Posted on 11/30/2018 1:25:10 PM PST by SeekAndFind
C’mon now. If you can’t bribe Vladimir Putin, who can you bribe?
“If true, this story further underscores the need to finish the Committee’s counterintelligence investigation to determine what, if any, financial leverage the Russians may hold over President Trump and the Trump Organization, and what Trump may have hoped to gain by any financial offer to Putin,” Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the committee, said in a statement to BuzzFeed News Thursday evening…
[Dem Rep. Joaquin] Castro also said he believed the plan could have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. “If this was an attempt to speed up the project or secure the project and make sure it got done, it could amount to bribery for an official of a foreign government and anyone who was part of that could be in violation of this federal statute,” he said…
“We’re way beyond bribery,” [Dem Rep. Eric Swalwell] added. “If a candidate for president is offering a foreign adversary a $50 million gift while that adversary through his own backchannels is offering support of the campaign, that’s betrayal at the highest level; that’s conspiracy.
Yeah, the FCPA. What about that? I didn’t mention it in last night’s post but there is in fact a federal law that makes it illegal to promise to give “gifts” (i.e. bribes) to foreign officials in exchange for favors. Note: You don’t have to actually make the gift. Merely a promise to make it is enough. The fact that Trump Tower Moscow ended up not being built might not prevent prosecution on these grounds.
It shall be unlawful for any person … while in the territory of the United States, corruptly to make use of the mails or any means or instrumentality of interstate commerce or to do any other act in furtherance of an offer, payment, promise to pay, or authorization of the payment of any money, or offer, gift, promise to give, or authorization of the giving of anything of value to—
(1) any foreign official for purposes of—…
(B) inducing such foreign official to use his influence with a foreign government or instrumentality thereof to affect or influence any act or decision of such government or instrumentality,
in order to assist such person in obtaining or retaining business for or with, or directing business to, any person;
Trouble for Trump? Well, BuzzFeed’s story last night noted that it’s “not clear” whether Trump himself knew of the apartment offer. The idea was hatched by Michael Cohen and Felix Sater and, per BuzzFeed’s sources, allegedly advanced to the point that Cohen discussed it with an aide to Putin’s press secretary, Dmitri Peskov. Cohen was talking to Trump in 2016 about the Moscow project, but there’s no evidence right now that he specifically mentioned the possibility of a free luxury apartment for Putin to him.
But would Cohen have offered a $50 million bribe to the president of Russia without running it past his boss?
Another statute for you:
If two or more persons conspire … to commit any offense against the United States … and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
If Trump authorized the offer, in theory he could be prosecuted for conspiracy to commit bribery of a foreign official under the FCPA by dint of Cohen’s chat with Peskov. There’s a wrinkle, though. According to BuzzFeed’s interview with Sater, the idea of giving Putin an apartment wasn’t as a quid pro quo for his help in getting the project approved. It was to try to attract Russian oligarchs to rent apartments in the building. Knowing that they could use their proximity to their neighbor Vladimir to curry favor might have made Trump Tower Moscow a hot commodity to the ultrarich. If it could be proved that the offer of a gift/bribe to Putin was made for the purpose of drumming up business, not for the purpose of getting Putin to lean on Moscow officials to approve the development, then it might not be illegal under the FCPA.
But what are the odds that Cohen floated this idea to Peskov’s aide and didn’t mention anything about Putin helping them out? In fact, the information filed in court yesterday by Mueller specifically says that Cohen “requested assistance in moving the project forward, both in securing land to build the proposed tower and financing the construction,” in his chat with the aide.
One other point. There’s been lots of chatter in the last 24 hours, including from me, about the financial leverage that the Trump Tower deal momentarily gave Russia over Trump. Until the deal was dead, he had reason to stay on Putin’s good side and at least consider complying with any “requests” made of him. Conor Friedersdorf makes a good point, though: Russia’s leverage didn’t evaporate the moment that the deal did. Anything illegal that may have occurred as part of the negotiations to which the Russians were privy — like, say, a bribe offered by the president’s lawyer — would also be leverage as potential blackmail material. As Friedersdorf notes, the Russians would have known after Cohen’s false testimony to Congress that he had lied under oath about how late the Moscow deal was being worked on, which would also be potential kompromat.
The federal government takes that seriously enough to oust people from high positions because of it. Remember, what triggered Mike Flynn’s ouster as NSA was Sally Yates recognizing that he had misled the White House about his sanctions discussions with the Russian ambassador and that the Russians obviously knew it. They could have blackmailed Flynn by threatening to expose the lie if he didn’t comply with their agenda. Now we have a similar case involving the president’s lawyer, who in 2016 was talking about a deal that may have involved criminal activity with the soon-to-be president himself. What did Cohen tell Trump about it? That’s what Democrats are going to dig into.
Exit question: Did Cohen (and Trump?) really think Putin would accept this gift? Lord knows the man’s not above bribery, but think of the security risks.
Seriously? Putin has a $1bn estate on the Black Sea – and that’s just one of them. Anyways, the Federal Protection Service won’t let him anywhere near an elevator, let alone share a residence with absolutely anyone. Are these people really so dumb? https://t.co/SLchkE1tnu
— Alexey Kovalev (@Alexey__Kovalev) November 29, 2018
If only he set up a foundation...
Were it not so danged evil I’d love to be listening to meetings with Pelosi, Hank Johnson, Waters, him and a dozen others in the smokey back rooms. Probably comedy gold.
I think the media made up that tale about the Penthouse for Putin. Don’t think it’s Putin’s style.
Statists know nothing about private sector marketing.
And we’ll get to HilLIARy running an illegal mail server and treating classified documents like toilet paper (literally keeping them on a server IN HER BATHROOM) any day right after that.
Oh and her corrupt Clinton Foundation $millions for bribes.
But Schiff doesn’t want to look into millions that Russians paid for Clinton speeches...
He did.
Allahshit distributing his NeverTrump haterade again I see.
So, was Michael Cohen lying then or now or both?
Putin is laughing his ass off.
Why do I get the feeling they’re barking up the wrong tree?
Come the revolution, Adam Schitt is among those who had best worry about their future.
Schiff-4-brains needs to sit down.
Dems fighting for every inch. Meanwhile, the Senate GOP intel committee is colluding with the Mueller Coup. With “friends” like that...
But this Trump Russia was not on track and appears to have been a passing fancy.
Regardless, remember that the Obama administration hid what they knew about Russian meddling and instead planted moles within his campaign...to protect him, said Clapper.
BFD.
5.56mm
Exactly. Giving away a $50mm apt would lead to scores of rich folks wanting to be there. The chance to bump into Putin on the elevator or lobby. This would have cost Trump nothing.
But it never happened. What is there to investigate?
Before he was president?
Lets stop posting this Gope Liar Trump hate here .
This crap needs to be Zapped .
Gee if only they were this concerned with the Clinton Foundation..I know I know..when Democrats commit fraud its all good cause they are Dems
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