Rant Two associates of Rudy Giuliani arrested

[K1052]

Maybe should hold on to The Mayor's passport for a bit...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1182414112866885635

Giuliani called me at 6:22 p.m. last night—around the same time that two of his associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were arrested at Dulles Airport while waiting to board an international flight with one-way tickets. As The Wall Street Journal reported this afternoon, the two men were bound for Vienna. The Florida businessmen, who are reported to have assisted Giuliani in his alleged efforts to investigate Joe Biden and his family ahead of the 2020 election, were charged with campaign-finance violations, with prosecutors alleging that they had conspired to funnel money from a Russian donor into Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
But Giuliani, when confirming today that Parnas and Fruman were heading to Vienna on matters “related to their business,” told the Journal that he himself only had plans to meet with them when they returned to Washington. By this logic, Giuliani was also planning to fly to Vienna within roughly 24 hours of his business associates, but do no business with them while all three were there.


This morning, Giuliani told me he’d have to reschedule our lunch. I’ve tried to reach him since then, to discuss Parnas’s and Fruman’s arrests, among other things, to no avail. When I called at 3 p.m. ET to ask about his Vienna trip, a woman claiming to be his communications director answered the phone. I have called him more than 100 times over the past year, and this is the first time that has ever happened. She said she’d have to get back to me. As we spoke, I could hear a voice that resembled Giuliani’s shout “asshole” in the background. “Oh, sorry,” the woman told me. “He was talking to the TV.”

 

[VRAMdemon]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1182400090901639169

https://twitter.com/x/status/1182396575995387904

That sound you hear in the distance is a bus revving up...

"Everybody wants a picture with me. Because I'm a stable genius with great and unmatched wisdom. Everybody wants a picture with me. But I don't know these people. Some of them might be criminals, I don't know. And some, I assume, are good people. But everybody wants a picture with me. But I don't know these people. Never saw them before in my life, believe me."

"In fact I don't know Rudy Giuliani, either. Never met the man. Is he the guy they say looks exactly like Count Orlok in Nosferatu? I thought so. Never met him. I've never met the man."

 

[PJFrylar]

"Everybody wants a picture with me. Because I'm a stable genius with great and unmatched wisdom. Everybody wants a picture with me. But I don't know these people. Some of them might be criminals, I don't know. And some, I assume, are good people. But everybody wants a picture with me. But I don't know these people. Never saw them before in my life, believe me."

"In fact I don't know Rudy Giuliani, either. Never met the man. Is he the guy they say looks exactly like Count Orlok in Nosferatu? I thought so. Never met him. I've never met the man."

A bit off topic:
I started watching that movie last night and will be finishing it tonight.

And yep, there are pictures of Trump with them.

 

[VRAMdemon]

Just follow the money!... A couple of older articles by Craig Unger on Russian money laundering and Trump...

Trump’s Russian Laundromat

How to use Trump Tower and other luxury high-rises to clean dirty money, run an international crime syndicate, and propel a failed real estate developer into the White House.

newrepublic.com

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/trumps-businesses-are-full-of-dirty-russian-money-the-scandal-is-thats-legal/2019/03/29/11b812da-5171-11e9-88a1-ed346f0ec94f_story.html

But even without an investigation by Congress or a special prosecutor, there is much we already know about the president’s debt to Russia. A review of the public record reveals a clear and disturbing pattern: Trump owes much of his business success, and by extension his presidency, to a flow of highly suspicious money from Russia. Over the past three decades, at least 13 people with known or alleged links to Russian mobsters or oligarchs have owned, lived in, and even run criminal activities out of Trump Tower and other Trump properties. Many used his apartments and casinos to launder untold millions in dirty money. Some ran a worldwide high-stakes gambling ring out of Trump Tower—in a unit directly below one owned by Trump. Others provided Trump with lucrative branding deals that required no investment on his part. Taken together, the flow of money from Russia provided Trump with a crucial infusion of financing that helped rescue his empire from ruin, burnish his image, and launch his career in television and politics. “They saved his bacon,” says Kenneth McCallion, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Reagan administration who investigated ties between organized crime and Trump’s developments in the 1980s.

 

[Puffnstuff]

deep state all around.

Deep $h!t state and then some led by Dumb Donald....when the blind lead the blind both fall into the ditch.

 

[Jhhnn]

things that call into question good judgement:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1182401630223908865

It's impossible to say. It may be like Roman Senators discussing Julius Caesar before his final appearance in the Senate. Or entirely the opposite, most likely. We'll see where they go from here. It seems highly unethical for Barr to have such a meeting, anyway.

 

[VRAMdemon]

Maybe should hold on to The Mayor's passport for a bit...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1182414112866885635

Did Rudy plan on coming back?...was his ticket one way?

 

[interchange]

Did Rudy plan on coming back?...was his ticket one way?

Rudy skipping town and ending up in a non-extradition country would be hilarious at this point. I mean, it ought to be frightening, but hey this is where we're at.

 

[sportage]

I STILL DON'T GET IT....
WHY is Trump and all of his people around him so consumed with foreigners?
What the hell is it with Russia? And with Putin? And now Ukraine?
Is Donald Trump actually a full blown rooskie?
Trump doesn't know much about the US constitution or it's importance for America, but I bet Donald Trump knows everything you could ever want to know about Russian constitution.
Trump certainly knows how and where to find that rooskie money he so admires.
Now.... if someone can find a video of Donald Trump fluently speaking Russian, I wouldn't be surprised. Not at all.

And Rudy was so admired for his actions during and after 9/11.
Hey Rudy.... was that all an act?
Just an act to make people believe you were patriotic, when all the while you were palling around with Russians?
Rudy..... you snake in the grass.
You and Trump make a fine pair indeed.

 

[soulcougher73]

It happens.

 

[VRAMdemon]

Rudy skipping town and ending up in a non-extradition country would be hilarious at this point. I mean, it ought to be frightening, but hey this is where we're at.

Who knew having "Lunch with Rudy Giuliani" would get you incarcerated.

Rudy and the Ukraine Clown Posse

"I'll pull a bigass beehive out a tree, drop my drawers and hump it!"

Has Fox put the graphic "Rudy Giuliani (D)" up yet?

 

[HomerJS]

We've went from, "I don't know any Russians" to

HOLY FUCK!!

 

[HomerJS]

Apologies if this has been covered
Just heard the end of a story regarding these guys.
“Arrested in the airport as they were trying to flee”

This isn’t going to end well.

Edit: I guess it depends upon how you define well.

Pence has yet to answer the question was he aware military aid was held up.

 

[Victorian Gray]

"all of it."

Anyone still wondering why Lindsey has become such a dedicated lapdog to this "immoral man" that he once claimed "will be the end of the GOP?"

....seriously though, no one is still wondering, right?

In his case I've never really thought money. My suspicions lean towards blackmail of some kind.

 

[woolfe9998]

Maddow was again excellent tonight on this. She shows this photo line-up of Rudy with the four men with whom he conspired to create dirt on Joe Biden. One (Manafort) is a convicted felon. Another is under house arrest in Austria awaiting extradition to the US. And two more were just arrested and indicted yesterday.

It's Rudy's "dream team!"

Rachel Maddow Show

More about the MS Now Rachel Maddow Show airing weeknights at 9 PM. Watch Rachel Maddow tonight or online with updated video & episodes at MS Now.

www.msnbc.com

I give this above even odds that Rudy will be indicted over this.

 

[Moonbeam]

In his case I've never really thought money. My suspicions lean towards blackmail of some kind.

I don't know but my theory is that he used to think he was a decent person and lost it when I discovered he's actually a massive hypocrite. What we see now is Lindsey the Whacked.

 

[alien42]

i say lock all of them up...

 

[dawp]

these jokers are currently represented by John Dowd, Trump's former attorney for the Mueller probe.

this was the lawyer who submitted a letter in Comic Sans font

Ex-Trump lawyer used Comic Sans font in a impeachment inquiry letter. The internet had thoughts

Comic Sans, the whimsical, chalkboard-like typeface, has been divisive for years. And now, it's in the middle of the Trump impeachment inquiry.

www.usatoday.com

I'd think you'd want something a little more professional when typing out legal letters that you are sending in response to a subpoena.

 

[interchange]

i say lock all of them up...

Think Nickelback would mind using their song to meme this one?

 

[emperus]

You can't make this stuff up!

A reporter should ask Trump, "Since you are interested in fraud/corruption in Ukraine, will you be asking Ukraine to open an investigation into Giuliani as well?"

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

I think Barr is too smart to interfere with the SDNY. There's really nothing linking him directly to this episode & he'll likely keep it that way. He's busy working up a Deep State conspiracy theory investigating the investigators of Russian meddling. Spies & shit.

I think that Barr is smart enough to interfere and wear gloves while committing the crime of obstruction.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Maddow was again excellent tonight on this. She shows this photo line-up of Rudy with the four men with whom he conspired to create dirt on Joe Biden. One (Manafort) is a convicted felon. Another is under house arrest in Austria awaiting extradition to the US. And two more were just arrested and indicted yesterday.

It's Rudy's "dream team!"

Rachel Maddow Show

More about the MS Now Rachel Maddow Show airing weeknights at 9 PM. Watch Rachel Maddow tonight or online with updated video & episodes at MS Now.

www.msnbc.com

I give this above even odds that Rudy will be indicted over this.

I am not sure Barr won't quietly intercede for Rudy considering that outright violation of law by Trump was buried without an investigation. In any case Rudy is a private citizen and ought to be subpoenaed now before he's officially hired by Trump as a Fed employee. Rudy may not show (I'll give that about a 50/50) and then what?

Some will want direct action taken as I do, some will accept the House letting it pass without effective remediation, but that last option is fast becoming as untenable as not having an impeachment inquiry IMO.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Like the Manafort and Cohen situations that would be predicated on the idea that Ruds hasn't done any state crime which, while early, I'm not sure I'd bet the farm on.

Also as the election nears the political consequences for doing a really big corrupt thing when you're being investigated for really corrupt things is probably not good. Even he knows that.

Additionally he doesn't seem at all interested in pardoning people who do crimes for him. I can only presume because he can't collect off it.

Agreed but I wonder if he had the option again would he have just pardoned Manaford?
I also wonder what the fallout would be for a Guliani pardon, then 3 months later a pardon for doing the exact same thing because Rudy picked up from where he left off.

 

[VRAMdemon]

things that call into question good judgement:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1182401630223908865

Which is a totally normal thing that probably happens all the time in a functioning democracy with an impartial Justice Department focused on its top priorities.

"Nice network you got here Mr. Murdoch. Be a shame if the FCC were to..uh.. shut it down. <pushes vase off shelf> Oh sorry. So clumsy of me."

 

[VRAMdemon]

Kenneth P. Vogel, NYTimes:

Indicted pro-TRUMP Ukraine researcher LEV PARNAS told people he paid RUDY GIULIANI hundreds of thousands of dollars to work for his firm, Fraud Guarantee.

Giuliani first seemed to admit working for the firm in 2018, then said he couldn't confirm.
...
Here's the full answer from RUDY GIULIANI on his work for LEV PARNAS's company, Fraud Guarantee: "All I can tell you is that most of the Fraud Guarantee work, in fact the Fraud Guarantee work, which — or I should say — I can’t acknowledge it’s Fraud Guarantee, I don’t think."

So, to recap, Parnas's firm is called "Fraud Guarantee", and Fruman's club in Odessa is called "MAFIA RAVE".

Is "Johnny Hitman" their "agent.?"

Those are perhaps the most appropriate business names I've encountered since Snidely Whiplash carried out his dastardly schemes under the cover of a building demolition firm called "Edifice Wrecks."

I guess sometimes going all in with oblivious and obvious can work. I will definitely binge watch the rest of the season.