<div dir="ltr">A Dutch TV documentary goes into great depth about the Bayrock connection. See <a href="http://www.alternet.org/video/donald-trumps-financial-ties-russian-oligarchs-and-mobsters-detailed-new-documentary">http://www.alternet.org/video/donald-trumps-financial-ties-russian-oligarchs-and-mobsters-detailed-new-documentary</a>.<div><span style="background-color:initial;color:rgb(28,32,34);font-family:helvetica,roboto,"segoe ui",calibri,sans-serif;font-size:16px;white-space:initial"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color:initial;color:rgb(28,32,34);font-family:helvetica,roboto,"segoe ui",calibri,sans-serif;font-size:16px;white-space:initial">AP BREAKING: Trump lawyer: Tax returns from past 10 years show no "income of any type from Russian sources," with few exceptions.</span></div><div><span style="background-color:initial;white-space:initial"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color:initial;white-space:initial">Daily Kos, May 13, 2007</span><div class="gmail-story-intro gmail-story-content" style="box-sizing:border-box;word-wrap:break-word"><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 10px">So Trump released ten years worth of tax returns? No. No, he didn’t. What he released was <a href="https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/863047395810172928" target="_blank" title="" style="box-sizing:border-box;background:transparent;text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(153,107,61)">a letter from his lawyers</a>. That letter claims that Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, hasn’t had any Russian income since 2005. So, no Russian income. Except, you know, for the $13 million everyone already knew about and the $95 million home he sold to a Russian oligarch at more than twice its market price. So, only over a hundred million in Russian income. Oh, and other things that were “not identified as ‘Russian’ in your books and records and therefore not separately reflected on your tax returns.” So, somewhere between the hundred million everyone already knows about and <em style="box-sizing:border-box">infinity</em>.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 10px">There’s also the little problem that the statement doesn’t even begin to address other issues. Issues like companies that are incorporated elsewhere, but whose funding originates in Russia. Like say, the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/putins-plan-to-destroy-the-west-looks-a-lot-like-donald-trump-2016-7" target="_blank" title="" style="box-sizing:border-box;background:transparent;text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(153,107,61)">company that’s headquartered in Trump Tower</a>.</p><blockquote style="box-sizing:border-box;padding:30px 60px;margin:20px 0px;font-size:16px;border:none;width:660px;line-height:24px;background-color:rgb(247,247,247)"><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:10px 0px 0px">Hunting for partners with cash, he turned to a small upstart called the Bayrock Group ...</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 10px">And you can bet that the numbers from Bayrock? They’re not on that list of Russia funding. But they should be.</p></div><div class="gmail-row" style="box-sizing:border-box"><div class="gmail-col-sm-12" style="box-sizing:border-box;min-height:1px;padding-left:15px;padding-right:15px;float:left;width:690px"><div id="gmail-read-more" style="box-sizing:border-box;height:150px"></div><div class="gmail-story-intro-divider" style="box-sizing:border-box;width:200px;height:1px;background-color:rgb(204,204,204);margin:35px auto 50px;clear:both"></div><div class="gmail-story-body gmail-story-content" style="box-sizing:border-box;word-wrap:break-word"><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 10px;color:rgb(60,55,54);font-family:"open sans";font-size:16px;letter-spacing:0.125px">Bayrock is just one of several such arrangements that Trump has used to pull in funding. Why did <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/07/27/trumps-claim-that-i-have-nothing-to-do-with-russia/?utm_term=.81c06a3bb53e" target="_blank" title="" style="box-sizing:border-box;background:transparent;text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(153,107,61)">Donald Trump Jr</a><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/07/27/trumps-claim-that-i-have-nothing-to-do-with-russia/?utm_term=.81c06a3bb53e" target="_blank" style="box-sizing:border-box;background:transparent;text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(153,107,61)">.</a> say this to a real estate conference?</p><blockquote style="box-sizing:border-box;padding:30px 60px;margin:20px 0px;font-size:16px;border:none;width:660px;line-height:24px;background-color:rgb(247,247,247);color:rgb(60,55,54);font-family:"open sans";letter-spacing:0.125px"><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:10px 0px 0px">“Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross section of a lot of our assets...”</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 10px;color:rgb(60,55,54);font-family:"open sans";font-size:16px;letter-spacing:0.125px">What made <a href="http://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2017/05/05/james-dodson-donald-trump-golf" target="_blank" title="" style="box-sizing:border-box;background:transparent;text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(153,107,61)">Eric Trump s</a>ay this about Trump’s golf course funding?</p><blockquote style="box-sizing:border-box;padding:30px 60px;margin:20px 0px;font-size:16px;border:none;width:660px;line-height:24px;background-color:rgb(247,247,247);color:rgb(60,55,54);font-family:"open sans";letter-spacing:0.125px"><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:10px 0px 0px">“Well, we don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.”</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 10px;color:rgb(60,55,54);font-family:"open sans";font-size:16px;letter-spacing:0.125px">It wasn’t nice fat checks stamped “Russian government payment to Donald Trump.” It was companies like this:</p><blockquote style="box-sizing:border-box;padding:30px 60px;margin:20px 0px;font-size:16px;border:none;width:660px;line-height:24px;background-color:rgb(247,247,247);color:rgb(60,55,54);font-family:"open sans";letter-spacing:0.125px"><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:10px 0px"><span style="box-sizing:border-box">Hunting for partners with cash, he turned to a small upstart called the Bayrock Group, which would pull together massive real estate deals using the Trump name. Its chairman was a former Soviet official named </span><a href="https://kazakhbusinessbulletin.wordpress.com/kazakh-businessman/tevfik-arif/" target="_blank" title="" style="box-sizing:border-box;background:transparent;text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(153,107,61)">Tevfik Arif</a><span style="box-sizing:border-box">, who made a small fortune running luxe hotels in Turkey. To run Bayrock’s operation, Arif </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/17/nyregion/17trump.html" target="_blank" title="" style="box-sizing:border-box;background:transparent;text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(153,107,61)">hired</a><span style="box-sizing:border-box"> Felix Satter, a Soviet-born, Brighton Beach–bred college dropout. Satter changed his name to Sater, likely to distance himself from the criminal activity that a name-check would easily turn up. …</span></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px">Bayrock put together deals for mammoth Trump-named, Trump-managed projects—two in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a resort in Phoenix, the Trump SoHo in New York. Several of those projects broke ground, but they were a mere prelude. “Mr. Trump was particularly taken with Mr. Arif’s overseas connections,” the <em style="box-sizing:border-box">Times</em> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/06/us/politics/donald-trump-soho-settlement.html?_r=0" target="_blank" title="" style="box-sizing:border-box;background:transparent;text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(153,107,61)">reported</a> (after buyers of units in the Trump SoHo sued him for fraud).</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 10px;color:rgb(60,55,54);font-family:"open sans";font-size:16px;letter-spacing:0.125px">The location Trump used for filming <em style="box-sizing:border-box">The Apprentice</em>? Paid for by Bayrock.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 10px;color:rgb(60,55,54);font-family:"open sans";font-size:16px;letter-spacing:0.125px">So, the breaking news that Trump’s taxes show he hasn’t received Russian money?</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 10px;color:rgb(60,55,54);font-family:"open sans";font-size:16px;letter-spacing:0.125px">1. It’s not his taxes.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 10px;color:rgb(60,55,54);font-family:"open sans";font-size:16px;letter-spacing:0.125px">2. It’s not news.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 10px;color:rgb(60,55,54);font-family:"open sans";font-size:16px;letter-spacing:0.125px">3. It shows that $100 million is just the start of Trump’s connection to Russian sources.</p></div></div></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div>   <div style="height:auto;width:auto">   <div> <div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:10pt"><div><span style="font-size:13.3333px">A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. </span><br style="font-size:13.3333px"><br style="font-size:13.3333px"><span style="font-size:13.3333px">-Greek proverb</span></div><div><br>
“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. 
Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance 
from another. This immaturity is self- imposed when its cause lies not 
in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it 
without guidance from another. Sapere Aude! ‘Have courage to use your 
own understand-ing!—that is the motto of enlightenment.<br>
<br>
--Immanuel Kant<br>
<br><br></div></span></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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