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RD Heritage is demanding that I remove this article. I have made one small revision. The capital commitment happened after Page's tenure with the Trump campaign, not necessarily after the election. Page resigned in late September, 2016.
"I demand that you immediately retract and remove your story which is false, defamatory and HAS NO BASIS IN FACT." - John Dean Harper.
And with that, I'm leaving Twitter again. The article will stay up. Every word is accurate. I won't be silenced on this issue.
Breaking: An energy investment group claims $350M (!) capital commitment from Carter Page's Global Energy Capital after 2016 election. This calls into question his Congressional testimony when he told @RepSwalwell that he had no income in 2016 and 2017: medium.com/@ScottMStedman…
Timeline:
-Mid July: I discover that Carter Page allegedly committed $350M to this group
-July 24: I reach out to RD Heritage and Page via email and LinkedIn, looking for more info.
-July 25: RD Heritage scrubs their website of all mentions of Page and Global Energy Capital
-Mid July: I discover that Carter Page allegedly committed $350M to this group
-July 24: I reach out to RD Heritage and Page via email and LinkedIn, looking for more info.
-July 25: RD Heritage scrubs their website of all mentions of Page and Global Energy Capital
h/t to @RighteousBabe4 and @The_War_Economy for leading me down the RD Heritage/Page path
There are a few areas of investigation in the Trump/Russia affair that I think need more scrutiny/analysis. As I start to shift into a private sector job I wanted to leave a thread of leads that journalists must continue to investigate.
1. Michael Cohen's trips abroad in 2016. What did he actually do in Italy and with whom did he meet? Did he do anything more than meet with family in London?
2. There has been a TON of coverage of the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting (and rightfully so). But what about the August 2016 meeting with Trump Jr, Zamel, Nader and Prince? There are so many threads to pull that have not been unwound at all.
coffee ($5) or help for the 
server cost ($10):
Bittersweet announcement time: I've accepted an incredible private sector research job which means my public reporting and tweeting will be wrapping up in the near future.
I have a story or two that I am planning on publishing before going dark. I don't anticipate this being the end of my journalism career, but it is a pause for the foreseeable future. Thanks all for the support.
I've really had such a blast interacting with everyone. I'm not going to delete this account but will have to stop reporting once I get my last couple of stories published.
NEW: In a now deleted posting on his website, a former Yeltsin adviser and famous Russian economist said on July 12, 2016 that @carterwpage "held secret talks in Moscow" web.archive.org/web/2016102811…
.@delyagin wrote that Page's lecture at the New Economic School "does nothing more than mask the negotiations on the relations between our countries after Trump's probable victory."
"As for the preferred course of events, it is not only for our country, but for the whole world that Trump needs to be the president of the United States."
Due to threat of an overwhelming lawsuit, I've been forced to take down my most recent article. I don't have a personal lawyer nor the resources to go up against 'the machine'.
I'm 22, I just graduated college. I can't run the risk of having one of the most powerful organizations in the country going after me.
The threat of the lawsuit came from Cameron Stracher, General Counsel of AMI. He gave me exactly 12 hours to take down the article or else I would be sued. The article has now been deleted.
BREAKING live on CNN: Michael Cohen claims Trump knew about the infamous Trump Tower meeting and APPROVED it.
"Cohen alleges that he was present, along with several others, when Trump was informed of the Russians' offer by Trump Jr. By Cohen's account, Trump approved going ahead with the meeting with the Russians,"
cnn.com/2018/07/26/pol…
cnn.com/2018/07/26/pol…
Giuliani is live on CNN in moments.
Fascinating. The President and CEO of the Outdoor Channel is Jim Liberatore, who was on the December 2015 trip to Moscow:
So Butina was getting $60k from the Outdoor Channel, had a job on campus, and had the backing of a Russian billionaire. Yet, they needed to set up a South Dakota LLC to help pay for her studies?
They finally did it. House GOP moves to impeach Rod Rosenstein.
Rosenstein won't be impeached. It's a political sideshow. There probably aren't even 10 Senate votes for impeachment.
It could, however, be a cover for Trump to fire Rosenstein. In which case, the rapid response protest of millions of Americans will be triggered: act.moveon.org/event/mueller-…
NEW: Russian propagandist Konstantin Rykov (whom @McFaul has stated works directly for the Kremlin) posted on Facebook on July 7, 2016: "It is clear that the lecture at the NES was a cover and Carter Page came to Moscow for other reasons." facebook.com/konstantin.ryk…
.@McFaul is actually tagged in the post and responds to Rykov.
NEW: French court documents show that Maria Butina's funder Konstantin Nikolaev was in business with the Rotenberg's (Putin's closest allies). "It is probable...that certain Russian public agents of the highest ranks, such as PUTIN have interests in [the Nikolaev/Rotenberg biz]"
Link to the relevant section of the case: documentcloud.org/documents/2722…
The case was brought by French prosecutors and some NGOs to expose possible corruption in a highway being built from Moscow-St. Petersburg, where some French companies were involved. documentcloud.org/documents/2722…
I've continued investigating this over the past month and there's even more evidence that suggests Psy Group is owned by Russians.
Psy Group was previously controlled by a Swiss lawyer and financial expert, Judith Hamburger. She has worked for exactly 2 Cyprus companies in her life. Today, I found out that both of those companies are owned by the largest producer of tile in Russia.
To boil it down: Hamburger used to control Psy Group (until 7/2016; unclear ownership at the present time). She has been involved with 2 other Cyprus companies in her life. Both are owned by a multi-billion dollar Russian company. 
This is one of the smartest things I’ve seen written about Trump/Russia in a long time.
It explains perfectly some of the rather unhinged actions by some on team Trump. If there is kompromat, they’re unlikely to know what exactly it is, who has it, and what would trigger its release.
So for someone like Donald Trump, who has been visiting Russia since at least the 80s, there is 30+ years of potential material. He could be in a situation where he’s wondering if Russia documented the worst thing (things) he’s ever done in his adult life. That’s terrifying.
“The F.B.I. believes Page has been the subject of targeted recruitment by the Russian government....undermine and influence the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election in violation of U.S. criminal law." nytimes.com/2018/07/21/us/…
"The FBI believes that the Russian Government efforts are being coordinated with Page and perhaps other individuals associated with Candidate #1 campaign"
It's clear that the FBI believed that Page met secretly with Sechin and Divyekin.
I asked a former Trump aide about Butina being selected to ask a question by Trump out of thousands of people during the event in 2015. The aide told me that the question is better suited for the Trump Organization, as they arranged the particulars.
The person that was in charge of campaign logistics (early on) for the Trump Org was Michael Cohen.
Either way, as @DavidCornDC @Isikoff and others have written about, the circumstances of Butina asking a question about sanctions is something that Trump aides have been puzzled about since it happened.
New indictment on Butina says that US person 1 (Erickson): "worked with BUTINA to arrange introductions to U.S. persons having influence in American politics, including an organization promoting gun rights for the purpose of advancing the interests of the Russian Federation."
"BUTINA and others *known and unknown* to the grand jury, including the RUSSIAN OFFICIAL, knowingly did combine, conspire, confederate, and agree together and with each other to commit an offense against the
United States"
United States"
Indictment expands timeline once again, pushing Butina's actions on behalf of Russian govt all the way back to January, 2015. This was just months after Kremlin staffers were discussing support for her: medium.com/@ScottMStedman…
Now that WaPo is suggesting it, I can confirm that Paul Erickson is US Person 1 in the Butina indictment.
Erickson and Butina were the ones who set up the South Dakota shell company, Bridges LLC, in Feb 2016
They met in November 2013 in Moscow as the indictment says.
Having a picture with an indicted person doesn’t indicate guilt. These random snapshots of GOPers with Butina don’t really mean anything.
What does mean something: a long-term relationship with Butina and Torshin. Keene, Erickson, Clarke, Brownell apply here.
.@SheriffClarke, getting cozy with a Russian spy, huh?
Butina set up mysterious shell company in 2016 with Paul Erickson: opencorporates.com/companies/us_s…
In April, I exclusively reported that the Kremlin discussed support for Maria Butina as she visited NRA headquarters in 2014. Today, the DOJ confirms she is a Russian government spy. medium.com/@ScottMStedman…
Butina has relationships with all of the following: David Keene, Sheriff Clarke, NRA President Pete Brownell, and others. She is a Russian spy.
BREAKING: Maria Butina, deputy of Russian Senator Alexander Torshin, and woman who asked Trump question about sanctions in late 2015 has just been arrested and charged with being an agent of Russia.
This is the biggest news of the Trump-Russia probe.
Full affidavit: I'm confident US PERSON 1 is David Keene: justice.gov/opa/press-rele…
Michael Cohen traveled to Italy on 7/9/2016. He says he was with family and friends, including Steve Van Zandt. Cohen's daughter was in NY until at least 7/13 per her Instagram, Van Zandt was in France until at least 7/14. Who was Cohen actually with?
We know from @a_cormier_ & @JasonLeopold's reporting that Cohen and Sater were planning on traveling to Russia in late June, until Cohen abruptly called it off on June 14. Less than a month later, Cohen was in Italy for 9 days. We have precisely zero info about what he did there.
This also happened to be the week before the RNC. If you believe that the Republican nominee's fixer went to Europe for 9 days the week before the RNC for vacation, I have a bridge to sell you.
I have recently been made aware of the existence of purported hacked materials from both political parties being offered online. The alleged information includes call logs, messages and political operations.
I've reported it to the FBI. Journalists shouldn't engage with any of these offers.
To be clear: I was made aware of these materials approximately 10 days ago.
Those in Congress attacking Strzok to delegitimize the Mueller investigation should release all of their text messages over the past 3 years.
Read the full batch of messages. Strzok hated Trump. He also talked trash on Bernie, Holder and others. There is zero evidence that this influenced any of his work for the FBI. None. Multiple investigations have found nothing.
It’s a sideshow. If the FBI wanted to stop Trump they wouldn’t have kept their investigation into his campaign colluding with Russia entirely private.
Sorry, WHAT? Flynn is joining Stonington Strategies, the group that got money from Russian linked shell companies. motherjones.com/politics/2018/…
I first was alerted to the Muzin/Biniatta saga in February. I've been investigating it ever since. It's a bizarre set of circumstances but there appears to be Russian finance involved.
I'll have much more to say in the coming days, but this is a brazen move by Flynn.