Tuesday, June 23, 2020

WAS USA AT SDNY FIRED BY TRUMP PRIMARILY TO KILL HALKBANK SANCTIONS CASE FOR ERDOGAN ?



I direct your attention to the latest public disclosures regarding the new book out by former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton, regarding the Halkbank case. Bolton asserts that Trump and Turkish President Recep Erdogan discussed the Halkbank case several times, with Erdogan seeking a settlement for Halkbank, a state-owned bank deeply mired in Iran sanctions evasion activity. Halkbank, it seems, is the personal piggy-bank for Erdogan, according to reliable reports. It is not KnOwn whether Trump personal attorney Rudolph Giuliani is invlved, but he is known to be under investigation by SDNY.

Trump allegedly told Erdogan that he was going to have the"Obama people" removed from SDNY, and replaced with his own loyalists, and that they would "take care of this." United States Attorney Berman was not an Obama appointee, by the way, he was actually appointed by the District Judges, when Trump was unable gain approval for any of his candidates. (Trump's recent chosen replacement for Berman was never been a criminal prosecutor). I cannot remember any other American President stating to anyone that he intended to interfere with a pending Federal criminal case since Richard Nixon, who resigned to avoid who would have been a successful Impeachment proceeding.

Most troubling is John Bolton's statement that there were other Trump sins and transgressions that took place while Bolton was the Adviser for National Security, and it is concerning that pehaps other significant money laundering prosecutions may also have been, or are currently on the President's list of cases to dispose of, as a favor to a foreign power, and Bolton's pasages detailing them was stricken from his book for national security reasons. After all, the current administration has been repeatedly accused for over-classifying information, for the sole reason of protecting the President, or his appointees, from embarrasment or worse.

Are there any major money laundering cases currently withering on the vine, without any logical or legal reason ? If so, someone needs to take a hard look at why. Has there been a change of prosecutors, in favor of one who is a political appointee, or a known close associate of the US Attorney General ? Remember, this is what happened in the Michael Flynn case.




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