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Bill Browder's prepared statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee - must read

I don't see how anyone (r) or (d) can read this and not have a lot of questions about why Trump is so adament on lifting Russian sanctions.

Either he's an idiot and doesn't know what he's trying to do, or he's in on it.

Someone in the thread mentioned how Trump and Kushner's family business could merely be laundering Russian money. It makes sense considering Manafort and his Russian mob pals living in his building. If that's the case, then it makes finding a smoking collusion gun less plausible because his whole business would be collusion. The specific act of releasing the emails would be small potatoes (and wouldn't require a specific order if they were already colluding) if Trump is laundering hundreds of millions or billions of dollars.

The line of questioning about if they could find this from "tax returns" means they are already assuming Trump is tied into this more than they've let on publicly. I don't remember if they mentioned Trump but asking about "tax returns" definitely alludes to that imo.

What if we don't find any specific collusion as far as Hillary emails go but instead we found out 90% of his worth is Russian money or something? That would be a huge blow. Another thing is could a treason case be made for working with someone who should have been registered under FARA but neglected to do so?
 

paskowitz

Member
Even though it is different contextually, I feel like this is the deepthroat moment for this saga. It's not the nail in the coffin but it is the moment all the pieces on the board start to come into focus.
 

Dom Brunt

Member
So this thread just died, huh? I must echo the other posters saying this needs a title change and some info in the OP, why is this getting buried ffs.

I'm gonna go watch the testimony now, I'm getting shivers just thinking about it lol.
 

rudger

Member
Glad I took the time to watch the hearing. Fascinating and frightening. Doing my part bumping the story. This guy minces no words.
 
Citizen's United was worse than we ever imagined. It's completely opened us up to foreign influence. And like everything else, it all comes down to money. It's strange it's all coming to a head now though. Putin played the game so well, did Donald Trump really screw the pooch this much?

If Putin's real goal is just to get access to his money and not to just throw the west into chaos, then he's actually screwed up really big here.

This is legitimately terrifying... how compromised is the US government at this point? I can't believe what I just read... that testimony is scary
 
I watched the opening statement. Wow!
Please understand there is a lot going on here and a lot of names I may not remember or connect.
So this is tied to Trump how?
 
I watched the opening statement. Wow!
Please understand there is a lot going on here and a lot of names I may not remember or connect.
So this is tied to Trump how?
One of the Russian lawyers that works for Putin to try and lobby to overturn the Maginistky Act was one of the people that was at that one meeting with Don Jr. where they were offering him collusion in the election most likely in return for repealing the Act.
 
Powerful read. Please tell me there's a money trail that connects Trump to this. It won't surprise me, but that's the smoking gun. Of course, there's so much smoke in the air at this point that who can tell there's even a gun present?
 

androvsky

Member
Ok that's what I figured. Holy shit! This is big.
Thanks!
Also, Trump said he talked adoptions with Putin when he talked to him alone at the G20 dinner. Since stopping adoptions of Russian children was Putin's response to the Magnitsky Act, that basically means they were talking about the Magnitsky Act at some level. Without even a U.S. translator as a witness, and no record of the conversation.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/t...closed-meeting-at-g-20-summit/article/2629180
 

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
Someone in the thread mentioned how Trump and Kushner's family business could merely be laundering Russian money. It makes sense considering Manafort and his Russian mob pals living in his building. If that's the case, then it makes finding a smoking collusion gun less plausible because his whole business would be collusion. The specific act of releasing the emails would be small potatoes (and wouldn't require a specific order if they were already colluding) if Trump is laundering hundreds of millions or billions of dollars.

The line of questioning about if they could find this from "tax returns" means they are already assuming Trump is tied into this more than they've let on publicly. I don't remember if they mentioned Trump but asking about "tax returns" definitely alludes to that imo.

What if we don't find any specific collusion as far as Hillary emails go but instead we found out 90% of his worth is Russian money or something? That would be a huge blow. Another thing is could a treason case be made for working with someone who should have been registered under FARA but neglected to do so?


There's basically zero doubt that his financial records contain something that Trump himself is more scared of than being proven a traitor. He's made that pretty clear. My guess is that he's basically underwater with debt and a lot of it Russian and Deutschebank. Probably some bank of Cyprus horror in there too.
 

weekev

Banned
Someone in the thread mentioned how Trump and Kushner's family business could merely be laundering Russian money. It makes sense considering Manafort and his Russian mob pals living in his building. If that's the case, then it makes finding a smoking collusion gun less plausible because his whole business would be collusion. The specific act of releasing the emails would be small potatoes (and wouldn't require a specific order if they were already colluding) if Trump is laundering hundreds of millions or billions of dollars.

The line of questioning about if they could find this from "tax returns" means they are already assuming Trump is tied into this more than they've let on publicly. I don't remember if they mentioned Trump but asking about "tax returns" definitely alludes to that imo.

What if we don't find any specific collusion as far as Hillary emails go but instead we found out 90% of his worth is Russian money or something? That would be a huge blow. Another thing is could a treason case be made for working with someone who should have been registered under FARA but neglected to do so?
Could they use the defence that because these people didn't register under FARA that they didn't know of their ties to the Russian government?

Is it wrong that the more I hear about this the more I'm thinking this is gonna be a helluva trilogy?
 

weekev

Banned
Wtf at this thread being so slow, please can we edit the thread title to something more attention grabbing? Everyone should read the article.
Edit something like "Bill Browder details rabbit hole of Russian corruption -must read"
 
Heh, this came up in my YouTube suggestions - Russian state-sponsored channel trying to paint Browder as a tax-evading bigot.

cRx8KO.jpg


Note that the 'tax evasion' they're accusing him of (and for which he was convicted in absentia in Moscow) is actually the 230 million USD worth of taxes corrupt Russian officials embezzled using registrations and assets illegally seized from his Browder's companies in violent police raids (a very Russian phenomenon known as reiderstvo, basically state-sanctioned corporate raiding.)

It's not enough to charge him with a fake crime, it had to be one of the crimes he was blowing the whistle on. Fuckers love their irony.
 

McLovin

Member
Holy shit thats almost to crazy to believe, but now that meeting that Donald Jr. and Jared had with that Russian lawyer makes a lot more sense. It was never about adoptions it was about getting that Magnitsky Act repealed.
 
45:19: No one was talking about "adoptions".

You wouldn't need the GOP candidate's campaign manager, son and son-in-law/senior adviser in a meeting with some lobbyists about the plight of Russian orphans. If you take such a meeting at all, you don't need a high-level delegation there. Note that all these important and busy people (Kushner, Manafort and Don Jr.) were all happy to move the meeting up an hour at the request of these lobbyists.

But anyway, that ship sailed long ago - after being caught in the adoptions lie, Don Jr. switched the narrative to getting opposition research on Hilary Clinton. Last I checked, Kushner claimed complete ignorance about why he was in the meeting at all (despite being able to accommodate the rescheduling without complaint.)

What makes Browder's testimony so important is that it underlines and explains the obsession of the Putin regime with the Magnitsky sanctions... chances are every meeting between the numerous Trump people and their Russian contacts involved this topic. Time will tell.

1:01:50: Rohrabacher (holy shit).

Yeah,Dana Rohrabacher (a possible Russian agent of influence) and his office have happily trampled all over the memory of Sergei Magnitsky, US interests and common decency. Daily Beast had a good exposé on it. Some quotes:

An email reviewed by The Daily Beast shows that before that June 14 hearing, Rohrabacher’s staff received pro-Kremlin briefings against Browder, once Russia’s biggest foreign investor, and his tax attorney Sergei Magnitsky from a lawyer who was working with Veselnitskaya.

Although House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) had prohibited Rohrabacher from showing the Russian propaganda film in Congress, Rohrabacher’s Capitol Hill office still actively promoted a screening of the movie that was held at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., on June 13, 2016. Veselnitskaya was one of those handling the movie’s worldwide promotion.

Invitations to attend the movie screening were sent from the subcommittee office by Catharine O’Neill, a Republican intern on Rohrabacher’s committee. Her email promised that the movie would convince viewers that Magnitsky, who was murdered in a Russian prison cell, was no hero.

O’Neill was appointed by Trump to the State Department’s Office of the Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights. She must be fighting hard for the right of kleptocratic regimes to beat sick whistleblowers to death in prison.
 

SeeThree

Member
45:19: No one was talking about "adoptions".

1:01:50: Rohrabacher (holy shit)

That "adoptions" part is one of the best bits.
"They were talking about the repeal of sanctions so that Russian torturers and murderers could freely travel and keep their money in America."

https://youtu.be/S-RsAGjUXtg?t=2663
/\-- Watch this shit.

Fuckin comedy gold that Fox news and other conservative media is pointing to this testimony as a defense for Trump. If your a friend of Trump you want this shit buried not draw more attention to it.
 

SomTervo

Member
Heh, this came up in my YouTube suggestions - Russian state-sponsored channel trying to paint Browder as a tax-evading bigot.

Clipboard01_zpsipmjvfht.jpg


Note that the 'tax evasion' they're accusing him of (and for which he was convicted in absentia in Moscow) is actually the 230 million USD worth of taxes corrupt Russian officials embezzled using registrations and assets illegally seized from his Browder's companies in violent police raids (a very Russian phenomenon known as reiderstvo, basically state-sanctioned corporate raiding.)

It's not enough to charge him with a fake crime, it had to be one of the crimes he was blowing the whistle on. Fuckers love their irony.

Image is broken I think, pal
 
Just keeping this on the front page in hopes that more people click. Crazy how much this is being overshadowed by the daily clown show that is the President's mouth/twitter account, and the stooges at the White House. This is probably the clearest account to date of one piece of what can be perceived to be the big picture. Makes you wonder what the team investigating the whole thing actually knows.
 
Just keeping this on the front page in hopes that more people click. Crazy how much this is being overshadowed by the daily clown show that is the President's mouth/twitter account, and the stooges at the White House. This is probably the clearest account to date of one piece of what can be perceived to be the big picture. Makes you wonder what the team investigating the whole thing actually knows.

I bet it's a lot worse than we think. The statement only shows a picture of something much greater than we know.
 

enzo_gt

tagged by Blackace
This is crazy, I was supposed to go to sleep an hour ago but can't stop watching this testimony.

Browder is pretty good at communicating TBH.
 
One thing I hope is that Mueller already knew all this information. Like I hope the investigation didn't find out about all this information from C-Span.

This is a must watch by everyone, thread title should really focus in on the severity of the revelations.

I'm like in complete awe at all this. How is Trump still in power after all this? The corruption and the links to Russia is so clear and evident.

Edit: this man is a god damn hero.
 
I just don't know how you make this stuff stick with a particular demographic.

They'll always be convinced this is "fake news" and then immediately turn the question to "What about Hillary?" or "Obama's an even bigger crook."
 
I just don't know how you make this stuff stick with a particular demographic.

They'll always be convinced this is "fake news" and then immediately turn the question to "What about Hillary?" or "Obama's an even bigger crook."

That's the thing, we're in a battle of ultranationalism/fascism and apathy.

People willing to die for despicable brave new world/Orwellian/1984 shit, to the point of many of them literally being fascists. Most of these people are also just a bunch of rich assholes that want to keep making themselves rich while oppressing everyone else.

Now it sounds like so much of the government is compromised by Russian interference, I couldn't even write a better spy novel.

like the first 25 minutes is completely damning.
 

Jaeyden

Member
Wtf at this thread being so slow, please can we edit the thread title to something more attention grabbing? Everyone should read the article.
Edit something like "Bill Browder details rabbit hole of Russian corruption -must read"

Confirmed mods are Russian trolls :p Title change has only been requested like 25 times now.

On a serious note though I echo your concern with must absorb info. This testimony is mind blowing and it's shockingly weird that this thread hasn't been the biggest thing in OT considering how ravenous everyone is with the investigation.
 

dofry

That's "Dr." dofry to you.
I messaged a mod yesterday for title and OP update but maybe they haven't read it yet. So barebones and only "must read" tells nothing. Who is Browder, why should one read this? It was fascinating but god damn that OP is bad as hell.
 
I just finished... What happened to Sergei is quite literally one or my worst nightmares. Knowing that what you are doing is right, holding out for hope but having the whole institution be so corrupt that there's no hope.

This article was something else.
 
I read through the whole Steele Dossier with the idea that Russia also bankrolled it. All of the sudden what it does say and what it doesn't say is more interesting. The vague dates and certain names being kept anonymous, no mention of the meeting at Trump tower. The Trump Jr. meeting matches up with the timeline of what source D says regarding the Trump campaign receiving "very helpful" information in June 2016. Is source D Goldstone or Agalarov? It looks like this is actually being reported:

http://washingtonmonthly.com/2017/07/18/trumps-buddy-aras-agalarov-in-the-steele-dossier/

Then we have Grassley requesting every documented interaction between Trump and the names in the dossier:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3897968-2017-07-19-CEG-DF-to-Donald-Trump-Jr-Document.html

So it's very obvious parts of the dossier have been corroborated. Grassley even mentioned Akhmetshin back in April relating to Fusion Gps:

https://www.grassley.senate.gov/new...ation-fbi’s-inconsistent-info-dossier-inquiry

If the Trump Jr. and Russia meeting was news to this committee and they were already looking at Akhmetshin then WTF is going on? Trump's team has been trying to say this is all the work of the democrats and to tie the Magnitsky repeal and the Dossier together for that purpose. This is suspect to me because if that was the case they would have been upfront about this meeting occurring in the first place.

With the knowledge that Russia funded both the Dossier and gave intelligence to the Trump campaign then it's even more obvious they're playing both sides. Probably trying to force Trump to make moves in their favor by insuring there's a Russian "cloud" over him his entire presidency.
 
I don't really have anything to add to this thread, but I'll have to agree that it's a very good testimony and many people should read/watch it.
 
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