Thread by @DawsonSField

Sentencing documents up for Zuberi, one of those Clinton 'donors' who got busted when they tried to switch to Trump!
Busted for? Illegal donations to Hillary in collusion with foreign governments to steal the 2016 election!

#ButNothingsHappening
documentcloud.org/documents/6811…

Even though he plead guilty, he has still refused to complete his FARA filings to document the foreign governments he was working for!
Short list: Bahrain, Turkey, Libyans, A Saudi/UK citizen and a Ukrainian!

Alright, back to this document. DOJ dismisses USPO's minimization of the crimes, pointing out the defendant's entire business was illegally lobbying for foreign entities.

USPO argued for a minimal sentence because in the past FARA was rarely prosecuted so why punish this guy...

DOJ says Zuberi was only in business to lobby for clients who could not get the US government to do what they wanted without criminal lobbying efforts that were concealed from the public & government.

So the DOJ, by using a quote from a witness, just showed that this guy was doing back scratching with illegal campaign donations for Obama in exchange for illegally influencing US policy & government provided business opportunities. #ObamaCash

Watch what DOJ is doing here...
They discuss a news article revealing illegal lobbying for Sri Lanka, a news article from 2015. They are revealing that the Obama DOJ ignored publicly confirmed FARA violations from an "elite fundraiser for Obama and Clinton"

Looks like he also laundered the money through foreign bank accounts & shell companies to evade taxes on the illegal money.

Zuberi violated FARA because admitting he was a foreign agent illegally lobbying the government would interere with "fundraising for the Democratic Party".

No wonder the Obama DOJ decided to ignore his FARA crimes!

The politicians taking his money didn't want to know where it was coming from. But after the Foreign Policy article in August of 2015, it was public knowledge that he was illegally fundraising from foreign principals.

So who took his money after that point?

Swampy donations to candidates & "quasi-political entities" to unfreeze Libyan money.
Though I disagree with the DOJ's premise at the end. Even AFTER it was revealed he was a foreign agent, the press, FBI, DOJ & IRS ignored his crimes during the entire 2016 election season.

DOJ then argues that everyone is worried about collusion & influence of foreign governments over American politics.
Then points out, that right here it is! Congress & the Executive Branch bought & paid for & controlled by foreign govts.

Alternating between calling the recipients of Zuberi's foreign cash his cronies & victims of his fraud.

Guess it depends on how much they knew...

Then they start to break down some of his offenses.
A: Got a dozen members of Congress to pressure the Foreign Minister of Bahrain with fake allegations that Bahrain was harassing him. Part of a scheme to damage Bahrain on behalf of Person J.

This scheme involved hiring a "former high ranking military official" to fly to Bahrain in 2013 & convince them that Zuberi held power in the US government. Wonder who?

Also involved pressuring a US State Dept official in Bahrain that Zuberi had clout!

How much clout did Zuberi claim to State officials?

Well he claimed he might be able to get a "former POTUS" to accompany him on the trip to pressure Bahrain.

I guess members of Congress don't fact check anything a lobbyist tells them! Of course if they did, it would provide them information that would make their campaign contributions criminal!

Scheme B: Zuberi got Congress to abandon a resolution condemning Erdogan's human rights record in Turkey.

It's good to make friends with illegal cash...

I guess he wasn't happy with the 'frugal' nature of the Turks who paid him way less than the Saudis usually do to corrupt Congress...
Of course we start to see how he got busted... The Trump Inauguration Committee sting!

Scheme C: Unfreezing Libyan assets for one of the rival factions in Libya & a Saudi/UK national named Person A.

A portion of which would be laundered through shell companies controlled by Person A & a Libyan business man to Zuberi.

Interestingly, in early 2015, Zuberi made donations to his friends in Congress. But some of the donations were made in the name of Person A, who is a foreign national & can't donate to US political campaigns.
This provides evidence of knowledge & intent of the illegal donations.

In March 2015, he also shifted his illegal fundraising efforts to Hillary For America, Hillary Victory Fund & the DNC!

All in collusion with foreign powers working against US government interests...

Seems the Libyans were paying for his services in barrels of oil!
Even telling his clients he is affordable because the Iranians had to spend $150M to illegally lobby the Obama Admin into unfreezing $25B in funds. #ObamaCash

If it weren't so horrible, this would be funny.

Zuberi is telling his colleagues to read Clinton Cash as a how to manual on how to successfully bribe the Clintons & get rich off of Pay to Play with the Clinton Foundation!

No evidence of intent by the CF, until someone flips!

Zuberi & Person A eventually gave up on working together & Person A hired another lobbyist, bet they will be in trouble soon...

Scheme D: Lobbying on behalf of an agent for Dmitri Firtash, a Ukrainian oligarch who was facing extradition to the Untied States for his crimes.
A combined strategy of using a legal FARA lobbyist while also using an illegal channel through Zuberi.

That 'legal' channel appears to be former Clinton adviser Lanny Davis. While his Swiss legal team is connected to another oligarch who handled 'real estate' for Boris Yeltsin. eurozine.com/the-firtash-oc…

The Clintons & Yeltsin established mechanisms to set up the oligarchs, ensure corrupt people got a good cut & attempted to rig the 2000 elections to get Gore & Putin elected to continue the schemes.

One of Firtash's other lawyers is Michael Chertoff, one of Bush's DHS leaders. Who was brought onto the case by Manafort, the guy convicted for illegally lobbying Obama & Biden in the White House!

Looks like Firtash was in the process of hiring another lobbying firm in DC (Podesta?) to do similar work to Lanny Davis. But then the deal got shifted to Zuberi instead? Was that a referral or outsourcing to a guy who worked strictly illegally on lobbying?

I think we are seeing evidence of the genesis of a post coup set of the Ukrainian corruption of US aid dollars. Firtash lost some of his Russian graft & replaced it with US congressional graft.

Zuberi is still trying to withhold evidence from DOJ, by refusing to register under FARA & document all of his illegal lobbying efforts as required. I'm sure there is more than just the cases mentioned in this sentencing document.

Zuberi influenced US policy & elections (that's treason right?) on behalf of foreign entities, oligarchs & governments.

Will America continue to allow it's elections & policy making processes be corrupted by foreign powers who illegally line the pockets of Members of Congress, Presidential Campaigns, & political parties?

Not in the Trump Department of Justice!

Addendum, seems the former military officer involved with Zuberi was longtime Clintonista Gen. Wesley Clark and 2004 Democratic candidate for President. HT to @hectorrotweiler

Clarke endorsed first Hillary & then Obama in 2008, and played a major role in Swiftboating John McCain. Clark "Well, I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president." But it was ok for a Democrat to say it en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_Cl…

General Clark also showed up in the #ParadisePapers related to being the director of a shell company in the haven Isle of Man set up in 2014. Other executives were prosecuted in Canada for insider trading on PokerStars.
offshoreleaks.icij.org/stories/wesley…