[View here as a Twitter thread]
Trump and Manafort are not the top of the international criminal enterprise. In a 1-27-2011 lecture—given while Mueller was FBI director—he talked about a new kind of organized crime threatening the US.
https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/speeches/the-evolving-organized-crime-threat
1/ Today’s mobsters have gone international. Their organizations are fluid, with global reach. They are the “iron triangles” consisting of (1) organized criminals (2) corrupt government official, and (3) business leaders. And they pose a signifiant security threat.
2/ Among other things, they’re cornering the international market on natural gas & oil. They infiltrate US businesses, and try to manipulate people at the highest levels of government. Motivated by greed, they sell to the highest bidder and will stop at nothing to make money.
3/ Mueller explained that by 2011, the FBI was developing a long-term strategy for dismantling these enterprises, including Threat Focus Cells to target mobsters like Semion Mogilevich—who he said was on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list.
4/ Mogilevich— “Russia’s top crime boss”—has ties to Trump Tower. Mogilevich’s operative David Bogatin bought 5 condos in Trump Tower for $6 million cash. 1,300 Trump-branded condos were sold in all cash purchases to anonymous shell companies. (From Just Security)
5/ Russian oligarchs are Manafort’s buddies and clients. Yesterday’s guilty plea was about Konstantin Kilimnik twitter.com/Teri_Kanefield… Yale scholar Snyder (in what I believe is the best book written about TrumpRussia) explains that when Trump failed as a businessman. . .
6/ . . . he was rescued by Russian money in the form of cash purchases and licenses for which Trump had to do nothing. Even when Trump failed as a businessman in these ventures he still made money—and he thought he was winning. He wasn’t. Russia was buying him.
7/ We’ve seen Trump unleash his ire against particular FBI agents, like Bruch Ohr, who are the very agents specializing in dismantling the Russian international crime enterprise and bringing down folks like Semion Mogilevich. Coincidence? Of course not
8/ Christopher Steele said that by 2013, he’d seen evidence that “all criminal roads led to Trump Tower.” He also said that the Republicans were “Trying to take down the whole intelligence community—and they’re using me as a battering ram to do it.”
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/12/christopher-steele-the-man-behind-the-trump-dossier
9/ I’ve written about how our current Constitution Crisis hinges on Congress’s failure to act as a check against presidential power twitter.com/Teri_Kanefield… We’ve all noticed that folks like Rand Paul, Nunes, etc, have unusually close ties and sympathies to Russia and Russians.
10/ If you’re wondering why so many Americans (including many of the folks at Fox) prefer Russian oligarchy to a Constitutional republic, consider this: Russia is white majority, racist, and homophobic. For more on the appeal of Putin’s brand of fascism
(Thread) Fox News is reportedly pushing Russia as our ally👇
If that shocks you, have a seat.
Spoiler: If forced to choose between living under Putin and or in a society with whites in the minority, many MAGA people will chose Putin. In a heartbeat.https://t.co/rbdsnm9dNm
— Teri Kanefield (@Teri_Kanefield) July 20, 2018
11/ The Mueller probe is targeting something bigger (and more dangerous) than Trump and Manafort. What’s at stake—in the probe and the midterms—is whether US remains a constitutional republic (liberal democracy) or whether the Russian infiltration of the US government succeeds.
