The Impeachment Of Donald Trump

abalonehx

Well-Known Member
He did say that the forest services should rake up the forests to prevent forest fires, so I wouldn't put it past him. Beyond the sweeping statement being utterly ridiculous, it was doubly so for me as I was evacuated for over a month, then had to eventually move out of my previous area due to forest fires.
But... I thought he loved Walls..hehe
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
A new collection of personal photos show Giuliani's 'fixer' Lev Parnas with Trump's inner circle, despite claims they don't know each other

lev parnas trumps
lev parnas trumps

House Judiciary Committee

  • The House Judiciary Committee released a new trove of documents that detail the key role of Lev Parnas, a Ukrainian businessman, in working closely with President Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani to seek dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden.
  • Parnas has come under scrutiny in the impeachment inquiry as a key player in pressuring Ukraine to investigate Trump's political rival, and upped the tension last week when he turned on Giuliani and Trump in a series of interviews.
  • The businessman even promised to reveal a photo of himself and Trump every time the president denied knowing him. .
A new collection of documents released by the House Judiciary Committee show Lev Parnas, a former close associate of President Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani, rubbing elbow with Trump and other senior members of the administration.

Parnas is a Ukrainian American businessman who has come under scrutiny for his apparently critical role in seeking damaging dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden, one of Trump's 2020 Democratic opponents.
Earlier this week, Parnas blasted Giuliani and Trump in several interviews, where he revealed new details about the efforts by Trump associates and his relationships with Trump's family and other lawmakers, which the president has vehemently denied.
After the president repeatedly denied knowing him, Parnas told CNN that the president was lying and he would release photos of them together every time the president denied their relationship.
See some of the photos that capture Parnas' time in Trump's inner circle.

Though Trump has said that he didn't believe he ever met Parnas, there are several photos of the two together.
lev parnas trump

House Judiciary Committee
An appreciation card signed by the president and first lady Melania thanks Parnas by name for his "friendship and dedication to our cause."
trump card parnas

House Judiciary Committee

Parnas is also pictured with Trump's son, Donald Jr. several times, and is seen here with an unidentified man under a towering portrait of the president.
lev parnas donald trump jr

House Judiciary Committee
Parnas appeared to grab a selfie with Trump's eldest daughter and senior adviser Ivanka at an unspecified event.
lev parnas ivanka

House Judiciary Committee

Parnas posed for a photo with Donald Jr. and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser at the January 2017 inauguration celebration.
lev parnas trumps

House Judiciary Committee
In addition to the president's family, Parnas is also pictured with top Republican figures like former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
jeff sessions lev parnas

House Judiciary Committee

Another familiar face in several of the photos is Parnas' partner, Igor Fruman, who has also been identified as one of Giuliani's "fixers" in digging for dirt on Biden and is currently facing campaign finance charges.
lev parnas giuliani Igor Fruman

House Judiciary Committee
Shortly after Parnas and Fruman were arrested in October on charges of infusing foreign money into US elections, Trump said he didn't know the men, and brushed off the possibility of photos as evidence of any relationship.
"It's possible I have a picture with them because I have a picture with everybody, I have a picture with everybody here," Trump said at the time.
However, Parnas has insisted that Trump, and top officials including Vice President Mike Pence and Attorney General William Barr, "knew exactly what was going on" in relation to pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and described himself and similar associates as a "cult," which could play a central part in lawmakers' investigations in the ongoing impeachment inquiry.

Read more:
Trump surrounded himself with yes-men who treated him like a cult leader. As his impeachment trial looms, that could prove a disaster.
Lev Parnas claimed he and Trump's allies sought help from a Ukrainian oligarch fighting US extradition in search for dirt on Joe Biden
Nancy Pelosi's unprecedented gamble to hold her fire with Trump's impeachment is paying off in spades
'Barr had to have known everything': Parnas alleges AG Barr was 'basically on the team' to pressure Ukraine
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
Here is a central figure in the UkraIne scandal that needs more mention, it's the other half of the coin, Russian involvement.
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The Kremlin Inches Closer to the Biden Plot
Lev Parnas pointed his finger at Dmytro Firtash.



Somewhere near the heart of the Ukraine scandal is the oligarch Dmytro Firtash. Evidence has long suggested this fact. But over the past week, in a televised interview and in documents he supplied to Congress, Rudy Giuliani’s former business partner Lev Parnas pointed his finger at the Ukrainian oligarch. According to Parnas, Giuliani’s team had a deal with Firtash. Giuliani would get the Justice Department to drop its attempt to extradite the oligarch on bribery charges. In return, according to Parnas, the oligarch promised to pass along evidence that would supposedly discredit both Joe Biden and Robert Mueller.

Parnas’s account, of course, is hardly definitive. Throughout his career, he has attempted to inflate his importance to make money. (Firtash apparently paid him $1 million for his services, though it’s still not totally clear what those services were.) And his description of Firtash’s involvement raises as many questions as it settles. Still, the apparent centrality of Firtash should inform any assessment of Giuliani’s escapades and the entire Ukraine story.

When commentators invoke the name Dmytro Firtash, it is usually followed by mention of his alleged connections to Russian organized crime and the fact that he is close to the Kremlin. These descriptions, however, understate his ties to Vladimir Putin. In his book Russia’s Crony Capitalism, the Atlantic Council’s Anders Aslund describes Firtash as a “Kremlin Influence agent.” A Ukrainian parliamentarian who investigated Firtash has called him “a political person representing Russian interests in Ukraine.” That representative of Russian interests is who Giuliani and Parnas apparently enlisted as their partner.

The rapid ascent of Firtash, a fireman from western Ukraine, remains mysterious—although he once disgorged details from his past in a long chat with the U.S. ambassador to Kyiv, Bill Taylor, a description of which eventually emerged in a WikiLeaks document dump. But it’s been widely reported that Firtash attached himself to the gangster Semion Mogilevich, one of the region’s most important Mafia bosses, a man the FBI placed on its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. (His lawyers vociferously deny any connections to gangsters.)
When Putin ascended to power in 2000, he gained control of his country’s natural-gas business. He placed his allies at the helm of the country’s gas monopoly, Gazprom, and he has routinely wielded that company as an instrument of Russian foreign policy. In 2002, Firtash became Gazprom’s most important middleman: He was responsible for selling Russian gas to Ukraine. Thanks to an extraordinary Reuters investigation, which burrowed into Customs documents, contracts, and Cyprus bank accounts, the details of this arrangement are now well known. Gazprom sold Firtash gas at four times below the market price. When Firtash resold the gas to the Ukrainian state, he pocketed a profit of $3 billion. Even as he amassed this fortune, bankers close to Putin extended Firtash an $11 billion line of credit.

According to close watchers of Gazprom, a chunk of this cash cycled back to Moscow in the form of kickbacks. Another chunk of this money was spent bankrolling Russian political influence in Ukraine. Firtash was one of the two primary patrons of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and his political party. (He also bought a television network for the sake of promoting the cause.) This meant that Firtash was also writing the checks that covered the cost of Paul Manafort’s services to Yanukovych. It’s worth pausing to marvel at the narrative symmetry of this scandal: Both Manafort and Parnas shared the same Russian-aligned paymaster.
In 2014, just after a revolution chased Yanukovych from power, the FBI issued an arrest warrant for Firtash. Austrian authorities detained Firtash near his Vienna mansion. The indictment alleged that he had bribed Indian officials on behalf of Boeing, which desperately wanted to acquire rare materials for the construction of its 787 Dreamliner. (McKinsey & Company, the now-vilified consulting firm, apparently vetted Boeing’s decision to work with Firtash and didn’t recommend against it, according to a New York Times investigation.)

When Firtash needed someone to pay his bail—which the Austrians set at $155 million, the highest in the nation’s history—the oligarch Vasily Anisimov, a member of Putin’s inner circle, supplied the cash. Over the past five years, Firtash has successfully battled the Justice Department’s attempts to extradite him. He’s hired an army of American lawyers, lobbyists, and consultants, including the notorious Jack Abramoff and the longtime Bill and Hillary Clinton friend Lanny Davis, as well as the Donald Trump–supporting lawyers Joseph diGenova and Victoria Toensing. His spokesman is Mark Corallo, who worked for Trump’s legal team during the Mueller investigation.
more...
 

Unclebaldrick

Well-Known Member
Here is a central figure in the UkraIne scandal that needs more mention, it's the other half of the coin, Russian involvement.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Kremlin Inches Closer to the Biden Plot
Lev Parnas pointed his finger at Dmytro Firtash.



Somewhere near the heart of the Ukraine scandal is the oligarch Dmytro Firtash. Evidence has long suggested this fact. But over the past week, in a televised interview and in documents he supplied to Congress, Rudy Giuliani’s former business partner Lev Parnas pointed his finger at the Ukrainian oligarch. According to Parnas, Giuliani’s team had a deal with Firtash. Giuliani would get the Justice Department to drop its attempt to extradite the oligarch on bribery charges. In return, according to Parnas, the oligarch promised to pass along evidence that would supposedly discredit both Joe Biden and Robert Mueller.

Parnas’s account, of course, is hardly definitive. Throughout his career, he has attempted to inflate his importance to make money. (Firtash apparently paid him $1 million for his services, though it’s still not totally clear what those services were.) And his description of Firtash’s involvement raises as many questions as it settles. Still, the apparent centrality of Firtash should inform any assessment of Giuliani’s escapades and the entire Ukraine story.

When commentators invoke the name Dmytro Firtash, it is usually followed by mention of his alleged connections to Russian organized crime and the fact that he is close to the Kremlin. These descriptions, however, understate his ties to Vladimir Putin. In his book Russia’s Crony Capitalism, the Atlantic Council’s Anders Aslund describes Firtash as a “Kremlin Influence agent.” A Ukrainian parliamentarian who investigated Firtash has called him “a political person representing Russian interests in Ukraine.” That representative of Russian interests is who Giuliani and Parnas apparently enlisted as their partner.

The rapid ascent of Firtash, a fireman from western Ukraine, remains mysterious—although he once disgorged details from his past in a long chat with the U.S. ambassador to Kyiv, Bill Taylor, a description of which eventually emerged in a WikiLeaks document dump. But it’s been widely reported that Firtash attached himself to the gangster Semion Mogilevich, one of the region’s most important Mafia bosses, a man the FBI placed on its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. (His lawyers vociferously deny any connections to gangsters.)
When Putin ascended to power in 2000, he gained control of his country’s natural-gas business. He placed his allies at the helm of the country’s gas monopoly, Gazprom, and he has routinely wielded that company as an instrument of Russian foreign policy. In 2002, Firtash became Gazprom’s most important middleman: He was responsible for selling Russian gas to Ukraine. Thanks to an extraordinary Reuters investigation, which burrowed into Customs documents, contracts, and Cyprus bank accounts, the details of this arrangement are now well known. Gazprom sold Firtash gas at four times below the market price. When Firtash resold the gas to the Ukrainian state, he pocketed a profit of $3 billion. Even as he amassed this fortune, bankers close to Putin extended Firtash an $11 billion line of credit.

According to close watchers of Gazprom, a chunk of this cash cycled back to Moscow in the form of kickbacks. Another chunk of this money was spent bankrolling Russian political influence in Ukraine. Firtash was one of the two primary patrons of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and his political party. (He also bought a television network for the sake of promoting the cause.) This meant that Firtash was also writing the checks that covered the cost of Paul Manafort’s services to Yanukovych. It’s worth pausing to marvel at the narrative symmetry of this scandal: Both Manafort and Parnas shared the same Russian-aligned paymaster.
In 2014, just after a revolution chased Yanukovych from power, the FBI issued an arrest warrant for Firtash. Austrian authorities detained Firtash near his Vienna mansion. The indictment alleged that he had bribed Indian officials on behalf of Boeing, which desperately wanted to acquire rare materials for the construction of its 787 Dreamliner. (McKinsey & Company, the now-vilified consulting firm, apparently vetted Boeing’s decision to work with Firtash and didn’t recommend against it, according to a New York Times investigation.)

When Firtash needed someone to pay his bail—which the Austrians set at $155 million, the highest in the nation’s history—the oligarch Vasily Anisimov, a member of Putin’s inner circle, supplied the cash. Over the past five years, Firtash has successfully battled the Justice Department’s attempts to extradite him. He’s hired an army of American lawyers, lobbyists, and consultants, including the notorious Jack Abramoff and the longtime Bill and Hillary Clinton friend Lanny Davis, as well as the Donald Trump–supporting lawyers Joseph diGenova and Victoria Toensing. His spokesman is Mark Corallo, who worked for Trump’s legal team during the Mueller investigation.
more...
Put Parnas is an obvious sleazeball. You can't count his testimony. We need to find the men of conscience that Trump involved and confidEd in to carry out his illegal plan.

It's sort of the same way we did with MAFIA (MAGIA?) bosses. We put them in jail on testimony where the mob bosses personally shared their plans with law abiding, upstanding citizens.
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
We need to find the men of conscience that Trump involved and confidEd in to carry out his illegal plan.
Finding people of conscience around Trump is like trying to find hen's teeth!

If ya got a nose ya can smell the stink and leave the room as many have done, unless yer nose blind to the smell of shit as so many in the GOP are.
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
Exactly. MAFIA bosses did not get to disqualify witnesses against them by crying "but he's involved in organized crime". Of course those Trump confides in are as crooked as Rob Roy's withered dick. Duh.
If the democrats win, wanna bet Dmytro Firtash gets extradited to the US! Vlad will either kill him or spring him from the Ukraine. There are lots of desperate people involved in this conspiracy and others, their lives might depend on the outcome of the 2020 election, so no holds barred.
 

Unclebaldrick

Well-Known Member
If the democrats win, wanna bet Dmytro Firtash gets extradited to the US! Vlad will either kill him or spring him from the Ukraine. There are lots of desperate people involved in this conspiracy and others, their lives might depend on the outcome of the 2020 election, so no holds barred.
Vienna has many windows. Some of them are very far above the ground.
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
I believe the guy at Deutsche bank who approved Trump's loans recently took a window exit in Germany.
Seems he died in Malibu, Donald is hard on bankers and lawyers
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Former Deutsche Bank Exec Connected to Trump Loans Dies by Suicide in Malibu
A former Deutsche Bank executive who reportedly signed off on some of the institution’s unorthodox loans to Donald Trump killed himself in his Malibu home on November 19. Thomas Bowers, the onetime head of Deutsche Bank’s American wealth-management division, where he oversaw Trump’s private banker, committed suicide by hanging, according to Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s office. Bowers was 55.
 
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