Share this page!

Teri Kanefield Profile picture
Twitter logo
Sep 15, 2018 • 13 tweets • 4 min read
(Thread) The nature of the criminal enterprise

Trump and Manafort are not the top of the international criminal enterprise.

In a 1-27-2011 lecture—given while Mueller was FBI director—he talked about a new kind of organized crime threatening the US.
archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/…
1/ Today’s mobsters have gone international. Their organizations are fluid, with global reach.

They are the “iron triangles” consisting of (1) organized criminals (2) corrupt government official, and (3) business leaders.

And they pose a signifiant security threat.
2/ Among other things, they're cornering the international market on natural gas & oil.

They infiltrate US businesses, and try to manipulate people at the highest levels of government.

Motivated by greed, they sell to the highest bidder and will stop at nothing to make money.
3/ Mueller explained that by 2011, the FBI was developing a long-term strategy for dismantling these enterprises, including Threat Focus Cells to target mobsters like Semion Mogilevich—who he said was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list.
4/ Mogilevich— “Russia’s top crime boss”—has ties to Trump Tower.👇

Mogilevich’s operative David Bogatin bought 5 condos in Trump Tower for $6 million cash. 1,300 Trump-branded condos were sold in all cash purchases to anonymous shell companies.
justsecurity.org/60528/understa…
5/ Russian oligarchs are Manafort’s buddies and clients. Yesterday’s guilty plea was about Konstantin Kilimnik 👇


Yale scholar Snyder (in what I believe is the best book written about TrumpRussia) explains that when Trump failed as a businessman. . .
6/ . . . he was rescued by Russian money in the form of cash purchases and licenses for which Trump had to do nothing. Even when Trump failed as a businessman in these ventures he still made money—and he thought he was winning.
He wasn't. Russia was buying him.
7/ We've seen Trump unleash his ire against particular FBI agents, like Bruch Ohr, who are the very agents specializing in dismantling the Russian international crime enterprise and bringing down folks like Semion Mogilevich.

Coincidence? Of course not.
justsecurity.org/60528/understa…
8/ Christopher Steele said that by 2013, he'd seen evidence that "all criminal roads led to Trump Tower.”

He also said that the Republicans were “Trying to take down the whole intelligence community—and they’re using me as a battering ram to do it.”

newyorker.com/magazine/2018/…
9/ I’ve written about how our current Constitution Crisis hinges on Congress’s failure to act as a check against presidential power👇


We’ve all noticed that folks like Rand Paul, Nunes, etc, have unusually close ties and sympathies to Russia and Russians.
10/ If you’re wondering why so many Americans (including many of the folks at Fox) prefer Russian oligarchy to a Constitutional republic, consider this: Russia is white majority, racist, and homophobic.

For more on the appeal of Putin's brand of fascism👇
11/ The Mueller probe is targeting something bigger (and more dangerous) than Trump and Manafort.

What’s at stake—in the probe and the midterms—is whether US remains a constitutional republic (liberal democracy) or whether the Russian infiltration of the US government succeeds.
I found two!
"Bruch" should be "Bruce."
"Official" should be "officials."

Fortunately, I have my "absolve" tweet handy⬇️

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Teri Kanefield

Teri Kanefield Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @Teri_Kanefield

Teri Kanefield Profile picture
Feb 21
Putin knows how to wield disinformation and he knows that the United States is divided: A large portion of the population, including the most influential voices from a major political party, want the United States to emulate his Russia.

1/
Some background:

After Russia enacted anti-homosexual legislation, Pat Buchanan said Putin was “entering a claim that Moscow is the Godly city of today" because he was stamping out western evils like easy divorce and homosexuality.
buchanan.org/blog/whose-sid…

2/
British right-winger Katie Hopkins, in an article in which she was interviewed with her friend Ann Coulter, said “Putin rocks.”

Katie Hopkins then went on to praise Russia as being “untouched by the myth of multiculturalism and deranged diversity."

rt.com/uk/429777-kati…

3/
Read 4 tweets
Teri Kanefield Profile picture
Feb 18
Trump lost in court THREE MORE TIMES today.

Trump tried to get all three of these cases⤵️ dismissed and lost. I analyzed one of the cases last April, Blassingame, here: (Transcript on my blog.)

He tends not to do well in court, where facts matter.

1/
The defendants made the following arguments (screenshot #1)

Trump also claims, among other things, that he has absolute immunity. (#2)

It turns out that the absolute immunity question isn't as easy as you might think (but Trump still lost).

2/
If you want to get caught up on one of the cases, my analysis from last April is here:terikanefield.com/blassingame-v-…

And here:

You can read the court's decision here: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…

3/
Read 8 tweets
Teri Kanefield Profile picture
Feb 16
Um . . . this isn't the defense Trump thinks it is.

Trump published a letter he received from Mazars dated (it looks like) 2014. He then summarized the letter.

#1: What Mazars said
#2: What Trump says Mazars said

Me = 🤦‍♀️

Does he think nobody can or will actually read it?
Mazars said, "Trump is responsible for preparing the financial statement."

Also Mazars does not "undertake to obtain or provide any assurance that there are no material modifications that should be made . . . "
Trump posts the letter and says Mazars "strongly states that all work was performed in accordance with professional standards and that there were "no material discrepancies in the financial statements."

There is no "I don't know how to read" defense.
Read 7 tweets
Teri Kanefield Profile picture
Feb 13
For this week’s blog post, I edited and combined a few of my recent threads.

I started with a reading of the newly unredacted sections of the Mueller report, then talked about some of the responses on Twitter . . .

terikanefield.com/is-social-medi…
. . . and concluded with thoughts about how social media brings out authoritarian instincts in large swaths of people who ordinarily would not be given to authoritarian impulses.



It's too easy for truth to lose, and when truth loses, democracy loses.
Right. And not all "manipulators" are bad actors, but all people need to learn to evaluate sources.

Reflectively saying, "Professor X should know" is not how to do it. It takes more work. Falling in line is always easier than doing the work.

Read 4 tweets
Teri Kanefield Profile picture
Feb 12
I'm tired of the word "accountable." It's a weasel word. Don't say "accountable." Say what you mean.

Does "accountable" mean
🔹Lose elections?
🔹Go to prison?
🔹Lose a lawsuit?
🔹Be hated?

It would be nice if all the good people were rewarded and the bad people punished.
So you want to start indicting people and gather the evidence after they're indicted?

Or not worry about evidence?

There are rules of evidence, which means that the stuff you've read in newspapers and Tweets probably isn't admissible in court . . .
Indicting people and having juries return "not guilty" verdicts because there isn't evidence to prove each element of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt may not accomplish what people think it will accomplish.
Read 10 tweets
Teri Kanefield Profile picture
Feb 12
One reason I think social media is turning everyone into authoritarians: people don't read or think.

They see a headline and have a strong emotional reaction, which they Tweet and which then gets repeated by others, who are also not thinking . . .

1/
Political psychologists like @karen_stenner describe the authoritarian personality.

Those with an authoritarian disposition are averse to complexity. They reject nuance.

They prefer sameness and uniformity and have “cognitive limitations.”

(link in the next Tweet)

2/
See for example, "Authoritarianism is not a momentary madness,” which originally appeared in this book, an dwhich Stenner has now made available free on her website, here: ……e-4700-aaa9-743a55a9437a.filesusr.com/ugd/02ff25_370…

Timothy Snyder also talks about the danger of what he calls Internet Memes.

3/
Read 7 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @Teri_Kanefield has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @Teri_Kanefield!

Read all threads by @Teri_Kanefield

:(