Honestly amazed that the garbage story from the NY Post, and its amplification in MAGA world, just recycles the same exact lies and spin we've seen for over a year now.
Was wondering when this was going to become relevant. (Not that any of these emails should automatically be treated as authentic, anyway.) nytimes.com/2020/01/13/us/…
Hot take: The ludicrous NY Post story today is being met with widespread derision, condemnation, and questioning—showing how much things have actually moved on from 2016.
Almost can't believe that NY Post story is peddling this lie, which has been debunked now for a year straight. (Shokin had explicitly *stalled* the investigation! Biden's welcome move made an investigation *more* likely!)
There are enough red flags in that infamous NY Post story to teach yourself semaphore. nytimes.com/2020/10/18/bus…
I probably don't say this enough, but good Lord is Greenwald an absolute idiot.
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There is a fascinating story of the successful public pressure campaign over the last two weeks to get American lobbying/PR firms to drop Turkey and Azerbaijan as clients. Just remarkable.
What a deeply, deeply stupid piece. Doesn't even bother to mention Aliyev once. Honestly surprised anyone would write "America must have Azerbaijan's back" in public in 2020.
The thing that highlights Greenwald's ignorance here is that the U.S. has *consistently* led the global efforts at cracking down on domestic/trans-national corruption. (A legacy Trump has obviously helped kneecap.)
Criminalizing bribery of foreign officials. Requiring transparency in foreign lobbying. Leveling massive fines against foreign money laundering banks. Piloting tax-transparency agreements. Asset seizures. Targeted sanctions programs.
Time and again, the U.S. has led on this.
Has the U.S. fallen short in other areas of trans-national corruption? Of course. (See: anonymous shell company formation, AML exemptions for real estate, etc.—which is why I'm writing this book.)
But claiming the U.S. "doesn't care" about domestic corruption is sheer idiocy.
NEW: Ivanka Trump likes to pose as a successful businesswoman.
But in looking through her major projects—in Azerbaijan, Panama, and New York—one thing is clear: She's just as steeped in corruption, fraud, and money laundering concerns as her father.
First, look at what we learned from Trump's tax returns: that Ivanka was apparently in on a con to help Trump scam the IRS (and American taxpayers) by portraying her as a "consultant."
Second, there's the Trump hotel project in Panama, which Trump called Ivanka's "baby."
The signs of trans-national money laundering around Ivanka's "baby" were as obvious as anything associated with any building in the entire Western Hemisphere.
'Ivanka reported almost $4 million in revenue from the Trump Hotel in DC in 2019, slightly less than in her disclosure from last year. This appears to contradict Eric Trump’s claim that 2019 was one of the Trump Organization’s most profitable years.' citizensforethics.org/jared-kushner-…
‘[Trump’s] properties have become bazaars for collecting money directly from lobbyists, foreign officials and others seeking face time, access or favor; the records for the first time put precise dollar figures on those transactions.‘ nytimes.com/interactive/20…
Trump made $73 million from foreign sources in his first two years in the White House, including millions in licensing deals in the Philippines, India, and Turkey:
‘In Azerbaijan, Mr. Trump collected $5 million on a hotel deal and reported $1.1 million in consulting fees’