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Judd Legum
@JuddLegum
, 7 tweets, 4 min read Read on Twitter
1. After being banned from entering the U.S. for 12 years, this man showed up at the Trump Hotel last Thursday.

The previously untold story of how he got there illustrates how you can buy influence in Trump's Washington.

Let's go.

popular.info/p/what-does-a-…
2. You might have heard of Atiku Abubakar, the former vice president of Nigeria, because the FBI alleged he demanded a $500K bribe from former Rep William Jefferson. That was the guy with cash in his freezer who is currently serving a 13 year jail sentence popular.info/p/what-does-a-…
3. Abubakar was also featured in a 2010 Senate report called "KEEPING FOREIGN CORRUPTION OUT OF THE UNITED STATES." It detailed how Abubakar funneled $40 million in "suspect funds" into the U.S.

Siemens admitted to sending a $1.7 million bribe

popular.info/p/what-does-a-…
4. A former government official told Popular Information that, pursuant to a presidential proclamation targeting foreign corruption, Abubakar was barred from obtaining a U.S. visa.

popular.info/p/what-does-a-…
5. His inability to travel to the US was becoming a major issue in Abubakar's campaign for president. Elections are next month.

Then everything changed.

What happened?

Abubakar inked a $1.1 million lobbying contract with a man named Brian Ballard

popular.info/p/what-does-a-…
6. Ballard is one of the most connected lobbyists in the Trump orbit. He ran Trump's Florida operation and before that was a lobbyist for the Trump org in Florida.

Since Trump was elected he's signed up a slew of A-list clients like Amazon and Uber.

popular.info/p/what-does-a-…
7. After a 12 year ban, a couple of months after hiring Ballard, Abubakar was in the U.S. -- he even met with a Congressman and spoke to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce

For more independent accountability journalism, sign up for my newsletter at popular.info
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More from @JuddLegum see all

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Judd Legum
@JuddLegum
1. One of the people defending Northam right now is @DickSaslaw the Dem leader of the Virginia Senate

No one "would like their college conduct examined"

Who "would want to have revealed what we were doing in our early to mid-20s?"

Here's what you should know about Saslaw
@DickSaslaw 2. In 2003, he almost resigned his position after taking heat for his role in railroading the reappointment of Judge Verbena Askew, the first black woman to serve on a Virginia circuit court

His conduct drew "blistering criticism from African American and other colleagues"
3. In 2006, an African American Virginia Senator temporarily aligned with Republicans in protest of Saslaw, who she said "ignored black lawmakers' concerns"

"It's no state secret -- I can be a little insensitive from time to time," Saslaw said.
Read 4 tweets
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Judd Legum
@JuddLegum
"A photograph on Gov. Ralph Northam (D)’s medical school yearbook page shows a man wearing blackface next to another person in Ku Klux Klan robe."

No one should defend this as youthful indiscretion. Northam was an adult when he did this.

goo.gl/iBrzdS
This is absolute garbage. It's from medical school, not college. And it's not "in poor taste." It's racist.
There were warning signs BTW thinkprogress.org/virginia-guber…
Read 3 tweets
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Judd Legum
@JuddLegum
1. Donald Trump's reelection campaign just posted their FEC filing and it's very odd.

It's two years out and the campaign is spending way more than its taking it.

Over the last 3 months of 2018 it raised about 7 million and spent 23 million!
2. Much of this spending is completely opaque. Over $8 million went to American Made Media Consultants, LLC, a firm started last year by campaign manager Brad Parscale to buy ads and other stuff for the campaign.

Another $690,000 went to Parscale's personal consulting firm
3. The purpose of the FEC reports is so the public can see how campaign funds are spent. American Made Media Consultants, LLC is just a legal fiction created to obscure how the Trump campaign is spending its money. And it's spending A LOT.

Where is it all going?
Read 4 tweets

Related threads

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snarke
@snarke
#Trump's last campaign rally of the 2018 mid-term election season is scheduled to start in about ten minutes. It's his THIRD rally of the day. Dude is likely exhausted and I doubt this rally will be less "speech" and more "incoherent tirade".
At any rate, here's the thread for it! Follow/mute at will!
Current Pre-show music is the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil." I couldn't make this up if I tried.

#Trump #Truprally
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Zach Everson
@Z_Everson
.@nypost on “The Apprentice: Martha Stewart” in 2015 (by Maureen Callahan) nypost.com/2015/01/25/app…
BREAKING: Judge dismiss House Oversight Dems lawsuit v. GSA for seeking info related to Trump Hotel DC lease for lack of standing. "The fact that a political remedy is hard to achieve does not automatically swing open the doors to the federal courts."
Rationale the judge applied reaching the afore-quoted conclusion seems—to this very non-lawyer—like it also could be applied to the 196 Senate and House Dems' emoluments lawsuit v. Trump too.*
Read 193 tweets
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Casey Michel
@cjcmichel
What the hell is going on at Trump’s Panama property? thinkprogress.org/trump-panama-h…
We already knew that the Trump Panama hotel - which @POTUS had described as @IvankaTrump's "baby" - was tied to all sorts of cartel money laundering, thanks to reporting from @Global_Witness. thinkprogress.org/trump-panama-h…
Now, a new majority owner is trying find new hotel management - but Trump Hotels staff has refused to leave. Scuffles ensued. Phone and internet were cut. All while the Trump security staff barred entry into the room with the property's servers and surveillance records.
Read 10 tweets
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Zach Everson
@Z_Everson
Trump Hotels' website still lists Trump SoHo New York among its properties in the Our Hotels menu. Select its name though to access its page and there's a message about it being renamed

bit.ly/2EPCSy1
National politics correspondent for Newsweek, Nina Burleigh, with a fun find on a TV above the bar at the Trump Hotel DC bit.ly/2E37QRR
Two errors in the 2nd graf of Breitbart's Trump Hotel DC article:
-holdings aren't out of @realDonaldTrump's hands: trust isn't blind & he can profit from it
-Trump Org told Congress it was estimating foreign receipts—not auto donating in full
bit.ly/2CpL7z2
Read 1562 tweets
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Zach Everson
@Z_Everson
President and Mrs. Trump are dining at the Trump Hotel DC right now.
It’s a 7:41 drive from the White House to the Trump Hotel DC (with a motorcade; slower for you).
Wash Times contributor and member of Trump Advisory Board “brought my parents to meet the Boss” at Trump Hotel DC instagram.com/p/Baz6EFADXp7/
Read 373 tweets

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