Saturday, February 5, 2022
GoFundMe Seizes $10 Million of Trucker Protest Fundraising, Will Give to Charities Instead
Article by Omid Ghoreishi in The Epoch Times
GoFundMe Seizes $10 Million of Trucker Protest Fundraising, Will Give to Charities Instead
GoFundMe says it won’t be giving the C$10 million ($8 million USD) raised to support the truckers protesting COVID-19 mandates to the organizers anymore, saying it will instead work with the organizers to send the funds to “established charities verified by GoFundMe.”
“To ensure GoFundMe remains a trusted platform, we work with local authorities to ensure we have a detailed, factual understanding of events taking place on the ground,” the fundraising platform said in a statement on Feb. 4.
“Following a review of relevant facts and multiple discussions with local law enforcement and city officials, this fundraiser is now in violation of our Terms of Service (Term 8, which prohibits the promotion of violence and harassment) and has been removed from the platform.”
GoFundMe added that it has “evidence from law enforcement that the previously peaceful demonstration has become an occupation, with police reports of violence and other unlawful activity.”
John Carpay, president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) which is providing legal representation for the organizers, told The Epoch Times that the linking of protesters to violent or unlawful activity is unfounded.
“I would like to see what evidence there is,” Carpay said. “That’s political spin.”
Carpay said the organizers have maintained that the protests are peaceful.
“It’s a constitutional freedom to protest peacefully,” Carpay said.
He also said that it’s his understanding from people on the ground that people can move freely in Ottawa, and for example in a recent case an emergency vehicle was able to “rapidly race through the streets because the trucks were neatly parked off to the side.”
“They’re not obstructing the daily lives of people in Ottawa, and they’re committed to peace and non-violence,” he said.
The Epoch Times reached out to GoFundMe for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.
GoFundMe had earlier put a freeze in withdrawal of the funds as it undertook a review “to ensure it complies with our terms of service and applicable laws and regulations.”
Keith Wilson, a lawyer from JCCF representing the organizers, had said earlier at a Feb. 3 press conference that GoFundMe has been “bombarded with an orchestrated social media and other campaigns to try and shut [the fundraiser] down.”
Ottawa police have made a few arrests while the protesters remain in Ottawa. On Feb. 1, the Ottawa Police Service announced that it had charged one man with mischief under $5,000 and another man with carrying a weapon to a meeting. Police charged another man from Quebec while in Ottawa on Feb. 2 in relation to “threats and comments made on social media.” Police say there have been no injuries or riots during the protests.
“I have it on very reliable information that people from the movement were not associated, and that offences related to property damage, and just an assault this morning, committed by agitators were witnessed and reported by a trucker and one of our volunteer security personnel, which was reported to the police and handled by the Ottawa Police Service,” said Daniel Bulford, a former RCMP officer who worked as a sniper to protect the prime minister and is now helping the protest organizers, at the Feb. 3 press conference.
Preliminary data shows there has been a decline in police-reported street crime since the protest began in downtown Ottawa, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.
In the week prior to the protest, there were 31 police calls for crimes such as robbery, assault, drug trafficking, public drunkenness, and other crimes in the Ottawa district the protest is set up, but there were only three reports of street crime since the protests began, Blacklock’s Reporter said.
In a Feb. 4 post on Twitter, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson thanked GoFundMe for “listening to the plea made by the City and the Ottawa Police to no longer provide funds to the convoy organizers.”
“I’m hopeful that limiting their access to … funding and resources will restrict their ability to remain in Ottawa,” Watson said.
GoFundMe had earlier allowed withdrawal of C$1 million by the organizers to be used for expenses such as fuel and food for the protesters. The fundraising platform said in its Feb. 4 statement that donors may submit a request for a full refund of their donation until Feb. 19.
The trucker convoy demonstration initially started as a protest against the federal government’s requirement for truck drivers crossing the U.S.-Canada border to have COVID-19 vaccination, but became a large movement as many across Canada opposing various COVID-19 mandates and restrictions joined the protest.
The convoy converged in Ottawa on Jan. 29, and many protesters have remained in the city, parking their trucks and vehicles by Parliament Hill. Sounds of horn honking by protesters can be heard throughout the day.
The protesters say they will remain in the nation’s capital until the government removes COVID-19 mandates.
The organizers have now set up an alternate donation site on GiveSendGo, which they say will ensure the money gets to the protesters. The donation site had raised over $175,000 in just a few hours after its creation.
How the Left Is Proving the DNC Was Not Hacked by Russia
The more that comes out about the Seth Rich case, the more plausible the “leak” theory becomes, and the more sinister the Clinton campaign and James Comey appear to have been.
The murder of Democratic National Committee employee Seth Rich in July 2016 set off a frenzy of speculation, all related to the claim from Hillary Clinton’s presidential election campaign that WikiLeaks’ release of thousands of DNC emails was the result of Russian hacking. Unfortunately for the political Left, its handling of Rich’s murder over the years has kept its mysteries alive, such that they become ripe for reexamination.
Here is some background: Rich, a 27-year-old DNC staffer, was murdered in the early morning hours of July 10, 2016, shot twice in the back. The police quickly wrote off the killing as a bungled robbery.
On July 22, 2016, a large cache of purloined DNC emails was published by Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks, embarrassing to the Clinton campaign because they showed the DNC had rigged the nomination in favor of Hillary and against Bernie Sanders, darling of the Progressive Left. Defection of Sanders voters, she knew, could cost her the election.
To divert attention, the Clinton Campaign immediately blamed the release onRussian “hacking,” while connecting it to Donald Trump’s weakening of a Republican platform plank against Russian aggression in Ukraine. The seed was being planted for Trump-Russian collusion, a highly successful canard later swallowed whole by a credulous media.
This claim gave birth to a natural response among commonsense conservatives and independents. Perhaps this wasn’t an external “hack” at all, but an internal leak, instigated either by Rich or an associate, and perhaps Rich was killed in retaliation. Or so the hypothesis went.
While far from conclusive, there were three inalterable facts that kept minds open: 1) Rich’s wallet, phone, and $2,000 necklace were not taken; 2) Assange strongly hinted that Rich was a source, while offering a reward, and adamantly stating that Russia was not a source; and 3) the DNC refused to produce its server to the FBI for forensic examination, which would have shown conclusively whether this was an external hack or internal leak.
Unfortunately for those questioning the Russian hack story, aggressive reporters got out over their skis. The Rich family detective, Rod Wheeler, originally suggested that Rich had been in touch with WikiLeaks. After the family became irate with Wheeler, he backtracked, blaming the story on a suggestion from a Fox News reporter. Overeager reporters also latched on to a story that 53,000 emails had been found on Rich’s computer, which turned out to be based on a phony document. With egg on their faces, aggressive journalists retreated.
These flubs allowed the anti-Trump media to jump all over the Rich email hypothesis, yelling that it was “bonkers” and a “conspiracy theory.” Even though this false start was embarrassing, it did not rule out the possibility of a Rich leak of the DNC emails, which, in turn, would pierce the heart of Russian hacking story, which later morphed into “Russian collusion.”
Soon, in May 2017, FBI Director Comey was fired amid screams of Trump obstruction of justice. Robert Mueller was quickly appointed special counsel. Anti-Trumpers were certain the relentless ex-Marine would prove “Russian collusion,” based largely on this supposed Russian “hack.”
Mueller, however, did not deal in any detail with the evidence, either pro or con, of a possible Rich leak. Instead, the Mueller team relied on the “assessment” of the U.S. intelligence community that Russia was “behind the hacking operation.” Given that Obama’s intelligence community did not have the DNC server, it could only make an “assessment”—in essence nothing more than a biased anti-Trump opinion.
Oddly, Mueller never answered the question suggested earlier by Wheeler: Did Rich’s computer show any communication with a WikiLeaks agent? Even more puzzling to the informed audience, the highly aggressive Mueller never subpoenaed the DNC server, which would have put all questions to rest.
This dramatic failure of Mueller, then, kept the internal leak theory alive.
Little-noticed during the special counsel’s ballyhooed assault on Trump was arigorously researched report by a group known as VIPS. VIPS, composed of highly credentialed, experienced former national security and cyber experts, had been very respected in leftist circles for its disciplined takedown of the intelligence in the leadup of the Iraq War, and for other left-leaning positions. Its report about DNC emails was published in the far left, socialist-leaning, Trump-hating Nation magazine.
The VIPS report impressively showed the high probability that the DNC emails published by WikiLeaks were the result, not of an external hack, but of an internal leak.
VIPS noted that the high speeds of download were consistent with an internal leak through a device like a thumb drive, impossible speeds for slow-progressing hacks. Further, it was clear that someone had tampered with published emails to falsely insert Russian “fingerprints” on them.
Another nonconservative shoe dropped in late 2019, half a year after the Mueller Report. The “primary subsource” for the Steele dossier, as reported by reputable Inspector General Michael Horowitz, was one Igor Danchenko, a suspected Russian spy. Horowitz revealed that in January 2017, the FBI had learned from Danchenko that he had based his sourcing for “Russian collusion” on talk “over beers,” which was largely “speculation,” “gossip,” and “hearsay.” That the Russians had helped Trump by hacking DNC emails was thus apocryphal nonsense. It was now difficult to believe that Putin was in collusion with Trump, when Putin’s close associates were accusing Trump of criminal conduct.
Another boost to the revival of the “internal leak” theory came, surprisingly, from the partisan, virulently anti-Trump CIA Director John Brennan, who for years had publicized the Trump-Russian conspiracy in public statements. But behind closed doors, out of the limelight, the notes of his intelligence findings, declassified in September 2020, dramatized an opposite story.
Brennan’s notes of July 26, 2016, five days before “Crossfire Hurricane” was opened, were the basis for his Oval Office briefing of July 28, 2016, where FBI Director James Comey was also present. In essence, the CIA had learned from trusted intelligence sources that the Clinton campaign was scheming to “divert attention” from her email woes by blaming pro-Trump Russian electoral interference. On September 7, 2016, the CIA sent a written investigative referral of the Clinton plot to Comey.
Unfortunately again for the Left, there was more, again from a principled, leftist source, famed investigative reporter Seymour Hersh. Hersh was recorded saying what he had discovered about the “Russian hack” theory, which he had already sensed was “hokum.”
Hersh learned much from his longtime friend, a completely reliable “senior intelligence official,” who in turn received information from a reliable high official with access to FBI reporting, that Rich’s computer showed that he had been in contact with WikiLeaks and was seeking payment for the DNC emails.
Finally, Hersh, no lover of Trump, dropped an unexpected bombshell: He had reason to believe that the American intelligence community, led by Brennan, itself had started a disinformation program pointing to Russia and Trump.
Moreover, in a case filed in Texas by Brian Huddleston, a private citizen, the FBI was forced to admit it did in fact have documents on Rich. It had produced only68 pages as of April 23, 2021, with 1,093 admitted pages yet to be produced. But in one of these long-withheld documents, the FBI said this about Rich’s murder: “given [redacted] it is conceivable that an individual or group would want to pay for his death.”
Thus, the more that comes out, the more plausible the “leak” theory becomes, and the more sinister the Clinton campaign and Comey appear to have been.
Accordingly, the hypothesis still alive is that Seth Rich was murdered, not in retaliation, but in prevention, of testimony by the one live witness who could single-handedly dismantle the “Russian collusion” fable which promised to sweep Clinton into the White House.
Analysis: I'm Sorry, Mr. Putin but Russia Can’t Win the Long Game in Ukraine
“The only reason Putin is able to march his armies and sail ships threatening Ukraine is because the oil and gas market is so high.” That was the most poignant statement made by Debra Cagan, Distinguished Energy Fellow, Mediterranean Basin, Middle East, and Gulf Initiative from the Transatlantic Leadership Network at the February 3, 2022 “Russia-Ukraine conflict and implications to Turkey” meeting sponsored by the Atlantic Council.
The energy analyst made this statement after carefully describing the balance of dependencies between Russia and countries like Germany and Turkey who are the two largest consumers of Russian natural gas in the NATO alliance.
Germany is economically vulnerable to Russian natural gas leverage. This explains Germany’s reluctance to upset Russia. Something that analyst Can Kasapoğlu, the Director of Security and Defense Studies Program at EDAM, noted was a blunder by the Biden administration to base its Ukraine response policy on German posture when it came to office as opposed to fully consulting a broader spectrum of NATO partners. It left the West in a weakened negotiating position, particularly in the vacuum after the Trump Administration’s departure. Putin was both emboldened and had the pocketbook to act boldly.
Cagan pointed out that there is currently an international national gas shortage due to a combination of cutbacks in production due to COVID-19, hesitancy by producers to invest in new capacity because many customers have committed to climate change conversion to renewables policies, and Middle Eastern production increasingly committed to long term supply contracts with China. The result is an expensive energy spot market that the Russians are benefitting from. And that is why Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin has the disposable income to dabble in military adventurism.
But this also means that Putin’s house of cards can just as easily collapse. If the price of oil and gas drops, Putin’s ability to continue to threaten Ukraine will be dramatically strained. That’s easier said than done. Cagan noted that the competitive alternatives to Russian supplies are not ready.
The Iranian gas pipeline that would send gas from that country isn’t ready. The Iranians need hard cash investments to complete building it but the money isn’t forthcoming given the Western community’s continued reluctance to work with the Iranian government. Lacking a pipeline, the Iranians have had to resort to a series of gas swaps stringing from Iran to Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan to get energy to the West.
On the other side of the Gulf, producers such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia are focusing on long-term contracts to Asian nations including China and Japan. Rounding out the tight energy supply chain creating Russian political leverage, US production is buried under a mountain of politics dissuading producers from both taking supplies out of the ground and transporting them cost-effectively.
That could change if the Biden administration decided to use the energy market as an asymmetric weapon to undermine Russia’s ability to afford to parade its army around Crimea, Belarus, and Russia skirting the easter edges of Ukraine.
Personally, I would counsel US leadership to engage with oil-producing countries to explore ways to bring down spot prices and reduce dependency on Russian supplies to develop an economic wedge to signal Putin that, with or without sanctions, his free money to play monopoly next to Ukraine will disappear.
It remains to be seen if the Biden administration is pragmatic enough to shed the bondage of “woke” progressivism and climate change politics, even for a little while, in order to create an effective asymmetric threat to Putin’s financial ability to threaten Ukraine.
The thing is that this might be enough to tip the scales back towards an outcome that gets the Russians to decide on their own that this isn’t the time or the way to look out for their security concerns. It paves the way for constructive diplomacy to counsel Mr. Putin that he would be much better off re-investing the windfall profits of a hot energy spot markets into his own country’s infrastructure. It is the better path to rising from a $1.483 trillion USD GDP into a much larger economy.
Deterrence Calculus
Cagan also made another poignant statement about the Ukraine calculus. She noted that “Ukraine doesn’t have to win against the Russians. They just have to make it hurt.” The reality that an invasion by Russia will result in a long, drawn-out conflict is a credible deterrent.
Ukraine must convince Russia that it’s going to be another Afghanistan, the way it was for both the USSR and USA, a sinkhole that will eventually need to be walked away from.
The key steppingstone to this is to also convince Russia that the separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine will not prevail short of Russia invading. In this regard, Can Kasapoğlu notes that cooperation between Ukraine and Turkey, which has been supplying armed drone technology to create a modern network-centric warfare capability similar to the battlespace management systems used by the United States, Turkey, and other coalition nations in Syria to wage war, provides a growing capability to deal with separatist elements in Ukraine.
Kasapoğlu is quick to point out that Ukraine’s capability is inadequate against the full might of the Russian Federation; but as long as the fighting inside Ukraine is limited to proxy separatists, the Ukrainian government can hold its own.
To make a Russian invasion “hurt,” it will take bolstering Ukraine’s military to the point that it can become a permanent insurgency harassing a Russian presence into surviving inside fortresses and outposts. In other words, a Western-sponsored Taliban, or more to the liking of the West, the Kurds of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who have battled ISIS, the Assad government, and the Turks, against all odds.
According to a report from Ukraine by Hollie Mckay, ordinary Ukrainians are going “2nd Amendment” and preparing to do just that, “Ukrainians start arming themselves for possible Russian attack”. That’s a start but the West must also keep supplying Ukraine with weapons designed to defeat modern tank armies, which the US and NATO have been doing.
If the Russians do invade, it’s unrealistic to think they’ll be repelled. The implication is clear. It means the West must commit to continuing to supply a Ukrainian insurgency proxy war until the Russians leave. It becomes a game of swapping a small separatist movement that wants to join Russia for a much larger one that wants to throw out Russia.
Politically, if Russia invades, the Ukrainian government can go into exile and run an insurgency from the West while NATO countries fly diplomatic cover in the United Nations, impose coordinated economic sanctions, and set up supply chains bypassing Russian energy, tourism, and trade. On this front, it’s the best posture for the US, UK, France, Germany, and Turkey to signal a willingness to support a Ukraine government in exile if Russia invades, with a promise that Ukraine will be invited to join NATO when the Russians eventually leave.
As a proxy war arena, Ukraine has Machiavellian utility. The West certainly has weapons technology aplenty. For instance, given the way drone warfare technology is evolving, Ukraine could replace Yemen as the next proxy war testing ground for advanced conventional warfare weapon concepts. That’s a prospect that would certainly “hurt” for Russia. It certainly hurt the last time the USSR was in Afghanistan and US-supplied Stinger missiles turned Mi-24 Hind helicopter gunships into death traps.
The No Invasion Alternative
If Russia does not invade, Ukraine seems destined to become the next no man’s land Fulda Gap of the European landscape. It’ll be stuck between NATO and Russia for some time. In the calculus of global stability, that’s perfectly fine. Standoffs are workable tools of statecraft.
Preventing that invasion boils down to who will negotiate a stable deterrent outcome. At the moment, it’s probably the United States and the bolder NATO countries that don’t have severe leverage dependencies on Russia, which leaves out the Germans who, despite the sugar coating of the diplomacy, have shown themselves to be not ideal for drawing NATO’s line in the sand.
Looking at alternatives, analyst Yevgeniya Gaber, Senior Fellow, Centre in Modern Turkish Studies at Carleton University assessed Turkey as a potential diplomatic broker noting the country is both a NATO member and has a complex economic and military relationship with Russia. Turkey bought S.400 anti-aircraft missiles from Russia. Turkey also shot down a Russian aircraft that strayed into Turkish airspace in 2018. Gaber noted that Turkey could be a shuttle diplomacy broker testing how much “give” the US and Russia can tolerate. But Cagan and Kasapoğlu saw Turkey’s predicament as more of a moment when Erdogan will have to stop straddling the line and chose a side.
Regardless, the real question is would either the US or Russia welcome a brokered “crab walk” strategy to the power play negotiations at hand. The consensus of the Atlantic Council panelists was no. I agree. The US and Russia both like engaging in direct loggerhead positional bargaining too much.
The Sound of Inevitability
However, the standoff won’t last forever. The oil market will change to one that isn’t so rich at some point. It’ll happen whether the US uses price manipulation as an asymmetric weapon or not. Regardless of what Mr. Putin does, the die of the future of Eurasia is already cast. I believe that Ukraine will become part of NATO and will assume a place beside Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey creating a changing political landscape of the Black Sea coast. It will transform from a Russian lake into European Union coastline.
Huge Freedom Convey forms in Finland
Source: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/02/worldwide-movement-massive-freedom-convoy-formed-helsinki-finland-covid-19-mandates-high-fuel-taxes-video/
A massive freedom convoy was organized on Friday outside parliament in Helsinki, Finland demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s government, cutting 50% of fuel prices, and an end to all COVID restrictions.
Finland was enthusiastic about the Canadian convoy and the Finns set up a Facebook group that has gathered more than 45,000 members in just two days. The group name was called “CONVOY FINLAND 2022.”
“CONVOY FINLAND 2022″ is expected to resume daily through Wednesday, February 9, 2022, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day.
The demands to release the blockade of Helsinki are as follows:
- All corona measures and restrictions in Finland shall be abolished and abolished permanently and permanently.
- Fuels (both petrol and diesel) must be cut by 50% of the current tax.
- The current Finnish government must resign.
It was reported that Finland will begin to ease COVID-19 restrictions in mid-February.
The Finland police attacked the freedom convoy and started to tow trucks and detained 55 people outside parliament.
Yle news reported:
Police detained some 55 protesters outside parliament when they broke up a ‘convoy’ demonstration that had blocked traffic for several hours in pursuit of demands including cheaper petrol and the resignation of the government.
Police began towing vehicles parked on Mannerheimintie when the protesters did not disperse when instructed to do so just after midnight.
Two of the detainees were taken in on suspicion of obstructing an official carrying out his duties, and police tweeted that one of their tow trucks had its tires punctured with a sharp implement.
The United States Embassy in Helsinki, Finland released a travel alert on Friday urging the public to monitor local media for updates.
“Demonstrations are expected to take place beginning today, February 4, 2022 at 6 p.m. and continuing through 10 p.m. Demonstrations are expected to resume daily through Wednesday, February 9, 2022, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day. Convoy Finland 2022 intends to protest pandemic measures, fuel taxes, and other Government of Finland decisions by blocking major thoroughfares in the Helsinki region with convoys of cars and trucks.”
Lawsuit Claims Foreign Powers Sought To Interfere In 2016 Election To Help Hillary Clinton
Felix Sater claims the Kazakhstan players were seeking to interfere in the 2016 election to benefit Hillary Clinton.
In Feb. 3, long-time Trump associate Felix Sater filed a cross-complaint in a New York federal court. The complaint alleges that Russian and Kazakhstan-connected individuals and entities conducted “a shadow intelligence operation of Sater and Trump for the purpose of manufacturing information to harm Donald Trump politically,” including by providing Christopher Steele a PowerPoint presentation riddled with lies Steele later fed to the FBI.
Sater’s cross suit comes nearly three years after the City of Almaty, Kazakhstan, and BTA Bank filed suit against Sater, two of the companies he owned, a former business associate, and that associate’s LLCs, in City of Almaty, Kazakhstan v. Sater.
In that lawsuit, filed in May 2019, Almaty and BTA Bank alleged that Sater and the other defendants helped Mukhtar Ablyazov, the former chairman of the BTA Bank, and Viktor Khrapunov, the former mayor of the City of Almaty, launder money the duo had stolen from the plaintiffs. In the case, the plaintiffs sought recovery of millions of dollars in stolen funds, based on claims of fraud, conspiracy, unjust enrichment, and conversion.
While that case has been pending in a federal district court in New York since spring 2019, on Thursday Sater filed for the first time counterclaims against Almaty and BTA Bank. In yesterday’s filing, Sater also added the Republic of Kazakhstan and Arcanum (Asia) Ltd. as parties.
In his lawsuit, Sater claimed that in June 2015, BTA Bank, Almaty, and Kazakhstan, referred to as the Kazakh Parties throughout the court filing, entered a “confidential assistance agreement” or “CAA,” in which they agreed to pay Sater (through his company, Litco) $100,000 per month, plus a percentage of the funds recovered, for Sater’s help in recovering assets stolen by Ablyazov.
The CAA, however, was merely a “guise,” Sater alleged, with Arcanum and the Kazakh Parties instead conspiring “to leak false and defamatory information about Sater to media outlets including ABC News.” “This was part of a concerted effort to falsely (and absurdly) portray Sater, a longtime business partner of Donald Trump, as a Russian agent and Kremlin stooge,” the lawsuit alleged.
Until January 2021, Sater had no reason to know that Arcanum and the Karakh Parties were working against Sater and Trump, according to the lawsuit. It was only then, when the FBI released the 302 interview summary of the FBI’s interview with Steele, that Sater claimed he learned the truth.
In the 302 summary of the FBI’s September 18, 2017, interview of Steele, the agents reported that Steele said that his firm Orbis “was involved in some Kazakhstan-related” work and “some of the material from that work obviously falls within the bounds of the Special Counsel.”
Here, Steele said he “was working on a Kazakh-related project involving an individual by the name of Ablyazov, embezzlement from BTA Bank, pyramid schemes, and connections to Felix Sater and Trump Soho.” According to the interview summary, “Steele said that they want RICO up and running in the United States.”
The agents then noted that “Steele brought along a PowerPoint presentation from the company Arcanum explaining the Sater connection.” The 302 summary added that “this information was slated to be provided to the US Department of Justice and the FBI as it involves a corrupt American official.”
Shortly after Sater became aware of the FBI 302 interview summary of Steele, Sater retained co-counsels John Snyder and Tom Sima in the spring of 2021. According to Snyder, Sater retained the two New York attorneys because they had previously handled sensitive matters involving Kazakhstan and because Sima speaks fluent Russian and has 20 years of experience and contacts in Kazakhstan.
The FBI 302 interview summary of Steele was a “real eye-opener,” Snyder said in an interview, with Sater claiming in his lawsuit that he “was shocked to learn that the Kazakhs [Parties] and Arcanum engaged him under the CAA in bad faith.”
“From the beginning, Arcanum (a private intelligence firm staffed by former officials from the Clinton administration,” Sater alleged, “and their attorneys Boies Schiller (a Democratic Party law firm) intended to use the CAA as a pretext for gathering intelligence against Sater, with the intent of harming Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.”
Sater further alleged that after he learned of the FBI 302, he “investigated further and learned that the Kazakh plot against Sater was coordinated by Karim Massimov, Chairman of the Kazakh KGB and his henchman Kenes Rakishav.” Both “Massimov and Rakishev were actively seeking influence with American politicians” during this time, according to the lawsuit.
The complaint continued: “In 2016, they believed that they would be rewarded for helping the Hillary Clinton campaign (who was considered certain to win the election) by smearing Sater and Trump.” Their “effort to curry favor with prominent American politicians included,” according to Sater, “lavishing money on Hunter Biden, who called Rakishev a ‘close friend.’”
In the middle of 2021, the complaint then explained, Sater “reached out to the Kazakhs [parties] to discuss the FBI 302 and Arcanum’s plot against Sater and Trump.” The parties then proceeded to engage in mediation and settlement discussions, until, according to Sater, unrest in Kazakhstan led to Massimov’s arrest and Rakishev fleeing the country. At that point, Sater learned the Kazakhs were walking away from settlement negotiations.
With his attempts to resolve his differences with the Kazakhs Parties and Arcanum privately stalled, Sater resorted to filing the present lawsuit, according to yesterday’s filing, which set forth five separate claims.
In Count I, Sater alleged Aranum defamed him when it drafted a PowerPoint and other communications that falsely claimed: that Sater was involved in embezzlement from BTA Bank; that Sater was involved in pyramid schemes; that Sater was involved in official U.S. corruption; that Sater committed misconduct with respect to the Trump SoHo project; that Sater had committed RICO violations; and that Sater, a married man, was “involved” with Ablyazov’s daughter.
Count II charged the Kazakh Parties with controlling and directing the activities of Arcanum, including its preparation of the PowerPoint presentation about Sater, which Arcanum then provided to Steele, with the intention that Steele then submitted it to the FBI.
The third count alleged a breach of fiduciary duty claim against Arcanum and the Kazakh Parties. Here, Sater argued he “had a confidential relationship with Arcanum, the Kazakh Parties, and their counsel Boies Schiller,” and that “Arcanum, the Kazakh Parties, and their counsel Boies Schiller had a duty to maintain confidentiality with respect to information supplied by Sater.” Sater then alleged that “Arcanum and the Kazakh Parties breached their fiduciary duty by obtaining information from Sater on false pretenses, then disseminating such confidential information (together with false information) to Christopher Steele and others.”
Sater’s fourth claim alleged a “Fraudulent Misrepresentation” count against Arcanum and the Kazakh Parties. This cause of action was premised on these defendants “falsely represented their purpose and objective,” to “gain[] access to confidential information about Sater, his contacts around the world, his dealings with Donald Trump, and many other subjects.”
“This fraudulently obtained information was weaponized against Sater and Trump,” the complaint then alleged, adding, “as evidenced by the fact that Arcanum assembled a dossier on Sater, which was turned over to Christopher Steele and the FBI.” “The same information was then leaked to ABC News,” according to the complaint.
The fifth and final claim alleged a breach of professional ethics against Arcanum and the Kazakh Parties. It was premised on the defendants’ allegedly fraudulent concealment of “the fact that the Kazakh KGB, Arcanum, and Boies Schiller were conducting an opposition research project against Sater and Trump, . . .”
In an email comment received yesterday evening, Matthew L. Schwartz, a partner at the law firm of Boies Schiller Flexner and counsel for BTA Bank and the City of Almaty, Kazakhstan, said, “Felix Sater’s filing is nothing more than conspiracy theories and desperation dressed up like a lawsuit.” “Before it was filed,” Schwartz continued, “we explained in excruciating detail why it is factually, legally, and ethically baseless—including being contradicted by Sater’s own sworn testimony.” The BTA Bank and City of Almaty attorney added that they are “confident that the court will see through his tactics.”
Schwartz and his legal team will need to file formal responses to Sater’s lawsuit, which will surely elaborate on this theme. But, in addition to BTA Bank and Almaty, the newly sued third-party defendant Arcanum, once properly served, will also need to answer the complaint.
Given that Steele’s 302 interview summary states that the former MI6 agent presented the FBI with “a PowerPoint presentation from the company Arcanum explaining the Sater connection,” what Arcanum has to say in response will be fascinating to see.
Likewise fascinating to watch will be the media’s response to Sater’s lawsuit and his claim that the Kazakhstan players were seeking to interfere in the 2016 election to benefit Hillary Clinton, as well as the allegations of corruption Sater levies against Hunter Biden.
Something tells me, however, that there will be less coverage of Sater now that he isn’t seen as a way to destroy Trump.
MSNBC Guest Zeke Emanuel Gets Ripped Into Next Week for Fear-Mongering 'Misinformation' About COVID
UPDATE [7:05 pm EST, 2/4/22]: The article containing the interview of Dr. Zeke Emanuel has been taken down from MSNBC’s homepage. Thus, both the link in the third paragraph below and the embedded video give a “not found” error.
We’ve seen a lot of leftist fury directed at Joe Rogan because they claim he’s pushing “misinformation.”
The real problem is that he’s willing to have people on his show who talk about things other than the approved narrative. That’s why they want Spotify to boot him. If they were concerned about misinformation, they’d be concerned about all the misinformation being pushed on the left, including things like Joe Biden previously claiming that people who were vaccinated couldn’t catch the virus. Fortunately, he seems to have stopped that now.
They’d be concerned about what former Biden adviser on COVID policy Dr. Zeke Emanuel said on Thursday on MSNBC to Kristen Welker about the Omicron virus.
The White House is now gearing up for a push for vaccinating kids under five. Emanuel was talking about giving the vaccine “under five amid low vaccination numbers for eligible children.”
“With the omicron variant, kids are either going to get the vaccine or they’re likely to get a serious condition of omicron,” Emanuel said. “I am confused about parents’ attitude. Five and above, seems like it’s a no-brainer.”
Kristen Welker didn’t seem to absorb what he was saying and didn’t push back on that comment at all, just going on to her next question.
But when you’re trying to sell the vaccine to people who may have concerns for their kids, you don’t help that cause by pushing such blatant misinformation. And you wonder why people no longer trust the ‘experts’ and the media when they push things like this? Kids either get vaccinated or they’re likely to get a “serious condition of Omicron”? Where is the support for this claim? Emanuel doesn’t present any evidence to support his claim.
The answer is it doesn’t exist because it isn’t true. The data indicates that it is not “likely” that a child will get a serious case of Omicron. While it’s certainly possible, he said “likely” if not vaccinated. Omicron is less likely to cause severe illness in all age groups. Talk about harmful misinformation. The White House was complaining about misinformation this week about Joe Rogan and pushing censorship — where is their comment about this?
Then on top of it, not only did he say it, but then MSNBC posted it on their website and on Twitter, without any concern about the misinformation.
This hypes the hysteria, right at the time that the White House is coming out with its push to vaccinate younger kids, and it is deceiving parents about the risks. Where’s the Twitter misinformation flag on the tweet?
Ottawa Police Chief Promises to End Freedom Protest, Deploys 150 Additional Officers and Closes Transit Arteries to Isolate Protestors
Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly held a press conference on Friday announcing measures to combat the continued Freedom Convoy protests in the streets, and to block any additional protesting support from arriving. [Full Presser Here] In essence, the Ottawa police are going to use domestic terrorism authority against the Canadian freedom protest groups.
The outlined measures include deploying an additional 150 municipal police officers and undercover federal agents to infiltrate the protest and gather intelligence useful for the purpose of eliminating their effort.
Chief Sloly outlined that federal intelligence authorities will be “collecting financial, digital, vehicle registration, driver identification, insurance status and other related evidence that will be used in prosecution.”
The jackboots will focus on using acts of mischief, hate, harassment, intimidation and other threatening behaviors, whether real or created by Canadian intelligence operations, to target the protestors.
Additionally, a “surge and contain” strategy will be used to isolate the protest in the red zone area in front of Parliament Hill. Ottawa police will use heavy concrete barriers as barricades, to create no-access roadways throughout the downtown core, and they will likely close highway off-ramps and bridges to stop additional support and/or protest groups from arriving.
The goal is to isolate the current protest groups, cut off their supply and support logistics and pick them off.
Further, any police officer who is caught aiding, assisting, supporting, sympathizing with or facilitating the ongoing freedom protest in the city will be removed from duty and subject to arrest. All Ottawa police officers are to regard the protesting group as an unlawful, extremist and hate-filled mob and have a duty to comply with the instructions of the command and control structure. WATCH:
Welcome to Canada folks.
This is what happens when we let the totalitarian state -and all the politicians who benefit from it- grow over years, unchecked, until it reaches a point where your freedom is doomed to perish.
Everyone in the USA should be paying close attention.
This is exactly how Fascism and Communism rise inside the walls of a previously free and independent system. Canada is the literal representation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. The novel projects how the people of Russia Canada can so easily fall prey to a totalitarian regime while their dreams were for a freer country with greater equality.
