Another Bombshell from the Trump Swamp: Broidy and Nader's Anti-Qatar Scheme

Here's yet another in a stream of developments detailing the corruption in Trump's Swamp. Actually it's a threefer.

The two men met at the Trump inauguration and quickly formed a partnership. Elliott Broidy had Trump's ear, George Nader was an advisor to the UAE's de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (aka MBZ). Both had dollar signs in their eyes.

The scheme was simple: use Broidy's proximity to Trump to lobby directly for the interests of Saudia Arabia and the UAE — to exert pressure on Qatar and ratchet up tensions with Iran — in exchange for hundreds of millions in lucrative "defense" contracts.

I'm going to excerpt from AP report published yesterday. It's very long and packed with details. I'm going to hit on just a few of the most significant parts but you really, really need to read the article.

The princes, the president and the fortune seekers

In return for pushing anti-Qatar policies at the highest levels of America’s government, Broidy and Nader expected huge consulting contracts from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, according to an Associated Press investigation based on interviews with more than two dozen people and hundreds of pages of leaked emails between the two men. The emails reviewed by the AP included work summaries and contracting documents and proposals.

I'm just going to jump to the parts about Trump and then circle back.

In late September, Broidy arranged for the most coveted meeting for any lobbyist in Washington: an audience for himself with the president in the Oval Office.

In advance of the meeting, Nader wrote Broidy a script, an email shows . There were several objectives: to sell the idea for a Muslim fighting force, to keep the president from intervening on Qatar and to arrange a discreet meeting between Trump and the crown prince of Abu Dhabi.

The princes “are counting on you to relate it blunt and straight,” Nader wrote.

Nader told Broidy the meeting was potentially historic and to “take advantage of this priceless asset.”

And there was one more thing. Nader asked Broidy to tell the president about his connections with the crown princes, using code names for all three.

“Appreciate how you would make sure to bring up my role to Chairman,” Nader emailed. “How I work closely with Two Big Friends.”

After the Oct. 6 meeting, Broidy reported back to Nader that he had passed along the messages and had urged the president to stay out of the dispute with Qatar. He also said he explained Circinus’ plan to build a Muslim fighting force.

“President Trump was extremely enthusiastic,” he wrote. Broidy said Trump asked what the next step would be and that he told the president he should meet with the crown prince from the UAE, adding, “President Trump agreed that a meeting with MBZ was a good idea.”

The White House did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Despite that successful readout, Nader wanted more: He wanted a photo of himself with the president — a big request for a convicted pedophile.

Broidy hosted a fundraiser later that month which was attended by Trump and Nader but the Secret Service wasn't clearing Nader to be that close the President. So Broidy leapt to action to fix it:

“One of my companies does deep vetting for the US government,” he wrote. “We ran all data bases including FBI and Interpol and found no issues with regard to Mr. Vader.”

The then RNC said that Nader hadn't given enough money for a photo. Broidy argued that Nader had in fact met the threshold. It's not clear how that was resolved but the article points to a nearly $200k donation from Broidy the following month. Whatever the case, Nader got his picture next to Trump, in front of the American flag.

Broidy met Trump once again on Dec. 2. He reported back to Nader that he’d told Trump the crown princes were “most favorably impressed by his leadership.” He offered the crown princes’ help in the Middle East peace plan being developed by Jared Kushner. He did not tell Trump that his partner had complete contempt for the plan — and for the president’s son-in-law.

“You have to hear in private my Brother what Principals think of ‘Clown prince’s’ efforts and his plan!” Nader wrote. “Nobody would even waste cup of coffee on him if it wasn’t for who he is married to.”

Days after Broidy’s meeting with Trump, the UAE awarded Broidy the intelligence contract the partners had been seeking for up to $600 million over 5 years, according to a leaked email.

The Muslim fighting force contract would be even larger, potentially bringing their entire Gulf enterprise to more than $1 billion.

That's actually a clever nickname for Clown Prince Jared Kushner. Things were going swimmingly for the duo. Elliot Broidy would get in Trump's and other peoples' ears (more on that in a bit), then they'd get their millions in contracts. But then something happened that derailed their plans:

In January, Broidy was preparing for a third meeting with Trump, at Mar-a-Lago, during celebrations of the president’s first year in office. Nader was supposed to join them, but the initial payment for the intelligence contract was late. He delayed his trip to the U.S. for a day to make sure it was wired.

On Jan. 17, Broidy reported that he had received the first installment — $36 million.

“Terrific!” Nader wrote before his flight. “First among many to go!”

Hours after that money transfer, Nader and Broidy discovered that, despite all their precautions, they had not escaped notice.

When Nader landed at Dulles Airport outside Washington, D.C., a team of FBI agents working for Mueller was there to meet him. He was relieved of his electronic devices and later agreed to cooperate.

That was in January. From all accounts, Mueller's team detained Nader to talk to him not about his influence peddling schemes with Broidy but with other meetings he'd arranged/attended with Erik Prince. You can read more about that in my thread from a couple days ago, here.

Nader is rumored to be cooperating with Mueller.

That was just a taste (albeit a big one). This was a truly wide scale lobbying/influence peddling campaign and one that was well funded. Emails from March of last year show a proposed budget of $12 million for expenses.

But first, emails show, they had to focus on the lobbying campaign. They proposed a budget upward of $12 million to “expose and penalize” Qatar and get the U.S. to pressure it to “aid in coercive action against Iran,” according to a March 2017 document.

One of the things they were trying to accomplish for their benefactors was pushing an anti-Qatar bill through Congress.

One set of email exchanges details how Broidy met with the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, California GOP Rep. Ed Royce. Broidy, who had given $600k to GOP candidates in 2017, had given Royce the maximum allowed.

Broidy also bragged that he had “caused” Royce to praise a senior Saudi general, Ahmed Hassan Mohammad Assiri, in words that were then memorialized in the Congressional Record. Nader was thrilled: A U.S. congressman publicly flattered a Saudi official, who documents show was helping evaluate Broidy and Nader’s contract proposals.

And it wasn't just Congress. Broidy is a friend of Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin:

Ideally, Broidy and Nader would work to persuade the U.S. government to sanction Qatar and move a key military base from Qatar to another location in the Gulf. Broidy said he had a direct line to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

“Mnuchin is a close friend of mine (my wife and I are attending Sec. Mnuchin’s wedding in Washington D.C. on June 24th),” Broidy wrote to Nader. “I can help in educating Mnuchin on the importance of the Treasury Department putting many Qatari individuals and organizations on the applicable sanctions lists.”

And it wasn't just getting in the ears of Trump, Mnuchin and members of Congress either:

Armed with fresh cash, Broidy pitched Nader a media blitz that would put the fire to Qatar.

He’d persuaded an American think tank, Foundation for Defense of Democracies, to stage an anti-Qatar conference. Broidy wrote Nader that his plan included the commission of 200 articles assigned to the foundation and other think tanks. Mark Dubowitz, the foundation’s CEO, later said that Broidy assured him the funding was not coming from a foreign government and that he had no contracts in the Gulf.

On April 21, 2017, Broidy sent Nader the draft of an Op-Ed to show the impact of his campaign. It was marked “Confidential.”

Three days later, “The Two Faces of Qatar, a Dubious Mideast Ally” was published in The Wall Street Journal. The opinion piece, co-written by retired Air Force Gen. Charles Wald, who had been the deputy head of U.S. European Command, called for moving U.S. military assets from the al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar. “The United Arab Emirates would be a logical destination,” wrote Wald.

What readers did not know was that Wald was listed in company documents as a member of Broidy’s Circinus team that was pitching contracts in Saudi Arabia.

Wald denies having worked for Broidy but Broidy's leaked emails refer to Wald more than a dozen times and a source for the piece contradicted Wald's claim. The conference was scheduled to happen tomorrow by the way.

I'll hit on one more thing here which is how they funneled money to pay for some of this illegal activity:

At Nader’s request, $2.5 million was channeled in two installments from his company in the UAE through a Canadian company called Xiemen Investments Limited, which someone familiar with the transaction said was run by one of Broidy’s friends. The money was then routed to a Broidy account in Los Angeles. The transaction had the effect of obfuscating that the money for the political work in Washington had come from Nader in the UAE.

The story doesn't end here. Today in the Daily Beast:

Elliott Broidy’s Company Got Its Biggest U.S. Government Contract Ever While He Pitched Trump Administration

Also during the pair’s lobbying blitz in the fall of 2017, Broidy’s company received its largest payouts to date from the federal government on contracts it had been seeking to secure for years, The Daily Beast has learned.

The company, a Virginia-based security firm called Circinus LLC, is owned by Broidy and has secured at least $800 million in foreign defense contracts since Trump took office. All of those payouts came after Broidy reportedly worked his contacts in D.C.—including Trump—to advocate for positions favorable to the countries that Circinus now lists as clients.

In addition to its newfound international fortune, Circinus received Defense Department payments totalling more than $4 million in August and September 2017, the largest in the company’s history, a review of available contracts found.

Here it looked like Cohen was bad. Broidy makes him look like a layabout slack ass of a influence peddler. This was published last month in the The Intercept but I hadn't seen it or seen it here on ATS.

Of course, there's a Russian connection because... I dunno, there always is.

Trump Fundraiser Offered Russian Gas Company Plan to Get Sanctions Lifted for $26 Million

Shortly after President Donald Trump was inaugurated last year, top Republican fundraiser Elliott Broidy offered Russian gas giant Novatek a $26 million lobbying plan aimed at removing the company from a U.S. sanctions list, according to documents obtained by The Intercept.

Unlike with his scheme with pedo Nader, in this case Broidy, eager beaver of the DC swamp, wasn't looking to get paid in contract for his Circinus but rather for services rendered by a company he'd formed, Fieldcrest Advisors.

Broidy proposed a one-time fee of $500,000 to Fieldcrest, followed by monthly payments starting at $300,000 and eventually rising to $500,000. He proposed an additional monthly $300,000 for “attorneys, lobbyists, experts and other consultants that Fieldcrest Advisors will recommend.” The documents include a chart estimating the expenses for the next three years:

In February 2017, Broidy sent a draft of the plan by email to attorney Andrei Baev, then a Moscow- and London-based lawyer who represented major Russian energy companies for the firm Chadbourne & Parke LLP. Baev had already been communicating with Novatek about finding a way to lift U.S. sanctions.

Broidy proposed arranging meetings with key White House and congressional leaders and generating op-eds and other articles favorable to the Russian company, along with a full suite of lobbying activities to be undertaken by consultants brought on board. Yet even as he offered those services, Broidy was adamant that his company, Fieldcrest Advisors LLC, would not perform lobbying services but would hire others to do it. He suggested that parties to the deal sign a sweeping non-disclosure agreement that would shield their work from public scrutiny.

This one dates back to before the election:

Baev was introduced to Broidy in October 2016, before Trump was elected. At the time, Broidy was serving as a top fundraiser for the Trump campaign; he would later become vice chair of Trump’s inaugural committee before transitioning to his most recent position at the RNC.

Broidy began sharing drafts of his lobbying plan with Baev by December. That month, he also sent Baev a Wall Street Journal article headlined “France Poised for Pro-Russia Pivot.”

At some point, it looks February, Broidy got around to asking a lawyer about the legality of this plan for which he had a whole 25-step road map laid out. The lawyer informed him that not registering as a foreign agent would make it illegal and that in fact, the 25-step road map could in fact be criminal in of itself as "strategic advice."

At the same time, it was not looking good for any effort to get Russian sanctions lifted and the it appears that this deal ended up falling apart. Of course, as we now know, the scheme with Nader was in full swing by March.

I wasn't intending this to be this long when I started. I had already put together some background info on Elliott Broidy and George Nader along with a very brief section on the very basics of the dynamics at work with Qatar and in others in the Persian Gulf region. There's links in there related to two other similar schemes by Broidy. One involving Malaysia and the Goldman Sachs and the other with sanctioned Russian bank VTB which is being investigated in Ukraine.

Here's the background I put together. It's unfortunately two posts worth.

Elliott Broidy

If from nowhere else, you'll probably recognize Elliott Broidy's name from the recent revelations that like Trump, Broidy used Cohen to pay hush money to a woman with which he'd had an affair — $1.6 million to a former Playboy playmate (Shera Bechard) whose tryst with Broidy resulted in a pregnancy,, an abortion and an NDA. You can read my thread here for more about that.

Not only did Broidy and Trump share Trump's fixer, they also shared an alias in the NDAs, "David Dennison." Or did they? There's a theory growing popularity that Broidy actually paid for and took the fall for a relationship between Donald Trump and Shera Bechard.

Following that breaking in the news, Broidy and (later) Cohen were both out as RNC finance chairs. That's not actually the first time Broidy held and lost that position. The prolific Republican fundraiser and all around agent of corruption was an RNC finance chair from 2006-2008. That was until Broidy was revealed to have bribed the NY comptroller and others for access for his investment firm to the New York State Common Retirement Fund. He pleaded guilty in 2009 and later had for some inexplicable reason (being a wealthy corrupt elite), that conviction was later knocked down to a misdemeanor.

As it turns out, Trump also gave biggly to the same corrupt people that Broidy pleaded guilty to bribing. You can read more about that in my thread here.

Broidy was a vice-chairman of the Trump Victory Committee, the joint Trump-RNC fundraising committee led by Reince Priebus, Steve Mnuchin and Lew Eisenberg. He made frequent visits to meet with Trump at Mar-a-lago during the campaign.

Broidy also curiously prov ided input to Jeff Sessions on US Attorney selections, using the email [email protected]. Not that he has any particular qualifications for this aside from being a criminal and dumping boat loads of corrupt money into politics to buy influence.

A lot of what has been recently exposed started when somebody hacked Broidy's email and shared them with a number of news outlets including WSJ, NYT and the AP. Broidy blames the government of Qatar, who he is suing.

Elliot Broidy has also been exposed as having had a $75 million deal in the works (along with his wife) to influence Trump to apply pressure to get the FBI to drop a probe into corrupt dealings between Goldman Sachs and the the state-run 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). Finally, he's being investigated in Ukraine over a deal with sanctioned Russian bank VTB.


George Nader

George Nader was born in Lebanon and moved to the United Sates as a teenager, becoming a citizen. In the early 80's he started a ME foreign policy magazine called "Middle East Insight" which was published until 2002.

He first started hanging around DC during the Reagan administration and by the administration of Bush 41, he was working on efforts to get American hostages freed from Lebanon following the Iran-Contra Affair, acting as a go between for the US and a Lebanese Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah. It has also been reported that during the Clinton years, he worked with Ronald Lauder (Estee Lauder heir) on a possible Israeli-Syrian peace plan, though there's no evidence of involvement by the government.

After the invasion of Iraq, Nader went to work for Erik Prince at Blackwater, brokering deals with the Iraqi government.

More recently, Nader has been living in the UAE where he is an advisor to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (aka MBZ), CP of Abu Dhabi, Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE's Armed Forces and de facto leader of the UAE.

It is in this capacity that Nader has repeatedly shown up in a SLEW of shady meetings alongside Broidy and Erik Prince which have made him something of a fixture in Trump World.

And if you were amazed by Elliott Broidy's ability to keep swimming in the swamp despite his criminality, you'll be really shocked Nader's history:

But before he reemerged as a Middle East power broker, the onetime publisher of a niche foreign policy magazine accrued a record of criminal charges. In 1985, federal authorities charged Nader for importing sexually explicit materials, including magazines and pictures that depicted “nude boys,” and other materials showing boys “engaged in a variety of sexual acts,” according to federal court records. The case was dropped shortly before trial. And in 2003 he was convicted on 10 counts of sexually abusing underage boys in the Czech Republic, the AP reported Thursday. Nader served one year in prison abroad for those charges.

Qatar-Saudi Arabia

Qatar is a tiny country on a tiny peninsula jutting off the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, sharing its only border with Saudi Arabia.

Despite it's small size, Qatar has the highest per capita income of any nation in the world. This is because Qatar is the world's third largest producer of natural gas which comes from the South Pars/North Dome, the world's largest gas field. It shares this field with Iran which makes for a really good reason to maintain friendly relations with Iran.

At the same time, it's basically a little nub off of Saudia Arabia which has historically exerted a lot of political pressure on Qatar, lessened since its NG wealth has enabled Qatar to get out from under the Saudi's thumb. It also happens that Iran is Saudia Arabia's principal regional rival. The rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia is at the heart of regional politics. Also playing a significant role is their relationships to the US.

Among these Persian Gulf countries, there's lots of mud slinging. Basically they're friends and frenemies and most of them are US allies except they're all supporters of and home to terrorists. Also, they all have horrible records of human rights violations. None of which seems to give them pause in the finger pointing which really masks underlying power struggle which has been manifested in the proxy Yemeni civil war.

This is what primarily underlies the recent Qatar diplomatic crisis and recent blockade. Qatar is notably important for the US as it's home to the Al Udeid Air Base, forward HQ of the United States Central Command and HQ of the United States Air Forces Central Command. It's also used by the RAF. It was built for us by the Qataris at a price of about $1 billion. It's been used for staging operations in the 2003 Iraq Invasion and subsequently for the anti-ISIS coalition. There are more than 10,000 US troops and 100 aircraft at the base.

Interesting Trump-related items:

US Administration Does About-face on Saudi-led Blockade of Qatar (my thread)

Cohen Alleged to Have Asked for Millions from Qatari to 'Pass to Trumps' (my thread)

Kushners Near Deal With Qatar-Linked Company for Troubled Tower (last week, NYT)

If I get a chance, I'm going to plot whatever I can find on a timeline to see if there's any significant correlation between these influence efforts and foreign policy beyond the superficial fawning over Saudi Arabia and Qatari cold shoulder treatment.

a reply to: theantediluvian

LOL - too late she cried, guess what will dominate the ATS/twitter boards for the next 48hrs.....

the deep state, the president and the power seekers....

I took the time to read through.
So, this is probably the closest to something a bit off, but can you explain why this is not an example of lobbying that goes on in Washington?
You mentioned Trump in the headline. Is there any evidence he did anything wrong?

So, we're just gonna act like the Russia/Trump bull# ya'll were neck deep in didn't happen...and just move on to this? Just like that?

Really?

originally posted by: UKTruth
I took the time to read through.
So, this is probably the closest to something a bit off, but can you explain why this is not an example of lobbying that goes on in Washington?
You mentioned Trump in the headline. Is there any evidence he did anything wrong?

Of course not. Once you see the avatar you know it's a long rant about basically nothing and a waste of time.

a reply to: Sublimecraft

What does this have to do with the OP?

Definitely sounds like these two are shady lobbyists.

I hope they are charged with not filing properly, as should all foreign lobbyists be charged that do not file.

originally posted by: theantediluvian
a reply to: Sublimecraft

What does this have to do with the OP?

a lot of work on an excellent post....but it's AGAINST trump, so the trump voters don't care what you said.

originally posted by: jimmyx

originally posted by: theantediluvian
a reply to: Sublimecraft

What does this have to do with the OP?

a lot of work on an excellent post....but it's AGAINST trump, so the trump voters don't care what you said.

Lets just get this on the record from the op.

Hey ante, is this post accusing trump of any criminal wrong doing?

Star and flag, will digest all this later

originally posted by: theantediluvian
a reply to: Sublimecraft

What does this have to do with the OP?

Simple - your OP sucks and is way too long and frankly, boring - at the other end of the spectrum, my post is awesome and has lots of colours and a link - the real question is: do you hear Obama or Hillary?

originally posted by: schuyler

originally posted by: UKTruth
I took the time to read through.
So, this is probably the closest to something a bit off, but can you explain why this is not an example of lobbying that goes on in Washington?
You mentioned Trump in the headline. Is there any evidence he did anything wrong?

Of course not. Once you see the avatar you know it's a long rant about basically nothing and a waste of time.

Ummm...can I high five you...?







YouSir

a reply to: theantediluvian

Another BOMBSHELL. LOL.

Man this must be Mandela Effect because I could have sworn bombshells were something different. Instead it appears bombshells are actually many topics tangentially related to the object of ones scorn.

More BOMBSHELLS incoming soon I'm sure.

a reply to: UKTruth

I took the time to read through. So, this is probably the closest to something a bit off, but can you explain why this is not an example of lobbying that goes on in Washington?

Well there's a number of things:

1. First off, this is illegal foreign lobbying. Not only was it illegal, but he knew for a fact that it was and he took steps including funneling money through another company to avoid detection.

2. Isn't this exactly what people were calling for an end to when they chanted "drain the swamp?" I'm totally against foreign lobbying when it's legal and I know that partisanship aside, a lot of people are and I assume that includes Trump supporters.

3. This is one of the only examples I can think of demonstrable direct lobbying of the President by foreign governments.

4. The fact that it's another example of a paid lobbyist generating an op-ed published in major outlet (WSJ) is of interest. That's something I think we can all agree is also shady af.

5. The whole thing is interesting in terms of geopolitics and what's going on inside the halls of power in DC. We've got the UAE and Saudis using Broidy to get in the President's ear (and ALL this other stuff) to influence American foreign policy against Qatar. Meanwhile, Qatar is trying to get an in with the administration through Bannon and Cohen is trying to get them to pony up a million for him to get in Trump's ear.

You mentioned Trump in the headline. Is there any evidence he did anything wrong?

Trump is in the title because he owns this just like it's "Obama's this" and "Obama's that." This isn't some random coffee boy that he he wouldn't recognize by sight. He knows Broidy. Mnuchin knows Broidy. Both are well aware of his conviction for bribing some of the same people that imo Trump bribed.

This is not draining the swamp. This is bringing your own swamp creatures with you.

And there's the stuff with Jeff Sessions. What's *that* about? And let's not forget that both Broidy and Cohen were RNC finance vice chairs (and Wynn was the Finance Chair). These are all positions with the national party that they were given because of their associations with Trump.

If it helps, replace "Trump" with "Obama."

originally posted by: theantediluvian
a reply to: UKTruth


1. First off, this is illegal foreign lobbying. Not only was it illegal, but he knew for a fact that it was and he took steps including funneling money through another company to avoid detection.

From reading your article, I totally agree.

2. Isn't this exactly what people were calling for an end to when they chanted "drain the swamp?" I'm totally against foreign lobbying when it's legal and I know that partisanship aside, a lot of people are and I assume that includes Trump supporters.

I am with you totally. I dont care what side the lobbysists breaking the law are on. This needs to be charged and ended.

3. This is one of the only examples I can think of demonstrable direct lobbying of the President by foreign governments.

Two things (one snarky and partisan and the other common knowldege)

First, had the msm been doing their work like this for the past 8 years, perhaps we would have seen more info like this.

Secondly, it seems pretty obvious that incindents like this would have happened before. I will dig to see if I can find direct examples.

4. The fact that it's another example of a paid lobbyist generating an op-ed published in major outlet (WSJ) is of interest. That's something I think we can all agree is also shady af.

Yep, agree again.

5. The whole thing is interesting in terms of geopolitics and what's going on inside the halls of power in DC. We've got the UAE and Saudis using Broidy to get in the President's ear (and ALL this other stuff) to influence American foreign policy against Qatar. Meanwhile, Qatar is trying to get an in with the administration through Bannon and Cohen is trying to get them to pony up a million for him to get in Trump's ear.

Yep, one of the things I have been critical of trump of is continuning (albeit in sometimes not as a direct as manner) in ME affairs. Everyone on all sides are corrupt and peddling influence to politicians on both sides.

Now am I saying trunp did something illegal? Nt at all. But hey, draining the swamp to me means getting rid of this shady type of lobbying, and this story shows to me trump has a lot of work to do.

Trump is in the title because he owns this just like it's "Obama's this" and "Obama's that." This isn't some random coffee boy that he he wouldn't recognize by sight. He knows Broidy. Mnuchin knows Broidy. Both are well aware of his conviction for bribing some of the same people that imo Trump bribed.

This is not draining the swamp. This is bringing your own swamp creatures with you.

I agree. Another criticism of mine has been trump is surrounding himself with some awfully swampy people if he really wants to drain it.

Now I dont think I would fault Obama or trump or hillary etc. for merely taking a meeting. If he took the meeting becuase he knew these people were donating money to him or something, then that is a bigger deal.

originally posted by: projectvxn
So, we're just gonna act like the Russia/Trump bull# ya'll were neck deep in didn't happen...and just move on to this? Just like that?

Really?

Why do you think that's something to say? Particularly to me?

I have never claimed that Donald Trump conspired with the Russians. In fact, I have been very very clear since the jump that if anyone did, I would expect it to be Manafort. In fact, he was at the very least attempting to conspire with his Russian pals, likely against Trump in that he even more than a person like Broidy, Manafort had Trump's ear and he was clearly trying to peddle influence over Trump.

The thing I'm awaiting from the Mueller probe most is actually some indictments for the hacking. I don't expect them to uncover Trump conspiring with the Russians and I've never said that I did.

If you're going to try to derail my thread, could you at least do me the favor of not repeating the same "what about Russia?" line that dozens of your peers have posted for the same reason? Be creative.