Twitter Questions 10.0

How important is the scandal involving the Yang family among all the other scandals with this administration?

Huge. Seriously. Sometimes I get tired of pointing out all the national security risks that are associated with the Trump administration, but it’s important to do so, and this is a big one.

First, lets start by saying this is *exactly* how foreign intelligence services gain leverage over senior policy advisors in other countries. Most of you have probably seen the pee tape allegation from the Steele dossier. This is the same concept, just no golden showers. Blackmail can be many things: it can be under-the-table, wink and a nod, foreign business entanglements, it can be hookers peeing on your bed in a Moscow hotel room, and it can definitely be a Chinese Madame peddling sex slaves and access to the President of the United States at your resort.

From the Mother Jones article on Yang:

“She made the news this week when the Miami Herald reported that last month she had attended a Super Bowl viewing party at Donald Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club and had snapped a selfie with the president during the event. Though Yang no longer owns the spa Kraft allegedly visited, the newspaper noted that other massage parlors her family runs have “gained a reputation for offering sexual services.” (She told the newspaper she has never violated the law.) Beyond this sordid tale, there is another angle to the strange story of Yang: She runs an investment business that has offered to sell Chinese clients access to Trump and his family. And a website for the business—which includes numerous photos of Yang and her purported clients hobnobbing at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club in Palm Beach—suggests she had some success in doing so.”

“The company boasts it has “arranged taking photos with the President” and suggests it can set up a “White House and Capitol Hill Dinner.” (The same day the Herald story about Yang broke, the website stopped functioning.)”

This was always the concern with Trump keeping – and frequently visiting – Mar-a-Lago. Remember, he doubled the membership fee to $200,000 right after the election. This screamed emoluments, special access, NatSec risk, etc. to everyone who was paying attention. Then we got the picture of Trump’s buddy with the military aide who carries the President’s Emergency Satchel (the nuclear football). Then we got the moronic picture of POTUS and his entourage on the balcony at Mar-a-Lago reading briefing materials from a North Korean launch with flashlights on cellphones. Now we have sex trafficking, and judging from the photos with just about every member of the GOP on Yang’s website, a successful pay for access program.

This ties in nicely with the next question, so let’s stop there, shall we?

What’s the top over-looked concern for Nat Sec right now?

Building from where the last question left off, the top NatSec risk right now is POTUS. I don’t know that it’s necessarily “overlooked” but it is important to discuss it anyway.

We know Trump still uses his personal cellphone and that he resists the advice and recommendations of security professionals that it’s frequently swept and replaced. Reports are that Trump’s phone has been accessed by foreign intelligence services (duh) and I’m sure they all saw whatever documents he was looking at on the balcony at Mar-a-Lago via his cell phone camera, or heard what was being said through a hot mic/”roving bug” attack, which turns your phone into an always-on microphone and lets people listen in.

We’ve also seen Trump blithely burn a code-word intelligence op with Russians in the Oval Office, reveal the location of our subs to Duterte, and about a million other things that make me want to slam my head into my desk on a daily basis. Yes, it’s well within Trump’s authority to declassify and reveal whatever he wants, but that doesn’t mean that he’s not currently the biggest security risk in the United States — and that’s before we start talking about his potential blackmail and people buying access. I’ve often wondered why Trump has done nothing about that Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, and I’m starting to wonder if I have my answer.

This is part of the problem with this President: it’s easy to assume he’s just really bad at this, because he is, but he’s also apparently compromised beyond belief.

What about this August 3rd meeting at Trump Tower with Jr. and Eric Prince?

Backstory for those of you who missed it: last year, The New York Times reported the following:

“Three months before the 2016 election, a small group gathered at Trump Tower to meet with Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son. One was an Israeli specialist in social media manipulation. Another was an emissary for two wealthy Arab princes. The third was a Republican donor with a controversial past in the Middle East as a private security contractor.

The meeting was convened primarily to offer help to the Trump team, and it forged relationships between the men and Trump insiders that would develop over the coming months — past the election and well into President Trump’s first year in office, according to several people with knowledge of their encounters.

Erik Prince, the private security contractor and the former head of Blackwater, arranged the meeting, which took place on Aug. 3, 2016. The emissary, George Nader, told Donald Trump Jr. that the princes who led Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were eager to help his father win election as president.”

“Mr. Nader was quickly embraced as a close ally by Trump campaign advisers — meeting frequently with Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, and Michael T. Flynn, who became the president’s first national security adviser. At the time, Mr. Nader was also promoting a secret plan to use private contractors to destabilize Iran, the regional nemesis of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates.”

At this point, you really can’t even see the nothingburger through all the collusion. Seth Abramson has been on this August 3rd meeting for awhile, and while I disagree with him that it’s *the* most important Trump Tower meeting, it is a very big deal.

Fast forward to this week: Prince finally admitted he was there and said that the meeting revolved around Iran policy, but his explanation is all over the place. According to Mother Jones:

“When asked by Al Jazeera’s Hasan about why he didn’t then disclose the August 2016 Trump Tower meeting, Prince initially said he “disclosed any meetings, the very, very few” he had.

When pressed further by Hasan, Prince said, “I don’t believe I was asked that question.”

Prince later contradicted himself, saying he did tell the panel about the meeting. When asked to explain why it was not in the transcript, Prince said, “I don’t know if they got the transcript wrong.”

He later also said that “not all of the discussion that day was transcribed”. 

He added that he “certainly” remembers discussing the meeting with “investigators”.”

So, this begs the obvious question: what is Prince’s endgame here? He was “never part of the campaign” but he flew to the Seychelles for a business trip and just happened to run into a Russian hedge-fund manager… right after Kushner’s brilliant idea to use Kislyak and the Russian embassy as a backchannel to the Kremlin failed. We know he tried and failed to privatize the war in Afghanistan, and now we know he set up a meeting focused on social media manipulation, Iran, and electing Donald Trump. Oh, and he just happens to be Trump’s Secretary of Education’s brother.

It’s worth pointing out again: the weird Trump Tower server connection only went to two places: Alfa Bank (Russia) and Spectrum Health (Betsy DeVos’ husband’s company). Again, you can’t make these connections up, folks.

Prince has repeatedly said that he cooperated with Robert Mueller, as did one of the meeting’s other attendants: George Nader, so I suspect this tangled web of corruption will be unraveled for all to see pretty soon.