence to prove it. because, sure he is deferential to autocrat strongmen but it was to a different scale with putin.
This just in: bears found to defecate in the woods.
Has since the 1980’s.
