(THREAD) BREAKING: According to an individual with firsthand knowledge of the judging of the 2002 Miss Universe pageant, Trump tried to rig the outcome of the international contest to award the prestigious “Miss Universe” title to Vladimir Putin’s then-mistress, Oxana Fedorova. 
(2) I personally have verified the identity of the source, as well as the source's ability to have witnessed the events described in this thread live and first-hand. I've been in touch with the source via multiple media and have confirmed the source's account with a second party.
(3) If the allegations made by the source are accurate, it means President Trump participated in an illegal scheme in 2002 to curry favor with Vladimir Putin and enter his social orbit. Trump's actions, as alleged, are a violation of a federal criminal statute (47 U.S.C. § 509).
(4) According to the source, Mr. Trump told the assembled celebrity judges for the internationally broadcast 2002 Miss Universe pageant, just prior to the final round of judging—when only 10 contestants were remaining—which contestant he wanted them to crown Miss Universe 2002.
(5) “There’s definitely, clearly one woman out there who’s head and shoulders above the rest. She’s the one I’d vote for,” said Mr. Trump. In the context of the conversation and Mr. Trump’s demeanor, the eyewitness reports that Trump “basically told the judges who to vote for.”
(6) The pageant contestant to which Mr. Trump referred, the eyewitness reports, was Miss Russia 2002—and Miss St. Petersburg 2001—Oxana (Oksana) Fedorova, who was then widely reported to be the mistress of Russian President Vladimir Putin. And Fedorova ultimately won the pageant.
(7) Rigging televised contests is a crime under state and federal statutes. The applicable federal statute, 47 U.S.C. § 509, Prohibited Practices in Contests of Knowledge, Skill or Chance, carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison per count. Trump would've faced two counts.
(8) Count one against Mr. Trump, under federal criminal statute 47 U.S.C. § 509, would have been for “engaging in any artifice or scheme for the purpose of prearranging or predetermining in whole or in part the outcome of a purportedly bona fide contest,” which the pageant was.
(9) Count two against Mr. Trump, under 47 U.S.C. § 509, would have been for “participating in the production for broadcasting of” a contest tampered with under this section of the federal code. These acts are relevant to the Russia probe whether or not Trump can still be charged.
(10) Trump's practice, since buying the Miss Universe pageant in 1996, had been to act as "handler" for the pageant winner. Media reports from after Oxana Fedorova's 2002 crowning indicate that “[Trump] took care of her” through the end of her brief reign. express.co.uk/news/world/730…
(11) Fedorova was widely reported at the time of her crowning to be romantically involved with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin. In May of 2002, Pravda—a top Russian newspaper—published a story entitled, “Vladimir Putin’s Girl Became Miss Universe 2002”: pravdareport.com/news/russia/30…
(12) Pageant staff have previously accused Trump of “hand-picking” Miss Universe in contravention of the pageant's own rules, federal law, and state fraud statutes that protect advertisers from being duped into making advertising payments to a contest that is not a bona fide one.
(13) But prior allegations never rose to this level. In 2009, Miss Universe choreographer Michael Schwandt told The New York Daily Trump “hand-picks 6 of the 15 finalists in the pageant.” The new allegations involve an effort to pick the pageant's winner. nydailynews.com/news/national/…
(14) In 2009, the pageant denied the allegations, while “imply[ing] that the organization, including Donald Trump, do select the remaining 6 finalists while the panel of judges select the other 9,” per New York Daily News. The pageant said the new system was put in place in 2005.
(15) From 1996 to 2015, Trump was an owner of the Miss Universe pageant (between 2003 and September 2015 he and NBC co-owned the pageant). He's been accused in Rolling Stone of sexually assaulting and harassing contestants nearly every year of the pageant. rollingstone.com/politics/featu…
(16) Trump himself has acknowledged the "Trump rule," which allows him to select certain contestants to pass through the first round of the competition. But the pageant has adamantly denied that Trump has any involvement at later stages of the internationally televised contest.
(17) Fedorova was the first Miss Universe to be dethroned—and it took just 60 days. According to the eyewitness, those involved in the pageant were told the reason for the dethroning had to do with criminal behavior by Fedorova’s “public” boyfriend, a man named Vladimir Golubev.
(18) Fedorova's ties to Golubev may be another reason Trump violated federal law to try to get within her orbit. Golubev has long been connected with organized crime in St. Petersburg—and Fedorova allegedly became pregnant by him shortly after the pageant: pravdareport.com/news/russia/01…
(19) Prior to Trump running for president, two vast online archives tracking the activities and associations of major figures in the Russian mafia—one suddenly taken down after I linked to it in August—created an entry for Oxana Fedorova's "other" boyfriend, Vladimir Golubev.
(20) While the archive's info can't be independently verified, it's noteworthy that Golubev is said to have run a scam in St. Petersburg in which businessmen paid Golubev $1 million to get a meeting with Putin—though all they ended up with was kompromat in the form of a sex tape.
(21) According to a BBC report that directly quotes the CIA, the Kremlin has a tape "of a sexual nature" taken of Donald Trump while he was in St. Petersburg. Trump's longest trips to that city appear to have been related to Fedorova's 2002 pageant win. bbc.com/news/world-us-…
(22) Note that the "Rumafia" archive's allegations are sourced. It cites—on Golubev—a 10/15/09 article in Our Version on the Neva/Nasha Versiya na Neve (Наша версия на Неве; neva.versia.ru), and a 9/10/01 article in Novaya Gazeta (Новая газета; Novayagazeta.ru).
(23) The New York Post confirms anyone acting as "handler" for Fedorova would come into regular contact with Golubev—so clearly that would have been the case with Trump. He would have known, too, that Putin hand-picked Fedorova because of his ties to her: nypost.com/2002/09/29/beh…
(24) It wasn't just The New York Post. In 2002, many said the woman Trump tried to rig the Miss Universe pageant for was Putin's girlfriend and a special project. (She was the first-ever Russian to win Miss Universe, so she was a laurel Putin wanted personally *and* politically.)
(25) Still, media reported that "the Russian President’s interest in her candidacy reportedly had nothing to do with her historic bid for Miss Universe, and everything to do with personal attachments." So Trump—and everyone—knew this *mattered* to Putin. dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-ne…
(26) Just as Trump tried to rig the Miss Universe pageant for Fedorova, The Daily Telegraph (UK) said Putin had rigged the *Miss Russia* pageant for her. "The Kremlin was accused of dictating the result of this year's Miss Russia beauty contest," it wrote. telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews…
(27) The Daily Telegraph wrote of the Miss Russia pageant that, "when not busy silencing independent TV stations, taming troublesome oligarchs and waging a bloody war in Chechnya, Mr. Putin and his advisers were also influencing the outcome of the nation's top beauty pageant..."
(28) "The crowning of a 23-year-old police lieutenant from St. Petersburg—the president's home city—as Russia's beauty queen was hailed, at the very least, as 'politically correct.' Mr. Putin has been described as a secret admirer of Oksana Fyodorova." That wasn't lost on Trump.
(29) The Telegraph wrote Putin was so invested in Fedorova becoming Miss Universe via Trump's pageant some suspected he enlisted the FSB for the pageant: "[Pageant] guards were veterans of the FSB, the new name for Mr. Putin's old employers, and GRU, the military intelligence."
(30) SUMMARY: Trump committed crimes in 2002 as part of an international scheme to provide a tangible personal and political benefit to Putin and a man who widely claimed he could connect U.S. businessmen to Putin. If he did that during a beauty pageant—why not an election? {end}
(PS) This thread makes *no* allegations of misconduct against Oxana Federova. And the sources spoken to for this story did *not* specifically allege any knowledge on the part of Miss Universe pageant officials of Mr. Trump's clandestine, illegal, pro-Putin contest-rigging scheme.
(NOTE) 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) several bio highlights:
