Saturday, January 19, 2019

BuzzFeed's Story (Not Correction Per Se): S/C Mueller Disputes Description of Some Elements

Trump-Cohen Head-to-Head & Miles Apart Re: Lies
(Facts-R-Facts Regardless of Who Holds 
the Proof & Evidence)

Stunning Update (after below post was published) with this headline from the Boston Globe with Washington Post input:

“Robert Mueller’s office did not know extent of BuzzFeed’s allegations” 

All of the following is related to the BuzzFeed story now disputed at least in part by the Mueller team: Take your pick from these Top stories re: Trump's plan and scheme to build Moscow Trump Tower:




Mueller’s office official one-sentence statement

Related story from USA Today:

WASHINGTON – Members of Trump's campaign and transition team had more than 100 contacts with Russian-linked officials, according to an analysis by the Center for American Progress (CAP) think tank and its Moscow Project.

They used publicly available court documents and reporting to tally up the number of contacts with Russian-linked officials, which includes those with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and others tied to Russian intelligence, banks, and politicians. 

The organizations counted each meeting and message as a separate contact.


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Today’s post starts here:

WASHINGTON — A business associate of Donald J. Trump promised in 2015 to engineer a real estate deal with the aid of Russia and Vladimir Putin that would help Trump win the presidency (see Sater E-mail extract below). That associate of Trump, *Felix Sater (see below), wrote a series of E-mails to Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, in which he boasted about his ties to Putin.

Sater predicted that building a Trump Tower in Moscow would highlight Trump’s savvy negotiating skills and be a political boon to his candidacy.

A key portion of Sater’s E-mail to Michael Cohen
(November 3, 2015)

This one shows that from the earliest months of Trump’s 2016 campaign that some of his associates viewed close ties with Moscow as a political advantage. It’s those ties that are now under investigation by the DOJ, Mueller, and multiple congressional committees.

My 2 cents: So, who is *Felix Sater, really? 

Some interesting background on him and Trump here from The Nation, September 8, 2017, in part:

Every time someone asks Donald Trump if he knows Felix Sater, his Russian-born, Brooklyn-bred former business associate, Trump draws a blank.

Despite the fact that Sater worked on and off for a decade with the Trump Organization, and despite his recent headline-making appearance as an exuberant negotiator on behalf of Trump’s hard-nosed attorney, Michael Cohen, in seeking to build a “massive Trump Tower in Moscow” last year, Trump ducks.

FYI: Trump in a deposition involving Sater in 2013 said: I mean, I’ve seen him a couple of times; I have met him. If he were sitting in the room right now, I really wouldn’t know what he looked like.”

The New York Times reported Trump saying as late as 2015, when asked about Sater, as he hemmed and hawed: “Boy, I have to even think about it.”

On that last possibility: It’s no wonder that Trump, especially now that he’s under investigation over his ties to Russia and its meddling in the 2016 election, would respond to questions about Sater by saying: “Sater, who’s he?” (sic)

This Felix Sater, Mr. Trump. “The mob-linked operator and ex-con” – yeah that Felix Sater, Mr. Trump – that’s who…!!!

My final thoughts: Journalists/reporters/editors/authors all have a special and unique way of writing (their style) about their stories, news, articles, and such. 

Likewise, investigators (e.g., law enforcement officials (FBI, CIA, et al), prosecutors, and special or independent counsels) have a certain style, too for their final official reports. 

Therein might lie one part the dispute about certain descriptions being inaccurate as reported on by BuzzFeed about Cohen and the Mueller report, etc., but I can't be sure. However, one way or the other we will know soon I am sure of that part of this story. 

So, stay tuned – the next chapter is still in draft form.

Thanks for stopping by.


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