Trump Administration Admits It Cribbed Forbes Magazine To Create Oligarch List

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Source: BuzzFeed

Posted on January 30, 2018, at 10:03 a.m.
John Hudson
BuzzFeed News Reporter

The striking similarity between a newly-released Treasury Department report of Russian oligarchs and a 2017 list of wealthy Russians published in Forbes Magazine is no coincidence.

On Tuesday, a Treasury Department spokesperson confirmed to BuzzFeed News that the unclassified annex of the report was derived from Forbes’ ranking of the “200 richest businessmen in Russia 2017.”

The revelation is likely to invite criticisms of the thoroughness of the Treasury Department’s report and reinforce the notion that the list is primarily a who’s who of Russian elite rather than an official accounting of Kremlin-linked political corruption as some US lawmakers intended.

Congress mandated the report in a law President Trump grudgingly signed in August. At the time, the president called the legislation “seriously flawed.”

Read more: https://www.buzzfeed.com/johnhudson/trump-administration-admits-it-cribbed-forbes-magazine-to?utm_term=.yiLljqmW41#.ohbpbL3DwZ

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http://www.forbes.ru/rating/342579-200-bogateyshih-biznesmenov-rossii-2017#all_rating

[Gothmog]

1. This is sloppy even for trump

[unblock]

3. i guess there's no downside for him.

i mean, if he throws a few russians who aren't in putin's orbit onto the list, that's not likely to bother putin....

[Hortensis]

6. The career bureaucrats who put this together were

believed to be doing a thorough job by those keeping an eye on this.

Btw, we can expect efforts to discredit this and them. There was concern that Trump would classify most or all the list to protect the people on it--and all the other very wealthy people socializing and doing business with them--from embarrassment and scrutiny.

[unblock]

2. these guys are clowns when it comes to actual government work.

but then, that's the point.

they're focused on spin, image, dirty tricks, maligning perceived enemies, grifting, shoring up with power, covering up their crimes, etc.

doesn't leave much time for actual governance.

[Freethinker65]

4. Blame it on Meridith McIver

[rzemanfl]

5. They should be spanked. n/t