Is Kushner next?

  1902832_768638586479924_1240270164053215574_n

"Jared Kushner failed to disclose his role as a co-director of the Charles and Seryl Kushner Foundation from 2006 to 2015, a time when the group funded an Israeli settlement considered to be illegal under international law, on financial records he filed with the Office of Government Ethics earlier this year.

The latest development follows reports on Friday indicating the White House senior adviser attempted to sway a United Nations Security Council vote against an anti-settlement resolution passed just before Donald Trump took office, which condemned the structure of West Bank settlements. The failure to disclose his role in the foundation—at a time when he was being tasked with serving as the president’s Middle East peace envoy—follows a pattern of egregious omissions that would bar any other official from continuing to serve in the West Wing, experts and officials told Newsweek."  newsweek

————

Syria is quiescent at the moment, North Korea hangs in the balance as a possible scenario for a major war.  Some people would like to steer me away from the subject of the Mueller investigation but the story is far too interesting for me to accept that.

I would think that Flynn's guilty plea is about developing leverage with regard to Kushner's oddness.

-  He did a poor job of filling out security clearance forms.  He did that repeatedly. Too good to obey the law?  I have filled out the same tedious forms many times and I can understand his reluctance, but, people can be hired to interview you and fill them out for you.

-  He thinks that he and his perfect group of experts (identities?) can bring the Palestinians and Israelis to an agreement over what I long ago came to see as a problem without a solution.  The difficulty is that the two groups' deeply felt desires and aims are mutually exclusive and not really subject to compromise.  The truth is that they both want ALL of the land between the sea and the Jordan River and in Israel's case a good many of them want a piece of Jordan as well.  Kushner will learn that both Bibi and the Palestinians are lying to him about their willingness to compromise.  But, his blindness to that is not a crime.  It is simply the result of his conceit and actual ignorance of these people.

-  IMO he is an agent of the Israeli state or the Jewish Agency who is unregistered under FARA.

-  It now appears that Kushner sent Flynn (perhaps the dumbest Irishman in the world – I am part Irish) to seek in the president elect's name Russian government cooperation in blocking a resolution at the UN that was unfavorable to Israel.  Did Trump know that Flynn was so dispatched or did Kushner take it upon himself to use his father in law's influence to send Flynn on this errand on behalf of a foreign state?  Is this a crime?  I know not as yet.  pl 

http://www.newsweek.com/jared-kushner-disclosure-form-west-bank-settlements-israel-white-house-729290

This entry was posted in Israel, Politics, Russia. Bookmark the permalink.

53 Responses to Is Kushner next?

  1. Eric Newhill says:

    Sir,
    It’s hard to imagine anyone who carries water for Israel taking a big hit.
    It will be interesting. Kushner’s relationship with Trump makes him vulnerable – nay, a target – to Borgist machinations. His relationship with Israel should make him invulnerable to the same.
    The Borg faces a quandary? Perhaps a rift in the Borg develops? I can’t see Israel throwing Kushner under the bus and incurring Trump’s wrath. I can’t see Israel allowing it’s name to be very publicly associated with underhanded behavior.

  2. The Beaver says:

    Colonel,
    The irony: From the guy in charge of peace process in the Middle East
    In addition, yesterday at the Saban17 Forum, Kushner described the Trump Middle East peace team as made up of “3 orthodox jews and a coptic Egyptian”. Since Haim Saban was the moderator , he thanked the Whiz Kid for trying to derail UNSC resolution on settlements. “as far as I know there’s nothing illegal there” he told Kushner.
    Will try to locate the You Tube video and post it later on

  3. Alaric says:

    Well said:
    “IMO he is an agent of the Israeli state or the Jewish Agency who is unregistered under FARA.”
    He also seems to lack any common sense when it comes to geopolitics. Him, Netanyahu, and MBS together…..oh my

  4. Yeah, Right says:

    “It’s hard to imagine anyone who carries water for Israel taking a big hit”
    I suspect it might be the reverse i.e. once someone does take a big hit then everyone who carries water for Israel will be in serious trouble.
    Once the floodgates open there may be no stopping it.

  5. Keith Harbaugh says:

    Some sad news about Ireland (IMO):
    “How Ireland Moved to the Left: ‘The Demise of the Church’ ”
    By LIAM STACK. 2017-12-02
    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/02/world/europe/ireland-abortion-abuse-church.html

  6. outthere says:

    JOSEPH CAMPBELL: that wonderful Irish saying, you know, “Is this a private fight, or can anybody get into it?”
    me too

  7. confusedponderer says:

    Eric Newhill,
    I strongly doubt that Israel will ‘throw Kushner under the bus‘.
    They won’t be asked for their advice, view or preference in the matter whether Kushner is to stay in the whitehouse or whether he is to be kicked out. They have no saying in that matter, despite their considerable influence in the US.
    IMO, what will count is simply domestic – that is, to what extent Kushner is a problem for Trump, and that’ll be what solely counts in the question whether Kushner will get the boot or not.
    It speaks for itself, in its own way, that the role and tasks of Kushner have been greatly reduced recently.
    https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/11/jared-kushner-horizons-are-collapsing-within-the-west-wing
    That’s likely to for one to limit the damage the man can or could cause in addition to the damage he has caused, and, if there is someone else doing his former tasks, a boot won’t create a great gap if he gets the kick.
    So, why that reduction of Kushner’s role, I wonder? Well, actually, I don’t wonder. I daresay it’s because what Kushner has advised as policy has and is gnawing at the reputation of Trump.
    Trump by himself is, well, what he is, but in addition to the advice he got and likely still gets from Kushner he isn’t exactly getting ‘well considerated advice’.
    Kushner’s poor and ill advice is no problem for Israel, rather they see it as an advantage, but poor and ill policy resulting from such advice is a political and a poll problem for Trump. That IMO is all that’ll count here.
    Kushner was after all the genius recommending Trump to fire Comey, Kushner was responsible for ‘middle east peace’, and Kushner was rather friendly to the Saudis and all that.
    Now, how well again did firing Comey do Trump? How far is that middle east peace? I haven’t seen it yet. And what about the Saudis and what they do? What about Yemen and Quatar? In sum, all of that is hardly a series of successes, a series successes for America that is.
    Pissing into Trumps policies Kushner may have done just what Israel and/or the Saudis wanted. But then: What for the US? Where is US, or, naturally, Trump’s grand success based on Kushner’s briliant advice? Is there any such succes?
    Nope, there isn’t anything like that and that’s the problem for Kushner as an advisor and for Trump as well.
    Firing Comey likely wasn’t a wise thing to do, and middle east peace is far away, etc. pp. Trump may not be wise or smart but he probably understands when he is getting poor advice from Kushner.
    Just to sum it up: ISIS is being kicked by the Syrians, Hezbollah, Iran and Russia – not by the US or Iraq, or by Turkey or Saudi Arabia. What a success. The Turks play their own ‘post-NATO’ games, with post-osmanian terriotorial ambitions and their support of so far by and large friendly sunni jihadis in Syria and likely in Lebanon. What a success.
    The Israelis for their part don’t succeed in ‘breaking the Shia highway from Iran to Hezbollah’, nor did they succeed in overthrowing Assad. What a success for America.
    The Saudis, despite being absurdedly rich, cannot get their act together in Yemen. The Saudis got US backing, US aid in their siege of Yemen and likely they get US recce or air refuelling but still fail in Yemen, and fail also in getting Egypt or Pakistan doing the dirty work that the Saudis alone cannot do and fail doing when they try.
    What the Saudis excel at in Yemen is besieging and blockading and blowing up a lot of things from the air. Oh yes, and then there is that nasty Cholera desease in Yemen with something like 400.000 being sick and some 2000 or so having died last time I looked.
    Yemen’s cholera is likely one of the worst human cathastrophies in recent time. The UN speaks of ‘a cholera outbreak of unprecedented scale’.
    http://www.who.int/dg/speeches/2017/security-council-yemen/en/
    I suppose that for Saudis, Israelis and Kushner likely the cholera is … hmm … oh yes, it is Iran’s and Houthi’s fault and certainly not the fault of some neighbour blowing up water cleansing facilities, infrastructure, hospitals and/or bridges and the like …
    IMO if Kushner gets the boot, good riddance.

  8. Huckleberry says:

    While I like the Colonel’s “Borg” notion, this all strikes me as ZOG.

  9. jdledell says:

    I’ve talked with Israelis who have met with David Friedman, the Trump bankruptcy lawyer, hard right Jew and now U.S. Ambassador to Israel. Quietly, he has told important Israelis to pay no attention to Kushner’s ideas about Israel, the mideast, and a peace agreement but treat him nicely so not to P.O. Trump. The consensus is Kushner is in way over his head in many of his foreign affairs ideas.

  10. JohnH says:

    It is interesting that media reports leave out the purpose of Flynn’s contacts with Russia. Had he just been upfront and said, “I contacted Russia on behalf of the Israeli lobby,” I suspect that he would never have been fired or indicted…since violating the law on behalf of Israel seems not to be considered illegal.

  11. notlurking says:

    Never a good idea to have family members serving in government positions when you are the president…Daddy Trump does not want to hurt the feelings of darling Ivanka….

  12. Fred says:

    Keith,
    Next time turn the bold off when you are done.

  13. Eric Newhill says:

    Yeah Right,
    Well “everyone who carries water for Israel” would be, well, just about everyone. So, ok, maybe it’s not totally Israel’s call, but it sure will be the Borg’s call. I agree that once they take the lid of that box, unspeakable furies will be released. So they won’t.
    Whatever Trump thinks of Kushner and whatever his loyalties may be (or not be), Trump isn’t running the investigation. Mueller is. Mueller appears to be an assimilate. Ergo, I say that Kushner has nothing to worry about.

  14. FB Ali says:

    Keith Harbaugh,
    For SST, the “sad news” is that you don’t know how to close Bold Lettering after using it.
    I would suggest you don’t try such fancy stuff until you have discovered how to use it properly.
    I have tried to close it off.

  15. Laura says:

    Trump is a micro-manager on stuff he thinks 1) he is interested in 2) might know something about and 3) affects him directly. There are actually very few people he interacts with…so it seems to me that if you are “White House,” you are following Trump’s dictates. Everyone is so afraid of ticking him off (legendarily nasty temper and abusiveness) that they just go with his flow.
    Of course, this only works for a while…we may be coming up on the point at which it rather spectacularly stops working.

  16. WJ says:

    In my opinion Kushner will be passed over and the move will be directly against Teump on an obstruction of justice charge, which I believe is constitutionally-speaking an impossible charge to prosecute but which can and will be used to pressure Congress to open impeachment proceedings with the aim of either (1) actually removing Trump from office or (2) so thoroughly discrediting his administration that he loses all political wiggle room, esp on foreign policy and trade, for the remainder of his term. Are there enough neocon and establishment Republican types in Congress open to pursuing this? I don’t know. There is little Trump can do at this point except to find a way of calling the FBI’s bluff more convincingly than he has done, although the media’s absolute refusal to do anything but parrot FBI/CIA talking points on the issue has made that task an almost impossible one to achieve. The whole damn FBI investigation into Flynn from the beginning must be shown to be thoroughly empty of real content and entirely politically motivated, as it is; but it is hard to show this when the entire narrative of corporate media has established (by the empty repetition of the same unsubstantiated assertions) that just the opposite is the case.

  17. confusedponderer says:

    … let’s kill the bolding 😉

  18. confusedponderer says:

    Huckleberry,
    likely it’s more than the ZOG, but simply a grand-standing cross party consensus on nonsense.
    Recently I almost spilled my coffe trying not to laugh loud when I read Trump’s EPA head, iirc tellingly a guy from industry and a guy hostile to environmental protection, tell me and America why Trump kicking the Kyoto protocoll is a brilliant idea and won’t harm the environment.
    Why? Well, that’s because, so he said, because American coal is very special and very different from the coal found on the rest of the world.
    According to him, unlike the coal of the jealous rest of the world, American coal doesn’t produce CO2 when being burnt, so it poses no environmental risk. And that the rest of the world only is jealous about that and they want to curb CO2 emissions only to harm America. See? No problem.
    IMO that’s a hard case of hard idiocy at work. If you don’t like what science tells you, speak of ‘fake news’ and make it up as you like while you go along?
    I had chemistry as a focus class in school and thus I very strongly doubt the assertion of the ‘EPA head’ on how special all that super American coal is.
    But isn’t that a brilliant leader for a enviromental protection agency? I’d bet that the advice from that genius is about as brilliant as what Kushner offers.
    It is so idiotic that I even see the possibility of a Trumpian subversive destruction course: What I mean? Well, not filling so many agency seats is a deliberate policy IMO.
    Deliberately don’t fill open job slots at agencies, get rid of all these unwanted and unwilling scientists telling you all these bad things and have reliably hostile but reliably happy loons ruin an unwanted agency, to then close it ‘because it doesn’t work’?

  19. Adrestia says:

    stops the bold

  20. LondonBob says:

    Trump’s mistake was not firing Comey sooner, and appointing Rosenstein, the idea Comey could have stayed on as FBI Director is fantastical.

  21. Dubhaltach says:

    In reply to Keith Harbaugh 04 December 2017 at 06:02 PM
    Attempting to fix your HTML
    Turning to the substance of your post. How is “How Ireland Moved to the Left: ‘The Demise of the Church’ ” even remotely relevant to
    My dad was born in 1960 and reared in 1960 – 1970s Catholic Ireland. His description of the viciousness with which the institutional church behaved is chilling. His description of the way in which children were beaten so savagely in the first school he attended that they needed several days to recover sufficiently to be physically capable of attending school is downright horrific. The way in which he and other Irish people of his generation describe the way in which the Catholic church actively promoted sectarianism is horrific. His entirely matter-of-fact description of how he personally was repeatedly singled out because his mother was a protestant is horrific. The revelations of institutionalised sexual abuse are horrific. The revelations of the suffering of children who underwent forced adoptions are horrific. The revelations of mass graves of orphans are horrific. The role of the Catholic hierarchy in preventing the introduction of a healthcare programme for low income children and their mothers at a time when in Ireland TB was killing Irish children in their droves is revolting. If ever there was an institution that illustrates the dictum that “absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely” the Catholic church in Ireland is it.
    And you think the decline of the Catholic church’s power in Ireland is a pity? In my private life I’m a conservative Catholic and I don’t think the decline of the Catholic church’s institutional power is a bad thing. On the contrary I think it’s a very good thing. Fewer raped and abused children for a start. There was an Irish trade union leader called Jim Larkin who coined the slogan “You’ll crucify Christ in this town no longer.” conservative Catholic though I am I have to agree that he had a point.
    Finally this pattern of institutionalised savagery wasn’t just in Ireland. Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales, all have statutory Tribunals of Enquiry running at present and all of them are revealing the same pattern of systematic savagery and sexual abuse. From what I’ve read and been told by Americans whose word I trust the same appalling and revolting pattern is far from unknown in your country.

  22. John_Frank says:

    Was the decision to make contact with various foreign governments, including Russia, to seek to a delay in the UN SC vote on the Palestinian question illegal?
    According to Professor Dershowitz, No.
    If it was, what about what Reagan did with the Iranians while Carter was President, or what Carter did with Arafat, while Clinton was President?
    Also, as others have noted, what about what Obama did in 2008 with Iran, Russia and Syria?
    Returning to the topic at hand, what if one can show that Obama’s decision making process was motivated by his personal animosity towards the Israeli Prime Minister?
    An interview with Alan Dershowitz
    http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/interrogation/2017/12/an_interview_with_alan_dershowitz_on_trump_and_the_mueller_investigation.html
    That written, people may find the following piece by Byron York of interest:
    Byron York: In Trump-Russia probe, was it all about the Logan Act?
    http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/byron-york-in-trump-russia-probe-was-it-all-about-the-logan-act/article/2642434
    If individuals within the outgoing administration deliberately contrived to start an investigation, based on an Act that is arguably no longer enforceable, by leaking highly classified intercepted communications, given everything else that has transpired, including allegations of corrupt practices within the Justice Department and the FBI concerning the conduct of the Hillary Clinton investigation and the Russian counter-intelligence investigation, (or if you prefer the Donald Trump investigation), Mr. Mueller’s conflicts of interest and legitimate questions about his authority, a defendant with funds, who was determined to fight any allegation by Special Counsel, could quite possibly “tip the whole process over.”

  23. LeaNder says:

    let’s close this.

  24. confusedponderer says:

    LB,
    well, I think I disagree.
    IMO Comey was a problem because he investigated things that Trump didn’t want to get public and didn’t weant to see investigated.
    My point is this:
    I simply assume there were things Trump didn’t want to see investigated or discussed openly, and that’s why and how Comey became a problem for Trump.
    It’s IMO not that Comey was evil or vile or a nasty democrat, but that it was the nasty things he was looking at and into.
    Was not Paul John Manafort, Trump’s campaign manager, engaged in doing odd policy things in Ukraine and getting money for that from ukie oligarchs? Assuming that the oligarchs likely got that money not entirely legally, it suggests that that was something that was unwanted to get public. And so on.
    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/us/politics/paul-manafort-russia-trump.html
    https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/15/us/politics/paul-manafort-ukraine-donald-trump.html
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/10/30/who-did-manafort-and-gates-work-for-in-ukraine-and-russia/
    Or how did Trump get all that money to build all these golf sites when banks were down? That wasn’t cheap. And then banks were not lending money, and Trump had a bad rep for being banktrupt a few times – so who did lend him money? And so on.
    That’s the sort of things I assume Trump didn’t want to see investigated or being talked about publicly.
    Kicking out Comey was saying: “Oh, well, why not let us talk about something else and do that quickly?

  25. b says:

    Slight correction:
    “It now appears that Kushner sent Flynn to seek in the president elect’s name Russian government cooperation in blocking a resolution at the UN that was unfavorable to Israel.”
    Kushner sent Flynn to talk to ALL UNSC countries. Russia was just one on that list and to make this about Russia is thereby not adequate.
    http://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/01/politics/jared-kushner-michael-flynn-russia/index.html
    (CNN)Jared Kushner is the “very senior member” of President Donald Trump’s transition team who directed incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn to contact the Russian ambassador to the United States and other countries about a UN Security Council vote on Israeli settlements, sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.

  26. turcopolier says:

    confusedponderer
    Yes, you are confused. The great majority of unfilled “slots” in the executive branch are for bureaucratic managers and various other kinds of drones. pl

  27. turcopolier says:

    confusedponderer
    “That’s the sort of things I assume Trump didn’t want to see investigated or being talked about publicly.” That is quite an assumption in the absence of any evidence. pl

  28. turcopolier says:

    b
    Thanks. IMO that actually makes Kushner’s action as an unregistered Israeli agent worse. pl

  29. The Beaver says:

    @ jdledell
    an à propos observation:
    As for how Kushner’s potential legal exposure in the Mueller probe might complicate the administration’s peace efforts, the former Israeli security official said it might be able to survive his distraction or even absence. Kushner’s function has largely been “to translate the Greenblatt product to the president and … when [needed], to show up with Greenblatt and be the message” that the Greenblatt team speaks for the president.
    “If you want to look for a silver lining, this administration has been accumulating pro-Israeli credentials,” the former Israeli official said. “When they table a deal, it will be very hard for this [Netanyahu] administration to say no.”

    https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/12/russia-investigation-jared-kushner-mideast-peace-push-saban.html#ixzz50M3gqWCw

  30. turcopolier says:

    dogear
    “je seus jimmy?” What is it that you are trying to say? pl

  31. Greco says:

    The Kushner family is very influential and holds some sway in Democrat circles. I don’t know if Trump could have become president without him. And he played the key role in bringing in men like Gary Cohn.

  32. LeaNder says:

    jdledell, what’s your take on Trump’s campaign promise and so far only postponed decision to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem?
    The consensus is Kushner is in way over his head in many of his foreign affairs ideas.
    Whoever wasn’t before including Clinton?
    I read Powers complete statement or her explanation of why the Obama admin choose abstention versus the usual veto on The Times of Israel. Published by the TOI staff.
    http://www.timesofisrael.com/full-text-of-us-envoy-samantha-powers-speech-after-abstention-on-anti-settlement-vote/

  33. Greco says:

    Because cheaper energy prices in China, who use coal to fuel their country, makes them a more attractive alternative for setting up production than in the US, where they’re banning coal. Lower energy prices in the US means its more affordable for manufacturing in the US.
    You want to see the economy sputter and eventually collapse on the weight of its own welfare commitments to a jobless public? Ban coal, it will get the US there all the quicker.

  34. ex-PFC Chuck says:

    If ever there was an institution that illustrates the dictum that “absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely” the Catholic church in Ireland is it.

    When Lord Acton uttered this famous quote, he was referring specifically to Pope Pius IX and his minions as they were ramming through the approval of doctrine of papal infallibility at the Vatican I Council. In violation of the precedents of Canon Law, free expression on the part of the bishops and other clergy who opposed it was suppressed and the lay Catholic Acton was the de facto leader of what opposition there was.

  35. SR Wood says:

    You mean the popular BBC series Ballykissangel was just looking at 60’s Ireland through rose colored glasses. Darn!

  36. Greco says:

    He’s set to leave according to rumours, but I think Flynn will give up Kushner in exchange. Kushner’s lawyers will attack Flynn’s credibility, since Flynn plead guilty to lying. Unlike Flynn, Kushner can afford very good lawyers and beat the case. I imagine Kushner will take the flack for ordering Flynn, thus “exonerating” Trump of any potential wrongdoing regardless of whether Trump did in fact order Flynn or not. And I don’t see Kushner being exposed as some kind of Israeli operative, not while Zucker, Lack, Rhodes and others head major corporate news networks.

  37. LeaNder says:

    Thanks Frank, have been missing “the Dersh”. Bias alert: I was highly pleased that a South African case in which he seems to have been involved as legal adviser has taken a different turn recently.
    But strictly in our present context, I wondered too. My nitwit take: Considering we live in a ‘democratic’ society wouldn’t we either as simple humans or collectively representing some interest groups have been quite free to lobby to change the vote too?
    If we at least ‘theoretically’ are, then neither Flynn nor Kushner can have done anything wrong.

  38. Steve G says:

    Dubhaltach
    Grew up in a Polish Catholic neighborhood. I attended
    public school where as the majority of the kids went
    to the now renamed Pope John Paul II school within
    the church. Had to fight my way home and on the
    local school yard a half a block where I lived too
    many times to remember. The boys seemed the meanest
    group I had ever encountered. Later learned the nuns
    were ruthless disciplinarians as well as the “ brothers”
    who taught high school.
    And yes the Pope did visit the school.

  39. jsn says:

    Confusedponderer,
    I agree with almost all of what you wrote here, in addition, entrapment was Muellers expertise at FBI: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-fbi-entrapment-is-inventing-terrorists-and-letting-bad-guys-off-the-hook-20120515 Which looks to be what he is up to now for an obstruction charge against the Donald: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/454311/mueller-strategy-obstruction-justice-investigation-leading-impeachment
    What information Trump has on Clinton with regards to Russian uranium stock purchase and the Clinton Foundation is critical here as this Clinton Cluster**** happened on Mueller’s watch at FBI and could make him look both partisan and corrupt.

  40. John_Frank says:

    On a somewhat related basis, this morning the media was reporting that Mueller had subpoenaed records from Deutsche Bank.
    1. Read for example this piece by Reuters:
    Deutsche Bank gets subpoena from Mueller on Trump accounts: source
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-deutsche-bank/deutsche-bank-gets-subpoena-from-mueller-on-trump-accounts-source-idUSKBN1DZ0XN
    However, according to John Roberts of Fox News:
    Fox News John Roberts: Mueller has NOT issued a subpoena for Deutsche Bank
    https://t.co/vy6NRdvi77
    According to the Reuters report, the reason that Mueller wanted to see certain records are two fold:
    “A U.S. official with knowledge of Mueller’s probe said one reason for the subpoenas was to find out whether Deutsche Bank may have sold some of Trump’s mortgage or other loans to Russian state development bank VEB or other Russian banks that now are under U.S. and European Union sanctions.
    Holding such debt, particularly if some of it was or is coming due, could potentially give Russian banks some leverage over Trump, especially if they are state-owned, said a second U.S. official familiar with Russian intelligence methods.
    “One obvious question is why Trump and those around him expressed interest in improving relations with Russia as a top foreign policy priority, and whether or not any personal considerations played any part in that,” the second official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
    A source close to Deutsche Bank said the bank had run checks on Trump’s financial dealings with Russia.
    During his election campaign, Trump said he would seek to improve ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which were strained during President Barack Obama’s administration.
    There was no immediate response to the Deutsche Bank subpoena from Trump’s lawyers.
    The subpoena was earlier reported by German daily Handelsblatt.”
    To repeat, according to one unnamed US official, Mueller wants to know:
    “One obvious question is why Trump and those around him expressed interest in improving relations with Russia as a top foreign policy priority, and whether or not any personal considerations played any part in that,” the second official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
    So, wanting to have better relations with Russia is now a crime?
    2. As to Bloomberg, this morning, Jennifer Jacobs tweeted:
    Deutsche Bank management is ready to share information about the lender’s dealings with Trump, a bank executive told Bloomberg.
    https://twitter.com/JenniferJJacobs/status/938033568198033413
    She did that after posting a link to this article with the headline in her tweet:
    Mueller investigation goes after Trump’s bank records.
    https://twitter.com/JenniferJJacobs/status/938018356476727296
    Mueller Subpoenas Trump Deutsche Bank Records
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-05/deutsche-bank-is-said-to-have-received-subpoena-on-client-trump
    3. Also, if John Roberts is correct, (and I suspect that he is) that no subpoena has been issued, has not the reputation of Reuters and Bloomberg been blown up by their reporting?
    It looks like someone is seeking to “shape the narrative” with misleading reporting.

  41. Croesus says:

    Perhaps “nitwit” is not the word you’re looking for; that word is demeaning. You might be looking for something more like, “from my limited understanding,” or, “as clearly as I can figure it out . . .”
    “Nitwit” just means, “i’m scatterbrained and dumb,” and you are not that.

  42. Laura says:

    Greco — I’ll bet Kushner is the one they love to hate…someone is going to give him up because of who he is married to. They can’t go after her, but they can sure do him in.
    “Sacraficial zink.”

  43. Babak Makkinejad says:

    I agree with this.
    But I have my doubts about her being a German; or else they do not teach anything useful in the gymnasia.

  44. Fred says:

    Dubhaltach,
    “this pattern of institutionalised savagery …”
    I am reliably informed by multiple US Senators that 1 in 5 women on college campuses in the US are sexually assaulted. There are zero warnings posted on any of them; zero university presidents have been fired because of this particular version of “instutionalized” savagery. Zero of these senators nor the president from the same political party have called for a “statutory Tribunal of Enquiry” – yet. However there is a fine campaign to create a narrative about male sexuality. “Toxic Masculinity”. Today’s edition of USA Today has a page and a half contribution to same. I am shocked, just shocked, that the author, Jessica Guynn, made zero mention of Senator (((Franken))) or Harvey (((Weinstein))) or just what political party they belong to. Who – Whom is still a question forbidden in the mainstream media. All of which has nothing to do with the topic of the thread.

  45. Fred says:

    John Frank,
    Did you miss that ABC News suspending Brian Ross for his last fake news report about the Trump investigation?

  46. John_Frank says:

    More from John Roberts of Fox News:
    On the record from @realDonaldTrump attorney @JaySekulow – NO SUBPOENA TO DEUTSCHE BAN
    https://twitter.com/johnrobertsFox/status/938144926956695552
    How difficult is it for members of the press to trot on down to the Federal District Court in Washington, D.C. and check the court records?

  47. Keith Harbaugh says:

    Fred, and others:
    As usual, I intended to “Preview” that comment before posting it.
    I was working fast, and after entering the draft text,
    with a number of embedded carriage returns,
    (like those in this comment),
    I entered my name and email address,
    then intended to Preview the message.
    Unfortunately, working fast and without thinking, I again hit “Enter” (on the keyboard) after entering the email address,
    rather than clicking on “Preview”.
    That keyboard “Enter”, outside of the text entry box,
    posted the offending comment.
    Very sorry; I apologize.
    Thanks to FB Ali for closing the guilty HTML tag
    (his reply is where the bolding currently ends).
    And thanks to Col. Lang for accepting the comment.

  48. LeaNder says:

    Croesus, thanks for the linguistic support, appreciated.
    Fact is, I love the word wit. For longer now, for reasons that would take to long to explain. Wit, (Witz), nitwit? Thus almost naturally I love nitwit too. Just as I like Shakespeare’s fools or jesters. … Dimwit? Fool? Stupid (as noun)?
    https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nitwit
    But yes, absolutely no doubt it could be an insult or at least demeaning. But also if I use it as signifier for myself?
    Strictly, it would be more complex to explain but this partly triggered it, a part of a comment I stumbled across here was at the back of my mind to. Thus a bit scatterbrained? Not always completely focused. Without any doubt. The evidence:
    The Big Dersh: “I predicted the deal with Flynn,” he said, offering an example of his predictive capacities. “Not because I am smarter, but because I am more objective.”
    Did you follow John Frank’s links to Slate’s Isaac Chotiner, the linked Slate article The Dersh mistook as written by Isaac too and beyond? Was an interesting journey.

  49. LeaNder says:

    Babak, remember not my fault, the Diocletian Line! Useful, useless.

  50. Babak Makkinejad says:

    You live in Michigan, how many such cases are there at Ferris, Grand Valley, MSU, Oakland, Wayne, UofM, Central, Mich Tech, Western Michigan?

Comments are closed.