(THREAD) A U.S. media outlet has FINALLY published in-depth reporting on the story I began researching 15 months ago: the Steele dossier's "kompromat" allegation. I break down the news and add significant context to the story in this thread—hope you'll RT. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
1/ Prior to Donald Trump's most recent lie about his 2013 Moscow trip—that he never spent a night in Moscow, a claim made in response to the Comey Memos—the fact is that Trump had lied *repeatedly* about every single aspect of his trip. Major media is only just now taking notice.
2/ First, Trump lied about how long his trip was. Prior to the Russia probe he told a radio host it was a "weekend in Moscow"; as soon as the probe started, he described it as merely a "there-and-back" trip. So he's been lying about how long he was there for well over a year now.
3/ He also claimed Keith Schiller would be able to vouch for his whereabouts on the nights of November 8-9 and November 9-10. In fact, when questioned about the trip by Congress, Schiller said he left Trump's door and had no idea whatsoever what may have happened there afterward.
4/ He also claimed he'd never do anything untoward in a Moscow hotel room—as he had a strict policy against untoward conduct in Russia (due to fears of audio/video surveillance). Then ex-Miss Hungary Kata Sarka revealed Trump propositioned her for sex in his room on November 9th.
5/ He also said there were never any women in his room on either night he was in Moscow. But the BBC has spoken to two witnesses who say they saw a group of women in the Ritz lobby arguing with hotel staff about whether they'd be allowed to go to Trump's room without signing in.
6/ Backchannel, The Guardian told at *least* one journalist it had further info—single-sourced and a step removed from the subject, so not yet formally published—that a female Trump Organization employee told Mueller she saw the same women doing the same thing on the same night.
7/ Trump claimed him being a germaphobe made the Steele dossier allegation impossible. He must've been hoping no one knew what the allegation was, as in fact it didn't include a claim Trump was anywhere near the urine when the women in Trump's room urinated on Obama's former bed.
8/ Trump allowed Emin Agalarov—son of his business partner and Putin developer Aras Agalarov—to go public with an "alibi" for Trump's whereabouts the morning of November 9. Trump knew that alibi didn't cover any of the times the alleged conduct could've occurred—but said nothing.
9/ Trump recently retweeted tweets implying that he had directly, formally, and conclusively asked James Comey to investigate the Ritz Moscow allegations—but Comey's contemporaneous memos confirm Trump said he was "thinking of asking" and then demurred as soon as Comey hesitated.
10/ Trump claimed to Comey "there were no prostitutes—there were never any prostitutes." But Schiller says that a Russian—either Emin Agalarov or Artem Klyushin—offered prostitutes to Trump via Schiller, and that Schiller told Trump of the offer. Trump *hid* this fact for a year.
11/ A pal of Trump entourage-mates Agalarov and Klyushin—who's publicly said he secretly helped Trump win the election—is Konstantin Rykov, who runs one of Moscow's largest, most successful brothels. This bolsters Schiller's account that prostitutes were made available to Trump.
12/ A major media outlet interviewed a Muscovite at the center of the Moscow prostitute scene, and he said the word among Moscow prostitutes was that the infamous "golden shower" had happened. A Moscow sex site lists the Ritz Moscow as a "girl-friendly" hotel (i.e., prostitutes).
13/ Trump's obsession with the claim—he hounded Comey—is what lawyers deem consciousness of guilt, as it was coupled with lies and an acknowledgment it'd be deemed believable (plus, an obsession with the idea the women wouldn't have been hookers because he didn't "need" hookers).
14/ Finally, in January 2017 Paul Wood of the BBC contacted the CIA about the existence of tapes of Trump in a compromising situation in the Ritz Moscow, and the CIA *confirmed* to Wood that such tapes existed *and* that multiple European intel agencies knew of the tapes also.
15/ The BBC published this information in January 2017 in an article I've since tried my best to get U.S. media to pick up—instead, there's been no attempt by U.S. journalists to contact the CIA and no follow-up on Wood's excellent, well-sourced reporting. bbc.com/news/world-us-…
16/ So as of Bloomberg's story today, every piece of circumstantial evidence held by investigators is inculpatory, and indeed suggests that Putin—who is widely known to videotape important figures in hotels as a blackmail and/or recruitment technique—did *exactly* that to Trump.
17/ I spent a year compiling all this information from various sources—both US and international—as well as by making connections between previously published reports that had been missed by the authors of those reports. Now, thankfully, Bloomberg has officially entered the fray.
18/ Bloomberg first confirms that *Trump lied to the FBI*—ordinarily a crime—by telling the FBI Director, after saying he was contemplating asking the FBI to investigate the hooker allegation, that he never slept in Moscow. It's not clear yet why this lie wouldn't be a felony.
19/ At the time Trump lied to the FBI—by creating a fake alibi—he knew the FBI was in the midst of an investigation of the allegations he was lying to the FBI about.
In every other situation I'm familiar with, this conduct would be a federal felony and grounds for an indictment.
In every other situation I'm familiar with, this conduct would be a federal felony and grounds for an indictment.
20/ Not many remember this, but Bloomberg was actually the *first* U.S. media outlet—a long, *long* time ago—to write about Trump's wild weekend in Moscow, though at the time the focus was on his business meetings there (with significant Russian public figures), not on kompromat.
21/ One of my major-media sources in compiling this story has been a July '17 Bloomberg article, for which the article atop this thread should be seen as a "sequel" of sorts. Here's the original Bloomberg report on this, which is *well* worth reading over: bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
22/ While it's entirely possible the kompromat (which numerous Russian journalists have said they're almost certain, based on Putin's common practices, exists) was from the night of November 8-9, Trump isn't by *any* means off the hook for November 10, either, per Bloomberg data.
23/ The official start for the post-pageant party was 1AM Moscow time—but we've no idea if it started early. Trump was there but not drinking, and some reporting says seemed bored by the party (other reporting says the opposite). The Steele allegation would've only taken minutes.
24/ From Crocus City Hall to the Ritz is about 30 minutes—and the drive from the Ritz to the airport is also about 30 minutes. Could Trump have stayed at the party for an hour, gone to the Ritz, stayed about an hour, and gotten to the airport for a 4AM private departure? Sure.
25/ Schiller places the Russians' proposal of prostitutes for Trump on November 8, however—and that's the night Schiller confirms Trump slept at the Ritz—so that's almost certainly the night the kompromat was collected, if it was collected. That Emin gave a fake alibi is telling.
26/ Emin says Trump getting up early on the morning of the 9th to shoot a music video for Emin means at no point in the many hours before then—between Emin's November 8th birthday party and the video shoot—could Trump had been videotaped in a compromising situation. Not sure why.
27/ That Emin would claim to know Trump's whereabouts on a night that he, per media reports, wanted to send prostitutes to Trump's room, and that his claim about Trump's whereabouts would then be a half-assed, incomplete alibi—not covering the key hours—is incredibly inculpatory.
28/ Per an online analysis by the law firm Holland & Knight, 18 U.S.C. §1001 ("Making False Statements") includes the following elements (which elements would seem to all be present in Trump's lie to the FBI Director on an issue material to an investigation he knew was open): 
29/ The Section's text is below. It's clear there will have to be a serious conversation about whether Trump—after being told the FBI had the Steele dossier as evidence in an open investigation—committed a felony by lying about facts material to that case. law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18…
30/ So now you know why Trump is *terrified* of the Comey Memos; why he's lied repeatedly about what happened in Moscow in 2013; and why this new reporting by Bloomberg *could* help form the foundation for another impeachable-offense referral by Mueller to Rosenstein at DOJ. /end
