When Saudi Arabia announced last week a $20-billion investment in a U.S. infrastructure fund managed by Blackstone Group LP, many noticed that it came shortly after presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner personally negotiated a $110-billion arms sale to the country. What went unnoticed – and is largely unknown – is how important Blackstone is to the Kushner family company.
Since 2013, Blackstone has loaned more than $400 million to finance four Kushner Cos. deals – two of which have not been reported – making it one of the business’s largest lenders. And their ties go beyond the loans. Stephen Schwarzman, Blackstone’s co-founder and chief executive officer, heads Trump’s business-advisory council and was in Riyadh with the president and Kushner. The Saudi promise to invest in Blackstone’s fund drove the firm’s stock up more than 8 percent.
Liberal Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz said Thursday that the FBI scrutiny of Jared Kusher “raises great concerns about civil liberties.” Mr. Dershowitz said the Russia probe was “being done backwards” and likened it to Stalin’s secret police.
“Usually, you can point to a statute and say, ‘We’re investigating crime under this statute,'” Dershowitz told Anderson Cooper on CNN. “What Mueller seems to be doing is saying: ‘We don’t like what happened. Maybe there was some collaboration. But I can’t figure out what statute was being violated.’
Not always ED. There are literally thousands of investigations that are made regularly where there is an actual crime committed and the authorities are attempting to figure out who committed it.
In this case we have suspicion piled on top of accusation which is supported by rumor and innuendo … looking for a crime…It’s actually quite amusing to watch.
And…if they don’t find anything on Trump the dems are going to take a severe beating in the mid-terms.
Ambassador Sergei Kislyak reported to his superiors in Moscow that Kushner, son-in-law and confidant to then-President-elect Trump, made the proposal during a meeting on Dec. 1 or 2 at Trump Tower, according to intercepts of Russian communications that were reviewed by U.S. officials. Kislyak said Kushner suggested using Russian diplomatic facilities in the United States for the communications.
The meeting also was attended by Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser.
Edit: The continual drip of incriminating stories, along with the fact that the WH is setting up a “War Room” to counter the Trump-Russia investigations as opposed to welcoming them in order to put it behind them, clearly shows this issue only continues to mushroom.
Not totally sure how that’s relevant as actions should be judged independently.
Fwiw, I have personally condemned Obama myself on hundreds of occasions for being the catalyst into heightened surveillance, I’m just also aware it in no way excuses the actions of anyone else in the world.
