Trump’s Accountant Given Use Immunity Before NY Grand Jury Investigating Trump Organization

Above Image: Photoshopped Time cover from Trump’s former lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen. From your imagination to God’s ears, Mikey. The Washington Post has more bad news for “Mafia Don” Trump and his crime family in what has been a very bad week for him on the legal front: Trump’s longtime accountant testifies to N.Y. … Read more

Deutsche Bank whistleblowers flag ‘suspicious activity’ by Trump and Kushner organizations

Anti-money laundering specialists at Deutsche Bank recommended in 2016 and 2017 that multiple transactions involving legal entities controlled by Donald J. Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, be reported — a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) — to the federal financial-crimes watchdog, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). The New York Times reports, Deutsche Bank Staff … Read more

Mystery Mueller grand jury subpoena appealed to SCOTUS again

An unidentified company wholly owned by a sovereign foreign government can proceed in filing a sealed request to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to consider its appeal of a Robert Mueller-linked grand jury subpoena, the court announced Tuesday. Mystery Grand Jury Company Asks SCOTUS To Hear Appeal In Redacted Filing:

A redacted version of the request has been made available to the public. REDACTED Petition For a Writ of Certiorari (.pdf).

The move will allow the unnamed firm – reportedly a financial institution – a chance at winning an appeal before the Supreme Court.

The mysterious company was ordered to file redacted versions of its court papers for the public record.

Little is known about the company in the case in question. A contempt order issued by a lower court that SCOTUS declined to block is forcing the firm to pay a fine of $50,000 per day as long as it refuses to comply with the grand jury subpoena. Today’s redacted filing confirms that the company is “wholly owned” by a foreign state, meaning that it would have no other shareholders.

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Mystery grand jury witness partially revealed in Mueller probe

We now have a few more clues, but the Sealed grand jury appeal hearing in Mueller probe remains a mystery.

POLITICO reports Mueller appears victorious in mystery subpoena dispute:

A federal appeals court on Tuesday ordered a mystery corporation owned by a foreign country to comply with a subpoena that appears to be from special counsel Robert Mueller.

The three-page opinion released by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is the latest twist in an opaque dispute that POLITICO and other media outlets have tied to Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The ruling offers the intriguing detail that the entity fighting the Mueller subpoena is a foreign government-owned company, not a specific individual, as many experts had speculated.

But the ruling also still leaves many important aspects of the fight shielded from public view, including the kind of work done by the company, the name of the country that owns the firm and just what information is being sought. The order also offers no direct confirmation that the matter involves Mueller’s team.

In the opinion, Judges David Tatel, Thomas Griffith and Stephen Williams unanimously sided with a lower federal district court in Washington, which had rejected the company’s attempts to quash the subpoena.

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Release the Kraken, er, Kochtopus!

But of course they did.

The Trump administration has ordered “Release the Kraken er, Kochtopus!” from IRS “dark money” campaign contribution reporting regulations.

Now corporations and wealthy plutocrats are free to operate entirely in the dark, even from the IRS. ‘Dark money’ groups don’t need to disclose donors to IRS, Treasury says:

Nonprofits that spend money to influence elections but are not required to disclose donors to the public — called “dark money” groups by critics — no longer need to share their donors’ names or addresses in their tax filings under a new Treasury rule announced Monday.

The decision was immediately heralded by free-speech corporatist advocates who have long sought to protect donors’ private information. But it was rebuked by those who want to reduce the role of money in politics, who claim it would make U.S. elections more susceptible to anonymous foreign donations.

How significant is the change? Here is what you need to know.

What is this new rule about?

Wealthy donors can give unlimited sums of money to politically active nonprofits registered under sections of the Internal Revenue Service code, without their names or addresses being revealed in the nonprofits’ public tax filings.

There has been a surge of political activity by such nonprofit groups since the 2010 landmark Supreme Court Citizens United decision that allowed corporations to spend unlimited sums on campaigns.

These donors’ names, addresses and donation amounts were previously reported to the IRS, but the IRS would redact the names and addresses for public release.

With this policy change, the organizations will still be required to retain the donor information, but no longer have to submit it to the IRS.

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