New Report Ryan and Mcconnell took millions from Russian oligarch tied to Putin

[Maraya1969]

If McConnell and Ryan are indicted along with Trump and Pence does a Democrat get to be president?


http://washingtonjournal.com/2017/08/04/new-report-reveals-mcconnell-ryan-took-millions-russian-oligarch-tied-putin/

A series of top Republican elected officials have just been exposed for accepting outsized donations from one of the world’s richest men, Leonid “Len” Blavatnik. Blavatnik is a Ukrainian-born businessman whose fortune comes from owning a company purchased by Putin’s Rosneft, the state-run Russian oil company cited in the infamous Russian “pee tape” dossier.

Americans have asked why Congressional Republicans continued to defend President Trump’s secret relationship with Putin and their collision in last year’s elections, and these massive Super PAC donations could help explain why.

The Dallas News just issued a stunning report based on public records recently uncovered by the Democratic Coalition, that the Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Senate Majority leader McConnell have taken a Putin-connected billionaire Blavatnik’s cash:

--------

Donald Trump and the political action committees for Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Lindsey Graham, John Kasich and John McCain accepted $7.35 million in contributions from a Ukrainian-born oligarch who is the business partner of two of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s favorite oligarchs and a Russian government bank.

[brush]

1. They're all dirty. It's all coming out now.

[TheDebbieDee]

57. Most of the republicans are dirty!

Why else would they allow Trump and the Russians to get away with rigging/stealing the republican primaries?!?!

[FakeNoose]

60. This CANNOT be surprising to anybody on DU

...we've been seeing this info hinted all along since a year ago.

[ProudLib72]

2. Supposedly, some repukes already wanted McTurtle's resignation

Hopefully, this new report will add enough pressure to make that inevitable. I would LOVE to see McTurtle and The Granny Killer resign in shame.

[FakeNoose]

61. Totally agree, but it doesn't work that way

Until the GOP members of Congress are convinced that it's in their best interest to get rid of these guys, they'll never buck they current leadership.

[madaboutharry]

3. 4th in line is Orrin Hatch.

[politicat]

6. Of the potentials, he's the first I don't actively curse.

I don't like him, don't trust him, think he would be icky, but...

There's a Mormon Culture prophecy about "the One Mighty and Strong." It gets used for a lot of nefarious bullshit, from Mormon fundamentalism motivated murder, to propelling self-aggrandizing, easily convinced dolts to run for office, but in recent years, it's been interpreted to mean a successful LDS president. Jon Huntsman was never going to get it applied to him (too close to cultural Mormon in name only) but Romney was a contender for it. It's never been applied to Hatch, certainly not as a caretaker in a dead engine, being towed administration. Hatch would not be re-elected; too many in the R base still think of Mormons as heretics.

I'd really like that prophecy to be nailed closed and ignored, and getting their first president by technicality would take a lot of power from that nonsense.

And Hatch is relatively clean for a Republican. (Which means the mud will wash out with enough Tide and hot water.)

[thesquanderer]

13. Hatch...

[canetoad]

14. No, this mud is sticky

If he ends up in the *Chair, his tenure is soiled by association.

[politicat]

35. *This* mud is sticky. Hatch's previous mud is relatively washable.

Anybody who ends up caretaking is ruined. I want Hatch in part because I want him ruined, and Hatch means Pence and Ryan are rocking their new orange duds, and Hatch keeps Tillerson out. After Tillerson is Mnuchin, then Mattis, who is my next okay, this isn't immediately lethal. But after Mattis, there's a whole line of crooks, liars, thieves and dolts, until we get to Rick Perry, who is all of the above. Yeah.

So I despise and loathe Orrin Hatch, but he's the least awful in the upper 1/3 of the succession list. He doesn't wank to Altas Shrugged or Deuteronomy, he's been in elected government for more than a hot minute, and he has beliefs and morals. I may disagree with them, but this is my Hamiltonian endorsement of Jefferson over Burr - I disagree with everything he stands for, but he stands for something.

[Corvo Bianco]

40. After a lifetime immersed in mormonism

I have to say you underestimate the power of their "prophecies". If a Mormon president is brought about "technically" that will make no difference to them. It will be a sign from on high, it will energize them and with childlike servitude the members will be "spiritually guided" to double down on spreading Joseph Smith's pedophile gospel throughout the world, all of which I'm not a fan. I hope a Mormon never gets into office.

[Maraya1969]

48. Oh gag me.

Hopefully, some journalists can do a little more investigating and find that he is also getting money from the Russians.

At what point do they just drop the party and give it back to the party that actually won the election?

You don't have to answer because I know it is most likely never.

[WheelWalker]

4. Now don't tease, please...

[Wellstone ruled]

5. Something we all must be aware of,

yesterday,Ryan had a comment about Suppressing the Vote if he did not get his Legislative Agenda approved. Understand the speech was in Wisconsin.

[BigmanPigman]

12. What does he mean by that?

[Wellstone ruled]

50. Pretty obvious.

Ryan and McConnell have been very subtle about the money and other means to win in 2018. Pretty much,we are going to pull out all the stops,and by the way we count the votes.

[procon]

7. All 435 seats in the U.S. House are up for election in 2018.

It would be the perfect storm if the FBI investigation was concluding next summer and then indictments going out just before the election. That would put the Dems back in the majority with a new House Speaker and that would be a game changer in the line of succession. That's my fantasy anyway.

[Generic Other]

9. If they get away with this

we can no longer pretend that everything is fixable.

[C Moon]

11. I don't even think we've fixed any of the voting issues. It's not even being talked about.

There's a lot that has to be done.
We need to go back to paper ballots. Although, there's the "hanging chad" issue there, as well.

[madokie]

22. We have paper ballots

check the box, no hanging chads shit,, But, but we have electronic vote counting machines and thats just as bad as the black boxes in my book

[Achilleaze]

29. There will be a massive, unrelenting KGOP propaganda projection storm

The KGOP has been working at the gaslighting and projections steadily, sytematically for some time. As the noose tightens around their TraitorWeasel throats, they will ramp it up to an insane level: fake investigation, Dems are actually the traitors, Hillary's emails, Comey and Mueller are Dem stooges out to deprive the "real republican america" of its cherished "family-values" role model, Comrade Casino, the republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief. etc. etc. ad nauseum,

Over and over and over, incessantly, at insane-making volume.

[jaysunb]

75. I don't think it will work this time around. Trump has probably been our best hope

in awhile, based on the near universal dislike of him and his party. I suspect there will be a lot of voters at the polls next time around.

[mwooldri]

68. President Nancy Pelosi?

But that would mean indicting Trump and Pence simultaneously... in 2019, and assuming the Democrats take the house.

[Generic Other]

8. Is this a Hail Mary of Friday Recess dumps?

Do they think if they confess now, Father Mueller will let them off with just a few tears of remorse?

They are so calculating and disgusting.

[C Moon]

10. I knew something was up when Lyin' Ryan changed his stance on Trump so suddenly.

It almost looked like someone had a gun to his head: he looked scared.

[malaise]

27. and then he told the ReTHUG leadership to swear to secrecy

when McCarthy told them the Con and the other idiot from California were on Putin's payroll.

Don't you love these great American patriots?

[AJT]

15. I wonder what's going to happen.........oh yeah, nothing.

[ProudProgressiveNow]

16. K&R nt

[barbtries]

17. the corruption runs so deep

in the republican party. they have really made it work for them. i wish i knew that the constitution would win, but they have that shackled now too. scary days.

[lindysalsagal]

18. This is worth hacking election: Putting Tillerson in sec of state, the exxon mobil mogul

Sechin and Putin’s mega-energy merger may have seemed like a “good” strategic deal for Russia, but for Fridman, Vekselberg, Blavatnik and Khan, whose combined net worth now hovers around $55 billion, cashing out of Russia’s most oil-dependent company in the spring of 2013, with West Texas Crude selling at $92 per barrel and Western banks pumping loans into Russia, may go down as the most brilliantly timed profit-taking of the decade. It also may have set off a chain of events in global financial markets that has contributed to the collapse of Russia’s currency, which plummeted 40% against the dollar in 2014. Putin’s state has been thrown into recession.

[lindysalsagal]

19. I sent it to rachel.

Where would we be without her?????

[Maraya1969]

53. Oh yea! Things spread far and wide if she reports on it!

[Achilleaze]

20. republican TreasonWeasels deserve a full measure of justice

they shall live in infamy.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

21. As much as I want this to be true,

A whois search on washingtonjournal.com shows it's a privately registered GoDaddy site, which isn't exactly trustworthy for a news source. Also, the "report" from the Dallas News that they are basing this off of is an opinion piece.

No reliable news source is reporting on this.

[Justice]

23. Its true, reports have been out there for months, just bubbling up to main stream now.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

25. I will believe it when I see it.

Currently only being reported on by unscrupulous sites like the one in the OP and Palmer Report (which is rarely accurate).

[RandomAccess]

41. How many links do you want?

Scott Dworkin has done yeoman's work on this subject, and the info HAS been out there for months. Further, it's mostly or entirely in the public record so you could go do your own search. I'll give you a couple of links -- there are more, and I'm sure I don't have all of them.

McConnell linked super PAC took $2.5 million from a pro-Putin Ukrainian businessman
Scott Dworkin ? @funder
#TrumpLeaks Docs: Mitch McConnell linked super PAC took $2.5 million from a pro-Putin Ukrainian businessman last election cycle #trumprussia
6:58 PM - 21 May 2017

Link to tweet

McConnell linked super PAC took $40,570,000 from 4 of Trump's largest backers

Link to tweet

Over 400 Trump Docs Leaked: Russian Money Tied to McConnell, Cruz, Rubio, McCain, and RNC
http://www.bluedotdaily.com/over-400-trump-docs-leaked-russian-money-tied-to-mcconnell-cruz-rubio-mccain-and-rnc/


Here's a whole Twitter thread w/images:

Link to tweet

[Dr Hobbitstein]

42. I want reputable sources.

Not twitter feeds and unreliable sites like Palmer Report, Blue Dot Daily, or Occupy Democrats.

If it's not being reported on by mainstream, reputable sources, then it either hasn't been verified or it is untrue. I'll wait before I get my hopes up.

[RandomAccess]

43. Good grief, man - ORIGINAL SOURCES aren't good enough?

Okay, you're definitely on your own then.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

54. Hey, go ahead and believe every twitter and blog post

It worked out well for Fitzmas.

All I'm saying is take sites like these with a grain of salt, and wait for corroborating reports from reputable sources. That used to be something DUers prided themselves on.

[RandomAccess]

63. Every twitter?

Perhaps you mean every tweet?

I take it you spend no time there. Pity. It's actually a more vibrant and up to the minute source of news than DU.

I pride myself on being open to a wide range of sources of information and having the discernment to determine which are viable and "good," which are questionable but worth following for the potential info, and which are just bad.

On both Facebook and Twitter, who you follow plus your responses to various tweets determines what kind of content flows through your timeline. Mine includes hard news sources, reliable pundits (e.g., Joy Reid, Jennifer Rubin), activists and activist groups, and people like Scott Dworkin who are 100% good and ahead of mainstream media because they're doing original research and don't have to deal with filters like overly cautious editors afraid of kicking that hornet's nest.

I'm sure your approach works for you, but BOY are you limiting yourself. Your choice, though, and welcome to it.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

70. Fitzmas. Any day now. nt

[Dr Hobbitstein]

71. Also, I'm quite aware of how Twitter works.

But I prefer to read more than 140 characters at a time. Allows for more in depth analysis. I also use facebook. Neither are good (or valid) news sources.

[RandomAccess]

82. With ALL the major news orgs posting there, of COURSE Twitter is a valid news source.

I'm having a little trouble thinking you're all that familiar with it, but I'll let you cling to your self-image as a worldly and oh-so-high-toned consumer of news.

And to repeat myself: And welcome to it.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

84. 24 business hours. Nt

[flying_wahini]

72. I folllow Dworkin on twitter, too. Think he is the real deal. Good source.

[RandomAccess]

83. It's hard not to be the real deal when you've got original source docs

But for some people, that's not good enough.

I have a friend on FB who also insists on "Christian Monitor or ... " I forget what his other main choice is or new, and while that's an analogy rather than a hard rule, he limits himself SO MUCH by clinging to MSM alone. I've also seen him jump all over something similar to a Daily Kos reiteration (with links) of a hard news article, because his purist insistence on "valid" news sources prevents him from even looking at a piece. I call him on it whenever I get the chance.

What I think is going on is that these people don't trust themselves to be able to discern -- or to learn to discern -- when they're being conned or tricked. Shrug. I feel like my own BS detector if fairly well tuned by this time. Not 100% accurate, but strong, and it gives me a LOT of help even with mainstream stories. I'll read something and think to myself, based on years of experience following political news and current affairs, that there's more to the story. Got to be. Naturally, I can't think of any examples at the moment, but there've been plenty. Usually the truth or more of it comes out within a few weeks if not sooner.

It's a valuable skill, IMO, worth developing.

[YCHDT]

32. We need a reliable source not just any source and claims of something

[Girard442]

31. The original source is the Dallas Morning News.

https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2017/08/03/tangled-web-connects-russian-oligarch-money-gop-campaigns

Looked them up on Wikipedia. They're pretty real.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dallas_Morning_News

[Dr Hobbitstein]

38. Right, and I stated that in my post.

It's an OPINION piece in the Dallas Morning News.

[Qutzupalotl]

47. That doesn't mean the facts are made up.

Opinion pieces just give the reporter leeway to characterize the facts. In this case, the facts presented are damning.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

55. I didn't say anything was made up,

but if it IS legit, it will be REPORTED on in reputable mainstream sources, not as an opinon piece in a newspaper or a posting on a questionable blog.

[Qutzupalotl]

81. You didn't have to. Your implication is clear.

The SOURCE is FEC documents in the public record. Why you find that suspect is perplexing.

[politicat]

36. It's all at opensecrets, you just have to search for it.

The writing is following the threads and knitting them into a coherent narrative.

[RandomAccess]

44. I think he's beyond hope on this -- I dunno what he thinks

"credible" entails, but -- for all those people who are out in the poppies believing what others consider "conspiracy theories," he's out in the poppies in the other direction, IMO.

[politicat]

56. Yeah, but other people read posts.

It's not completely shouting into a hurricane.

(Also, it's the Dallas (morning) news. Per Molly Ivins, who worked around it for decades, it tends to put stuff which can be broadly classified as "news that will upset our wealthy, white, republican base" not on the front page. Editorial is actually a good place for that article, given their readership.

[RandomAccess]

64. Notice I didn't say don't post that

I was just shocked at this attitude and trying to commiserate.

Interesting comment about the Dallas paper.

[Justice]

24. Blavatnik also gave straight contributions of $2,700 to loads of candidates - Dem and GOP

Check out campaign money.com and search his name Leonard Blavatnik for the 2016 cycle.

Edited to add - easy to give contribution, he is a US citizen and no one would question it. But Mitch and others who received big bucks would know who gave it. Don't forget that Mitch and Ryan used their PACs to help campaigns - Mitch gave Burr $1 M for his campaign for example.

The issue is whether money was really Blavatnik's or if it was from Russians funneled through him.

[mucifer]

26. I thought the supreme court made it legal for candidates to accept as much money as possible

from foreign interests if it's done through PACs.

I hope I'm wrong.

[Kentonio]

28. Does any force in the country have a chance against the White House, Congress and Senate?

If the heads of all three have their backs against the wall, what chance does Mueller or the FBI really have? If this actually happened and all 4 of them went down, I would maybe start to believe in America as a genuinely free country again, but I'm sure as hell not holding my breath.

[furtheradu]

30. K & R..& thanks!

Pls read, & share!
trump-rusky-republikers all in it, & on Team Mueller's radar. BELIEVE IT.💖

[Squinch]

33. These investigations are ONE way to clean the swamp. Oh, and thanks Citizens United.

Never saw it coming that unlimited money in elections would lead to this kind of corruption. Really, who could have known?



Criminals, all of them.

[WinkyDink]

34. Lenny Blavatnik! Potrzebie High, Class of '67! Fun times.

[BSdetect]

37. You could tell they fucking knew about the election hacking.

[chimpymustgo]

45. Wonder how many Senate and House seats they stole? And WILL steal in 2018?

As some have pointed out - these people are trying to pass such horrible legislation - they don't seem to be worried at ALL about re-election.

[stuffmatters]

74. Their hideously unpopular bills indicate Repugs unworried about fair reelection. Also ? Issa win.

As far as Congress 2016 theft I've been pretty suspicious since Nov of how Doug Applegate "lost" to Darrell Issa by just 1500 votes that came at the end from Orange County. San Diego, which is a pretty bipartisan, Democratic leaning County, went large for Applegate. How did the smaller portion of this district that's in OC out weight Applegate's lead coming out of San Diego County?

Especially since the vote from this whole district went Hillary. Issa is not a liked politician in his district; hard to imagine anyone who voted for Hillary voting for Issa. Especially after Applegate's brilliant ad alerted everybody that Issa voted against
the 911 First Responders.

Issa's final desperate flood of character assassination ads on Applegate's past, messy divorce also was nothing like what we've seen before in political ads in this district. Kind of reeked of this new Repug Russian collaborative Op Research
and was definitely cyber targeted (Cambridge) to The Fundies of OC market. (Funny, The OC is probably the messy divorce capital of the USA, so doubt those old divorce records they dug up had much impact on other OC voters)

[stuffmatters]

76. The Koch's were caught in Ca (2012 Props 30 &32) laundering dark foreign money,n.b ALEC,NRA,AFP, etc

Time to start looking into the slush funding of all Republican anti Democracy organizations...the Kochs, for example, their end game is no different than Putin's.

I deeply suspect that these 501C4 TAXFREE (i.e. we pay instead), secret donor Republican machines(including the Religious Right) major part of their funding and propaganda infrastructure.

[Corvo Bianco]

39. Yayyyyyy

What a sad day that the speaker and majority leader are Russian first.
They better lose their asses. Get em Mueller

[Fatemah2774]

46. Oh just wait till the Special Prosecutor hears this...

As Al Bundy once said, get em now, get em good and then get em again.

I want to see the draining of the swamp while I sing Rubber Duckie with Ernie...let's get clean for thiose orange jumosuits!

[shraby]

49. Scum aren't they?

[sharedvalues]

51. Trump campaign agreed to take illegal Chinese money

This is underreported. From 2016.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/24/exclusive-investigation-donald-trump-faces-foreign-donor-fundrai/

[CrispyQ]

52. I want to see McConnell in an orange jumpsuit even more than Trump. -nt

[Scurrilous]

58. K&R

[Botany]

59. And these guys know that the elections were rigged too.

Treason

[bucolic_frolic]

62. They was smug and smirky and please as punch with themselves over something

you could read it all year long

They made the most of Scalia's demise

[Martin Eden]

65. Can you imagine if Hillary was POTUS and these revelations came out ...

... with Democrats accepting the foreign money when Russia hacked the election in her favor?

[Iggo]

66. I hear Orrin Hatch is the first one in the line of succession

...who didn't take money from the Russians.

And I'm not even sure he didn't.

[SeloverB]

67. Time for Public Funding of our Elections!

Can we stop this crap if we don't?

[riversedge]

77. Would take Courage and Political will, which does not exist.

[burrowowl]

69. May they be caught and convicted

[They_Live]

73. Sometimes

I get bored with being right all the time, but I was right again about this.

Will anyone do anything about it?

[syringis]

78. Depending of which angle you look at it...

...to a certain point, this clownish administration have some coherence. Sort of...

[syringis]

79. Depending of which angle you look at it...

...to a certain point, this clownish administration have some coherence. Sort of...

[guss]

80. Clarity

This makes me understand why they are willing to throw Millions of Americans under the bus.
They Take a Pay Check from American Taxes and Are serving a Foreign entity.