Daily News Dump – Feb 5

You get an investigation, you get an investigation, you get an investigation…

As of today, the following Trump entities are confirmed to be under investigation and/or have received subpoenas:

• Trump Organization
• Trump Campaign
• Trump Foundation
• Trump Transition
• Trump Inauguration
• Trump Administration

Only the best people, right? But seriously, this is yuge. Let’s look at a couple of the most recent subpoenas:

Federal Prosecutors Subpoena Trump Inaugural Committee (via CNN)

“The wide-ranging subpoena from the Manhattan US attorney’s office requires the committee to turn over documents related to virtually every donor or donation, attendee at a committee event, piece of paperwork related to the legal requirements attached to donations and even “the possibility of” donations made by foreign nationals. It discloses that prosecutors are investigating a litany of potential crimes: conspiracy against the US, false statements, mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, inaugural committee disclosure violations, and violations of laws prohibiting contributions by foreign nations and contributions in the name of another person, also known as straw donors.“

This is a super-broad subpoena that is also looking at benefits offered to donors, demanding access to communications, etc. Essentially, prosecutors want to know if someone blew their nose in the wrong napkin. This is a space worth watching, but not *the* space worth watching.

Federal Prosecutors Seek Interviews With Trump Organization Executives

“Trump and his legal team have long harbored concerns that investigations by New York federal prosecutors — which could last throughout his presidency — may ultimately pose more danger to him, his family and his allies than the inquiry by special counsel Robert Mueller, according to people close to Trump. Prosecutors’ recent interest in executives at Trump’s family company may intensify those fears.” via CNN

Many people have asked who exactly ARE the executives of the Trump Organization? “Aren’t they all named Trump?” Mostly, yes, yes they are:

• Allen Weisselberg – Chief Financial Officer –
• Jim Petrus – Chief Operation Officer
• Cathy Hoffman Glosser – Executive VP of Global Licensing
• Donald Trump Jr. – Executive VP of Development and Acquisitions
• Ivanka M. Trump – Executive VP of Development and Acquisitions
• Eric F. Trump – Executive VP of Development and Acquisitions

So, Weisselberg is already cooperating with federal investigators. That leaves 2 people not named Trump on the executive list. We don’t know who has been interviewed by SDNY so far, but it’s a safe bet the Trump children aren’t going to escape this net. Thoughts and prayers. Or not, whatever.

General Votel: I was not consulted on withdraw from Syria

Those of you who have followed me for awhile probably knew that already, as I’ve been complaining about DoD being uninvolved in these plans for months. For context, Gen. Votel is the Commander of Central Command (CENTCOM) and he wasn’t informed that soldiers in his Area of Operation (AO) would be leaving. Votel also reiterated that the fight against ISIS is not over, and that we shouldn’t be precipitously leaving Syria until it is.

SDNY Prosecutors Eye Manafort

Federal Prosecutors in SDNY have been interviewing witnesses in recent weeks about the flow of foreign money to 3 firms Manafort recruited to help Russia-aligned government of Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine. NYT

SDNY is on fire right now. They’re knocking multiple investigations out of the park. In somewhat comforting news, acting AG Whitaker hasn’t done anything to impede SDNY’s work into Manafort or the Trump enterprise. I still don’t trust him, but I’ll take it for now.

BuzzFeed: Here’s a crap-ton of internal Trump Org documents that show Trump is lying to EVERYONE.

BuzzFeed said they’re finished playing with y’all. They dumped a huge cache of damning documents to show how Trump was negotiating for Trump Tower Moscow while praising Putin on the campaign trail.

Reminder on me:

I’ve gotten several messages over the last couple days by confused followers, so I just wanted to clear something up (again). I’ve tried to be completely transparent about all of this, so I’m sorry if anyone has been confused. I *do* post some links on this blog and my Twitter account that are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you if you purchase something through them. I do *not* profit off of these links: the income generated through them goes exclusively to charities, mostly picked by you. This month, I’m making an exception and donating the proceeds to Federal Contractors who were hurt by the shutdown. Next month, we will go back to voting on who receives the donation via a Twitter poll. If you have a suggestion, feel free to leave me a comment!

The only income generated through my account that I actually keep is from my Patreon, which you can find here. If you like the work I do and would like to support it, that’s the only way I’ve set up to receive funds. I’ll be forever grateful to those of you who have already donated: you helped me and my family through a really rough time, thank you.

Anyway, thanks for reading as always. I hope you guys find this new format helpful. I’ve put a lot of time and effort into breaking the big news of the day into bite-sized pieces, and so far the comments have been overwhelmingly positive. If you have any suggestions for improvement, I’m still new at this, so feel free to shoot them my way. I won’t be offended!