Thread by @tomburgis

The law is becoming a weapon in the US election.

That's what happens when kleptocracy starts to take hold.

Here's why.

(1/15)

https://twitter.com/nytmike/status/1313990589499744256

Anyone who's witnessed elections in kleptocracies – places ruled through corruption, like Nigeria or Ukraine or Malaysia or Brazil – can tell you they become struggles to control the looting machine. But above all ... (2/15)

qz.com/379750/goodluc…

... kleptocrats fighting elections are seeking, more even than retaining the power to loot, to keep the immunity from prosecution that comes with high public office.

Here I am with @FrankFigliuzzi1 and @SRuhle on @MSNBC discussing this point. (3/15)

Once kleptocracy takes hold, the law becomes a weapon to attack rivals within that kleptocracy. As in this chilling episode that unfolded one night in Rome (an extract from the audiobook of my new book Kleptopia)
tomburgis.com/kleptopia#audi… (4/15)
audible.co.uk/pd/Kleptopia-H…

And the law becomes a shield for those who wield corruption. @realDonaldTrump has reason to think he might need that shield. His campaign manager Paul Manafort (veteran adviser to kleptocrats) has been jailed. His lawyer and bagman Michael Cohen too (5/15) bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-…

Oh and of course Trump's old strategist Steven Bannon is up on charges (which he denies) of embezzling political donations foxnews.com/politics/steve… (6/15)

Trump has found ways to enact what the brave 1930s German legal scholar Ernst Fraenkel called "the dual state". In essence: the rule of law applies, except when the powerful need it not to. Here's @jentaub explaining the dual states of Kleptopia (7/15)
washingtonpost.com/outlook/trump-…

Trump's attorney general William Barr is pushing get rid of the case against Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser who is accused of lying to the FBI about his contacts with the big gorilla of kleptocracies, Russia. (8/15) edition.cnn.com/2020/09/29/pol…

And Trump used his office to keep his dirty-tricks man Roger Stone from jail. @RepAdamSchiff said: "With this commutation, Trump makes clear that there are two systems of justice in America: one for his criminal friends, and one for everyone else." (9/15)

nytimes.com/2020/07/10/us/…

Now, Trump has every reason to think that if he loses the election – and with it his immunity – he, his family and his businesses will face prosecutions. That's what happens when you govern like a kleptocrat, openly putting yourself up for rent.

vanityfair.com/news/2020/09/h… (10/15)

There are already cases that came from Mueller's Russia inquiry. Plus the questions that arise from the long years before his presidency when Trump's wealth was sustained by flows of money from ex-Soviet kleptocracies, as in this bit of Kleptopia thedailybeast.com/the-kleptocrat… (11/15)

Everywhere, the spread of kleptocratic power is testing justice. The UK's Serious Fraud Office faces a crunch decision in this huge case – involving Alexander Machkevitch, the oligarch ally of Trump's ex-Soviet business partners. (12/15)

https://twitter.com/tomburgis/status/1311554218873028608

Worst of all is how kleptocracy is underwritten by violence. If you rule by theft rather than consent, there are only two ways to secure loyalty: buy it or stir up tribal hatred. "Only I can protect you from Them..." Here's me and @mrjamesob (13/15)

It's vital to remember that dirty money doesn't care about left or right or ideology or culture or colour or anything other than corrupting power. And thus worth mentioning that Trump's opponent has questions to answer on this front too. (14/15) washingtonpost.com/politics/as-vi…

This is the world I've tried to reveal in Kleptopia. There's more on the book here tomburgis.com/kleptopia.

The weeks up to November 3 (and the storm that is likely to follow) will show us how far the spirit of kleptocracy has penetrated the greatest democracy. (15/15)

Crucial too to know what's going on in the global capital of dirty money: London. That's what we'll be discussing TONIGHT at this virtual @frontlineclub event. Shadow chancellor @AnnelieseDodds, McMafia maestro @MishaGlenny, host @OliverBullough, me + YOU frontlineclub.com/global-britain…

And if Trump needed any reminding of the legal travails he could face is he loses immunity from prosecution, yet another of his people has now been charged with illicitly advancing kleptocrats' interests in the US #kleptopia

nytimes.com/2020/10/08/us/…

Essential US election day reading: here's @JaneMayerNYer, who has for years revealed dark money's secrets, on why this vote is so different: one candidate faces jail if he loses. Re-upping a thread on dirty money for the bigger picture (18/24)

https://twitter.com/NewYorker/status/1322886729418887172

We may not know the result – let alone the outcome, to be shaped in the courts and maybe the streets – for weeks. But we already know that dirty money now looks like the dominant force in US politics. See earlier tweets in this thread for Trump's long entwinement with it. (19/24)

Dirty money seeks corrupt influence wherever it can find it: Republican and Democrats, left and right. It capitalises on the blindness to this fact that our hyper-partisan politics causes. The Bidens, the Clintons: they have questions to answer too (20/24) wsj.com/articles/the-h…

If dirty money is the virus, disinformation is the disease. Yes, disinformation introduces fake "facts" to public discourse. But crucially it also allows kleptocrats to discredit the truth about their wealth and power.
@SamHarrisOrg @NinaDSchick (21/24) samharris.org/podcasts/220-i…

So the spread of dirty money is accompanied by the corrosion of the very idea of truth. After all, what is money laundering but the falsification of the past? And what is the spread of kleptocracy but an epochal feat of money laundering? Taking place at the heart of power (22/24)

It gets worse. "Money," writes @RichardDawkins in The Selfish Gene, "is a formal token of delayed reciprocal altruism." It is what allows large groups of strangers to form societies. But the spread of kleptocracy is subverting money. (23/24) @hiddenforces podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/ris…

And whether or not @realDonaldTrump clings to his immunity from prosecution, the rise of an international kleptocracy is accelerating. The best antidote is fearless journalism and fearless debate @edwardlucas @mrjamesob @jentaub @MishaGlenny theprint.in/pageturner/exc… (24/24)