Jack - Bonus : MSW Book Club Presents: Russian Roullette - Chapters 5 - 8

Episode Date: April 19, 2019

Free for the first time.  It's MSW Book Club.  Subscribe to the MSW Book Club Feed to get immediate access to the next two installments of Russian Roullette.  Our second installlment of the "Russian Roulette" book series is here! Today we discuss chapters 5-8. This book covers the incredible, harrowing account of how American democracy was hacked by Moscow as part of a covert operation to influence the U.S. election and help Donald Trump gain the presidency. Enjoy! #PS4

Welcome to Teacher Quit Talk, I'm Misredacted, and I'm Mrs. Frazzled. Every week we explore the teacher exodus to find out what if anything could get these educators back in the classroom. We've all had our moments where we thought, what the hell am I doing here? From burnout to bureaucracy to soul-sucking stressors and creative dead ends, from recognizing when it was time to go, to navigating feelings of guilt and regret afterwards, we're here to cut off a gaslighting and get real about what it means to leave teaching. We've got insights from former teachers from all over the country who have seen it all. So get ready to be disturbed and join us on teacher quit talk to laugh through the pain

of the US education system. We'll see you there. So to be clear, Mr. Trump has no financial relationships with any Russian oligarchs. That's what he said. That's what I said. That's obviously what the proposition is. I'm not aware of all of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time, a two in that campaign, and I didn't have,

not have communications with the Russians. What do I have to get involved with Putin for having nothing to do with Putin? I've never spoken to him. I don't know anything about a mother than he will respect me. Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. So, it is political. You're a communist. No, Mr. Green.

Communism is just a red herring. Like all members of the oldest profession I'm a capitalist. Welcome to Mollarshi Road. This is the Russian Roulette minisode. We're going to be going over Michael Issakov and David Korn's new book, Russian Roulette. Yeah. And so, you know, I'm excited about this. This book is really good. So I'm A.G. I'm your anonymous host, as always. And with me is Jolisa. Hey, what's up Jordan Coburn. Hey, everyone. All right, let's get right into it. All right, chapter five. This is the new version

of Watergate, is the name of this chapter. And I know Jolisa, you read really in depth into this chapter. Yeah. I want to hand this over to you so that you can talk about it a little bit. Yeah, thank you. So this chapter basically covers the first time the FBI reached down to the DNC. And I have to tell you my notes, say that this guy Hawkins, that you're about to talk about. I wrote mid-level IT guy, but for some reason,

I just read it as Medieval IT guy. I've read it as that too. Yeah. This sounds like another Saturday Night Live skit. Like, you know the Frozen Caveman layer? Or are you guys too young for that? Too young, but it's fun now, isn't it? Yeah, yeah.

Frozen Cave, but now we have medieval ITGOT. I dig it, I dig it. It sounds like it's going to be amazing. That's way better than the other one. Honestly, yes. This is the sketch we need to do if nothing else. Did, did, did, did. Have sketch we need to do if nothing else. Did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did-did- Or the call that he made to the DNC and it started in September 2015. So He calls to tell them they'd been hacked basically

Yes And the guy he told he was a mid-level IT guy, but the IT guy didn't really believe him He's got a crazy name, too. What was his name? The guy that was the mid-level IT guy? Yarrit Mini was the guy that the FBI Asian Hawkins called. Yeah. He did level I.T. guy. Yeah. He didn't know it. Like a guy you know in your office. Exactly. Yeah. I could have just got the job basically. So he was the one that was called and Hawkins told him to check the logs

and look for a virus called the dukes because that was the one that they were aware of that the Russians might have a connection to. So from the APT guys. Exactly, yeah. So it's so hilarious too, because if you got a call, think about this, you work for the government, you get a call that says, I work for the FBI, I need you to look at your logs. It sounds fake.

You're gonna be like, get the F out of here. Why are you calling me? Exactly, how do you prove that? Why are you calling me a middle-level IT dude? Like, he was super wary. It was like a prank to him. Yeah, but it didn't sound real. I mean, not real, but it was.

He thought he was like somebody trying to get info. Mm-hmm. Yeah, so so Hawking, he was an APT specialist and basically, the APT's hack in and leave malware that lets them keep leading data. So they were kind of leaching off of the DMC and all of these botched early communications would be seen as a missed opportunity to thwart the Russian attack. So later the DNC was actually thought of, or would think that the FBI didn't try hard enough to thwart these attacks.

Right. He thought it was on purpose. Right. So basically the guy calls the middle-level IT guy. And he's like, I don't even know what you're talking about. Don't even worry. I'm not listening to you. I'm not looking. I'm the middle-level guy and I was like trying to call him back. So this was a messed up. That was dumb. They should have gone to the top first of all. The FBI should have gone to the top. They should have gone to MOOC or Elias. Because they eventually did, but they should have started there. Yeah. But they didn't. They call this one guy and you're right. And exactly the APT, that's what it does. They hack in and they leave a little thing in there

and just it bleeds all your data. And this, now that we look back on it, the fact that they called this middle-level guy and nobody really got in touch with anybody big until six months later, I think. It doesn't really make any sense. It seems lazy. It's, why did you not pay attention?

And, and, and I don't blame the DNC for thinking that the FBI did this on purpose. Right, because I mean, because the FBI was the one who like, did the whole Hillary email thing and, exactly. And she thought that they were against her. So they, they,

at the time, it makes sense. Like they were in Trump's pocket, still, Christopher Steele thought that for a while too. Yeah. Remember when he tried to tell him about the stuff and they were like, no. They wouldn't announce it and instead they announced the Hillary stuff and Steel was like,

he thought the FBI was in Trump's pocket. Exactly, they had no way of knowing at the time. So in March 2016, Podesta got an email from what he thought was Google saying his account was hacked and needed to change his password account was hacked and needed to change his password and to click and log to change it. So they gave him a link and this is where I want to really quote the book because this was the craziest passage to me.

So basically it says on Saturday, March 19th, 2016 at 4.34 a.m. John Podesta, the Hillary Clinton campaign chairman, received what looked like an email from Google and his personal Gmail account. This is what the email said. Hi John, someone just used your password to try to sign into your Google account. And the email also said it was from the Gmail team. So it noted that the attempted intrusion had come from an IP address in Ukraine. so the FBI noted that. And the email went on to say, Google stop this sign and attempt, you should change your password immediately,

and the Gmail team, or quote the Gmail team, included a link to a site where Podesta could make the recommended password change. I've gotten a lot of these. Were there like somebody breached you, click here to put to change your thing. Yeah, exactly. Another thing that happens to is Twitter verification. They'll be like, do you want a blue check mark next to your name, click here to put to change your thing? Exactly. Another thing that happens to is Twitter verification.

They'll be like do you want a blue check mark next to your name? Click here. Oh, and then you click there You put in your Twitter Handle in your password and then ask for credit card and they ask for all this stuff, and I'm like Yeah, yeah that morning But that's the forward at the email to the chief of staff Sarah Lath, who then sent it along to Charles XI, a young IT staffer at the Clinton campaign. So at 9.54am that morning, Delaven replied, this is a legitimate email, John needs to change his password immediately and ensure that two factor authentication is turned on

his account. It is absolutely imperative that this is done ASAP. So the thing is, the live and later asserted to colleagues that he had committed a typo. So he actually meant to write that this is not a legitimate email. Not everyone in the clean campaign actually believed him, but he does have an alibi. So in his argument what's interesting too is when he when he sent the this is a legitimate email Yeah, even though he was supposed to say this is not he put the correct link there. Yeah, I just didn't click out Exactly, he clicked the original link the Russian one and that's yeah, that's the alibi Basically is a delovent devil and I can't I forget he's a really important figure so I want to get his name right

But I would say deloventven he did have a pretty good Argument the fact that he sent the correct link as you said a g makes it so that his intentions were well But it turns out the the guy just happened put us to just happen to fall for the original link It could have happened to anyone. I just happened to be the lead guy of the the Clinton campaign So I guess so that's pretty basic, like cyber security training. Oh yeah, but if you get an email back from your person saying it's authentic. Yeah, that typo's a big deal.

It is, yeah. But if they say click here, I would have clicked there. Exactly. But that's where it seems like that's where the simple mistake came into play. He's like, okay, I did follow up with the right person and he gave me a link back. But sometimes threads and emails can get really confusing. I guess. Yeah, I think what's interesting is that this Google fish was sent to 19,000 people.

Yeah, and 40 of them actually were like, fell for it. And Padec is one of them. Yeah, yeah. So that kind of sucks because they may have gotten a lot of low level people, but Padec says not low level in any sense. So he was this big bitch. Well, I want to feel bad for him because I would have fell for it, but you're right, Jordan. I'm not in his position. I should be trained a lot better if I ever got in that position. Yeah, well, and then the FBI contacted MOOC.

Oh, yeah, that's right. They started, they started going up the chain, right? They got the data manager, finally, for HRC, and handed off to Mark Elias, he's the HRC lawyer. Exactly, and the FBI requested documents from a DNC, but the DNC didn't trust the FBI. No, because they thought, because of the whole batch communications, and the first place that the FBI was in the pocket of the chain. Right, and it made sense, yes. But the FBI tried to assure them

that the documents would remain classified and wouldn't be subject to FOIA, or is it FOIA? FOIA, FOIA request, yeah. Freedom of Information Act requests. Meaning like, yeah, because basically, if I want to get any information on anything the government does, I can put in a FOIA request

under the Freedom of Information Act. Yeah. But if the FBI is seizing documents or getting documents as part of an evidence of an ongoing investigation. They don't want that to have access yet. You are not allowed to have access. Right.

Those can't be turned over from a FOIA request until the investigation is closed. Exactly. And even then, they might be redacted or classified. Yeah. So he wanted to let them know that it wouldn't be subject to that. So, but the DNC had their own cyber problem. So it was crazy.

Yeah, Bernie had an issue. So his staffers stumbled upon Clinton's voter roles and the DNC. And so as a result, the DNC blocked Bernie from accessing the roles at all, including his own. And then Bernie sued and the DNC let him back in. And then Bernie dropped the suit. So during all of that, the original mid-level IT guy,

Tamine, was that, yeah, yeah. He found the original intrusion. So totally by accident. Yeah, so it turns out someone locked into the system using his credentials and while he was sleeping, that's how they got away with it. He didn't even know it was happening. Well, that's how he found out.

Yeah, okay, so looking at the logs and he saw that somebody was logged in at three in the morning. And he was like, there we go. There we go. Yeah, so he, so all this whole time, he was looking for something different when he should have been looking for. His own log.

Anyone's own logins when they weren't a week. Exactly. They were actually rush, there was a pretty clever about this. Yeah, they're very, very sophisticated. And a lady in the DNC said, this is the new watergate. So where the chapter title comes from,

this is how they do it now. You don't need a crowbar anymore. I love that quote. Yeah, that's good. This is the new watergate. This is how they do it now. You don't need a crowbar anymore. That's, whoo, give me the chills.

It's chilling. Yeah. And what's interesting about that lady is when she worked in the office, when she worked for the DNC back during the Nixon administration, she kept that file cabinet that was broken into, and I think she like had it, has it next to her in her office. Whoa, look at the face. She could sell it on eBay, man. I'd buy it.

Oh yeah, for no money. I would keep the shit out of that. Absolutely. Can you keep the shit out of something? Yeah, you get the thing. She could sell on eBay, man. I'd buy it. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Can you keep the shit out of Something? Yeah, you can you can the shit out of any keep it a F. I would say well This is where crowd strike comes in right and they were in the minority report that you know that we just went over So they were the firm that the BNC hired to pretty much counter this whole thing. And they immediately found the intruders. It was APT-28 and APT-29, also known as Fancy Bear and Cosy Bear. Ooh! Yeah. That's Shadow Club episode 17.

Yeah, we talk about that in a couple episodes actually. So, Cosy Bear had been leaching off the DNC since 2015 and Fancy Bear got there in 26, they just got to the party. 2016, yeah, they're new. Fancy Bears knew, they're fancy, but they're new. Oh yeah. And there was no evidence that these two weren't cahoots, but it's all problematic. Separate bears. Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy. They had nothing to they were cahoots. They're just all bears. Yeah, is it because, is there pictures of Putin riding a bear?

They're all ass. Yes, that has to be why, right? Yeah, you would imagine. Yeah, who else? What other president? Yeah, trolls, right? It's just a very troll-induced name. Troll inspired.

Yeah. So among the stolen files was the entire op-bo research file on Trump. So they had the dirt and there was no telling what they were going to do with it. That part freaks me out. So Hillary had built, well not Hillary herself, but the Hillary's campaign had built this entire up a research file on Trump. All the dirt on Trump that you could ever want and joy need and the Russians had it. That means immediately, that means immediately that the Russians that that he's vulnerable to blackmail by the Russians. Yeah. Oh, I didn't even think about that.

I was just thinking about them having that upper hand, but you're right. Just an international one. Well, like the whole thing that the Russians want to do is is compromise. That's their big tactic. Right. So that's why they take that's why they offer you prostitutes and put you in a Ritz Carlton where they have cameras They can make you honorable so they can get Compromot on you Yeah, and then go I'm gonna show everyone this tape if you don't do what I say So Compromot is a very very common thing in Russia. It's like their number one thing Yeah, to get on people and now they have the op-o they op-o research file opposition research file on Trump that they got from the

From the DNC Mm-hmm and now they've deleted all from the DNC and they could have used that that could have helped them blackmail him yeah yeah he's that was one way he's compromised he's also it was them probably millions of dollars but whatever I wouldn't even judge Trump for the PP tape at this point if he just came out with it and just quietly disappeared like if that's the worst but I doubt it. I don't know, I hope so. Alright let's go on to chapter 6. Felix Sater. Dantada. November 2015 is where this takes place. It starts up around the time Trump was ahead in the primaries and he starts saying all those awful things. Everything was awful. Mexicans are rapist, Rosie O'Donnell is a fat cow,

Hater fat face. Somebody, the book says this, is this is the best quote on how to describe what he was doing. He was quote, shrewdly exploiting deep seated resentments and bigotry unquote. That's exactly how it is.

And on December 2nd, Horowitz of AP Associated Press asked Trump if he knew Sator and Trump, if he knew Sator, and Trump distanced himself. He's like, boy, I'd have to think about it. He said, I'd even have to think about it because he's so eloquent. I don't think I know him. But he was working closely with him like right then on that second Trump tower. Him and Cohen, Sater and Cohen and Trump on that second Trump tower in Moscow, the

one that we just learned about in the minority report. And this book, Trump was privately negotiating with a Russian development firm and Sater was the go between. This quote is great. Quote, the deal would require approval from the Kremlin. So a candidate was seeking the White House and simultaneously seeking a business venture that could proceed only if the government

of a foreign adversary gave it the green light. That's insane, I know. So they kept it a secret because if it got out, his whole America first campaign would be shot to shit, right? So the deal went down like this three months earlier in September Seder called Cohen to start it up. He said the tower would be built by icy expert They are now on my fantasy indictment legeless and they were in the minority report Oh, yeah, the tower would be built by icy expert a Russian builder with no experience

They've only ever built one apartment building and it was totally steeped in corruption. Trump would license it and manage it, put his name on it basically, and he would be paid $400 million up front. IC expert was working to fund the project from VTB bank. That is a sanctioned Russia bank. He was illegal to do that. He was a candidate for president working with a sanctioned bank. Let's go. And here's the quote from the book, which I love. Quote, so a presidential candidate was cobbling together a deal that could well depend

on Russian financing from blacklisted banks linked to Putin's regime. Talk about emotive, man. Yeah. Trump wrote a letter of intent to license the project. So the letter exists. And these reporters, Issacov and Korn know about it. So I'm sure Muller has it. Right. The head of I.C. expert would later say he owned it 100%. But it turned out it was owned by three offshore shell companies. One headed by a supery out lawyer. That's Cypress. It's

unclear how the deal started. Like who started it. But that explains why Trump was kissing Putin's ass in the media at the whole time he needed his approval for this project and during this time uh... saderson out some emails to coen saying quote let's build a trump mascar and fix relations between the countries by showing businesses more practical than politics and quote uh... sador noted in an email to coen

quote i arranged for i won't get to sit in Putin's favorite chair on a trip to Moscow I'll get Putin on board and we'll get Donald elected and our boy Trump will be president of the United States and we will Engineer it. I will get Putin to buy in on this and we will make it happen Unquote and that this week in the main episode he walked back those remarks saying I was was exaggerating. Even though he nailed it. Yeah, well that I end the reason that he walked that back this week is because it fucking came out in the book this week. So yeah, you better. So come January, the permits had not come through. The project was stalling. These guys suck at life. Sater and Cohen wanted to reach out to the Kremlin to like get some help, right? But then they both looked at each other and realized,

want, want, neither of us actually know anybody in the Kremlin. Right. That face. So what's hilarious is Cohen started blindly calling journalists to see if they knew how to get a hold of anyone in the Kremlin. That's one way to do it.

One of them was Maggie Haberman. She's like a New York Times reporter reporting on Trump forever called up Maggie Haberman, saying, hey, you know how on you know anybody the Kremlin? She's just like a drunken death sentence. And interesting that they would call Maggie Haberman a known Trump expert to get Kremlin contacts. That says a million things right there. Cohen even, who knows the Kremlin, someone who reports on Trump?

Yeah, okay. Cohen even sent a plea for help using the general help email account on the Kremlin's public website. Like when you go to Kremlin.RU, I don't know what it is. Kremlin.com and you pay, like contact us and there's like a little form to fill out. That's what he said in the email, like, help us. We wanna make a tower.

They're marketing his own point, but they're intelligence. It's hilarious. Like, we're gonna make this whole thing. I don't know anybody. Do you know anybody? No, let's call information. He was just a mid-range. He was just a mid-range.

Yeah. Hi, I'm Harry Litt No, let's call information. You mean just a random form? Yeah. Hi, I'm Harry Littman, host of the Talking Feds podcast. A weekly round table that brings together prominent figures from government law and journalism for a dynamic discussion of the most important topics of the day. Most news commentary is delivered in 90 second soundbites that just scratched the surface of a new development,

not talking feds. Each Monday I'm joined by a slate of feds favorites and new voices to break down the headlines and give the insiders view of what's going on in Washington and beyond. We dig deep, but keep it fun. Plus side bars detailing important legal concepts read by your favorite celebrities, such as Robert De Niro explaining whether the president can pardon himself, and Carol King explaining whether members of Congress can be disqualified from higher office, and music by Philip Glass. Find Talking Feds wherever you get your As long as you need answers, the feds will keep talking.

So, Renato, do you still have your own podcast? Yeah, it's complicated. What's so complicated about a podcast? That's the name of the podcast, remember? Oh! Will you still be exploring topics that help us understand the week's news? You bet, but we'll have a new name because we're going to be working together to explore complicated issues that are done in the news.

Working together? Yeah, you're hosting it with me, remember? Oh, right. Wait, does that mean our podcast is going to have a steam-op segment? Let's not get carried away, but we'll discuss hot new legal topics. So check out our new episode, coming soon to everywhere you get podcasts, as well as YouTube. So here's a little bit about Sater. Okay, he was born in Russia. He grew up in Brighton Beach.

Now we need to watch Brighton Beach memoirs. He stabbed a guy in the face in 1991 with a broken stem of a Margarita glass, and he did a year in jail. I just love that. That's my favorite thing about a guy. He's so rude. I think that's my favorite thing about him.

Who knows a guy maybe he earned it? I don't know. Okay, Fair enough. But when he got out, he set up this crazy pump and dump stock scheme with Russian mobsters and members of the mafia to the tune of $40 million, you guys. 40 million dollar stock scam.

And in 1998, he cut a deal with the feds and helped them roll up the others from the stock scheme. He basically, you know, sold out. He became a stool pigeon. He informed on all of them. By 2002, he was working for Bayrock. That's a cosmic firm partnered with him for this real estate company. Their office was in Trump Tower, Manhattan. Interesting. Yeah. Bayrock did a ton of deals with Trump, including Trump Soho, South-Haston, which was later sued by owners, saying they were defrauded by

Trump and his kids. Basically, what they were doing is they were saying, like, we have 80% of the building sold. And it was, these sales were with fake Russian, like fake Americans that were at real Russians that were trying to lie and say, because it's easier to sell pieces of property inside a building if most of the building is almost sold out. But if it's empty and you're the first person in, nobody wants it. So they lied and said, they're almost sold out.

And they use these fake Americans that were real Russians that were fronting the money to do this. You can't do that. That's defrauding people. That's very bad. And Bayrock tried to do the first Trump Tower in Moscow, the first one, but they, you know, were stymied biobamas sanctions because they invaded Crimea. Russia did. They annexed, tried annex Crimea. Trump said, quote, I wouldn't even really know what he looked like, unquote, when asked about

Felix Sater. But you've done all these fucking deals with him. He lived in your building. You tried to do first Trump tower with him. You tried to do second Trump tower with him in Moscow. But you wouldn't recognize him. I wouldn't even know what to look like. I don't know him, so he's distancing himself. Then there's Sergey Million.

In 2009, Million's tiny real estate company signed a deal with the Trumps to help meet Russian industrial real estate needs. Okay. And Trump sold a ton of condos to Russians through this company. A 2017 Reuters review of his real estate showed 63 individual Russians bought over $98 million in Trump properties in Florida alone. And many more that were bought by shell companies. Most of the money did not end up with Trump. He got a commission. So that's smells like laundry to me. Yeah.

Dirty to that, but fresh, delicious game slash bounce laundry. No, no. Gains if you want to sponsor us. Gain bounce. Yeah, we'll eat it like Halo top. Meshed. Tidepods. I'm too old for Tidepods. Nice. I'm too old for Tidepods. In 2011, Millions' little company did a cultural exchange program. Ooh, but it was soon invested. They were trying to get executives to come over there and someone come over here. They would swap them out like a student exchange program, but for grown-ups.

But it turned out that it was in being investigated by the FBI because he was recruiting spies. Why? Yeah, the FBI chased them back to Russia and Trump later would deny any business ties to Million at all. Of course. It's not hilarious.

It is hilarious and frustrating that that works for the time being. Seriously. Just saying. One big Trump deal. One big huge Trump deal was Rebel Love Live. This is the guy his name I could never say. Rebel Flavin.

Rebel Flavin, RoboCop. Love, love. In Rebel Love, love, love. He, he spent a year in jail in 1990 for murder. By 2008. I'm gonna start making fun of his name. But by 2008 Forbes said he was worth $12.5 billion. Wow.

So, Ola Garke, he paid Trump $95 million for his $45 million shitty mansion. Trump pocketed the $50 million. Oh, yes. Wait a minute. You trying to round his shoulder. Yeah. This is interesting. Laundry.

So that's chapter 6, you guys. Who did he kill? Do you know? I don't know who killed. She murdered somebody in the chat. I think one day you could be a person that just has a person they just killed and no one knows exactly. And then you get out of jail and then you're a billionaire. Yeah. That's like moving on. Yeah,, yeah, I like that. I like it for it. It's Russian privilege. That's what it is.

Yes. Chapter 7. He's been a Russian stooge for 15 years. This is all Manafort. This chapter is Manafort and we've talked about this to death already in our regular show. But to go through what they cover in the book, Manafort worked for Ford, Bush and Dole, but then he took a hiatus to work for the Ukraine

for a long time, but he wanted back into American politics. So he pitched Trump via Tom Barak, this friend of his. He said he would take no salary, which is weird. He had an apartment already in Trump Tower, and he said that he'd avoided DC Insiders since 2005, so you can trust me. Even though he's a K street lobbyist but whatever.

In the 2000s he opened a lobbying firm with a guy named Rick Davis and Manifort pitched Derrapaska at that time for $10 million to help him work on his stuff. So this backfired because there was a fact found on John McCain's facts machine from Derrapaska thanking Manifort and Davis for setting up meetings with McCain and two other GOP senators there was a fact found on John McCain's facts machine from Darapaska, thanking male, and for it and Davis for setting up meetings with McCain and to other GOP senators in Davos, Switzerland. Wow. Yeah. So McCain's aides were like a gas because Darapaska had been sanctioned here by then, which we learned from a Washington Post report written by a guy named Glenn Simzong.

Yeah. Yeah. He ended up finding fusion GPS later. Finding founding. Yeah, yeah, so that's Glenn Simpson. He was a reporter for WAPO. He reported on this a lot. Nice. Davis had to sever ties from Manafort

because he was McCain's aide. And McCain said we're not having that fucking guy in our 2008 campaign. Yeah, because McCain's not an idiot. Instead, we'll have Sarah Palin. Oh, good point. What the fuck was that? She can only see Russia though. She doesn't actually conspire with them. Good point. So then Dera Pasca sent Manafort to the Ukraine to rehabilitate the image of a guy named Yana Kovic. He's like, I'm gonna, you know, I've given you $10 million. I need you to go make this guy look better than he is because he's fat, nugly ugly and he's a dick.

So Yana Kovic was basically the guy who was a Putin, the Putin install for the Ukraine. Right. He's a pro-Putin, pro-Russian separatist wanted to, you know, be the president of the Ukraine. Yana Kovic, his opposition, Yushenko, beat him in that election, but then he ended up being poisoned. Wow. It's a thing for them.

Then Manafort set up an office in Kiev, staffed with 40 people, including Ted Devine, who later became Bernie Sanders' chief campaign strategist in 2016. Oh, cool. Yeah, another staffer was a guy named Kolimnik. That Bernie connection freaks me out. Yeah, that's weird.

I don't know what that's about. They dressed up Yanakovich which they bought him some nice shoes suit He's like a fixer upper like if you ever dated a guy where you like I can fix a guy. I can change him Well, they fixed him up a little bit. He's still a dick on the inside They always are and they figured out which hot button issues they could use to manipulate the electorate So that sounds familiar. Yes, so manifort pitched him to the United States too, Yana Covitch. They brought him over in 2006 to meet Dick Cheney, one of the loveliest men ever.

Oh God, a walking devil. But they didn't register as a foreign agent. And this pissed off Yana Covitch's political opponent's person. That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. Because, you know, they were like, we have to register. Why don't you register?

Yennecovage won that election with the help of basically just because of Paul Manifort. Yeah. And he set forth then to jail his opponent to Meshenko and Manifort even hired an American law firm to write a report supporting her conviction saying she should remain in jail. Ridiculous. He lobbied Rora Bacher and three United Kingdom politicians to do this without registering with FARA, the Foreign Agency Registry Act, for an Agent Registry Act. Registry Act? I think. Yeah, where you have to register that you're lobbying for a company. Yeah.

And in 2011, Tim Ashenko filed a civil lawsuit in New York saying Manafort colluded with a Ukrainian gas magnate named Fertosh, who laundered hundreds of millions of ill gotten dollars through shell companies in Panama, Cyprus, in Europe. And he did two real estate ventures in New York. Brad Zaxen helped with those real estate deals and he used to work for Trump's dad. So I put them both on the fantasy indictment. Oh yeah. The suit was dismissed, unfortunately,

because the racketeering took place mostly outside of the United States, mostly outside of the jurisdiction of the court. So they couldn't really do anything about it. Manafort's relations with Derapaska started going shitty. A decade earlier, Derapaska set up a firm called Surf Horizon. These names for these shell companies sound like paint color names from Home Depot.

For like a generator, it's like just plugged in. I want to make like a start-ups. I want to see like a bunch of paint colors and then take these, take these names, Surf Horizon and Cambridge Analytica and like these are color names like nail polish based names. Yeah, I just see it like that's how they home depot names their paint chips. I love it. So yeah, so for Toche, yeah, so they helped with this, but this anyway, it started going south because a decade earlier he said up, Derapaska said up surf horizon, right? I feel like that's an orange color. Oh, yeah. And he put $7.5 million into mandarinment fees.

He gave that to Manafort and Gates. And they set up a deal to buy a Ukrainian telecom company, like a cable company for $21 million. And then Manafort and Gates disappeared and the deal never went through. And then Darapaska sued Manafort in the Cayman Islands. And then again, in Atlanta, Georgia. And you remember when we were talking about this,

I was like, what do they do? How do you steal their money? What happened? This was it. They tried to do this cable deal and then Manafort and gate to took his money and ran. Wow. Hard core.

Yeah, like that's Balsey. That is. Woo. It's like some good fellow shit. A totally like route. And anyway, so he sued him. Darapaska sued Manafort to get his money back twice and created multiple cutout entities in Cyprus and set the deal up as a series of loans to avoid taxes.

That's how Manafort didn't have to pay taxes on this $21 million that he stole from a Russian. Right. So Manafort sought to use his position in the Trump campaign now to pay back Dara Paska because he felt like he was about to get Polonium tea. So in a series of Trader Joe's very different. It's totally not that kind of tea. But in a series of emails to Kalimnik, Manafort said, quote, I'm sure you've shown our friends my media coverage, right? And Kalimnik says absolutely every article.

And then he says, quote, how do we use to get whole? Has OVD operations seen? OVD stands for Oleg Darapasca. Oh, okay. So Manifort owed about $16 million to Derapasca via Shell Companies. And when Washington Post sent out a list of questions to the Trump campaign, and I didn't know they did this, but they sent a list of questions to the Trump campaign about Manifort's relationships with Derapasca, Manifort instructed Hope Hicks to disregard the request.

Manifort using his campaign position to fix his position with Putin, with the Putin oligarch, had to remain a secret. So, yeah. Wow. Told her to just ignore it. Yeah, it's a little big. And she did. Yeah, and she did, and then she testified, and then she quit.

Yeah, and hopefully she's not. She's not Sally Yates, but yeah, I guess she did the right thing in the end. Yeah, she did. Sally Yates got a good 10 days in, right? Yeah. Oh yeah, at least. Does acting attorney general, right? Was she acting attorney general? Yeah. Oh yeah, at least. Disacting attorney general, right?

Was she acting attorney general? Yeah, that's what she did. She was a badass. She'll be in the sexy justice calendar. Yes. Fair enough. There was one of our fans was like, you better put Sally Yates in.

There was almost threatening. I appreciate it. Yeah, the enthusiasm. I like it. Yeah. Would you have very enthusiastic fans? We do, yeah. Freakin' awesome.

I know, I love it. I'm so like daily humbled. Oh, yes, by our fans. Yeah, if that sounded like when I feel sad I just being in a cup. I wasn't I was just pouring wine. Yeah, we need a wine sponsor sponsor as soon as possible We're losing so much money Come on fit Vine come through. Yeah. All right guys chapter eight, how the fuck did he get on the list? This is a cute little hilarious chapter about Trump's basically his foreign policy advisor team. Right.

And I just wanna go over this, I think it's hilarious. So Trump's team of foreign policy advisors was a joke early on. None of them wanted anything to do with us, said John Kelly. Like when he was talking about trying to find legitimate foreign policy advisors. So there was a radio talk show host named Sam Clovis. He managed to put together like a rag tag list of slap dash weirdos. And Trump read them off to a group of reporters one night.

Wallyd Ferres. It just sounds like a, like that sounds like a cool Wallyd Ferris, it just sounds like a, like that sounds like a cool Wallyd Ferris Bill or... no it sounds like a cool fucking like I don't know R&B guy or something Wallyd Ferris you know like Wallyd yeah the Wallyd part there's a guy named Khalid right? Khalid yeah there you go there's Khal There's Farrell. What's his name? Ferris, Wallyde Ferrell. Oh, I'm not sure about DJs. I'm not sure anymore. It does the song Happy.

Oh, Ferrell, Ferrell. Yeah, there you go, Ferrell. So we have Colleede Ferrell. There we go. I mean, Wallyde Ferrell. Nice. Except this guy is a Fox News guy, so fuck that guy. Yeah, yeah, not the same.

Joseph Schmitz, a former Pentagon IG and Inspector General, we have Carter Page and George Papadopoulos. No one had any experience, any credentials, like nothing, two of them had shady past. Ferris was close to 11th's warlord that operated hit squads against Shia Muslims. And Schmitz was chief counsel to Blackwater. Blackwater is Eric

Prince's outfit, the guy who met in the Seychelles with embisodes. Blackwater killed civilians in the Iraq war and had to shut down. They were sued. Wow. They killed Iraqi civilians. Gundam down. Women and children. It was terrible. Steve Bannon saidannon said quote these people are a bunch of clowns Unquote and regarding pop-a-dopolis he said how the fuck did he get on the list? That's literally what he said They had their first meeting on March 31st 2016. We've all seen the photos Because remember when Trump was trying to say pop-a-dopolis is a coffee boy. Yeah, but then they show the the meeting the Instagram picture that Trump posted of pop obelis session. Yeah, sessions was there. Clovis was there. JD Gordon. So, um, pop it up at that meeting said he had recently met with a multi-s professor who could help arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin.

That's Mif Sud. Yeah. Jeff sessions shot it down down, but Trump seemed interested according to people in the room. Papa Doppler's went back and met with Miffsood again on April 26th, where Miffsood told him that he had dirt on Hillary Clinton. And then in May, the next month, Papa Dop got drunk and bragged to Alexander Downer and the London pub. You always have to brag to an Australian because Australians have way better stories

than in that room. Seriously, kangaroo fights here. Yeah, really do. Like, that's not a knife. And so, he bragged to this guy in a London pub saying that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton. And he didn't think, Alexander Downard didn't think of anything of it at the time. Right. When I went over this guy's drunk, he was bragging because he seems like a braggie guy. And then, pop it up, kept emailing pop it up.

I just come pop it up. Yeah, pop it up. I like that. We do. He kept emailing campaign officials over and over again, Manafort forwarded one of his emails to another campaign official saying, quote, Trump is not doing these trips. It should be someone low level in the campaign.

So it's not to send any signal. Oh, James Bond. I guess, but that's just a little weird. So, pop-it-ops meetings were not the only outreach attempts, though, to get Putin and Trump together. It wasn't just pop-it-op. So, here's some other ones. There's Torshin and Bhutina at the NRA.

I've added them to the fantasy indictment, like, too. They kept popping up at Republican fundraisers, NRA meetings, CPACs, Freedom Fest, a national prayer breakfast, stuff like that. And during Freedom Fest, Freedom Fest in July 2015, Bhutina asked Trump about sanctions. And he said, oh, we don't need them, basically. We don't need sanctions anymore.

Bannon would watch these tapes later and ask, why was she there? Why did Trump call on her? Why did his answer seem rehearsed? Prebus also thought it was odd, mole. And he thought it was strange that she seemed to be everywhere. Like who is she?

In the spring of 2016, Torschen and Bhutin met with Trump at the NRA convention. The meeting was set up by Paul Erickson, a conservative activist who emailed Rickick dear born a senior trump campaign staffer saying kremlin connection yeah jordan we've talked about that's a few times quote putton is deadly serious about building a good relationship with trump deadly god oh not settle it all he wants to extend an invitation to trump to visit him in the Kremlin before the election.

The Kremlin believes that the only possibility of true reset in this relationship would be with the new Republican White House. Ever since Hillary compared Putin to Hitler, all senior Russian leaders consider her beyond redemption. Oh, they're offended. That is harsh. That is harsh.

But if the Russians don't want you to be president, that is totally, yeah. Totally deserved. If the Russians don't want you to be president, it is totally yeah totally deserved if the Russians don't want you to be president It seems that they can make you not be president. Yeah, and he's proven the point even if he if she didn't really have facts before to prove that he was like a Hitler Type, yeah, I think it's in the book the specific thing that he did that was wrote that what why it was in response to a Act that he did I mean poisoning your poisoning your opponents, jailing them. Oh, well, she basically called him a fraud and she caused all the protests, I guess, in Russia.

The hundreds of thousands, 800,000 people showed up to protest, he blamed her. And she's a woman to do that. And then now he holds a grudge against her because she did that. Yeah, like, pussy, right. I think he's threatened by the fact that these women are kicking his ass.

Yeah, so he wishes he was Hitler. You don't think he's a little misogynist? I don't, oh, he's threatened by the fact that these women are kicking his ass. Yeah, so he wishes He was Hitler. You don't think he's a little misogynist. I don't oh he's totally misogynist But I don't think he gives a shit about pussy right. Oh fair enough. Well, he handled them. Yeah, I think they're amazing I love those oh yeah Now around this same time Flynn was giving his speech in Moscow remember when he gave his speech About how we should be friends and he sat next to Putin at dinner. Across from them was Jill Stein. Oh, she must have been pissed. Well, there's like, she was there. Yeah, I know. Supporting it. When you said that, yeah, when you said that thing about Sanders having some people that were tied to the

Kremlin now, that my first thought was inoda Jill Stein. So you think she was there like, for what? Where would she be there? This is an RT dinner. It makes me wonder are all of the people who tried to take down Hillary Clinton. No, they're all like, yeah. I wondered.

I wondered how helped out by Russia. Yeah. I would really, really like to believe no. But I would like to, but I've worked personally with Bernie Sanders I I think he's got a lot of integrity, but I mean There are things that you and I as citizens just can't know yeah, so I don't know And so so also in April 2016 11 million files from most Sackphone Seka were hacked and given to a German newspaper

These were known as the Panama Papers. We covered these in a really episode. Yeah. I think you did that, Julie, so right? Yeah, episode three or something. Yeah, I wouldn't go back and listen. I'm just so embarrassed by our sound quality back then. That's fair.

We've gotten so good. I don't know if you guys know this, but we did never. I've never, none of us had ever podcasted until this. None of us had ever done anything. We learned it all right then when the indictments went down because we wanted to do this for you. And so at first it was on the sound, but I think we've gotten to a point where I think we've got our sound down. Yeah. It's only going to keep getting better. Yeah. Really it's all because of our contributors, and I have to thank them. That's so true. Like all the time. Yes. Because we're going to break even soon, I love you.

That's crazy. Yeah. Just, it's, I want to bring you like the highest quality content like every week with like sound that doesn't suck. So, I hope that we're doing that for you. If you have any, seriously, emails at Hello at Mollarshi Road, if you have any like little tips and tricks, we would love to hear it because we've never done this.

We're born new. We learned that mics have a back and a front. Yeah. Dude, our podcast got immensely better when we stopped talking into the back of microphones. It did, it really did. Way less confusing for Julie, so much she was editing it. Oh my gosh.

It helps that the microphone says back on it. Yeah, it does. But who's looking at that? I don't know See we're comedians. We have handheld mics. We're not used to the fancy exactly condenser mics. Oh So anyway Panama papers earlier episode Putin blamed it on Obama of course in the United States But that didn't set off any alarms in the White House. It never does. It didn't never seem to I And somebody asked in in the White House. It never does. It didn't never seem to. I, and somebody asked in, in the main

episode, like, what, what's going on with the Obama administration? Didn't this happen under his watch? Yeah, a lot of it did. I don't, now when Trump comes on and says, you know, Obama should have taken care of this. It's his fault. You were the one we should have been watching and weren't. So, don't, let's not blame us for not catching you, you know, fucking your my brother, whatever it is, you know, it's just it's absolutely insane. His, his blaming Obama, he just loves to blame Obama for everything. Um, anyway, uh, all right. So, so, so, you know, like I said, that did not set any alarms off in the Obama White House and neither did an intelligence report of an intercepted

conversation that indicated the GRU was going to strike Hillary for stoking the 2011 protests. This was also largely ignored. This is like the fifth thing we missed. Now in May, MOOC was briefed about the DNC hack and he said to himself, oh shit, I wonder what they got. Which is what I would think too. Like if you ever walked up to your car and the windows broken out,

come home and somebody's broken into your house and you're like, shit, what are you doing? You think it's the flat top, yeah. And you're looking around for what they got and you can't remember what was in there in the first place and you're like, I'll find out three months later when I'm like, where's my thing?

Where's my pee pee tape? Yeah, where's my pee tape? I really needed that. Well, he was upset that he wasn't told sooner and he should have been. Like, why did Hawkins, why did the FBI call that middle-level guy? I don't even know.

So he began wondering if Trump was involved and he had some clues, right? Trump hired a bunch of Russian friendly advisors. Trump's repeated sympathetic comments about Putin and Russia, that's a thing. Trump's first foreign porn. Trump's first porn star happened to a script. Trump's first porn, fuck, I can't even say it. Trump's first foreign policy speech on April 27th,

vowing to improve Russia relations. An attendance with Sergei Kislyak, right? Mook and the other senior campaign advisors began thinking, there was a sinister connection between Trump and the Russians. And rightfully so. They thought about planting phony information in their emails to see if Trump would use it in the campaign.

And then that would prove Trump was in league with the Russians. He told Mark Elias, the campaign lawyer about this and they decided, this is a bad idea. Because what if we put salacious info in there and it's stolen and it gets out and nobody believes us about it? About it that we planted it. No, we put that in there to see if he would steal it.

Like everyone would be like, yeah, whatever. So Mooc decided to implement a new cyber security procedure. But he had no idea that Podesta's emails were already hacked. The Russians were already inside. Oh my gosh, that's a movie plot for sure. It's insane, you guys. All right, thanks for listening. I've enjoyed this book so much.

I really recommend you guys pick it up. I'm loving reading it. Anyway, this is Mollarsie wrote. Join us next time for the next installment of Russian roulette the book report I guess I want to make a diorama. I like it. Yeah, that would be the scariest diorama ever There'd be poisonings and all sorts of pull it like tea party like little Russian tea party We could have Rick Perry dancing. I don't even know very nice. I don't know. It's creepy dolls. Yeah Definitely scary. Anyway, I'm A.G. I'm Jolissa Johnson.

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