Holy CRAP, Trump's Inauguration Heist runs DEEP. They squeezed every drop of blood from the turnip.

[Miles Archer]

Global grift: Inauguration probe may uncover evidence could bring down Trump — and his family business

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/12/global-grift-inauguration-probe-may-uncover-evidence-bring-trump-family-business/

This week, The Wall Street Journal reported ($) that federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating the financing of Trump’s inauguration, a subject that has long been of interest here at What Fresh Hell? You may recall that Trump and his minions blew off the contribution limits their predecessors had established and raked in more than twice as much in donations for his inauguration as the Obamas had raised for theirs in 2009, and yet it seemed that they cut corners wherever they could and the day’s events were widely seen as cheap and lame.

We knew that an old friend of Melania’s had started a company “only weeks before the inauguration” that would ultimately pull down $26 million for “event planning.” And this week, ProPublica reported that Trump was himself raking in an unknown share of this inaugural bounty by charging premium prices for “rooms, meals and event space at [his] company’s Washington hotel.” Emails obtained by ProPublica show that some involved in the process expressed concern that over-charging for the facilities could run afoul of the law, but in the end they went with the age-old adage that when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal. The New York Times reported that investigators are now looking into whether foreign funds made it into the pot (of course they did) and also into whether those dollars ended up influencing policy (hard to prove, but almost certainly ditto). Two years later, and more than a third of that huge inauguration haul remains unaccounted for, according to ProPublica.

The Washington Post reported this week that lobbyists representing the Saudi government “reserved blocks of rooms at President Trump’s Washington, D.C., hotel within a month of Trump’s election in 2016.” The lobbyists paid in advance for 500 nights at the hotel over a three-month period, and then used the rooms for “an unorthodox campaign that offered U.S. military veterans a free trip to Washington — then sent them to Capitol Hill to lobby against a law the Saudis opposed.” And Erin Banco reported this week for The Daily Beast that “in court filings that are set to drop in early 2019, prosecutors will begin to unveil Middle Eastern countries’ attempts to influence American politics.” That’s all in addition to Michael Flynn’s work for the Turkish government, an alleged scheme to use Israeli intelligence firms to manipulate social media during the election, Qatari efforts to counter the influence campaign undertaken by Saudi Arabia and UAE and of course all of those furtive contacts with Russian officials and spooks.

Until this week, the mystery surrounding Trump’s massive inauguration fund had been lost in the daily maelstrom of news coming out of this regime. That’s also true of the millions of dollars Michael Cohen charged companies to secure access to Trump in the months following his election, alleged fraud surrounding Trump’s “charity” and longstanding charges that the Trump organization engaged in massive and long-running money-laundering schemes. It’s easy to forget just how many strings federal prosecutors are pulling on. This may prove to be a defining period in our history, even if that’s not always readily apparent.

[ProudLib72]

1. Meh, I'm sure Mel needed $26 million for her "kidney" operation

Among other things.

Why do we learn about this grifting two years in? Where is the transparency? Where is the oversight? Who the fuck is actually in charge of our government?

[PCIntern]

2. doesn't she look happy in that photo...

Jeez. She's either depressed, scared, or the Botox was grossly overused.

[ProudLib72]

4. Looks to me like she's staring off into space

Probably considering all the goodies she can buy with her $26 million in grift money.

If Rump got on Faux Nooze and announced that he had played the country for the rubes they really are just so he could make a buck and never do any real work, do you think they would believe him?

[erronis]

7. Oh, yeah. They'd believe him (Rump) an love him all the more. nt

[Rob H.]

41. Downloading a software update

[worstexever]

10. Stepford Wife

She always looks like a squinty eyed automaton.

[lark]

20. Yes, except when she's looking at Vlad, then she looks adoring and ecstatic to see him.

I've seen this now in a number of different pictures, and it's always the same look. This isn't one you ever see her casting at hubby, then it's sour, distressed, and generally angry looking.

[worstexever]

22. I agree

I saw a photo of her looking at Vlad and thought to myself I've never seen her look at Donnie like that. But then she looked more cheerful with President Obama than I've ever seen her look with Donnie. I guess it's true, if you marry for money you earn every penny...or something like that.

[brush]

47. There's also a photo out there of her actually leaning in to Macron.

Their faces were only inches apart and she had the look the czarina has when she sees Trudeau.

[COLGATE4]

28. I'm going with the Botox nt

[NBachers]

37. I'm going with a malevolent worm that was hacked into her operating system.

If she ever gets loose with her destructo-mode activated, they're all in trouble.

[COLGATE4]

39. That'll work, too!

[Pachamama]

26. Grifters will Grift - Cons will Con

Its what they do best and what they know well....

Each of those big kidneys cost at least $12MM apparently....



I can't wait to see where all the money went and Ivanka and Melania's role in this one....

[Bernardo de La Paz]

30. I think if press asked her "How are your kidneys?" she'd say "what?" & have forgotten cover story.nt

[dlk]

31. The Watchdogs Have Been Put to Sleep

[Volaris]

34. Vladimir Putin (for about another month), and then it will be Madame Speaker.

[ProudLib72]

35. Nancy versus the GOP

Sounds like a zombie movie to me.

[TheBlackAdder]

42. I'm almost positive she was going to divorce his ass after the election loss, but shit happened.

.

Now she's trapped.

.

[calimary]

49. If you'll recall, on Election Night she was CLEARLY dressed for Palm Beach.

You don’t wear slinky one-shoulder lounging pajamas to meet a televised Election Night crowd if your husband won (and you were expecting a win). That outfit screamed poolside parties with lots of waiters and fancy drinks and lounge chairs and many fancy ladies in slinky skimpy designer resort-wear. NOT someone who knows her next step is setting up an office with credible spokespeople and a press secretary and serious advisers to push a First Lady-level pet cause into the public arena. She didn’t have a pet cause she’d already espoused years earlier that she would now be able to promote from that high a public position. I suspect she never expected to need one, which is probably why it took her so long to come up with the pathetic “Be Best.”

Look at every First Lady-elect we’ve ever seen. All dressed in modest and tasteful business-wear on Election Nights Past. Usually skirted suits, or blazer-over-respectable-dress, although Hillary had set a new and stylish update: a professional woman’s elegant and tasteful pantsuit style. The slinky one-shoulder, skin-baring, figure-hugging stuff doesn’t get rolled out til the night of Inaugural Balls.

That suit Hillary wore for the first primary debate made me salivate. I’d wear that ANY day to ANY professional meeting or event. She was, and remains, appropriately dressed throughout, for her age and her position. Melania looked like a floozy that night. Either that, or a “kept woman”...

[Achilleaze]

3. republican grifters are a national disgrace

The whole stinking party is out for filthy lucre.

[erronis]

9. No need to append any other adjectives to "republican". They are by definition:

- grifters
- traitors
- compromised (kompromat)
- anti-christian
- anti-family values
- adulterers
- failed insect exterminators
- mediocre used car salesmen
- great supporters of douches and bags
- tax evaders and proponents of more loop-holes
- shifty-eyed
- unable to engage in a real conversation about their beliefs
- love trips to the USSR and maybe a chance to touch a statue of putin
- perverts but adamantly against other people having choice
- anti-choice except when it involves them
- gun-toting members of the russian arms association
- liars by default
- want to spend more time with family when all else fails

[Duppers]

23. Yes, ALL of them. nt

[Wellstone ruled]

5. This whole Middle East thing is

appears to involve just more than the Saudi's. The one thing that has been suppressed is Flynn's and others Wealth building project involving twenty Nuke Power Plants. My guess is,this has tentacles running all over the Glob as well some power brokers in DC.

Now with Zinke bailing,and all the bruhaha happening in Utah of Mining Rights,maybe we might get a look at the real players.

[C_U_L8R]

6. What a troupe of clowns

[MyOwnPeace]

16. Only........

the"best" and the "brightest!"

[lostnfound]

8. Wonder if that same friend selected the red christmas trees. Nt

[vlyons]

11. and how much of the $26M did Melania's friend kick back to her?

nt

[redstatebluegirl]

14. I have often thought that is how he paid her to stay.

[vlyons]

15. You have to know that little Mrs Gold-digger

has been secretly squirreling away money in off-shore accounts for years.

[Cha]

12. The Shite Filled Grifters. I hate Grifters.

[smirkymonkey]

13. K&R

[SMC22307]

17. God bless ProPublica. I mean, between exposing white supremacists...

Last edited Sat Dec 15, 2018, 04:44 PM - Edit history (1)

and this corrupt Drumpf klan and whatever else... THIS is journalism.

[moonscape]

25. Indeed. They were the 1st donation

I made after 2016 catastrophe.

[SMC22307]

29. Money well spent! (n/t)

[dalton99a]

45. +1

[liberal N proud]

18. There is evidence upon evidence on multitude of crimes

Yet this criminal klan remains in office wreaking further damage to our democracy.

👞

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

19. Well, gotta say...

Individual #1 may indeed “drain the swamp”. Not intentionally, not because of policy, because he and family are just really, really bad criminals.

[LiberalLovinLug]

21. Look at Melania's face. Priceless.

[FakeNoose]

27. Or maybe it's this one

[BlancheSplanchnik]

44. Ugh...skeeevy. How can anyone stand to be in physical contact????

The slime will get on you.

[sarcasmo]

24. Klan of the grift.

[Stuart G]

32. Every drop may have been squeezed, but those drops remain, and have turned to poison.

It is lethal poison, and the poison has reproduced itself, over and over. The poison has a Mueller touch, and soon to be, NY State touch, and it keeps growing and growing.
...It appears from a distance that the poison will take down Trump and most of his gang. There are 3 real questions..1) How much of the gang will go down..some are already down. and 2) when will the take down happen..Note: it is not if, but when 3) How will the take down happen? Will it be arrests? charges? lawsuits against the gang? legal challenges. etc.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

46. That's not poison, it's medicine! :)

[Loubee]

33. While the media covered the whole thing like a royal wedding.

[KPN]

36. And keep in mind, this was just the very START

of his illegitimate presidency. Under this grifter, America was, is and has been for sale including it’s resources, policies foreign and domestic, high level government jobs and ultimately the welfare of the American people — us — to the highest bidder from the outset.

We cannot let this thug and his goons go unpunished for the damage they have done to our country, our people, our environment, and our standing internationally.

[StarryNite]

38. When did the new house of wax museum open?

[apkhgp]

40. Follow the money, follow the money

Forensic Accountants can look at the path that money travels in different financial transactions. With 45 however there are millions of them done by front or shell companies. The accountant has to look through a confusing mess of company books. This is how 45 has disguised all of the criminal activity he has been involved in. I am crossing my fingers that the Special Prosecutor finds them all and puts the asshole away into an orange jumpsuit( the same color as his hair).

[quakerboy]

43. I'm betting this was not grift. or Fraud.

Im betting this was Bribery. The people who put the money in knew it was going to end up in trumps pockets. And they expect a return on their payments.

Or so I believe that we will find out whenever, if ever, the full details of this all become public.

[SWBTATTReg]

48. Now we truly know what the dirty and filthy taint of money does and why the overwhelming ...

amounts of it in our elections was banned. It's clearly obvious that the stain of money or bribes is clearly present in overwhelming amounts here during the celebration of rump winning and it continues today unabated. It's corruption through and through and rump and his kin and his cronies know it. That's why I don't support any get-of-jail cards for any of rump or family, they knew that they were breaking the law and did it anyway, and did it massively.