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trunewsofficial · 5 years ago

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Kushner, Perry Met With Zelensky Before Ukraine’s $400M Military Aid Was Delayed

More than a month before President Trump’s now heavily scrutinized phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and at the same time an almost $400 million U.S. military aide package was being discussed and ultimately delayed, two senior administration officials, Special Advisor Jared Kushner and U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, met privately with the comedian-turned-leader, and discussed issues related to energy and security. The meeting took place at a tax-payer funded VIP dinner on June 4th, 2019 at the Brussels residence of U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, and was part of the embassy’s annual celebration of Independence Day, which though hosted one month early, included a glitzy event at the Autoworld vintage car museum in the heart of Belgium’s capital. Texas’ former Governor and Kushner attended both events, and were personally pictured with President Zelensky at the dinner, at which President Trump’s son-in-law was sat directly next to the foreign leader. Also in attendance at this invite-only dinner, according to records published by the U.S. Mission to the European Union, were other foreign leaders such as Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă and her Vice Prime Minister Ana Birchall; Polish President Andrzej Duda; Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze; Belgian Interior Minister Pieter De Crem; Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for the European Integration, Olena Volodymyrivna Zerkal; European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy Miguel Arias Cańet; European Parliament President Antonio Tajani; and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini. The U.S. delegation was no less robust and included U.S. State Department Counselor Ulrich Brechbuhl; Acting Assistant for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs Secretary Philip T. Reeker; U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium Ronald J. Gidwitz; U.S. Ambassador to Poland Georgette Mosbacher; and NATO Special Operations Headquarters Commander, Vice Admiral Colin J. Kilrain. In addition to diplomatic officials, a lone entertainer was invited, comedian Jay Leno. At the time of the dinner, President Zelensky was on his first foreign trip as leader of Ukraine, and Kushner had just departed London, where President Trump was making a state visit. Both officials were on a quest to secure support from the European Union, Kushner for the long anticipated Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, and President Zelensky for accession to membership in the bloc, a move he described at the time to European Council President Donald Tusk as a “powerful blow against Russian authoritarianism,” and their “imperial project.” An unnamed source in President Zelensky’s administration quoted by Interfax-Ukraine and the Kyiv Post confirmed that Kushner spoke to Ukraine’s leader during the trip, and said that “they discussed a wide range of issues, ranging from security to energy.” Additionally, a report published by the Financial Times on June 5 also asserts President Zelensky met with Kushner as well as with Secretary Perry, but gives no detail as to what was discussed. It is not clear if these reports were referring to an additional meeting aside from the U.S. EU embassy event where photos confirm direct interaction between President Zelensky, Secretary Perry and Kushner. A White House official with knowledge of the dinner told TruNews that this dinner was the meeting being referenced, and that President Zelensky arrived late and left early, and no additional meetings took place. Secretary Perry’s role in the Brussels dinner is made clearer when examining his mention in the whistleblower complaint released Thursday morning by the House intelligence Committee. According to the complaint, unnamed U.S. government officials allegedly told the whistleblower that Secretary Perry was sent to President Zelensky’s inauguration on May 20 in place of Vice President Mike Pence at the instruction of President Trump, who ordered the VP to cancel the trip to make it clear that President Trump himself would not meet with the Ukrainian leader until he saw how he “chose to act” in office. While in Ukraine on this state directed visit, Secretary Perry told reporters to expect a sanctions bill to materialize soon penalizing companies involved in Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline, the gas pipeline being construction across the Baltic Sea to Germany which directly threatens the profits and domestic siphoning of the Gazprom Soyuz pipeline which traverses Ukraine. Other members of the U.S. delegation led by Secretary Perry, who returned on May 23 to brief President Trump at the White House, included Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson; U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker, who also presently serves as executive director of the McCain Institute for International Leadership; and Ambassador Sondland, who also attended the Brussels-Kushner-Zelensky dinner. These same officials gathered at the White House on July 10th along with National Security Advisor John Bolton and his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksandr Danylyuk, who directly advises President Zelensky on national security, to “discuss opportunities for increased energy security cooperation.” On July 26th, one day after the infamous Trump-Zelensky phone call, envoy Volker, Ambassador Sondland, and former U.S. ambassador to the Ukraine, William B. Taylor, met in Kiev with National Security & Defense Council Secretary Danylyuk and President Zelensky. According to Ukrainian television outlet Hromadske the parties discusses the “current situation in the area of Operation of the Joint Forces,” referring to military cooperation between the U.S. and it's most strategic ally in Eastern Europe. It is of note that envoy Volker reportedly resigned following the publication of President Trump's July 25th phone call with President Zelesnky, and other White House officials are seeking independent legal counsel related to their role in the negotiations with Ukraine. On the subject of military aid, the Kushner-Perry-Zelensky-Brussels dinner in June eerily coincides with what the Washington Post, quoting unnamed administration officials, described as the beginning of “discussions about Ukrainian aid.” As noted by the Post, President Trump has frequently requested the withholding of aid from foreign governments when he concludes they are “not doing their part,” with past examples being Central American countries failing to sufficiently halt the inflow of illegal immigrants through America’s southern border. Relevant congressional officials were notified on February 28th and May 23rd, the last being only one week before Kushner and Secretary Perry’s meeting with President Zelensky, that President Trump intended to release large contingents of military aid to Ukraine to support their ongoing civil war against separatists in the North Eastern region of their country, and deter further alleged Russian provocations. As part of the $693 billion U.S. Defense Department budget for Fiscal Year 2019, which ends October 1st, Congress approved a total of $391 million in military aid for Ukraine, and this was split into two funds; the larger administered by the Pentagon for the delivery of sniper rifles, counter-artillery radar systems, ammunition and grenade launchers; and the other by the U.S. State Department for maritime security and NATO interoperability. This money reportedly sat dormant in U.S. accounts and was not transferred to Ukraine until September 11th, 2019. Quoting three unnamed senior administration officials whose accounts cannot be independently verified by TruNews, the Post reported that President Trump directed his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, to “hold back” the money “at least a week” before the infamous phone call between he and President Zelensky on July 25. Officials at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), previously overseen by Mulvaney, conveyed President Trump’s order to the U.S. State Department and the Pentagon through an interagency meeting, according to an anonymous source quoted by the Post who was aware of the “internal deliberations.” During these deliberations, the Post’s unnamed source noted that officials explained that the president had “concerns,” and wanted to analyze whether the money even needed to be spent before it was sent to Ukraine. Additionally, the Post claims that Trump Administration officials were then instructed to continuously lie to Congress about the status of the almost $400m military aid package, by telling them delays were part of an “interagency process,” without providing any additional information. This “pattern” as the Post describes it, continued from July to September 11, when the funds were finally released, just under two months from the Trump-Zelensky phone call, and just over three months from Jared Kushner and Secretary Perry’s meeting with the Ukrainian President in Brussels. This date also coincides with the resignation of former national security adviser John Bolton, who according to the Post fought unsuccessfully with President Trump to release the almost $400 million military aide package to Ukraine sooner, after President Trump and his embattled lawyer Rudy Giuliani had said they were instead “primarily concerned with corruption.” It is also one month after top Pentagon official, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy John Rood, wrote to four congressional committees that the Department of Defense had “certified that the Government of Ukraine has taken substantial action to make defense institutional reforms for the purposes of decreasing corruption and increasing accountability." This verification was required by law to release $250 million of the congressionally approved military aid package to Ukraine. Two unnamed U.S. officials told Reuters that the Trump administration expects that $220 million of the $250 million of the Pentagon-portion of the congressionally approved military aid package for Ukraine for fiscal year 2019 will be spent by Monday, September 30th, the official deadline before the money defaults back to the U.S. and requires a re-approval by Congress for the FY2020. The Pentagon has confirmed that the majority of the $250 million Ukrainian military aid package would be committed before the deadline, but U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper has refused to comment on why the White House decided to delay the funds since June. Though no records have yet been provided, the Pentagon’s NATO Foreign Military Sales office is required by law to publish the name(s) of the companies which have agreed to fulfill these weapons contracts, deals which would have been rushed and incurred at an inflated cost for both the governments of the Ukraine and U.S., yet be incredibly profitable for anyone aware of the delay, short term spending need, and stocked to fulfill them. According to Congressional records the U.S. has provided $1.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since 2014, when Russian forces were deployed to secure the strategic port of Sevastopol in Crimea, following the elections calling for annexation. At the time, Joe Biden, the focus of the now-infamous July 25 Trump-Zelensky call, by his own admission made a similar threat to halt congressionally approved military aide to Ukraine if Obama administration demands were not met. According to Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, who visited Ukraine in early September and spoke directly with President Zelensky and his administration, the “entire” administration was concerned “that the aid that was being cut off to Ukraine by President Trump was a consequence for their unwillingness, at the time, to investigate the Bidens.” “I don’t think it really matters . . . whether the president explicitly told the Ukrainians that they wouldn’t get their security aid if they didn’t interfere in the 2020 elections,” Senator Murphy said. “There is an implicit threat in every demand that a United States president makes of a foreign power. . . . That foreign country knows that if they don’t do it, there are likely to be consequences.” (Photo credit: U.S. Embassy to the European Union) source https://trunews.com/stream/kushner-perry-met-with-zelensky-before-ukraines-400m-military-aid-was-delayed

#TRUNEWS - Rick Wiles

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padfoot-and-pringles · 6 years ago

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I hope you’re ready for a long list.

•The Martian by Andy Weir

•Illuminae by Amie Kaufman

•The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

•The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

•The Bar Code Tattoo by Suzanne Weyn

•Girl, Stolen by April Henry

•Chasing Brooklyn by Lisa Schroeder

•Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt

•Picture the Dead by Adele Griffin

•A Child Called "It" by Dave Pelzer

•Burned by Ellen Hopkins

•Unwind by Neal Shusterman

•Variant by Robinson Wells

•Cut by Patricia McCormick

•Coraline by Neal Gaiman

•Dead[ish] by Naomi Kramer

•What Doesn't Kill Her by Max Allan Collins

•The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

•The Dark Half by Stephen King

•Shelter by Harlan Coben

•The Bitch Posse by Martha O'Connor

•Restless by Rich Wallace

•Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia

•Before I Die by Jenny Downham

•Song of the Sparrow by Lisa Ann Sandell

•A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz

•The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

•The Witches' Sleep by Kaitlyn Deann

•We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

•It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

•Asylum by Madeleine Roux

•Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

•Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

•Night by Ellie Wiesel

•Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah

•The F- It List by Julie Halpern

•Witch & Wizard by James Patterson

•Maximum Ride by James Patterson

•Eragon by Christopher Paolini

•They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

•Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

•Scythe by Neal Shusterman

•Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson

•The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang

•Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake

•Cinder by Marissa Meyer

•This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith

•The Shining by Stephen King

•The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

•Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

•Kids Like Us by Hilary Reyl

•Batman: Nightwalker by Marie Lu

•Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

•Le Petite Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

•A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

•The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe

I’ve got tons more I could recommend you but I’ll save you the trouble of being overwhelmed 😂 hope you’re able to find some gems from this list.

Book Recommendations

Okay so I’m making a list of books as a “to be read” list, so I would love if you guys could send me recommendations of books that you read and really enjoyed, any genre is fine

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nicholerestrada · 6 years ago

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MM scoop: Progress on China

Editor’s Note: This edition of Morning Money is published weekdays at 8 a.m. POLITICO Pro Financial Services subscribers hold exclusive early access to the newsletter each morning at 5:15 a.m. To learn more about POLITICO Pro’s comprehensive policy intelligence coverage, policy tools and services, click here.

MM Scoop: Progress on China — MM hears that Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, the nation’s top trade negotiator, is scheduled to return to Washington for talks at the end of this month. That’s a signal that the most recent round of talks at the deputies level in Beijing went well enough to elevate discussions to the senior level in Washington.

Story Continued Below

Washington and China have until March 1 to make a deal on trade that would cover intellectual property theft, forced technology transfer, ownership rights, the trade deficit and other issues or President Trump has pledged to increase tariffs and potentially apply them to everything China exports to the U.S.

Or the two sides have to agree that enough progress has been made to warrant an extension of the deadline. This continues to be the most likely outcome as both Presidents Trump and Xi Jinping are feeling economic heat from the trade war and neither really wants it to escalate. Things could still fall apart but the direction seems to be positive.

Presidential Primary Preview — Want a preview of the Democratic presidential primary? Tune in for today’s start of confirmation hearings for Attorney General nominee William Bar before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The panel includes at least three Democrats would could be in the field: Cory Booker of New Jersey, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Kamala Harris of California.

All three will want to display their chops defending the Mueller investigation and probing Barr over his memo questioning the entire basis of the investigation. The needle they all have to thread is to appear both aggressive enough to appeal to rabidly anti-Trump Democrats while sober enough to seem presidential to the broader electorate.

Shutdown grinds on — No real movement to be found as Washington Dulles joined the list of airports to close access lanes due to absent, unpaid TSA agents. The White House and Hill Democrats are now trying to pick off defectors in the other party. Neither side is likely to succeed with their gambits right away.

Why would Democrats trust Trump to abide by any deal he makes? And Trump continues to flatly refuse to agree to anything that doesn’t immediately fund the wall. Sort of feels like it’s going to take some kind of catastrophe to move things along.

GOOD TUESDAY MORNING — Catch my latest “U.S. Politics in 60 Seconds” video for GZero Media here. Email me at [email protected] and follow me on Twitter @morningmoneyben. Email Aubree Eliza Weaver at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @AubreeEWeaver..

SPOTTED — Via Daniel Lippman: Treasury chief of staff Eli Miller having dinner with U.S. Ambassador to Belgium Ron Gidwitz at Fiola Mare on Monday night

** A message from the American Bankers Association: America’s Banks drive the small business economy. Banks of all sizes fuel America’s small businesses, providing more than $347 billion in small business loans to 38.1 million entrepreneurs. How are banks driving economic growth in your state? Click here to find out. **

Barr’s AG hearing begins before Senate Judiciary at 9:30 a.m. … Producer prices at 8:30 a.m. expected to decline 0.1 percent headline and rise 0.2 percent core …

NUMBER DU JOUR: 2 PERCENT — The CW here and elsewhere after Trump’s Oval Office address on the wall was that it would change nothing. That CW was correct, according to the latest Quinnipiac Poll, which shows 89 percent of respondents said the speech did not change their minds while 2 percent said it did. Two percent. Not a typo.

SCOTUS DECLINES CFPB CASE — Our Katy O’Donnell: “The Supreme Court … declined to hear a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the CFPB brought by a Texas-based bank and two advocacy groups. The petitioners argued that the single-director leadership structure and the fact that the CFPB is not funded through Congress violate the separation of powers principle.

“Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed with them as an appeals court judge and would have had to recuse himself had the Supreme Court taken up the case. … At least two other pending appeals court cases challenge the single-director structure of either the CFPB or the Federal Housing Finance Agency” More for Pros.

NO, IVANKA WON’T LEAD THE WORLD BANK — Sounded nuts at the time, and turns out it was, via our Andrew Restuccia: “President Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, is overseeing the internal search for a nominee to lead the World Bank — but is not herself a candidate for the job, according to the White House.

“The World Bank’s current president, Jim Yong Kim, announced last week that he will step down next month, touching off speculation about his replacement. The Financial Times reported that Ivanka Trump’s name was ‘floating around Washington’ as one possibility. But White House spokeswoman Jessica Ditto said … ‘reports that she is under consideration are false.’” Read more.

AOC PROPOSAL WOULDN’T RAISE MUCH CASH — Our Brian Faler: “Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal to raise the top marginal tax rate to 70 percent would generate at most $292 billion, according to the Tax Foundation. That’s if the proposal is applied only to ordinary income above $10 million” Read more.

ZINKE LANDS A GIG — Former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has landed a job as managing director at an investment firm, Pro’s Ben Lefebvre reports. Zinke will be based in Montana and California but have “extensive travel” overseas for the fund, Artillery One, which lists its address as a post office box in North Carolina. “Secretary Zinke brings a wealth of experience and understanding of the workings of business and government,” said Daniel Cannon, Artillery One CEO, in a press release first reported by the website Swissinfo.ch.

“His expertise in the energy and technology sectors will help Artillery One to continue to expand its consulting and finance business in the core areas of cybersecurity, energy, fintech and digital assets.” Read more.

CHINA WEIGHS ON U.S. STOCKS — AP’s Marley Jay: “Stocks took small losses Monday after China reported a drop in exports in December, but the market didn’t come close to matching the plunges it took in the last few months. Indexes in Europe and Asia headed slightly lower after the latest report added more evidence that China’s economy is weakening. Major U.S. indexes fell about 1 percent at the start of trading, but soon recovered much of what they’d lost. Technology companies slumped.” Read more.

Apple rattled markets — WSJ’s Inti Pacheco and Theo Francis: “When Apple Inc. said China’s slowing economy contributed to its late-year sales slump, the news rattled the stocks of other major U.S. companies with big operations in the world’s second-largest economy.

“Now, as U.S. companies prepare to report their quarterly earnings, China’s impact will be revealed. The amount of damage is likely to depend on such factors as who the company’s customers are and how much competition it faces in China.” Read more.

DOING A BUFFETT? — Reuters’ Saqib Iqbal Ahmed: “An anonymous trader caused a stir in the U.S. equity option market on Monday with a massive bet that recalled Warren Buffett’s famous wager on global stocks more than a decade ago. The trader sold 19,000 put options on the S&P 500 Index obligating him or her to buy the market benchmark at 2,1000 on Dec. 18, 2020, data from New York-based options analytics firm Trade alert showed.” Read more.

CLARIDA SAYS FED MAY NOT RAISE RATES THAT MUCH — Bloomberg’s Christopher Condon and Chibuike Oguh: “Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida left open the possibility the U.S. central bank will raise interest rates in 2019 fewer than the two times projected by policy makers at their last meeting. ‘A lot has really happened since the first week of December,’ Clarida said Monday in an interview on Fox Business Network. ‘Some of the global growth data have been softening.’” Read more.

MARKET TURMOIL HURT CITI IN 2018 — NYT’s Emily Flitter: “Citi said it had almost a half-billion dollars less in revenue in [2018]’s fourth quarter than analysts had expected. The cause of the drop, the bank said, was an unexpectedly sharp decline in revenue from trading in government bonds, foreign currencies and other fixed income products as falling stock prices spooked investors.” Read more.

MALAYSIA BLAMES GOLDMAN FOR STOLEN BILLIONS — NYT’s Alexandra Stevenson: “Accused of helping to carry out an international multibillion-dollar fraud, Goldman Sachs has tried to pin the blame on a few rogue bankers. It is an argument that the government of Malaysia, where the fraud was carried out, is not buying. …

“Malaysia is gearing up for a fight with an institution that was once synonymous with power and influence around the world. The government is seeking $7.5 billion in compensation from Goldman Sachs, adding to a mounting pile of penalties against the bank and deepening one of the most serious crises in its 149-year history.” Read more.

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from Garko Media https://garkomedia1.wordpress.com/2019/01/16/mm-scoop-progress-on-china/

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michaeljtraylor · 6 years ago

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MM scoop: Progress on China

Story Continued Below

SPOTTED — Via Daniel Lippman: Treasury chief of staff Eli Miller having dinner with U.S. Ambassador to Belgium Ron Gidwitz at Fiola Mare on Monday night

Barr’s AG hearing begins before Senate Judiciary at 9:30 a.m. … Producer prices at 8:30 a.m. expected to decline 0.1 percent headline and rise 0.2 percent core …

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garkomedia1 · 6 years ago

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MM scoop: Progress on China

Story Continued Below

SPOTTED — Via Daniel Lippman: Treasury chief of staff Eli Miller having dinner with U.S. Ambassador to Belgium Ron Gidwitz at Fiola Mare on Monday night

Barr’s AG hearing begins before Senate Judiciary at 9:30 a.m. … Producer prices at 8:30 a.m. expected to decline 0.1 percent headline and rise 0.2 percent core …

Source link

from RSSUnify feed https://hashtaghighways.com/2019/01/16/mm-scoop-progress-on-china/

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