 Semion Mogilevich. Source: New Republic The Trump family ties to organized crime go back at least to Fred Trump, father of Donald. The FBI file on Fred Trump was released in October 2016.
According to Politico, he most recent memo in the file is from 1991. While the memo is highly redacted, there is a check mark next to a line identifying the source of information as OCIS, which stands for the FBI’s Mob Organized Crime Information System. Notes on the document state that it came from a confidential source. The Politico article can be found here. https://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2016/10/fbi-releases-thin-file-on-fred-trump-229361 The FBI documents can be found here. https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000157-a595-ded9-a977-fdddb1a30001 Donald Trump has had multiple dealings with organized crime throughout his real estate career. According to David Cay Johnston, who has done extensive research and reporting on Donald Trump’s financial dealings, two of Donald Trump’s buildings in New York City, Trump Tower and the Trump Plaza apartment building, were built with help from the mob. Trump built the structures with overpriced concrete purchased from two mob chieftains: “Fat Tony” Salerno, who served as underboss and front boss of the Genovese crime family, and Paul Castellano, who became head of the Gambino crime family. (Castellano was known as “The Howard Hughes of the Mob” and “Big Paulie.”) More information about Trump’s mob connections in New York, and his rushed permit for a casino in Atlantic City, can be found here. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/donald-trump-2016-mob-organized-crime-213910 Trump’s connections to organized crime in the United States prevented him from being awarded a permit to build casinos in Australia. Authorities in Queensland stated that allowing a Trump project would be “‘dangerous’ on account of ‘Trump Mafia connections,’” according to a Newsweek article from August 2017. The Newsweek article can be found here. http://www.newsweek.com/trumps-alleged-mafia-connections-sydney-casino-651352 In addition to the Gambino and Genovese connections described above, Trump was in business in the mid-1980s with John Staluppi and John Rosatti, members of the Columbo crime family, to build Trump-branded limousines. Staluppi also operated Dillinger Charter Service, a company that provided helicopters to the Trump Organization. Staluppi and Rosatti also bought custom-built megayachts and then sold them after a couple of years for a profit (considered unusual in the yacht business, since new yachts are generally more valuable than used ones.) The ties to the Columbo family are described here. http://www.citypaper.com/news/mobtownbeat/bcp-062817-mobs-trumprussia-20170627-story.html Trump has multiple connections with the Russian mob in the U.S. as well. A Dutch television program, which aired in May, explored the connections that may prove problematic for the Trump administration, and for the national security of the United States. The program can be seen here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bEdMuKq30I A brief synopsis of the program appeared in Salon magazine. https://www.salon.com/2017/05/21/watch-dutch-film-the-dubious-friends-of-donald-trump-connecting-the-dots-on-trumps-ties-with-the-russian-mob/ The New Republic summarized what is known about Trump’s connections to Russian organized crime in an article published in July 2017. The article can be found here. https://newrepublic.com/article/143586/trumps-russian-laundromat-trump-tower-luxury-high-rises-dirty-money-international-crime-syndicate
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 Six Democratic members of the House of Representatives brought articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump today, beginning a formal process of investigation in five areas:
1. Obstruction of justice regarding the Russia investigation and firing of FBI Director James Comey 2. Violation of Article I, Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution – Foreign Emoluments Money taken from foreign powers without the consent of Congress 3. Violation of Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution – Domestic Emoluments Money made on his businesses in the United States 4. Undermining the Independence of the Federal Judiciary and the Rule of Law 5. Undermining Freedom of the Press At the federal level, the impeachment process is a two-step procedure:
The members of Congress who brought the articles for impeachment are:
The press conference presenting the 5 articles of impeachment presented today can be found here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZecfDlwFVUM An article explaining the process for investigation can be found here. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/democrats-introduce-articles-impeachment-president-trump/story?id=51167864 A statement by Representative Steve Cohen can be found here. https://cohen.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/ranking-member-cohen-introduce-articles-impeachment-against-president The Articles that will be investigated, and some news reports outlining the issues, are listed below. This is not an exhaustive list of incidents or events. 1. Obstruction of Justice President Trump told Lester Holt of NBC News on May 11 that he fired FBI Director James Comey because of the Russia investigation: “And in fact when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said 'you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story, it's an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won'." https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-reveals-he-asked-comey-whether-he-was-under-investigation-n757821 http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/12/politics/trump-comey-russia-thing/index.html http://time.com/4776737/president-donald-trump-james-comey-fired-russia-investigation/ 2. Foreign Emoluments https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/06/15/new-foreign-emoluments-clause-lawsuits-against-trump-are-up-against-history-and-standing/?utm_term=.c0cb93d40f30 https://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2017/08/09/trump-emoluments-lawsuit-schedule-241443 https://www.citizensforethics.org/lawsuit/crew-v-donald-j-trump/ 3. Domestic Emoluments https://www.citizensforethics.org/president-trumps-failure-divest-root-issue/ https://www.citizensforethics.org/press-release/update-new-plaintiffs-join-crew-emoluments-suit/ https://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/25/mar-a-lago-membership-fee-doubles-to-200000.html 4. Undermining the Independence of the Federal Judiciary and the Rule of Law https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/04/26/all-the-times-trump-personally-attacked-judges-and-why-his-tirades-are-worse-than-wrong/?utm_term=.42b77c0c585c https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/06/the-gop-front-runner-takes-aim-at-the-independent-judiciary/485087/ 5. Undermining Freedom of the Press http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/10/11/trump-threatens-to-target-licenses-nbc-and-networks-after-nuclear-arsenal-report.html https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/02/24/donald-trump-cpac-media-enemy-of-the-people/98347970/ http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2017/oct/18/deciding-whats-fake-medias-definition-fake-news-vs/ The impeachment process is outlined in this official Senate document. https://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/98-806.pdf Grounds for impeachment are described in Article 2, section 4 of teh U.S. Constitution. https://www.senate.gov/civics/constitution_item/constitution.htm#a2_sec4  Both the Senate and the House Intelligence Committees held hearings November 1 to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, which may be continuing to this day. The House Democrats released a list of more than 2700 social media accounts that Twitter has identified as linked to Russian intelligence agencies.
any Twitter users believe that the influence of Russian intelligence on the Twitter platform is much more widespread than the company has admitted. Bots, which are computer-driven accounts used to boost popularity of content, and trolls, which have a real person behind them (although often not the person represented in the profile) and can criticize, mock, or report targeted accounts for suspension, are common. Bots, which are computer-generated accounts, can appear to be real on casual inspection. They can answer simple questions and give general support or criticism. The comments can be activated by certain words or hashtags. Trolls come in a variety of forms. Some of them pretend to be Americans, but are actually working from another country. They can have a profile describing a "Christian grandmother with fibromyalgia," but actually the account is a 20 year-old man working at a troll farm in Saint Petersburg. A false identity is called a persona. Bot and troll accounts, which can work in coordination to target an account, can foment discord in several ways. Here are a few examples:
My own experience is that turning in accounts that violated the Twitter terms of service got no response until November 3 - two days after the Intelligence Committee hearings. I got no responses to numerous reports of harassment I observed between November 2016 and November 2017. Then I received notice of 7 suspended accounts that had violated the terms of service in the week of November 1. Twitter deleted the accounts on the list they provided House Intelligence, so interested individuals cannot examine these accounts to see their characteristics. I ran the User ID numbers near in number to the Russia-linked accounts through tweeterid.com, a reverse look-up service. I then searched Twitter for the handles associated with those ID numbers. Most of the accounts were "blue eggs" - accounts with generic names, no photos and no profile. Most of the accounts had never Tweeted, or had Tweeted only a few times. Most of the accounts has been formed in 2009 or 2012. The collage of screen captures of some of the accounts are shown above. What does this show? These accounts appear to be dormant. They were created years ago, and nothing has been done with them yet. Are these nefarious, Russian intelligence accounts? There is no way for me to tell, but it seems that Twitter did not search very hard to identify accounts that are not "authentic" - their word for accounts associated with real people. These may be innocent accounts made by individuals who never used them. They may also be silent accounts, waiting for someone to activate them and adopt personas that boost content or bully real people. They may also be part of a botnet, a group of bots used to boost the popularity of troll accounts. More information is needed, and Twitter is likely not finished testifying to Congress. In the words of Representative Adam Schiff, ranking member on the House Intelligence Commitee: "Russia exploited real vulnerabilities that exist across online platforms and we must identify, expose, and defend ourselves against similar covert influence operations in the future. The companies here today must play a central role as we seek to better protect legitimate political expression, while preventing cyberspace from being misused by our adversaries. " The Russia-linked Twitter handles submitted to the House Intelligence Committee by Twitter can be found here. https://democrats-intelligence.house.gov/hpsci-11-1/hpsci-minority-exhibit-b.htm Members of both committees, Republican, Democrat, and Independent, expressed disappointment that the social media companies represented (Twitter, Google, and Facebook) sent their attorneys, rather than the CEOs coming to the hearings. Politico reported that Senator Mark Warner said Twitter's "actions have not matched their words in terms of grasping the seriousness of the threat ... I'm more than a bit surprised, in light of all the public interest from the subject, that anyone from the Twitter team would think that the presentation made to Senate staff today even began to answer the kinds of questions that we'd asked," he told reporters after the staff briefing. "So there's a lot more work they have to do." The Politico article can be found here. https://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/28/twitter-russia-today-advertisements-243268 Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, said Thursday, November 9, that he is willing to testify to Congress, but that he had not been invited. This is inaccurate - according to Recode, "lawmakers previously and repeatedly called on Dorsey and other tech executives to make the trip to Capitol Hill — and they’ve apparently declined." The Recode article can be found here. https://www.recode.net/2017/11/9/16631230/twitter-jack-dorsey-congress-russia-testify-lawyers-new-york-times-dealbook Bots(?) from the Campaign Season Remain Active on Social Media - Part I - @AmyMek and @LindaSuhler11/6/2017  Amy Mek is a prolific Tweeter. Her account was opened on the morning of November 17, 2012. She has tweeted 45,693 times as of this evening. That means she has Tweeted an average of 25 times per day for the past five years. Her Twitter profile says she is a vegan psychotherapist in New York City. She has more than 199,000 followers, including former national security advisor Michael Flynn, and lots of users with blank profile banners, no faces, and suspiciously bot-like activity. She is a staunch supporter of Donald Trump and the NRA, and an opponent of immigration. Some of the most common words in her recent Tweets, according to the Twitter tracking website foller.me, are “media,” “mulsims,” “terrorist,” “attack,” “slaughtered,” “islamic,” “nyc,” “muslim,” “mueller,” “mosque,” “jihad,” and “fbi.” But Amy Mek may not really exist. In March 2017 Maureen Erwin reported in The San Francisco Examiner that she had been searching for evidence that “Amy” exists. (She didn’t find any.) “Amy” had been quoted in The New York Times in May 2016, before the primary season was over, in an article titled “The Women Who Like Donald Trump.” the article mentions another Twitter star, Linda Suhler, PhD, a molecular biologist who interacts with Amy Mek. She has lots of followers, an averag of 26 tweets per day, grandchildren, and the article suggests that she has made real-life friendships with other Trump-supporting women she has met on Twitter who are on the #TrumpTrain. Neither of these women’s profile pics connect to any other images on Google Reverse Image Search. Neither seem to have a curriculum vitae or other professional identity on the Internet. They do, however, both appear as “experts” on a website, agilience.com, which originates from France, and seems to be a conduit for funneling Internet users toward Internet influencers. “Amy” is listed as an “top authority on Islamic terrorism,” and “Linda” is listed as a “top expert in American politics.” Are these women real? Maybe. Or, perhaps, they are personas created to boost Donald Trump’s popularity among women during the primary and general election seasons. Looking at Amy Mek’s" early Tweets, in the first half of 2013 (a few months after the opened the account was opened). They don’t look very personal. In her early Twitter life, “Amy” may have been a bot. “Linda” began a bit earlier on Twitter, but her activity in the first half of 2013 appears very similar. (No wonder they got to be friends over Trump.) Russian intelligence may have created these accounts long before the 2016 presidential season, used them as automated accounts (or accounts run by employees in a troll farm), and activated them to become content pushers as needed. Alternatively, there may be automated accounts formed by U.S. operatives, which were activated by U.S. Trump supporters when needed for the campaign. It is also possible that these two personas are real people, with professional careers, who have no online presence except as Twitter influencers and experts on a French website. I will update as this story develops. The San Francisco Examiner article can be found here. http://www.sfexaminer.com/searching-proof-amy/ The New York Times opinion article by Emma Roller from 2016 can be found here. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/10/opinion/campaign-stops/the-women-who-like-donald-trump.html?_r=0 Numerous clips from the Twitter accounts of “Amy Mek” and “Linda Suhler” are included below. (Source: Twitter)      Update: Maureen Erwin wrote another article for the San Francisco Examiner, published November 23, addressing the abusive bots on Twitter, particularly "Amy Mek."
http://www.sfexaminer.com/twitter-still-turning-blind-eye-abusive-bots/ Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross Has Previously Undisclosed Financial Ties to Vladimir Putin11/5/2017  The Daily Beast published an article today highlighting leaked information showing that Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, and senior advisor to President Donald Trump, have significant financial ties to companies connected to Russian oligarchs close to Russian president Vladimir Putin. At least some of these ties were not disclosed to the Senate during the confirmation process. The International Consortium of Independent Journalists released a trove of documents, the Paradise Papers, that show close connections between 16 Trump associates and the government of Russia. The Daily Beast article can be found here. https://www.thedailybeast.com/massive-leak-reveals-new-ties-between-trump-administration-and-russia-implicating-commerce-secretary-wilbur-ross-and-jared-kushner The Paradise Papers can be found here. https://www.icij.org/ Wilbur Ross’s Senate confirmation hearing on February 27 can be found here. Ultimately, senators voted to confirm Ross, with 72 voting yea and 27 voting nay. https://www.c-span.org/video/?421257-1/commerce-secretary-nominee-wilbur-ross-testifies-confirmation-hearing&live The results of the Senate vote can be found here. https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=115&session=1&vote=00073 In February, shortly before confirmation, several Senators asked for answers to questions about Ross’s relationships and his work for the Bank of Cyprus. The Guardian reported on February 27: “A group of Democratic senators have been waiting for two weeks for Wilbur Ross, a billionaire investor who has served as vice-chairman of the Bank of Cyprus since 2014, to answer a series of questions about possible links between the bank, Russian officials, and current and former Trump administration and campaign officials. Ross also received a second letter on Friday from Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey with more detailed questions about possible Russia links. But in a speech on Monday night, just before the Senate voted to approve Ross’s nomination as secretary of the commerce department, Senator Bill Nelson of Florida said the White House “has chosen to sit on” a written response by Ross to some of those questions even though Ross told the senator he was eager to release his response.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/27/commerce-nominee-wilbur-ross-bank-of-cyprus-putin A letter by Senator Cory Booker dated February February 24, which voiced concern about Wilbur Ross’s ties to the Bank of Cyprus, can be read here. https://www.booker.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=558  Source: icij.org
 There were three open Congressional hearings this week addressing Russian interference in U.S. social media. Google, Facebook, and Twitter sent lawyers to represent them. Congressional leaders expressed clear dissatisfaction with the lack of company Chief Executive Officers at the hearings, given the seriousness of the issue.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, at Wednesday’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, told the representatives that she doesn’t think they get it. She said she went home disappointed from the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing the day before: https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/meetings/extremist-content-and-russian-disinformation-online-working-with-tech-to-find-solutions While you might not ordinarily think Congressional hearings are riveting television, these three hearings present the information that shows how far the Russian information operation went in an effort to interfere in the U.S. presidential election. It is fascinating to see the scope of the effort to use divisive social issues to confuse, frighten and pit Americans against each other. Disinformation was used on both sides of social issues to create a wedge between fellow citizens. All voters should see what was done to us as a nation. The hearings are linked here. Tuesday, October 31: Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing “Extremist Content and Russian Disinformation Online: Working with Tech to Find Solutions” https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/meetings/extremist-content-and-russian-disinformation-online-working-with-tech-to-find-solutions Wednesday, November 1: Senate intelligence Committee Hearing “Social Media Influence in the 2016 U.S. Elections https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/hearings/open-hearing-social-media-influence-2016-us-elections House Intelligence Committee Hearing “Russia Investigative Task Force Open Hearing with Social Media Companies” Opening statements and prepared testimony can be found here. https://intelligence.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=814 The hearing can be found here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=42c9oMBggIk The many exhibits used in the Senate Intelligence hearing can be accessed at the Senate committee website. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/hearings/open-hearing-social-media-influence-2016-us-elections An article from Wired summarizes the three hearings. https://www.wired.com/story/six-revealing-moments-from-the-second-day-of-russia-hearings/ An article from Engadget contains examples of some of the propaganda released by the Internet Research Agency. https://www.engadget.com/2017/11/01/house-intel-committee-releases-russia-backed-facebook-election-a/ The Hamilton 68 dashboard for tracking social media topics on Twitter, created by Securing Democracy and referenced in the hearings, can be found here. http://dashboard.securingdemocracy.org/ Rebekah, Robert, and Diana Mercer Photo Source: Long Island Business News  Robert Mercer, secretive hedge fund billionaire and owner of Cambridge Analytica, the shadowy data company involved in Brexit and the Trump presidential campaign, is stepping down as CEO of Renaissance Technologies and selling his stake in Breitbart, extreme website that Steve Bannon described as "a platform for the alt-right." Mercer is stepping down for "personal reasons," according to his statement, released today. He is also cutting ties with Milo Yiannopoulos, the provocateur white supremacist and misogynist who served as technology editor of Breitbart for a time. Mercer wrote of Yiannopoulos that he had supported him in the hopes that he would promote free speech: "But in my opinion, actions of and statements by Mr. Yiannopoulos have caused pain and divisiveness undermining the open and productive discourse that I had hoped to facilitate. I was mistaken to have supported him, and for several weeks have been in the process of severing all ties with him." Mercer's actions may be related to the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence hearings, and the House Intelligence hearing, this week regarding social media and the 2016 election. Cambridge Analytica and Facebook worked together with the Trump campaign to target American voters based on data gathered in ways that have yet to be fully explained. Mercer's statement can be read below. A clip from a BBC program about the 2016 presidential election, called "Secrets of Silicon Valley," can be accessed below as well.  Photo source: BBC
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