Investigators probe European travel of Trump associates

[DonViejo]

Source: Politico




Questions linger about 2016 trips by Donald Trump Jr., Carter Page, Michael Cohen and other Trump associates.

By JOSH MEYER 12/06/2017 05:06 AM EST

Congressional investigators are scrutinizing trips to Europe taken last year by several associates of President Donald Trump, amid concern they may have met with Kremlin-linked operatives as part of Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Several people close to then-candidate Trump visited Europe during and after the campaign, including his son Donald Trump Jr., Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and foreign policy advisers Carter Page, George Papadopoulos and Jeffrey Gordon. Their known destinations include London, Paris, Budapest and Athens. But their explanations of those trips have not always been forthcoming, and some congressional investigators find their stories suspect.

When a House Intelligence Committee member asked Page last month about his end-of-summer 2016 visit to Budapest, for instance, Page initially said he “did a lot of sightseeing and went to a jazz club. Not much to report.”

Under further questioning, Page admitted to meeting with a Hungarian government official who some congressional investigators suspect is an intelligence officer and cryptically offered that “there may have been one Russian person passing through there.”

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/06/trump-europe-russia-travel-281134

[tanyev]

1. Ooh, don't forget Ivanka and Jared's vacay to Croatia in August 2016.

Confirmed: Rybolovlev's Jet & Yacht were in Dubrovnik the same time as Ivanka and Jared Kushner

Remember when Ivanka Trump and Jarred Kushner went to Dubrovnik, Croatia this past summer? Remember how they met up with Wendy Deng and David Geffen for relaxation and sightseeing? Was that some kind a distraction (aka maskirovka) for something more nefarious, knowing the media would cover them along side Deng and Geffen? Did Russian oligarch, Demitry Rybolovlev, meet up with Kushner at some point? Another diarist wrote a diary about Rybolovlev being Putin’s courier. I think they were on to something. Several others have also written similar diaries about Trump’s connection to Rybolovlev. What was he doing in Croatia the same time that Ivanka and Kushner were there? Sightseeing? Show me the pics. He’s well known.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/3/17/1644558/-Confirmed-Rybolovlev-s-Jet-Yacht-were-in-Dubrovnik-the-same-time-as-Ivanka-and-Jarred-Kushner

[neohippie]

2. I hope someone investigates Budapest

There were stories about Trump and Russia in this blog that deserve investigation

the connection between the Russian secret services and the Trump campaign is not a direct one. It did not run through the Russian embassy in the US or through the spies that have been expelled by Obama. It did not run through New York City or Moscow, or in conversations between campaign staff and the Russian ambassador to the US. It ran through Budapest, which is the European Headquarters of Putin’s FSB. Budapest was the „bridge” between the Trump campaign and the Russian secret service.

Some of our evidence is well known. It is known, for example, that the Russians and the Trump campaign had identical strategic interests. They both wanted to position Hillary Clinton as a „crooked and untrustworthy” candidate. What has not been known, up to now is, that the unacknowledged architect of this grand strategy was the notoriously secretive Arthur J. Finkelstein, a long time New York associate of Donald Trump, going back to the Roy Cohen days.

http://hungarianfreepress.com/2017/04/13/the-budapest-bridge-hungarys-role-in-the-collusion-between-the-trump-campaign-and-the-russian-secret-service/


http://hungarianfreepress.com/2017/04/14/the-budapest-bridge-hungarys-role-in-the-collusion-between-the-trump-campaign-and-the-russian-secret-service-part-2/

Finkelstein spent most of his time during the Trump campaign in Budapest, off the publicly disclosed campaign payroll. Until recently, and parallel to his “hidden” role in the campaign, he was in virtually daily contact with Hungary’s pro-Russian prime minister. Leakage of the hacked documents, according to our sources was coordinated through Budapest, the European HQ of the FSB, and with Orbán’s knowledge. It is Orbán’s personal ties to the players on “The Budapest Bridge”, that makes him a liability now in the White House. He is drawing too much heat, as the Congressional investigations begin to cast a wider net. Orbán was hoping for an early visit with Trump, as a token of the American President’s gratitude. With the Congressional investigations under way, plans have changed. In a fit of anger, Mr. Orbán recalled his Ambassador to Washington, Réka Szemerkényi.

We have learned that the London based joint company, set up by Finkelstein and Habony at the start of the Trump campaign (Danube Business Consulting Ltd) played an important role in the transfer of the hacked documents to Assange and Wikileaks. We suggest that apart from Finkelstein, his American consulting partner in Hungary, George E. Birnbaum, and Finkelstein’s Hungarian affiliate, Árpád Habony, Tamás Lánczi, the CEO of Danube Business Consulting should all be questioned under oath. The financial records of the company should be scrutinized, with the assistance of the Scotland Yard. But the net should involve all the players we have named in our first installment.

http://hungarianfreepress.com/2017/04/21/the-budapest-bridge-epilogue/

The genius of Arthur J. Finkelstein, Viktor Orbán, Donald Trump, Roy Cohn, Árpád Habony, Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, Rebekah Mercer, Sebastian Gorka (hope I didn’t misspell anybody’s name) and all of the characters on the Budapest Bridge derives from their recognition, that what made Homo Sapiens the last of the surviving human species, is their preference for fictional rather than factual language. It is this knowledge of what is our species’ communications default setting, and the ability to act on this knowledge, that enabled the Donald to win the 2016 US elections. The Budapest Bridge was just one of the places where some of the nitty gritty activities were outsourced by this bunch, to keep the news hounds and the FBI at bay.

[Sunlei]

3. Nigel Farage "person of interest" to FBI, IMO is a go between for the Republicans mess.

IMO, IMO, IMO.

[Sunlei]

4. adding not with russia, meet-ups with stolen file fence Mr Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy

Caught by a media photographer-meeting with Mr Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy, photo caught by media as he exited the embassy.

And then visiting with Republican buddies.

[DFW]

5. "There may have been one Russian person passing through there?"

WTF??? There are thousands of Russians "passing through" Budapest.

If Page noticed "one Russian," it probably NOT some guy ordering goulash and booking a leisurely Danube cruise with his family. It was THE Russian Page had gone to Budapest to meet with. Otherwise, he would not have mentioned that there "may have been one Russian passing through there," unless he meant the one he had flown there to meet with in the first place.