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TRUMP Crime Syndicate-Taliban Owe Trump $200K/FBI Raids Home of Trump Russian Adv
Dizzying Conflict of Interest: Taliban Owes Trump Building More Than $200,000
FBI Raids US Home of Russian Analyst Who Advised Trump in 2016
The Guardian 18 AUG 2024
When the Taliban took over in Afghanistan in 2021, the Middle Eastern nation stopped making payments to one of Donald Trump's buildings, leading to a potential conflict of interest if the ex-president were to win another term, a watchdog reported.
WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 5: U.S. President Donald Trump (C), national security advisor H.R. McMaster (L), White House chief of staff John Kelly (2nd L) and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis (R) attend a briefing with senior military leaders
Former federal corruption prosecutor Noah Bookbinder flagged the report from watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington Saturday.
"We found that Afghanistan owes Trump World Tower over $200,000, highlighting the potential national security risks and Emoluments Clause violations if Donald Trump serves in government again and fails to divest from his businesses," said Bookbinder, who serves as president of CREW.
According to the report, "The government of Afghanistan owes Donald Trump’s Trump World Tower more than $200,000, according to a property lien filed last week with the New York City Department of Finance." It continues: "The debt relates to unpaid charges for a unit in the building across the street from the United Nations, which is popular with foreign governments."
The watchdog notes that, "Afghanistan has not paid for common charges and other fees in the building since March 2022, resulting in a debt of $219,914.75." It adds that, "They do not appear to have missed payments while Trump served as president, but started to miss payments after the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan."
CREW also summarizes how the country bought the unit in Trump World Tower for $4.2 million in 2009, and explains past troubles associated with the tower and its board.
"Donald Trump owns a building and controls a condo board that is owed hundreds of thousands of dollars by a foreign government as he seeks to become president again. This represents a dizzying conflict of interest.
Problematic as it is for Trump to make money from foreign governments, a debt raises the possibility Trump could use the power of the presidency to pursue collection, or seek retaliation," the report concludes.
"Trump’s foreign entanglements are potential Emoluments Clause violations and national security threats if he serves in government again. Afghanistan’s large debt to Trump World Tower is case in point."
FBI Raids US Home Of Russian Analyst Who Advised Trump In 2016
Dimitri Simes, whose name appeared prominently in Mueller report, ‘puzzled and concerned’ by raid in Virginia
FBI agents have raided and searched the Virginia home of Dimitri Simes, an author and policy analyst, who advised Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election campaign and who currently hosts a current affairs program on Russia’s state-run Channel One.
The raid began on 13 August, the FBI told the local Rappahannock News, which first reported the story.
Simes, whose name was included more than 100 times in the 2019 Mueller report into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, told the paper he was out of the country and had not been notified about the search ahead of time. He was not aware he was the focus of any current law enforcement investigation, he said.
“I’m puzzled and concerned,” he said. “I have not seen a warrant. I was not contacted by any law enforcement or anyone else whatsoever.”
In an interview with Russian government-owned Sputnik News, Simes said on Friday that the raid “clearly is an attempt to intimidate, not only somebody from Russia, but just anyone who goes against official policies and particularly against the deep state”.
He added: “My suspicion is that instead of trying to get me to come to the United States and to interrogate me or even to arrest me, their real purpose is to make sure that I would not come back.”
Simes’s son, Dimitri Simes Jr, told Sputnik News that his father has not been in the United States since October 2022.
ALSO READ: Donald Trump deep in debt while foreign money keeps coming: disclosure
FBI Warned Donald Trump In 2016 To Report Russian Overtures
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