Jack - Team M Report

Episode Date: May 29, 2022

This week: an update on Roger Stone; Kushner and Steve self-dealing; the Mueller Report summary of the Weissman-led Team M – Team Manafort – is out; Steve Wynn runs afoul of FARA; plus some Sabotage and the Fantasy Indictment League.Follow AG on Twitter:Dr. Allison Gill https://twitter.com/allisongillhttps://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrotehttps://twitter.com/dailybeanspodWant to support the show and get it ad-free and early?https://dailybeans.supercast.tech/Orhttps://patreon.com/thedailybeansPromo Codes: Thanks, Ana Luisa.  Get 10% off at shop.analuisa.com/mswmedia - code mswmedia Thanks, Feals. Go to Feals.com/msw for 50% of your first order, plus free shipping

Welcome to Teacher Quit Talk, I'm Miss Redacted, 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-secing 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. Thanks to Anna Luisa for supporting Mullershy wrote. Anna Luisa makes beautiful, sustainable jewelry at fair prices. For 10% off, go to shop. ANA. L-U-I-S-A dot com slash MSW Media and use code MSW Media. And thank you to Fields for supporting Mueller, she wrote.

Fields is a better way to feel better for 50% off your first offer, plus free shipping. Go to fields.com slash MSW. That's F-E-A-L-S.com slash MSW. Hey all, this is Glenn Kirschner, and you're listening to Mueller, she wrote. I'm not a word any 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 food and for nothing to do with food? I've never spoken to them. 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. Hello and welcome to Mer Shee Road on your host A.G. Allison Gill and we have a big show for you this week including an update on Roger Stone,

something about Kushner and Steve. Steve is what I like to call Steve Mnuchin. And the Andrew Weissman alternate quote unquote muller report which isn't actually an alternate muller report. It's a summary of team M and team M is team Manifort, which was led by Andrew Weisman, who's kind of been off the radar for the last almost a year. He's only popped up. There's been like four Andrew Weisman sightings and they've been very minimal and he used

to be everywhere. I imagine he was working on redacting this report because it's pretty much all redacted. There's not much in it that we can see, but what we can see is pretty powerful. It seems like more bold language than then Mueller, than Mueller's report. And, you know, we don't know if Mueller actually wrote the Mueller report. I doubt it. I'm sure he approved it and made, you know, made changes to it or whatever. But either way, whoever wrote the Mueller report was a lot softer in their language than Weissman is in this report. I wish the whole Mueller report was written by Andrew Weissman. Anyway, we're going to go over that. There's a lot of really interesting standout things in there, especially with reductions that have to do with harm to ongoing matters. And I think we can

guess which matters those are when we get to them. But there's a lot that we that I didn't realize that was going on behind the scenes with the Ukraine peace deal. And when I say peace deal, I mean carving up Ukraine for Putin and Yanukovych. So that's that's that was their idea of a piece deal. And that was that was brokered by Kalimnik and on behalf of Russia with Manafort and Yanukovych, that was the plan, that was the peace plan was to let Russia have Crimea and the Eastern, you know, Domboss region and put Yanukovych in charge of it. And then and then that's peace that then there will be peace in Ukraine.

So Manifort also was in charge of the language at the RNC, the RNC platform, where they weaken the language against, you know, Ukraine giving them weapons. So it's all tied together. And it's pretty significant, some of these things. And a lot of them haven't had a statute of limitations that have expired yet, so we'll talk about that. And we have a lot to get to, including some pretty great sabotage, so let's jump in with just the facts. All right, first up, from reporters I don't hate at the New York Times. Shortly before the 2020 election, Trump administration officials unveiled a US government sponsored

program called the Abraham Fund that they said would raise $3 billion for projects in and around the Middle East. Spear headed by Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, the fund promised to capitalize on diplomatic agreements he had championed between Israel and some Arab states, packed known as the Abraham Accords. Steve, Mnuchin, then Treasury Secretary, helped inaugurate the fund on a trip to the UAE and Israel, hailing the Accords as a tremendous foundation for economic growth. If you remember Kushner's peace plan in the Middle East, he didn't even invite the

Palestinians, and it was just a two-state solution. So, wow, yeah. Billion, three billion for that idea, please. Now it was a little more than talk, right? At the time, no accounts, no employees, no income, no projects, the fund vanished when Donald left office. Yet after Kushner and Steve, Chris Cross the Middle East and the final months of the Trump administration on trips that included trying to raise money for the project, each quickly launched a private fund that

in some ways picked up where the Abraham fund ended. Kushner and Steve brought along top aides who had helped court gulf rulers while promoting the Abraham fund. And soon both were back in the same royal courts asking for the same royal investments, although for purely commercial endeavors this time, not like, you know, brilliant, middle-east piece plans. We're handing over intel to the Crown Prince about traders, who were then executed and exiled. Nothing like that. Now, within three months, Manuchin's new firm had circulated detailed investment plans and received $500 million in commitments from the Emirates, Kuwaitis, and Qataris.

And that's according to previously unreported documents prepared by the main Saudi Sovereign Wealth Fund, which itself soon committed a billion dollars. Kushner's new firm reached an agreement for $2 billion in investments from the Saudis six months after he left the government. We've reported pretty extensively on that. The New York Times report last month revealed that Saudi investments into Kushner and Manuchin funds that those investments raised alarms from ethics experts and Democratic lawmakers about the appearance of potential payoffs for official acts during the Trump administration.

They totally were. But an examination of the two men's travels toward official acts during the Trump administration. They totally were. But an examination of the two men's travels toward the end of the Trump presidency also raises other questions about whether they sought to exploit official relationships with foreign leaders for private business interests. Hint. Yes, they did. In the weeks after the election, Kushner made three trips to the Middle East, the last for a January 5th summit in Saudi Arabia with leaders of the Gulf monarchies.

Manuchin, Steve, that day began a tour through the region that was planned to include private meetings with the heads of sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Qatar, and Kuwait. All future investors. He cut it short after the capital riot, dropping the Kuwait trip, and in Saudi Arabia meeting only with the finance minister. Jared and his aides have sometimes cast his private firm, Affinity Partners, as a continuation of the Abraham Fund. On a 4-day trip to Israel and March to meet companies seeking investments,

Kushner's team portrayed the firm as a chance to invest in the peacemaking potential of the Abraham Accords, people who heard the pitch said that, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Now, both Mr. Kushner and Steve hired several aides who were deeply involved in the Accords. A top executive at Affinity, retired Major General Miguel Korea, is a former military attaché in the Emirates, who later worked with the White House. Top executives at Steve's Fund, Liberty Strategic Capital, such great names, include a former ambassador to Israel and former Treasury Aid who helped arrange meetings with the Gulf leaders.

The transition from government work for one Liberty Strategic executive was so fast that his jobs appeared to overlap. A roster of 11 top executives and advisors provided to the Saudis by April 2021, including the managing director Michael Dembrosio, even though he was still an assistant director at the Secret Service through the end of May. Secret Service, by the way, Ding Ding, a Secret Service spokesman said that Mr. Dembrosio

had disclosed his new employment to the agency and spent his last weeks there on paid leave. A lot of this shit is against government ethics policy, by the way. You'll notice I didn't tell you my real name or the agency I worked for or that I had sued them in one until about what was it? A year after I think I had to wait a year just for ethics. No one told me to. I mean, it's in the policy. I just wanted to make sure I was being ethical, which is apparently not something that Steve cares very much about.

A former Treasury aide, known and a known close confidant, had resigned in 2019 and was waiting for Steve in the private sector. He was waiting for him. That confidant, Eli Miller, had been working with Persian Gulf's sovereign wealth funds at Blackstone, another investment firm, and immediately rejoined Steve at his new firms, founding. The path from public service to private investing is well trod by members of both parties, to be fair, the two Treasury Secretary's under-present Barack Obama later went to Wall Street. But Kushner and Manuchin are, they stand out, according to ethics experts, for the speed of their

pivots and the sums they raised from foreign rulers they had recently dealt with on behalf of the United States. The Saudi investment with Kushner was made despite ended whole advisory panel, objecting to it, saying, this is bad optics, bad timing, it's not good. He doesn't have any experience. He's not a hedge fund manager. What are you doing? But MBS said nope, do it. Senator Elizabeth Warren has urged the Justice Department to take a real hard look at whether Kushner violated any criminal laws here. Kathleen Clark, law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, who studies government ethics, said each fund raised different issues. For questioner, she said, the reason this smells so bad is that there's all sorts of evidence he did not receive this on the merits.

Yeah, of course. But with Steve, who was a successful investor before entering government, the biggest question is whether he was burnishing relationships as Treasury Secretary that he knew would be useful to him in the future. That's more lawful but awful. If he was, she says that's an abusive office, I don't know if it's criminal, but it's certainly corrupt. Of course. And before vying for Persian Gulf investments, Kushner and Manuchin sometimes competed for influence in the White House,

there was a little contest there. Steve had a few business dealings in the region, at least, before the Trump administration. Yet he spent far more time there as Treasury Secretary, and met far more often with heads of sovereign wealth funds than his immediate predecessors. He made at least 18 trips over four years to Persian Gulf monarchies, compared with eight made by his three predecessors, combined over the previous decade. Many of Mr. Manuchin's contacts appeared to have been informal. One of his first meetings with Yassir Al-Rumayan, Chief of the Saudi fund, was a September

2017 breakfast at the home of Stephen Schwarzman, that's Blackstone's Chief Executive and Manuchin's neighbor. Mr. Miller, the Secretary's Chief of Staff, at the time, and now Senior Managing Director at Liberty Strategic, and now Senior Managing Director at Liberty Strategic also attended. Mnuchin met with Al Rumiyan at least nine more types during the Trump presidency, including in Bahrain, Switzerland, and the Treasury Conference Room, using government property for personal benefit, and that's according to Department emails and the group's citizens for responsibility and ethics in Washington, they obtained those emails through the Freedom of Information Act and shared them with the New York Times.

In addition to multiple meetings with the Cutterie Amir and other officials, Steve met at least 10 times with the head of the Cutter Investment Authority, good old QIA, Mn. also met five times with the head of two main Emirati funds, one at Washington Dinner hosted by the co-founder of the Carlisle Investment Group, and he met repeatedly with the rulers of the Emirates in Saudi Arabia in Riyadh. Shortly after the Kingdom's agents killed a Jamal Kashoggi, a dissident and colonist for the Washington Post, and the documents suggest Manuchin built a rapport with Sheikh Mahhabib bin Zayed, Mbz, who recently became the Emirates president. As for Kushner, he made his highest goal in the White House, the brokering of a Middle-East

Peace Plan, centered on funding from Saudi Arabia and its neighbors. The core of the plan was to solicit investments from the Gulf that might persuade Palestinians to relinquish some of their demands for future state. At the culmination of those efforts, he and Manuchin organized a peace-deprosperity conference in Bahrain that no Palestinian officials attended, as I said. To court golf rulers, the Kushner helped persuade Donald to make his first foreign trip of his administration in 2017 to Saudi Arabia. Shortly after that meeting there with Mr. Kushner, rulers of Saudi Arabia and the UAE led a blockade of Qatar, accusing it of supporting extremism. Cutter hosts our biggest American military base, sent comm over there, and the

secretaries of defense and state pushed back for an end of the blockade, but Trump initially backed it. Remember all that? I don't think we need to go over the cutter blockade. But Krishna returned repeatedly to the Persian Gulf. He made at least 10 trips during the Trump administration to visit multiple countries, and formed close alliances with Saudi crown prince Muhammad bin Salman. And uh, that's Muhammad Bonza. After American intelligence agencies concluded the Saudi leader had approved the brutal murder of Khashoggi, Kushner defended the prince in the White House.

And minutiae waste of no time getting back to business. Three weeks after the Trump administration ended, he said in an interview that he had plans but he wasn't ready to discuss it. But by April 2021, his firm was showing potential investors a detailed list of target industries. Kushner got off to a slower start. He didn't get his $2 billion until recently. Last July. And he had not hired any executives with relevant investing experience. And I do have to remind everyone that this is a kind of shit that Tom Barrick has been indicted with. And he only took $374 million.

But we don't even know if Kushner is under any kind of investigation. But speaking of Tom Barrick, his name shows up in a newly released but heavily redacted Manafort Report from Andrew Weissman, head of Team M. M. from Manafort on the Mueller investigation. Here's from page 11 of the 37 page document. Tom Barrick and Roger Stone both recommended Manafort to Trump. In early 2016, Tom Barrick at Manafort's request suggested to Trump that Manafort joined the campaign to manage the Republican Convention. Tom Barrick's relationship with Manafort dated early to back to the 70s.

Then there's a redaction for B5, which is code for information withheld pursuant to the deliberative process privilege. But then we pick up it continues. Stone had worked with Manafort from approximately 1980 to the mid 90s through their various consulting and lobbying firms. Manafort met Trump in 1982 while Stone was working for Donald. Over the years, Manafort saw Trump as various political and social events, including Stone's wedding, and the 1988 and 1996 Republican conventions. There's a whole paragraph here redacted for

deliberative process privilege, and it comes back with Barrick during a voluntary interview noted his role in redacted introducing Manifort to the campaign, and also noted that Ryan's pre-biss, then Chairman of the RNC, supported the idea of Manifort gathering delegates as a convention manager and writing the convention rules. Now, I've read through this entire report what's not redacted at least. And there are some very standout moments and interesting redactions for harmed on ongoing matter. So if we take it from the top, special counsel task team M with investigating Manifort and related individuals with respect to matters assigned by the acting attorney general to the special counsel's office, various charges

were brought against Manifort and for others a result of the investigation. Guilty plays and guilty verdicts were obtained against Manafort and three others. One defendant has not yet been apprehended and there's a notation here that says various team and investigative leads were referred to components in the Department of Justice including the United States Attorney's offices

for the District of Columbia and the Southern District of New York, the public integrity section of the criminal division and the national security division. We handed off a bunch of stuff. Maniforce ties to the Trump campaign or a matter of public record, it continues. He served on the Trump campaign from March to August in 2016, versus a convention manager. And as of June 2016, the campaign chairman, Maniforce was allowed to resign rather than be fired from the campaign in mid-August 2016 following adverse publicity about his political consulting activities in Ukraine. He stayed in touch with various members of the Trump campaign, including the candidate

after his resignation and periodically during the transition and at least indirectly after the inauguration. Manifort's ties to Russia are more complex. Manifort served from 2006 to 2014 as a key political advisor to the Party of Regions in Ukraine and its principal leader, Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych served as president from 2010 to 2014 when he fled to Russia amidst popular protests. For example, it continues, Maniforce communicated with Oleg Darapaska, Renat Akamtov, Serhelya

Vochkin, Boris Kolesnikov, and Yana Kovich. Darapaska is a Russian aluminum magnate and Olegark with close ties to Putin and the Kremlin. Manifort performed business and political work for Darapaska dating back to 2005, principally aimed at installing government's beneficial to Dara Paska's business interests. A Kemptov, Lyachovkin, and Kolesnikov were Ukrainian oligarchs and politicians involved in both the party regions and the opposition block. That's the Russian-backed stuff. Then there's a lot of B-5 redactions here, but it goes on to say August 2nd, Kolemnick traveled to New York to meet with Manaort in person, then a big B-5 redaction for deliberative process. Then it says Manifort described the plan as a backdoor means for Russia to control eastern

Ukraine. And I assuming what's behind the redaction bars is the plan, because it says Manifort described the plan as a backdoor means of Russia to control eastern Ukraine. And the plan, I assume, is the Kalimnick Peace Plan, the Kalimnick Manifort Peace Plan, where Trump lets Putin keep Crimea and puts Yanukovych in charge of it with Manifort's help. The report goes on to say,

Yanukovych believed the plan would need the US President and thus was raised with Manifort as a conduit to Trump. Interesting. Alright, everybody, we'll be right back, stick around. Hey everyone, I want to talk about a product that has helped me in my daily life. CBD isn't about what you feel, it's about what you don't feel. It helps with my stress, my anxiety, and those random aches and pains that we all get. Feels offers a variety of ways to take premium CBD from infused mints to tinctures and oils.

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Welcome back. Then we get to the background on Maniford. And we all know this. We've covered it extensively on the podcast. It goes into his ties to Darapasca. It says it in approximately 2005. He began working for Darapasca, a Russian oligarch, Darapasca hired Davis and Manafort to develop and implement a strategy aimed at protecting Darapasca's international business interests. Then we talk about the

paracles stuff, the paracles fund was Derapasca invested in that telecommunications company with Manafort. He later sued him for that and explained it says here political risk insurance Derapasca used Manafort to put friendly political officials in office in countries where he had business interests. Then there's a ton of redactions for B7A, which is pending law enforcement proceedings. And pretty much the rest of the next few pages are redacted for that. I assume it's the investigation into Darapasca. Then it gets into Kolimnik and his history. He was born in 1970. It goes on to talk about how his, how Jonathan Hawker, a British national who was a public relations consultant and FTI worked with Manafort on public relations campaigns for Yana Kovic. That's B7A stuff.

Talks about Alexander Vanderswond, who was also indicted. We know all this story. We know these stories. Then the report starts to talk about Manafort's work with the Trump campaign. We know all that. I have already read you about the Tom Barrick and Roger Stone stuff. Russia and Ukraine communications, there's a reduction there for B5. Communications in March of 2016, Manifort told Gates that being hired on the campaign would increase the likelihood that Manifort would be paid the approximately $2 million he was owed for his Ukraine work. That's why he was working for free, right?

And there's a bunch of redactions for deliberative process. And then it says Gates explained that Manafort thought the settlement of Derapasca's Pericles lawsuit could be favorably influenced by Manafort's new position on the campaign. That's the whole make-hole situation. Then on March 30th, 2016, Gates emailed all the memorandum to Kalimnik as well as the official press announcement relating to Manafort's appointment. And that's how they knew you have a conduit now. Then communications in spring of summer, spring in summer 2016, during late spring of 2016, Kalimnik continued to collect information on political situation in Ukraine. Then there's a bunch of redactions and it says Kalimnik further explained that he planned to be in Washington DC between May 5th and

May 8th, 2016. And that's redacted for harm doing ongoing matter. I'm assuming the Kalimnik stuff, the Kalimnik investigation. On May 7th, 2016, Kalimnik met with Manafort in New York City. Gates arranged the meeting. According to Manafort, he briefed Kalimnik on Trump campaign, expecting Calimnic to pass the information back to individuals in Ukraine and elsewhere. Manifort stated Calimnic did not ask for anything based on the Manifort position with the campaign. Calimnic spoke about Bokio's plan for election participation in the occupied zone of Ukraine. Okay, so installing a leader. That's all B5 and B7A redacted, harm to an ongoing matter and deliberative

process, and most of the rest of these pages are redacted. It goes on here, there's a little blurb that says Manafort had alleged he was willing to brief Derepaska on public campaign matters and gave an example. Why Trump selected Pence as the vice presidential running mate? That was some of the information he gave to Russia. Manafort noted that if Trump won, Derapasco did want to use Manafort to advance whatever interest Derapasco had in the United States. Then it goes on to the August 2nd 2016 meeting. On the evening of August 2nd 2016, Manafort met with Kalimnik and Gates at the Havana Club in New York across the street from blank.

Trump campaign headquarters at Trump Tower, Gates arrived late, etc. We know about this meeting, right? We know all about it. And here's where it gets interesting. Here's where we start getting into stuff that hasn't lapsed in when we talk about statutes of limitations. And I'm on page 17 here, down toward the bottom. It talks about the plan after being shown a December 2016 document, Maniford admitted that the August 2nd meeting with Kalimnik

discussed a plan that amounted to a means for Russia to take over the eastern part of Ukraine. That's what the meeting at the Havana-Sagar bar was about. Getting information about why Trump picked PENSE and some campaign data, polling data, over to Kalimnik, and also to discuss a plan that amounted to a means for Russia to take over the eastern part of Ukraine. That plan, which would create a semi-autonomous region in eastern Ukraine and have Yennekovych head the region. That plan was a subject of a discussion between Kalimnik and Manafort at least four other

times. In December 2016, January 2017, February 2017, and redacted for harm to an ongoing matter. That's very interesting. Notably, Manifort initially didn't divulge this conversation, but did so only after confronted with a December 2016 document by Kalimnik that set forth the peace plan. So he wasn't very forthcoming. And we got a bunch of redactions here. Calumnik goes on to say, all that is required to start the process is a very minor wink or slight push from Donald Trump and a decision to authorize you to be a special representative and manage the process.

With this authority, you could start the process and within 10 days visit Russia, B.G. guarantees your reception at the very top level. And Kalimnick concluded the December 8, 2016 email by writing blank, redacted for harm to an ongoing matter, and Donald Trump could have peace in the Ukraine basically within a few months after the inauguration. That's what that's the peace plan. It's very, very interesting to me. I'm during, there's another meeting here, Redacted, Redacted, and it says Manifort stated he met with Kolimnik and Lyav Ochkin in January 2017 around the inauguration at the Weston Hotel in Alexandria. During the meeting, Kalimnik discussed the Yanukovych piece plan again, but redacted, redacted,

redacted for privacy information. Manafort also stated he would have told lie of Ockin that he believed Trump favored reuniting Ukraine, including Crimea. Interesting note. In February 2018, Manifort retained his long-time polling firm, blank blank blank to draft a poll to craft a draft poll in Ukraine. Harm to an ongoing matter, redactions, Manifort worked with Columnic and formulating the polling questions, redactions, redactions. And this is February 2018. actions. And this is February 2018. Okay, this is way after all this stuff went down. Oh, the, you know, the initial campaign stuff. Manifort conceded the plan constituted a backdoor means for Russia to take over Eastern Ukraine. That's what, that's what he conceded. That's what they were doing. and that's what they were planning.

There's a lot more to this. Most of it is is redacted here. It talks a little bit about the August second meeting. It's as finally Manafort stated, Calimnick departed first after the Havana room meeting. And that's, you know, they talk about that Havana room meeting again. And then Gates's account of everything. A lot of it is redacted for sources and methods. Some of it is redacted for ongoing matters.

I'm assuming, you know, some of these ongoing matters could be Fertosh, could be Tom Barich, Columnic, Derepaska. There's a lot that these ongoing matters could be. And then post-elections, meetings, and contacts, all of that is redacted. And most of it is, I mean, they do talk about the, January and February 2017 meetings with issues of Russia and Ukraine in Madrid,

with Dara Paska associate Gregory Oganov, and the second with Constantin Columnick himself. And that's January of 2017 after the inauguration. And they talk about those two meetings. Manifort denied meeting on January or Columnick in February. At first he denied it and eventually admitted both meetings after being shown some proof. Manifort said he traveled to Madrid for Telephonic a business that he had with business associates.

A business associate whose name is redacted or harmed to an ongoing matter. No, for excuse me, privacy. And during that trip, Manifort and Oganoff had a one hour breakfast meeting with no one else there. Manifort claimed that the meeting with Oganoff was set up by his counsel and concerned only the paraclesi lawsuit, the Dereposca lawsuit. He claimed Oganoff said Manafort needed to meet Dereposca to resolve the paraclesi lawsuit.

Manafort agreed, but said he would not travel to Ukraine or Russia for the meeting. Then there's some more redactions, a couple more meetings. Notwithstanding the fact Manafort claimed the meeting was about a lawsuit prior to the meeting Manafort received text messages to the contrary from a number believed to be associated with Constantin Goliimnic. Goliimnic, not Manafort's counsel, had coordinated the meeting. Oops. And then there's a redaction for harm to an ongoing matter.

My understanding is that it will be about recreating old friendships and talking about global politics, not money or paracles, according to Manafort. January 15th in an email to MacFarland, it said, I have some important information I want to share. I picked up on my travels over last month. Manafort claimed the email related to an issue regarding Cuba. MacFarland, who received advice from Flynn not to respond to the Manafort inquiry, appears not to have responded to Manifort. Hmm, Manifort had a second meeting in Spain a month later.

This is redacted for B7A. Harm doing ongoing matter. Must be an investigation into whoever he met with, or somebody else at the meeting. Honor about February 25th, 2017, Manifort traveled to Madrid and met with Kalimnik. And then there's a name redacted to harm to an ongoing matter and then a bunch of deliberative process redactions. And then some privacy redactions as well. So that is the long and short of this brand new heavily redacted report out by Andrew

Weissman, well, redacted, maybe by Andrew Weissman, I'm not sure who redacted it, but it's very fascinating. All of the the the peace plan, quote unquote, about handing over Eastern Ukraine and Crimea to Russia, having Yanukovych be put in charge of it and have Manafort manage it. And that Manafort was Russia's conduit to Trump to get that done. It's time for some sabotage. And if you listen to the Daily Beans, the story will sound familiar. The feds could be pushing Roger Stone with a tax lawsuit.

As we know, we've talked about this lawsuit, but on Monday, Justice Department prosecutors asked a federal judge to compel the stones, Roger and his wife, to turn over all their financial statements and bank account information going back to 2017. The judge's order would force the stones to disclose a potential treasure trove of evidence. Prosecutors would obtain records of any financial activity of stone tied to the January 6th riot and the stop the steel efforts as well as potential payments from pardon seekers He was selling pardons politicians and private boosters all their money that went to him and possibly information about accounts that the stones haven't even disclosed yet

So far, however, the stones have refused to comply and that's why they're complying Here, they're compelling them to comply with this the Fed the Fed's are asking for that Prosecutors filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit last April. The suit alleges the stones defaulted on $2 million and unpaid taxes going back a decade. And through various schemes attempted to conceal money and assets from government collectors. The stones have so far provided no explanation

for their failure to produce the records. Prosecutors have demanded all communications with Drake Ventures going back to January 1, 2017, as well as all statements for any financial account tied to stone for any time period from January 1, 2017 to the present. The feds also want the stones to account for all transfers between Drake Ventures and the stones over the same timeline. So these records could verify the stones finances, corroborate statements from their accountants, and possibly reveal activity related to other entities or accounts.

Now, Stone's attorney, Brian Harris, is dragging out the proceedings. He argued in court filings that prosecutors want the stones to dig up records the feds presumably already have, thanks to the subpoena to third parties like Stone's accountants. Further, Harris says his clients won't hand anything over until they get a peek at the documents in the government's possession. This seems to be a popular way to go, like all the Republicans, McCarthy, at all, and Jim Jordan and them banks, and they, you know, Scott Perry, they don't want to comply with this subpoena from the January 6th Committee unless they see all the evidence against them

first, which is bullshit. And now Stone is asking for the same thing. Martin Scheele, who served for 30 years as an IRS special agent for criminal investigations, said Harris' argument could peak the judge's interest. The defense is taking a real risk with getting hit with an either contempt charge or even possibly a frivolous lawsuit or emotion fine, because their position borders on enane. That's what Schill told the Daily Beast. Schill also noted that prosecutors would want to know about any cryptocurrency accounts, Stone might have, maintained on the sly, on the down low, as well as possible foreign accounts,

both of which sweeping requests would appear to cover. The Daily Beast previously reported that one pardon seeker, Joel Greenberg, convicted sex trafficker and a wingman, quote unquote, to rep matte gates offered to pay Stone an extra $250,000 in Bitcoin to sweeten the pardon pot. And Buzzfeed news reported in 2020, Stone had solicited money overseas, including from a Turkish billionaire. However, Stone's attorney suggests it's still possible that the DOJ already assembled a complete folio of Stone's finances over the last five years.

I'm sure they have. But if Stone feels the evidence could open up liabilities and other legal arenas he has options. For one, he can evoke his Fifth Amendment right. Though that move is more commonly associated with testimony and rarely applied to document production, more likely his lawyers could file a protective order that would wall off the evidence in the case from the branches of the Justice Department. Sheel, however, noted that prosecutors would have gathered every drop of evidence before confronting Stone, like they have.

Quote, I suspect the feds have come across some inconsistencies between what they have derived from the accountants and what stone is representing and they're trying their hardest to pin it down before going to court and possibly having something blow up in their face. She'll pointed out that there's a parallel in the trial of Paul Manafort. The accountants, he said, responsible for preparing Manafort's tax returns, which were in question, were caught in Zugswag, where they had no good moves left, only bad ones.

It ultimately came out that the accountant slide on the tax forms for Manafort because they didn't want to lose a whale of a client. But their testimony in court was quite compelling when they stated they repeatedly asked Manafort whether he had foreign bank accounts in Manafort commanded the accountants to say he did not. Now if Stone is withheld key financial documents, the act of concealment could demonstrate the essence of intent, right, a necessary step to securing a guilty verdict, right? That's the consciousness of guilt thing. And we know Stone is

being investigated for his January 6 crimes, but I'm wondering if his tax lawsuit isn't in lieu of tax and fraud indictments, much like the Steve Win lawsuit to compel him to file for as a foreign agent for China, uh, wasn't charged with fair violations, either. That's usually when they opt for a lawsuit, when they don't have enough to charge. And with that, it is time to play the fantasy indictment league. I'm gonna be a plaintiff. No, it is gonna be okay. I'm gonna be a plaintiff.

I'm gonna be a plaintiff. I'm gonna be a plaintiff. I'm gonna be a plaintiff. I'm gonna be a plaintiff. I'm gonna be a plaintiff. I'm gonna be a plaintiff. I'm gonna be a candidate! No, it is gonna be okay. I'm gonna be a candidate! I'm gonna be a candidate! I'm gonna be a candidate! I'm gonna be a candidate! I'm gonna be a candidate! I'm gonna be a candidate! I'm gonna be a candidate!

I'm gonna be a candidate! I'm gonna be a candidate! Alright, three people associated with Matt Gaetz and Joel Greenberg were arrested by state authorities in Florida this week and a ghost candidate scheme, again, running a ghost candidate scheme, is not a crime, but, oh, where funding them is, and that's how they got nabbed,

just like our T-lays did. So if you had a Rando Greenberg and Gates associate, go ahead and give yourself a point. And with that, I am going to open up with Gates and Gates associate L-A-Key, who had a weird jobless contract that paid money over no work with Joel Greenberg. I have a Rando, I'm going to pick a rando

Greenberg associate because I think more of these are going to start dropping his sentence. He's been pushed back again. He'll be sentenced in August the latest according to the trial judge. I'm going to have Rudy on here and DeGeneva, Tonezeg, Stone, Roger Stone and Alex Jones. I'm going to add a proud boy's seditious conspiracy that was supposed to happen by May 20th, but we didn't see that third super seating indictment for the proud boys yet. A Tom Barich plea agreement, I think they might push him to cooperate or at least take a plea bargain. And I think maybe a super seating Weiselberg indictment out of the Manhattan DA's office. We will see.

All right, with that, those are my picks. Everybody, I hope you had a wonderful weekend. There is another episode of the MSW Book Club. Out today, I'm covering Allow Me to Retort by Ellie Mistal. It's an incredible book. You don't want to miss that episode. I'll be back tomorrow for the Daily Beans. Until then, please take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health, vote blue over Q. I'm A.G. And this is Mullershi Road. [♪ Music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in is our copywriter and our art and web designer by Joa Reader at Moxie Design Studios. Muller she wrote as a proud member of MSW Media, a group of creator-owned podcasts focused on news, justice and politics.

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