Thread by @jedshug

Qatar now says it "unwittingly" bailed out Jared Kushner and his 666 5th Ave. disaster.
Excuse me?
Many of us have been explaining for a year how Qatar has been bailing out Kushner. The question is why Qatar is admitting it now but spinning desperately... What news is coming? 1/

https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1095068322004111360

2/ Where do we start with Qatar, Trump, and Kushner?
The Steele Dossier and Qatar buying 19% of Rosneft? Dec. 2016
The Saudi/UAE blockade? April 2017
The $184M loan from Qatar-backed Apollo to the Kushners?
I wrote this a year ago:
slate.com/news-and-polit…

3/ And I wrote this in June 2017. Public and damning evidence has pointied towards Qatar's involvement with Russia quid pro quo for almost 20 months... It's awfully late now to cry "unwitting."
It's witless... because there's a witness?
shugerblog.com/2017/06/02/kus…

4/ Why is Qatar suddenly acknowledging its role in the Kushner bailout, but spinning it as unintentional to Reuters? (And Reuters is cooperating with this spin, btw)
When news of the Brookfield deal hit, "eyebrows were raised in Doha."
Really, @Reuters? More like wink-wink.

5/ @Reuters, spinning for Qatar: "The bailout, in which Doha played no part and first learned about in the media, has prompted a rethink of how the gas-rich kingdom invests money abroad via its giant sovereign wealth fund, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters."

6/ The Kushner 666 bailout was announced May 2018. Around the same time, reports emerged of a series of suspicious meetings w/ Qatari officials in Trump Tower in Dec. 2016. Many of us connected these dots in the national media.
Qatari officials started contacting me privately.

7/ It is implausible that Qatar just passively invests billions with no information or influence. Now, suddenly, Qatar is going public with its implausible claim of ignorance. Just as soon as the Brookfield purchase of 666 5th Ave from Kushner was safely completed. Convenient.

8/ I put together a timeline of the Qatar/Russia/Trump dealings here, all based on public documents with links. Pay special attention to Dec. 2016. It seems unlikely that these many remarkable coincidences were "unwitting."
shugerblog.com/2018/05/14/rus…

9/ One possibility is, given that the Brookfield purchase of 666 5th Ave from Kushner (the aforementioned "bailout") just closed about 3 weeks ago, Qatar had wanted to keep quiet until the deal closed, but now needs to spin its defense...

10/ Another possibility is that Qatar knows bad news is coming. For example, @ErinBanco and @woodruffbets indicated that a Mueller report on the Gulf states' involvement (especially Saudi and UAE) plus Israel is coming soon. Is Qatar worried about being implicated?

11/ A third possibility is that the Qatar Investment Authority is the mystery foreign-owned state corporation in the Mueller subpoena case, and Qatar knows it can't keep this secret forever. The QIA name doesn't always fit the redacted spacing, but who knows?

12/ Look, it isn't every day you see this story:
"Corrupt nation's leaders tell global media company, 'We accidentally bribed... um, sorry... we accidentally bailed out the corrupt president's corrupt son-in-law after he pushed for us to be blockaded miltarily."
Something is up.

13/ I have proof that the govt of Qatar knew of these questions about their contacts with Trump and Kushner. On the same day I published my @Slate piece on 3/2, I received the following email from the Media Attaché, Government of the State of Qatar. (I'm pasting to conceal names)

14/"Dear Jed,
I just saw your story published for SLATE. Please find below a statement regarding news reports that the State of Qatar’s has been in communication with the Special Counsel’s Office.
I hope that you can include my comments below.
Best regards,
XXX
Media Attaché...

15/ After I had been writing follow-up posts on Qatar, Kushner, Brookfield, and 666 5th Ave. last summer, I received what appeared to be an official invitation to the Qatar Embassy in November, and a follow-up in December. (If it was a fake, it was a very elaborate fake).

16/ Qatari officials are obviously misleading journalists when they claim they were "unwitting" partners in the 666 5th deal. @katekelly & others at @nytimes raised these questions extensively in May 2018. Many of us followed up repeatedly, and Qatar knew. @Reuters got spun.

17/ Even if we assume that these Qatari officials in @Reuters story mean they did not initially plan this Kushner deal, they certainly were "witting" and willing thereafter. They had 8 months' notice to take some kind of action to avoid appearance of corruption - but did nothing.

18/ This quotation in @reuters is priceless:
“There is no upside in investing through funds for someone like QIA. Qatar wants full visibility into where its money goes,” said the second source familiar with the QIA’s strategy.
No upside, other than a good way to avoid visibility.

19/ Qatar seems to be trying to distance itself from Brookfield and its shady involvement. Qatari officials didn't use the word "bailout" themselves in their quotes, but that's their implication.
Time to investigate Brookfield's corrupt interests in nuclear power advantages.

20/ By the way, the Kushners' balloon payment of $1.4 billion would have been due this month (Feb. 2019) if Brookfield and Qatar hadn't bailed them out. Brookfield rescued them from a financial disaster risking bankruptcy.
nytimes.com/2018/04/06/nyr…

21/ @Reuters offers Qatar's defense that it does not have a seat on the Brookfield board.
However, @WendySiegelman has documented how Qatar negotiates special deals w/ BPY to have control of specific projects (e.g. in NY and London). See this follow-up:
shugerblog.com/2018/12/18/mor…