Schiller testified under oath that a man in this room (but not Emin) offered to purchase prostitutes for Trump for the night this photo was taken (11/9/13). The only person who fits the description Schiller gave is this man, Artem Klyushin—whose pal runs Moscow's largest brothel. 
2/ That pal, Kremlin agent Konstantin Rykov, confessed in November 2016 to being part of a plot to help elect Trump. Multiple witnesses have confirmed to the BBC that prostitutes *were* ordered for Trump's room that night.
And Schiller now says he wasn't there and doesn't know.
And Schiller now says he wasn't there and doesn't know.
3/ Trump said he spoke with Putin 11/9/13 in a way both "direct and indirect"—consistent with pal Tom Arnold saying "speakerphone." Is that what we see in this photo? It's either *that* or a Trump Tower Moscow deal with Kremlin agents—3 of whom are in the room. One or the other.
4/ Whatever the people in this picture are looking at—Putin's face or Trump Tower Moscow plans associated with a deal orchestrated by 6 Kremlin agents (Emin Agalarov, Aras Agalarov, Klyushin, Alferova, Gref, and Kozhin) and signed by Trump 11/9/13 by Emin's admission—this is bad.
5/ What we know is that Alferova and Emin Agalarov—both pictured here—came out of this meeting (a) knowing Trump would run for president, though no one in America knew (as Trump wouldn't announce it for 18+ more months), and (b) sure Putin had blessed the Trump Tower Moscow deal.
6/ When I first started writing about Kremlin agent Klyushin a week ago—extending earlier work done by Democratic Underground and @ScottMStedman—Klyushin began following me on Twitter.
He also followed at least 50 people who commented on my work—as I've heard from 50 saying so.
He also followed at least 50 people who commented on my work—as I've heard from 50 saying so.
7/ Never forget: Michael Flynn was a Trump national security advisor in 2015 when he traveled to Moscow to dine with Putin and—as he conceded in a later interview he almost ended prematurely (out of anger at being questioned about his dinner with Putin)—discussed policy with him.
8/ Never forget: Michael Cohen admits emailing Putin's right-hand man Peskov to check in on permits issues relating to Trump Tower Moscow—as after Trump signed a letter-of-intent on the deal on 11/9/13, Putin appears to have left him hanging on whether he'd continue to bless it.
9/ The message to Trump was clear: continue to be the presidential candidate we want to see, and I'll continue to bless the deal I helped set up in 2013. But don't contact me directly. Use backchannels. Which Trump then sought to do via Flynn, Papadopoulos, Page, Kushner, Prince.
10/ Aras Agalarov didn't cancel the Trump Tower Moscow deal Putin helped broker at the Miss Universe pageant until February 2017; he announced it via a Russian construction website. When he ended it, he blamed Trump—saying not that Trump was POTUS, but Trump "couldn't do deals."
11/ So if Trump Tower Moscow is dead, but Trump keeps performing like a trained seal for Putin, one of two things is true: he has assurances the deal can be revived or Putin was using the Trump Tower Moscow deal to get kompromat—which witnesses say he got via Rykov's prostitutes.
12/ The evidence suggests Trump *didn't* have a ready backchannel to Putin during the campaign—that's why he kept trying new intermediaries to get one (Papadopoulos, Page, Kushner, Manafort, Flynn, Prince, Cohen). This suggests an *earlier* deal Trump needed to know was still on.
13/ Trump supporters who say, "If he had such ready access to Putin during the campaign, why did he try so many different intermediaries?" *do* have a point. His deal with Putin had to have been struck pre-campaign—with no prior plan for a backchannel. So Trump had to seek one.
14/ A major incriminating fact is that Trump *confessed* to keeping in contact with Emin and his dad *after* Emin says they signed a letter-of-intent—which means Trump had every reason to this his 2013 Putin-brokered Trump Tower Moscow deal was *still active* during the campaign.
15/ That Aras Agalarov signed a letter-of-intent in November 2013, then waited *well over 3 years* to declare the deal dead—doing so just *2 weeks* after Trump's inauguration, *right* when Flynn got caught—is another incriminating fact. He wanted Trump to believe the deal was on.
16/ Look at it this way: you don't announce via Russian media that a real estate deal is dead unless it was *clearly or ambiguously alive* prior to that. Agalarov's announcement his Trump Tower Moscow deal only died in February of 2017 is—all by itself—*profoundly* incriminating.
17/ Those who doubt Rykov's 2016 confession forget 1) Rykov knew facts only someone involved in the hacking plot would know, 2) Rykov is a known Kremlin agent, 3) Rykov thus would've been *betraying* Putin to *either* falsely claim a conspiracy or reveal one Putin wanted hidden.
18/ So I'll concede I don't know exactly what to do with Rykov's confession, except to say a) it checks out (because of his premature Trump support, apparent provision of prostitutes in 2013, and foreknowledge of otherwise classified facts), and b) he was authorized to disclose.
19/ It's possible Rykov and the Kremlin, as propagandists, understand that the *most* damage Russia can deal America is to put us in a state in which we simultaneously suspect—but don't know for *certain*—that our president is compromised. So the truth must be mixed with fiction.
20/ The KARA plot (Klyushin, Agalarov, Rykov, Alferova) checks out—it's a key part of what's true. The "fiction" is spread by bots and undercover right-wingers like Louise Mensch—who tell us Donald Trump trafficked in underage human slaves and there's video of him raping several.
PS/ I hate to say it, but—as someone who worked in the CJS—I have to note that the KARA plot is *neither* salacious *nor* sensational. In fact, it's the opposite: it's *extremely* banal. Predictable. A little sex, a little lying, a little videotape. This is run-of-the-mill crime.
PS2/ What Russia and Trump supporters are doing now is—via bots and trolls—trying to convince everyone how "out there" the Trump conspiracy journalists are describing is.
But it's *exactly* the opposite: it's *pathetically* unimaginative and stupid. These are *basic* criminals.
But it's *exactly* the opposite: it's *pathetically* unimaginative and stupid. These are *basic* criminals.
PS3/ Just since I began this thread, *another 25* of my Twitter followers have written in to say Klyushin just followed them on Twitter also.
Strange behavior, wouldn't you say?
Strange behavior, wouldn't you say?
PS4/ The full list—I believe—of intermediaries Trump attempted to use to get to Putin and/or Kremlin agents during the campaign:
Agalarov (Aras)
Agalarov (Emin)
Cohen
Flynn
Kushner
Manafort
Page
Papadopoulos
Prince
Sater
Trump Jr.
The number suggests both futility *and* intent.
Agalarov (Aras)
Agalarov (Emin)
Cohen
Flynn
Kushner
Manafort
Page
Papadopoulos
Prince
Sater
Trump Jr.
The number suggests both futility *and* intent.
PS5/ Klyushin/Rykov tweets/FB posts from *March '16*—before anyone in the U.S. knew of a Russian plot, and before anyone in Russia knew such a plot would be discovered—speak of "secret meetings" and finding ways to "help Trump." So no one can say Rykov pig-piled on a known story.
