(THREAD) You can't understand the night in November of 2013 that Keith Schiller was testifying about on Capitol Hill on Tuesday until you understand that Trump and his Russian business partners were that night celebrating the single biggest day of Trump's career as a businessman. 
(2) In June 2013 Trump passed over 17 other nations for Miss Universe because, in less than a week, Putin's chief real estate developer—a known (and decorated) agent of his—promised Trump so much cash it would help him rescue the Miss Universe pageant from its financial straits.
(3) But more than that, Aras Agalarov—Putin's real estate developer—had begun discussing with Trump the realization of a long-time dream: Trump Tower Moscow, a project Trump had unsuccessfully been trying to get done for two decades. Agaralov was in a position to make it happen.
(4) Trump invited Putin to the 2013 Miss Universe pageant and believed he would accept the invitation—which was critical, because, as Don Jr. had told investors during the aughts, nothing gets built in Moscow without the say-so of top Kremlin officials.
But Putin didn't attend.
But Putin didn't attend.
(5) Instead, Putin gave Trump a lavish personal gift through his agent Agalarov, and sent in his place to the pageant Vladimir Kozhin—his permits man. Kozhin was one of the two people Trump and Agaralov (the developer for the project) would absolutely have to have in their camp.
(6) The other person was the head of SVB—a key Putin ally. And wouldn't you know it—Trump was able to dine with him during his stay in Moscow. So Putin had carefully arranged the three men who, taken together, could help Trump realize his decades-long dream of Trump Tower Moscow.
(7) So Putin gave Trump the developer, banker, and bureaucrat he needed, and Emin Agalarov would later reveal that a Memorandum of Understanding regarding Trump Tower Moscow was signed by the interested parties while Trump was staying at the Ritz Moscow in early November of 2013.
(8) Just ten days later, SVB would announce the massive loan to Agalarov that Trump needed to make the project happen at the Crocus City site—where the pageant, too, had been held). But Trump knew the deal was done on the night now being discussed by Keith Schiller with Congress.
(9) It was on that night—the biggest night of his professional life—the Russians offered Trump 5 women to bring up to his room. It was around 3AM in the morning, and he and his new Russian partners had been partying essentially non-stop since the pageant ended earlier that night.
(10) Trump did not fear that blackmail was on order, because he'd just signed a lucrative deal with the very men who—in any other situation—he might've expect would try to blackmail him. And he wanted to party, having struck out with Miss Hungary Kata Sarka earlier that evening.
(11) Witnesses saw Trump trying to ensure the women could come up to his room without signing in—he was apparently willing to be that cautious, at least. And according to the CIA, the BBC and multiple European intel agencies, the women did indeed get into Trump's room that night.
(12) It is not alleged—and so many people seem to miss this—that Trump is on tape having sex. What's alleged is that—to get revenge on Obama (just the sort of thing Trump would do)—he asked the women to urinate on the very bed Barack and Michelle had, some time earlier, slept in.
(13) No one cares—for the purposes of this story—about Trump's sex life. He's a serial sexual assailant and philanderer and apparently America's fine with that. What matters is that Trump allowed the Kremlin to acquire compromising material on him that he wouldn't want released.
(14) What matters even more is that he lied about it repeatedly, and did so to cover up a) a very significant business deal with the Russians, which wasn't announced as "dead" by Agalarov until—wait for it—February of 2017, and b) his continued attempts to get into Putin's orbit.
(15) At least 9 witnesses to the key events of that night exist—according to the BBC, CIA, The Spectator, former MI6 Steele, my own reporting, and two European intel agencies. Now Schiller is hedging his bets by admitting women were offered and he doesn't know what happened next.
(16) We know for certain Trump has lied about that night repeatedly: who he was with; how long he was in Moscow; whether any women were offered to him by the Russians; what the nature of the tape was; whether he acted like a man who knew his room had been bugged by the Kremlin.
(17) This isn't a story about sex, though it is a story about lies and videotape. Also blackmail: the dangerous compromising of a president by a geopolitical foe who wants the EU, NATO, and American democracy destroyed. So don't focus on the sex: focus on the threat to America.
(18) U.S. media won't report this story fully because it's salacious, thus putting off Trump voters and prude Americans of all political stripes—which means the cost of getting the story wrong is high. But media in the UK has been reporting this story aggressively from Day One.
(19) We can't afford to not discuss this story just because urine is allegedly involved. This part of the Steele Dossier goes straight to the question of whether Donald Trump is compromised by a foreign power—and thus a clear and present danger to the United States of America.
(20) Everything I've put in this narrative is confirmed by major media reports, as anyone who reads this feed knows. I've left out anything still unconfirmed or reported in unreliable sources. But what we know is more than enough to start a national conversation about this. {end}
(SOURCES) See the thread below for several of the articles on which this thread is based, including BBC, HuffPost and The Spectator articles (the last excerpted via image because it's behind a firewall). Other articles have appeared elsewhere in this feed.
(SOURCES2) Many followers of this feed don't know much about me—and there's been a concerted effort by a few journalists to encourage misunderstandings about my background—so for those new to the feed, I've included below (purely for the sake of transparency) some bio highlights:
(SOURCES3) One other point of privilege, if I can: I've been a progressive political activist since I sought a Tucker Public Interest Fellowship to work for a public defender in 1996. My activism has spanned from the CJS to higher ed, politics to media—I'm not a newcomer to this.
