NEW: Trump nominee Kash Patel disclosed he’s receiving $1 million-$5 million in shares of a Cayman Islands holding company directly tied to a Chinese corporation the Senate & a pro-Trump nonprofit accuse of “slave labor.” Patel says he won’t divest. (cont’d)
Patel’s disclosure says that his shares in the company—Elite Depot Ltd—would begin vesting Feb. 1, two days after his Senate confirmation hearing, will continue to vest through November, and that he won't back out.
But Patel appears to have lied about or misrepresented the company on his disclosure, claiming under penalty of perjury it was a “fashion management company.” But it filed as an “equity holding company” in the Cayman Islands. Equity in what, you ask?
Here are the entity’s directors, per Cayman Islands records. They include celebrities, but also the heads of Chinese retail conglomerate Shein. That company has been excoriated by US officials, including a Senate CCP investigation and Trump Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
A 2023 report from the Senate Select Cmte on the CCP said Shein was “dodging import taxes & evading scrutiny on the millions of goods” sold in the US, a “loophole that is being abused to tilt the playing field against American companies." selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov/media/press-re…
That Senate report also connected Shein to the Uyghur genocide, citing "forced labor" practices
Last January, pro-Trump group America First Policy Institute released a report titled “Genocide Decoupling,” accusing Shein of using “free slave labor, exploiting Uyghur and other ethnic minorities.” americafirstpolicy.com/issues/genocid…
Patel came aboard the holding company 3 months after that report. In Oct, AFPI announced Patel as a new “Senior Fellow at the Center for American Security.” (His would-be boss, AG Pam Bondi, led AFPI’s Center for Litigation & Center for Law and Justice.) americafirstpolicy.com/issues/america…
Patel’s stake specifically in the holding company relates to a financial issue with Shein: The sprawling fashion conglomerate’s corporate structure has been called “opaque and tax-optimized.” publiceye.ch/en/topics/fash…
Patel was supposed to have his confirmation vote, but Dems delayed. The new info raises big questions about a sitting FBI director earning millions from a US importer—one targeted by Trump allies, with potential ties to the Chinese Communist Party. End. foxnews.com/politics/dems-…
Sorry: I promised Rubio. Last year, Rubio—now Trump's Sec of State—asked the SEC to block Shein’s IPO without more transparency, warning Shein was “subject to the whim of the Chinese government, & therefore the CCP.” (End for real.) reuters.com/markets/us/rub…web.archive.org/web/2024072410…
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
NEW: Krysten Sinema—who wasn't running for re-election—used her *campaign committee* to pay hotel charges in Saudi Arabia totaling more than $21,000 just before the election. One payment was $20,295 to Le Meridien Riyadh, on Oct. 17. Nine total payments docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/…
Sinema also used campaign funds to pay about $2800 for private car service in Paris before the election and $1900 for private car service in London after the election
Her campaign also paid a total $2800 in six payments to outdoor gear retailer REI for "security detail event supplies" in October and December
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is filing new versions of reports from her failed 2022 campaign, so far revealing close to $200,000 in debt for *donor refunds* that she owed supporters, but had never reported — and never reported refunding. Seems like she kept it
Here are the debts her campaign listed on the most recently updated version of the 2022 pre-general election report — which they already corrected 6 times: docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/…
Leavitt campaign has revealed a total ~$220,000 in previously unreported debt: . At least $210,000 of it is donor refunds apparently owed for years—and still owed—but was spent instead. She owes $325K with $8K on hand. Wonder where the $ will come fromdocquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/…
I've been obsessed with a Gaetz campaign parking payment for years—$382 from his personal funds to a Pensacola airport parking garage, which the campaign reimbursed. In four years of records, the campaign had never paid for parking anywhere else, ever. We might have an answer now
Gaetz's car would've been parked for about a month at the Pensacola airport. The date of his payment to the airport garage was Sept. 13, the same day Gaetz flew commercial to the Bahamas. Except Gaetz didn't fly out of Florida—he flew out of DC. So how'd he make that payment?
The Ethics report gives us some information about that flight—American Airlines, on a plane operated by Republic Airways, which happens to have the same name as the parking garage company.
Nine days ago, a former Trump legal adviser created a super PAC—just in time to not be required to disclose its donors before the election. The PAC just reported TWENTY MILLION DOLLARS in spending, but we won't know who funded it until after votes are cast docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/…
The full $20 million—for pro-Trump digital media, texts, & direct mail—was paid to a Wyoming company created in April, called Western Creative Group: Never been paid by a federal committee before; principals hidden behind a corporate agent; no online footprint whatsoever
The Trump campaign has also “skipped the opportunity to receive national security briefings,” per NYT — that’s while Trump is trying to convince voters he’s better equipped to handle foreign policy, terrorism, the military, and crime, and claiming we’re on the brink of WWIII
This is apparently how Trump previously explained it to the Daily Mail — even if you take him at face value here, he’s saying he’s more concerned about media leaks/personal image than national threat assessments during what he characterizes as an epochally precarious moment
Trump was, of course, indicted for stealing sensitive national secrets, but the US government was willing to brief him as recently as May, per prior reporting nbcnews.com/politics/trump…
Odd new filing for June fundraising shows Trump’s “Save America” PAC—his longtime legal slush fund—had just $3M on hand, owed $1.6M in debt, and reported just $3,100 in receipts... docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/…
Save America is part of the Trump 47 joint fundraising committee that includes the campaign, the RNC, and dozens GOP state parties. That committee has raised more than $140M, and Save America is high in the fundraising waterfall—third priority, ahead of the RNC
Trump 47 *could* be sitting on the money earmarked for Save America and not transferring it yet. This would theoretically avoid headlines about how much of the Trump campaign/RNC fundraising has been for his personal PAC