Brian Benczkowski, who represented a large Russian bank with ties to Putin, refuses to recuse himself from the Mueller investigation. His appointment to lead DOJ's powerful Criminal Division would imperil that vital effort.
https://twitter.com/SenBlumenthal/status/954035207098851328

Benczkowski nomination must be seen for what it is – the latest piece of a sustained, coordinated effort to undercut the Special Counsel’s credibility. My colleagues should put country before party and vote NO.
https://twitter.com/SenBlumenthal/status/954035208562540550

VIP video & chart. There is a lot of info, but this visual is awesome.
https://twitter.com/JamesFourM/status/954053856710873089

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/954049505451757568
https://twitter.com/LouiseMensch/status/954051750880862208

U.S. Warned Jared Kushner About Wendi Deng Murdoch

Officials said the businesswoman could be trying to further Beijing’s interests, people familiar with the matter say

WASHINGTON—U.S. counterintelligence officials in early 2017 warned Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, that Wendi Deng Murdoch, a prominent Chinese-American businesswoman, could be using her close friendship with Mr. Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, to further the interests of the Chinese government, according to people familiar with the matter.

U.S. officials have also had concerns about a counterintelligence assessment that Ms. Murdoch was lobbying for a high-profile construction project funded by the Chinese government in Washington, D.C., one of these people said.

The project, a planned $100 million Chinese garden at the National Arboretum, was deemed a national-security risk because it included a 70-foot-tall white tower that could potentially be used for surveillance, according to people familiar with the intelligence community’s deliberations over the garden. The garden was planned on one of the higher patches of land near downtown Washington, less than 5 miles from both the Capitol and the White House.

Ms. Murdoch in 1999 married Rupert Murdoch, who is the executive chairman of News Corp, which publishes The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Murdoch filed for divorce in 2013. Ms. Murdoch still uses her married name.

Read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-warned-jared-kushner-about-wendi-deng-murdoch-1516052072

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, January 12, 2018
Former President of Maryland-Based Transportation Company Indicted on 11 Counts Related to Foreign Bribery, Fraud and Money Laundering Scheme

Executive Allegedly Paid Bribes to a Russian Official So His Company Could Win Highly Sensitive Nuclear Fuel Transportation Contracts

An indictment against a former co-president of a Maryland-based transportation company that provides services for the transportation of nuclear materials to customers in the United States and abroad, was unsealed today for his alleged role in a scheme that involved the bribery of an official at a subsidiary of Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation.

Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Acting U.S. Attorney Stephen M. Schenning of the District of Maryland, Principal Deputy Inspector General April G. Stephenson of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General (DOE-OIG) and Assistant Director in Charge Andew W. Vale of the FBI’s Washington, D.C. Field Office made the announcement.

Mark Lambert, 54, of Mount Airy, Maryland, was charged in an 11-count indictment with one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and to commit wire fraud, seven counts of violating the FCPA, two counts of wire fraud and one count of international promotion money laundering. The charges stem from an alleged scheme to bribe Vadim Mikerin, a Russian official at JSC Techsnabexport (TENEX), a subsidiary of Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation and the sole supplier and exporter of Russian Federation uranium and uranium enrichment services to nuclear power companies worldwide, in order to secure contracts with TENEX.

The case against Lambert is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Theodore D. Chuang of the District of Maryland.

According to the indictment, beginning at least as early as 2009 and continuing until October 2014, Lambert conspired with others at “Transportation Corporation A” to make corrupt and fraudulent bribery and kickback payments to offshore bank accounts associated with shell companies, at the direction of, and for the benefit of, a Russian official, Vadim Mikerin, in order to secure improper business advantages and obtain and retain business with TENEX. In order to effectuate and conceal the corrupt and fraudulent bribe payments, Lambert and others allegedly caused fake invoices to be prepared, purportedly from TENEX to Transportation Corporation A, that described services that were never provided, and then Lambert and others caused Transportation Corporation A to wire the corrupt payments for those purported services to shell companies in Latvia, Cyprus and Switzerland. Lambert and others also allegedly used code words like “lucky figures,” “LF,” “lucky numbers,” and “cake” to describe the payments in emails to the Russian official at his personal email account. The indictment also alleges that Lambert and others caused Transportation Corporation A to overbill TENEX by building the cost of the corrupt payments into their invoices, and TENEX thus overpaid for Transportation Corporation A’s services.

In June 2015, Lambert’s former co-president, Daren Condrey, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the FCPA and commit wire fraud, and Vadim Mikerin pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering involving violations of the FCPA. Mikerin is currently serving a sentence of 48 months in prison and Condrey is awaiting sentencing. The indictment includes allegations against Lambert based on his role in effectuating the criminal scheme with Condrey, Mikerin, and others.

The charges in the indictment are merely allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

The case is being investigated by DOE-OIG and the FBI. Assistant Chiefs Ephraim Wernick and Christopher J. Cestaro and Trial Attorney Derek J. Ettinger of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, as well as Assistant U.S. Attorneys David I. Salem and Michael T. Packard of the District of Maryland, are prosecuting the case.

The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs has provided significant assistance in this matter. The Department also thanks its law enforcement colleagues in Switzerland, Latvia and Cyprus for providing valuable assistance with the investigation and prosecution of the case.

The Criminal Division’s Fraud Section is responsible for investigating and prosecuting all FCPA matters. Additional information about the Justice Department’s FCPA enforcement efforts can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal/fraud

Link: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-president-maryland-based-transportation-company-indicted-11-counts-related-foreign

1) BIG NEWS! Remember the whistle blower story that involved Mike Flynn and Alex Copson textin' on Inauguration Day? It involved a bunch of people gettin' rich over a huge deal involving nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia.
https://twitter.com/TeaPainUSA/status/952026925479989250
https://twitter.com/TeaPainUSA/status/952026926503297024
3) ROSATOM is the Russian nuclear company mentioned as part of a consortium deal that Michael Flynn and Alex Copson texted about that would "make a bunch of people very wealthy."

4) Accordin' to the plan, the US military would supply security for 16 nuclear construction sites in Saudi Arabia using Russian nuclear components, but in order for this deal to go thru, the cripplin' Russian Sanctions must be lifted first.

5) Where this gets really interestin' is that ROSATOM's attorney, Scott Balber, is also the lawyer for Agalarov & Kaveladze who was at Don Jr's Trump tower meeting in June 2016. Balber was also formerly the lawyer for Trump and the Miss Universe organization.

6) Remember those mysterious trips Jared Kushner made to Saudi Arabia that went under-reported? To arrange the US military to provide support would require the cooperation of the Commander-in-Chief, Donald J. Trump.

7) Bob Mueller waived decades of prison sentences for Mike Flynn in exchange for important information. Tea believes we are lookin' at a massive "Quid Pro Quo", one of the drivin' motives for Trump to lift Russian Sanctions.

8) The real beauty of this news is that Maryland has jurisdiction over this case and any subsequent indictments involvin' members of the Trump family are free from any Presidential pardon power. This may be the straw that breaks the Tyrant's back!

9) Lastly, it's no coincidence Trump has tried to fabricate a phony Uranium One story involving Mueller, Hillary and Obama, et al. In true Trumpian fashion, Trump projects his own crimes onto his enemies. Watch this one close, folks. It's gonna be a biggie. <eot>