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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBREAKING:Trump Fundraiser illegally received millions of dollars laundered from the UAE
Last edited Mon Mar 26, 2018, 09:57 AM - Edit history (1)
Link to tweet
A top fundraiser for President Donald Trump received millions of dollars from a political adviser to the United Arab Emirates last April, just weeks before he began handing out a series of large political donations to U.S. lawmakers considering legislation targeting Qatar, the UAEs chief rival in the Persian Gulf, an Associated Press investigation has found.
George Nader, an adviser to the UAE who is now a witness in the U.S. special counsel investigation into foreign meddling in American politics, wired $2.5 million to the Trump fundraiser, Elliott Broidy, through a company in Canada, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. They said Nader paid the money to Broidy to bankroll an effort to persuade the U.S. to take a hard line against Qatar, a long-time American ally but now a bitter adversary of the UAE.
A month after he received the money, Broidy sponsored a conference on Qatars alleged ties to Islamic extremism. During the event, Republican Congressman Ed Royce of California, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, announced he was introducing legislation that would brand Qatar as a terrorist-supporting state.
In July 2017, two months after Royce introduced the bill, Broidy gave the California congressman $5,400 in campaign gifts the maximum allowed by law. The donations were part of just under $600,000 that Broidy has given to GOP members of Congress and Republican political committees since he began the push for the legislation fingering Qatar, according to an AP analysis of campaign finance disclosure records.
Broidy said in a statement to AP that he has been outspoken for years about militant groups, including Hamas.
Ive both raised money for, and contributed my own money to, efforts by think tanks to bring the facts into the open, since Qatar is spreading millions of dollars around Washington to whitewash its image as a terror-sponsoring state, he said. Ive also spoken to like-minded members of Congress, like Royce, about how to make sure Qatars lobbying money does not blind lawmakers to the facts about its record in supporting terrorist groups.
While Washington is awash with political donations from all manner of interest groups and individuals, there are strict restrictions on foreign donations for political activity. Agents of foreign governments are also required to register before lobbying so that there is a public record of foreign influence.
Cory Fritz, a spokesman for Royce, said that his boss had long criticized the destabilizing role of extremist elements in Qatar. He pointed to comments to that effect going back to 2014. Any attempts to influence these longstanding views would have been unsuccessful, he said.
In October, Broidy also raised the issue of Qatar at the White House in meetings with Trump and senior aides.
The details of Broidys advocacy on U.S. legislation have not been previously reported. The AP found no evidence that Broidy used Naders funds for the campaign donations or broke any laws. At the time of the advocacy work, his company, Circinus, did not have business with the UAE, but was awarded a more than $200 million contract in January.
The sanctions bill was approved by Royces committee in late 2017. It remains alive in the House of Representatives, awaiting a review by the House Financial Services Committee.
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well this is priceless, no wonder Nader folded and cut a deal.
Vinca
(50,269 posts)Too much real estate sold to Russians that was never occupied and quickly flipped.
leftyladyfrommo
(18,868 posts)ehrnst
(32,640 posts)bucolic_frolic
(43,153 posts)side of the deals. Not a traditional source of illicit money laundering.
where did the funds originate? Oil? or something more sinister?
Wounded Bear
(58,649 posts)I'm pretty sure high end real estate is rife with money laundering. It needs looking into and regulation.
Sure, they're not flipping houses in your neighborhood, but all those high rises? Leasing and buying condos in high rises has been big business for the money launderers of the world.
tanyev
(42,553 posts)Wonder what the military thinks of this?
American armed forces are being put at even greater risk by these traitors.
karynnj
(59,503 posts)Concurrent with giving money (illegally) to Trump, there were stories in 2016 that UAE was working against the efforts in Yemen and Libya to get peace. I read these reports in 2016, because I followed what John Kerry was doing. I used google to get an article that spoke of their interference - especially in Yemen. I do not know anything about this source - https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2017/8/5/uae-thwarting-us-peace-efforts-in-yemen-libya-report
However, included in that article is a link to a strong Washington Post article that contains much of the same information - https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/uaes-drive-for-regional-influence-tests-its-military-alliance-with-the-united-states/2017/08/03/448683ee-6bd2-11e7-abbc-a53480672286_story.html?utm_term=.9992a9193f66
Kerry initiated peace talks in August, November and December. Here is an article about the December attempt with the UK - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-britain-usa/u-s-britain-call-for-immediate-ceasefire-in-yemen-idUSKBN12G0MX
It was the UAE/Saudi side - not Iran and the Huthis - who prevented this from happening.
elehhhhna
(32,076 posts)of it in the ME.
flying_wahini
(6,593 posts)Nah,on second thought; they think they are invincible.
GO Mueller!
dchill
(38,486 posts)AwakeAtLast
(14,124 posts)Afromania
(2,768 posts)It's going to take years upon years to sift through everything this administration has done wrong. They can't seem to go more than a few hours without doing some majorly screwed up junk.
BumRushDaShow
(128,930 posts)all this stuff has been going on for years and years and no office had the amount of resources like they do now, to even try to untangle it. And the longer they avoided tackling it, the more complex and widespread it got.
Ligyron
(7,632 posts)writes3000
(4,734 posts)Dustlawyer
(10,495 posts)Whether it is from foreign governments, the NRA, or an American billionaire, the spigot needs to be turned off permanently!
Publically Funded Elections is what can restore our Democracy.
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)floodgates for secret foreign money in domestic elections! Remember Obama's SOTU when he pointed this out and the stupid Alito shook his head, as if he could never ever imagine such a thing ever happening! Alito and the majority abandoned all pretence of logic and common sense on that one.
When will the fuckers see the light and start to protect democracy and stop attacking it?
Are they all so beholden to Fox?
Sophia4
(3,515 posts)ExciteBike66
(2,357 posts)I would like to know why the tweet states Trump got millions of dollars when it appears it was actually the fundraiser who got it. The story doesn't connect Broidy with Trump except to the extent that Broidy was a fundraiser for Trump at one time (and still is?).
enough
(13,259 posts)The headline makes the actual reporting seem anticlimactic.
Bernardo de La Paz
(49,001 posts)Response to Bernardo de La Paz (Reply #26)
karynnj This message was self-deleted by its author.
writes3000
(4,734 posts)And their foriegn policy decisions were clearly influenced by that.
angrychair
(8,698 posts)He is also a convicted criminal for bribery of NY officials (got reduced to misdemeanor for cooperating to convict the very people he bribed.)
Follow the money!
ExciteBike66
(2,357 posts)Leghorn21
(13,524 posts)by the minute!! Thanks, chair, WOW!
elehhhhna
(32,076 posts)Jarqui
(10,123 posts)Some white supremacist nazis heads are going to explode.
Here's the link to the very detailed report
https://www.apnews.com/e2a2ae7f178e4daf9202be7ef3232628
This is largely a whole new scandal and it all happened on Trump's watch.
I wonder how he'll try to blame Obama for this one?
He better lawyer up .... oops ...
Mr Cohen is a little busy with the FEC trying to hang on to his ability to practice law
Mr Dowd exited stage left with many others who preceded him
diGenova & wife have returned to thumping their wild conspiracy theories on FAUX news
After the past week, he has to consider adding a divorce lawyer ...
What a gong show of a presidency ...
Stormy got it partially right: he needs a good spanking but the venue to get it should be prison.
machoneman
(4,007 posts)get away with all these shenanigans for years and years, long before he even announced?
NewJeffCT
(56,828 posts)how reliable is he?
Cosmocat
(14,564 posts)That may be what Garlin wrote in his Twitter, but it is not what the information says.
Response to sunonmars (Original post)
yuiyoshida This message was self-deleted by its author.
FakeNoose
(32,638 posts)...so why are we calling this UAE money "campaign contributions"?
This is just an out-and-out bribe.
Botany
(70,502 posts)and a UAE Prince in the Seychelles Islands right before Trump's inauguration?
Lock 'em up.
Link to tweet
duforsure
(11,885 posts)Looks like either they're really stupid, or complicit with trump , or both, every day more is learned and exposed, and from now until Nov. this will be happening to them . Their chances of retaining the Senate are lower each day this goes on, and they could lose both the House and the Senate. They know this too. Even if he fires Mueller a lot more will be exposed about what they're involved in, and what they've done to this country selling us out to Russia and others for personal profits. They ended the investigation makes it a lot worse for them now. Democrats need to remind them every day to the media.
NurseJackie
(42,862 posts)Initech
(100,068 posts)It is how we are going to get out of this mess.
dalton99a
(81,485 posts)Wounded Bear
(58,649 posts)I want to see the financials every time for every politician. I wanna know who's paying them to screw up my country.
BTW, that includes Bernie.
IronLionZion
(45,435 posts)since a different Nader has been a spoiler for Dems in the past.
And of course money from UAE, Qatar, and other Sunni countries would explain this administrations hostility towards Shia Iran.
yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)Every American citizen has the right to free speech and the right to vote as specified in the US Constitution.
No one - anywhere on the planet! - should have the right to buy politicians and corrupt our political system enshrined under the cover of the First Amendment!
efhmc
(14,725 posts)nt
dchill
(38,486 posts)Will expelling Russian diplomats help? Let's try that!
Toorich
(391 posts)"This country has long equated democracy with capitalism, capitalism with God."
-Bartholomew Bogue-
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)...to the core. Screw disgusting, degenerate "republican family values." Republicans have adopted the values of Beelzebub. Evil to the core.
SunSeeker
(51,550 posts)zentrum
(9,865 posts)
announced that he was making a huge arms sale to the UAE.
THis is one of the most important stories so far, IMO. I think it's provable.
tclambert
(11,085 posts)calimary
(81,238 posts)Thats an open seat now, ripe for the taking!
red dog 1
(27,797 posts)C_U_L8R
(45,002 posts)Trump had a strategy of soliciting illegal foreign contributions. Tell me why this guy isn't in jail.
LiberalFighter
(50,912 posts)Mopar151
(9,983 posts)As it used to say on raffle tickets.... Several bottles of cheap hooch and sundries to jump-start the party!!!
As the (facts) partiers start to fit together, "shooters" like this break up the normal party chatter, and lead to the A-HA! moments...