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Plus, he draws a lot of hate for being an ardent Berner. Besides, you can't make this stuff up! 
Firm started by ex-CIA officers initially denied probing Democratic presidential candidate.
.... the Republican National Committee initiated a series of payments to a low-profile firm started by retired Central Intelligence Agency officers that worked closely with an ex-Russian spy. .... the Virginia-based firm, Hamilton Trading Group, had particular expertise in Russia ... most of the cash — $34,100 — went towards intelligence-style reports ...
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We've known almost all of this for some time now, what is happening is people are putting the pieces together into a cohesive big picture while at the same time more info is coming to light daily, such as Manafort's working for Putin for $10 million a year, and events are unfolding like witnesses getting shot in the street or thrown out windows.
Link to tweet
Link to tweet
If just about any one of these coincidences bears fruit, it's game over. The dam is going to break.
I bet the FBI has all this in hand too.
The BIG CON Jumps to one of the top ten greediest mother fucks in the world...
The plot to sell America's foreign policy for foreign oil _and_ steal an election in the bargain began at the Mayflower Hotel.
1) Per @NYMag, Paul Manafort took over the Trump campaign on April 16, just 72 hours before Trump mathematically eliminated his competition.
2) The timing was intentional: Manafort, hired in March, was slated to become the campaign's key player as soon as Trump became the nominee.
3) On April 21, 48 hours after clinching, Trump announced the first major foreign policy address of his life. It was scheduled for April 27.
4) The speech, arranged by Jared Kushner in mid-March, was to be hosted by the Center for the National Interest, a conservative think tank.
5) The Center is _widely_ known to have "ties to the Russian regime of President Vladimir Putin," per Politico.
6) The speech was slated to be at the National Press Club, an august venue with a _long_ history of staging secure events with large crowds.
7) Less than 24 hours before the speech, it was cancelled. The Trump campaign (i.e., Manafort) declared the venue was too small and unsafe.
8) So Manafort moved the event to the Mayflower Hotel: a smaller, less secure site. The decision confirmed the campaign's excuses were lies.
9) The two things the Mayflower had that the NPC didn't were
(a) 581 private rooms for private meetings, and
(b) restricted, VIP-only areas.
10) The latter was important because Manafort wanted Trump to hold an intimate, 24-person cocktail hour in the Mayflower's VIP Senate Room.
11) Among the 24 at the event: Trump, CNI event coordinator Heilbrunn, Jeff Sessions, Kushner, Lewandowski, Manafort, and four ambassadors.
12) Another VIP at the event was Iran-Contra figure Bud McFarlane, one of America's chief advocates for a bargain with Russia on oil access.
13) The four ambassadors were the only four ambassadors in the world (out of 195 total) that the Putin-linked CNI had invited to the event.
14) The _biggest oil deal in Russia's history_ occurred in December of 2016. It involved the coordination of entities from three countries.
15) Individuals from those three countries—RUSSIA, ITALY, and SINGAPORE—negotiated the sale of 19.5% of Russia's state oil company, Rosneft.
16) The #Russiagate scandal involves claims Trump was given 0.5% of Rosneft and aid in getting elected in exchange for lifting US sanctions.
17) The Rosneft deal closed Dec. 5-7. During that time McFarlane visited Trump Tower. It's believed Russian ambassador/spy Kislyak did too.
18) WSJ wrote in April 2016 that Trump met separately with the ambassadors at the Mayflower and was QUOTE:
Trump Met the Russian Ambassador During the Campaign Even Though He Said He Didn’t. It Was Googleable.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/03/07/trump_met_russian_ambassador_kislyak_during_campaign_in_april_2016.html
19) “Trump met at a VIP reception with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak. He warmly greeted Kislyak and 3 other ambassadors."
20) The ambassadors at the Mayflower: RUSSIA! ITALY! SINGAPORE! And the Philippines--which is routinely cited as a Rosneft expansion target.
21) So Trump warmly, privately chatted with the 3 Rosneft-deal nations at a cocktail hour right before his _first big foreign-policy event_.
22) In his speech Trump called for a Russian detente: "We desire to live peacefully and in friendship with Russia...we are not bound...
23) to be adversaries. We should seek common ground based on shared interests...an easing of tensions and improved relations with Russia...
24) is possible..[I hope to] make a deal under my administration that’s great for America but also good for Russia."
25) Richard Burt, CNI and Russian Alfa Bank adviser, _crafted the speech_. He was also _Putin's pipeline lobbyist_.
26) The only Kislyak meeting Sessions _never_ disclosed to Congress, _even after accusations of perjury_, was the meeting at the Mayflower.
27) But per the organizer of the Mayflower Hotel event, Jacob Heilbrunn of the CNI, a third Sessions-Kislyak meeting _definitely_ occurred.
28) Heilbrunn on the VIP event: "At a reception in the Senate Room of the Mayflower, a number of politicians and Trump advisers, such as...
29) ... Senator Jeff Sessions and ambassadors [from Russia and the other nations] congregated before the event."
30) The VIP event _wasn't_ just a receiving line as Trump claimed. It was a "cocktail meet-and-greet"--a full event.
31) That Sessions would feel the need to hide his contact with Kislyak at the Mayflower event after accusations of perjury raises red flags.
32) The White House saying it has “no recollection” of any of the VIPs at Trump's _biggest-ever foreign policy event_ is also a red flag.
33) When Kislyak was asked if he’d met Trump or members of his team during the campaign he replied, "What do you consider a campaign?"
34) Kislyak went on to _fail_ to disclose his meeting with Trump at the Mayflower, citing only a meeting at the RNC.
35) We know Manafort and Kislyak would have known each other, as Manafort indirectly worked for Putin for years.
36) We know Manafort set up the Mayflower event and was available for meetings at it--as was Kushner, who later met secretly with Kislyak.
37) Congress must investigate _any_ Mayflower meetings between Sessions, Manafort, Kushner, Kislyak and the Italian/Singaporean ambassadors.
@SethAbramson The Politico piece should be fascinating. Got the page open and will start on that at end of this gobsmacking tweet series.
38) We know the White House lied about Mayflower. We know Sessions has. We know Kislyak has. And we know the Rosneft players were present.
39) We know there was ample time/space for "sidelines" meetings. And we know Walid Phares was also there, and Trump Jr., and Stephen Miller.
40) So other than the RNC and suspicious Trump Tower meetings in December, the Mayflower Speech should get the _most_ attention in Congress.
CREDITS/ADDITIONAL DOCS) Thanks to @grantstern and to Politico. The New York Magazine article on Manafort is below.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/04/how-paul-manafort-took-over-the-trump-campaign.html
NOTES) At several points I used "oil" instead of "oil/gas" or "oil/LNG" or just "LNG" (liquefied natural gas). This was Twitter shorthand.
ADDITIONAL DOCS 2) Information on the Rosneft sale taken largely from this excellent Reuters article on the topic:
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN1582OH
I do think that if the genesis of #Russiagate is traced to Trump's Mayflower speech (4/27/16), we'll likely call this the Mayflower Scandal.
ADDITIONAL DOCS 3) Here is the CNI press release announcing the attending ambassadors:
DOCS 4) Flynn-Kushner-Kislyak's Trump Tower meeting was clandestine: press saw nothing, suggesting alternate entry.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/02/us/politics/kushner-flynn-sessions-russia.html
DOCS 5) CNI ('06): McFarlane says Russia's LNG reserves are key to any strategy weaning US from M.E. oil dependence.
https://nationalinterest.org/commentary/a-real-alternative-1209
DOCS 6) The Steele Dossier, written by the former head of MI6's Russia desk (known for excellent sources in Russia):
https://www.buzzfeed.com/kenbensinger/these-reports-allege-trump-has-deep-ties-to-russia?utm_term=.nmpDDdnBWL#.twM4413Mzv
DOCS 7) _Not normal_: "Kislyak broke the diplomatic norm against attending campaign events" to go to the Mayflower.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/donald-trump-campaign-lobbyist-russian-pipeline-229264
