comparemela.com

Situation in which we dont know if the president of the United States and his family are using his position to enrich themselves. That kind of concern is one of the main reasons that president ial candidates or their tax returns, its a main reason why people want to see this president s tax returns in particular. People want to know about his foreign sources of income. How much money he is receiving from foreign sources. Can any of that money be traced back to foreign governments, which would be illegal under the constitution . That brings us to tonight. Tonight im very excited to say weve got the perfect person to take us on an unprecedented journey inside President Trumps web of foreign financial ties. Nbcs chief foreign co correspondent Richard Engel takes us to panama. Reporter this 70 story building, curved and lit up like a christmas tree, is unmistakable. This is the Trump Ocean Club. We have spent months going over paperwork and talking to lawyers and, investigators and businessmen. We were trying to figure out who exactly was involved, the investors, brokers and who bought the apartments and hotel rooms. What we found out is that this building attracted enormous amounts of dirty money in particular from russia because of the name on the building, that name is trump. Good evening. Were on assignment in panama city tonight. This is a notorious Money Laundering center. Its where the first tower to be built outside the United States and carry the name trump on it was built. Our investigation shows that criminals from all over the world use this building as a laundromat for their money. The Trump Organization doesnt actually own the building. It made a licensing deal with a local developer. So the president basically just gets paid for the use of his name. Does that mean he cant be held responsible for any of the criminal activity that happened here . The Trump Organization says it does mean just that. Anti corruption experts disagree. Its a question of Good Business practice, they say. Because we have a president who owns a global business, Business Practices matter. Here is our exclusive investigation in conjunction with our friends at reuters into that building. Hello. Im ivanka trump. Reporter it was the first trump branded tower to go up overseas. And the first trump project ivanka led from inception. Visit our lobby, our pool deck, our stateoftheart no request is too large or too small for our team. Reporter now that sense of ownership is gone. The Trump Organization, which no longer runs the building, says it had no hand in vetting the people who financed, sold or bought it. Now that President Trump is in the white house, do you think the Trump Organization and the trump family are trying to distance themselves from you . I wouldnt say that theyre trying. I dont think that i can harm them. Reporter it took months to track alexander down and persuade him to sit down for an interview. He asked that we disguise his appearance. Hes on the run from the law in panama where he is wanted for fraud. He says he sold hundreds of units in the Trump Ocean Club to people who also went to a lot of trouble to hide their identities. The banks werent asking where the money was coming from . No. Never. Reporter sounds like nobody was asking questions. Nobody, no. Reporter not you. Not the Trump Organization. Not the bank. Not the developers. Nobody checked anybody out. Reporter people were spending millions for apartments they were buying five, ten, 10 units at a time. The money would go to ventura. Reporter if you want to know about the flow of dirty money through panama, monty freezener is the man to ask. He was convicted in federal court of 20 counts of Money Laundering and fraud. He still knows all the players. And all the plays. Do you think its possible trump didnt know the kind of people he didnt know. Reporter how could he not have known . Because you dont walk up to somebody, are you russian mafia. Reporter trump didnt ask because he didnt want to know . Would you want to know . I would want to know who is buying. Because its you. Reporter a team from global witness, an anticorruption watchdog that is critical of businesses and their connections to government officials spent months investigating trump branded prombrand Ed Properties around the world. Patrick alley is the cofounder. It was a Money Laundering hot spot. Any responsible businessman should want to know who their clients are and where the money is coming from. If that responsible businessman is now the president of the United States, this is a matter of public interest. Reporter the idea for the Trump Ocean Club was born long before the businessman became president. It was in the 2000s on his hit tv show the apprentice ceo trump made all the decisions. You are fired. You are all fired. Reporter his children were joining the family business. Ivanka trump suggested that they take the trump brand global. Panama seemed like a good place to start. My interest in panama really began when we had the Miss Universe contest in panama, which i own. It was one of the most successful contests. I was in panama. I was there for quite a bit of time. I fell in love with the place. Reporter the panama he was falling in love with was not the panama where more than a third of the population lived in poverty. It was the glamorous waterfront where brandnew luxury towers were being snapped up by the International Hot money crowd. Plane loads of people were coming. They would advertise in miami, toronto, russia. They were preselling all the buildings. The more they built, the more they sold. Nobody occupied the apartments. Reporter they were empty in. Empty buildings. Reporter the buildings he says were a great place to bury dirty money. He says the buildings were almost literally made of drug money. Cocaine concrete. Reporter what is cocaine concrete . Its the money that came from cocaine. A lot of it was drug money. Reporter take the cocaine and you turn it into a building . Yeah. Reporter how do you know this . I was directly involved. I saw it happening. Reporter it was this booming market that the Trump Organization was entering. Plans as seen in this marketing illustration were drawn up for an ambitious tower, the tallest in latin america at the time, with a mix of hotel rooms and highend condos. All on a plot of land owned by a smalltime local businessman, roger kafif, who was going to be the main developer. Ivanka travels to panama to meet the team. Roger introduced me. My company would be selling the units. Reporter ivanka was planning to presell units for around 120,000 each. Ventura said he could sell them for a lot more. What did she say in. She was happy with that. Can you sell it at that price . I said, yes. The agreement was i had a week to sell 100 units. Reporter how did you sell 100 in a week . It was easy to sell with his name. Reporter the name of the most famous man in real estate who was also the buildings salesman and chief. One of the great things about panama, not only the building but the incredible view. The name trump was magic. He came down, donald trump came down. He has a great presence. He is a fabulous marketing person. Reporter according to ventura, it was ivanka trump who handled all the details. What kinds of things did ivanka do . Meeting with the architects, deciding the finishing of the project. The prices. When its going to be released. Everything related to the project. According to the contract, Trump Organization has to approve everything because his name on the project. Reporter it sounds like the Trump Organization specifically ivanka was deeply involved. Yes. I mean, she was the person responsible for the project. Reporter ventura, who had a small real estate agency, was now selling the trump brand. He had made the big leagues. He became overnight a mover of money. Reporter who was it that ventura and the firm holmes were targeting . Russians. Russians that had dirty money. Reporter specifically . Specifically. Then the russian mafia came in. A guy called Alexander Sasha ulchult. Reporter what was he doing . Made a proposal to ventura. Made him an offer he couldnt refuse. Reporter he became a partner in venturas marketing firm. We cant verify his connection to the russian mafia because although the allegation lailaln repeated, he seemed to fend off the charges every time. Another partner also bought several units in the building. He has since been accused of running a prostitution ring in canada. The case was dropped when both key witnesses disappeared. The firms representative in kiev was later found by a Ukrainian Court guilty of people smuggling. One of the customers who bought units was an exconvict who served time for kidnapping. Those are the ones we manage to identify. While claiming he didnt know it at the time, ventura admits he was selling units in the building to members of the russian mafia. I had some customers with some questionable background. Reporter what does that mean . You know. I found out later, not in the beginning, from belongs to mafia, russian mafia or thing like that. Anyway, i was not getting paid in cash. Reporter thats not the story we heard from freezener. Half a dozen lawyers would pick up a million dollars. Reporter that was happening at the Trump Ocean Club . Yeah. Reporter ventura was marketing it as part of a real estate portfolio where corrupt people could park their money . You got it. Reporter and they did . Yeah. But they didnt just park the somebody. Their money was turned over consistently. Reporter how does a luxury tower become a money laundromat. The buyer buys unit 1605. Then sometimes just two weeks later, unit 1605 gets resold. The money coming out of the building is now clean. The proceeds of a legitimate real estate deal. The only way to trace its dirty origins would be to go back to the beginning and identify the original buyer. That should be relatively easy. But not in panama. Our investigation led us here to panamas public registry. Many of the units arent owned by individuals but corporations, off within generic names. So why would someone use a corporation to buy a condo . Often to hide the identity of the real buyer. One of the things with the Shell Companies is you can simply transfer the company the share to anybody you want. Reporter you set up a shell company. Nobody knows who the actual owner is. You buy the unit. Get a piece of paper that says you own the unit. You are the owner. Reporter you can do what you want with that. You are holding a million dollars. Its not even a check. You can transfer it to anybody. Reporter you can fold it and put it in your pocket. Correct. Reporter you were coming in with hundreds of buyers . Did the Trump Organization want to know who the buyers were, where the money was coming from . No. Not that im aware of. Not at all. Reporter did they ask you . No. Reporter were the buyers planning on living in the units . Most of them, no. Reporter that never raised alarm bells with you . Somebody buying 15 units, doesnt want to live in the place from russia . No, because that was normal. Reporter it wasnt just russians. One of the most famous money lawnerers in the world bought units in the building, too. We met a former panamanian prosecutor who worked on the case. Translator the investigation was a vast case. As part of it we had information Alexander Ventura was the partner. They were business partners. After a couple years, they became business partners. Reporter how did that david would bring the money in. The money would get distributed. Reporter what about guzman . They basically slept in the same bed. Reporter guzman is in u. S. Custody convicted of laundering millions of dollars from mexican drug dealers. Were you i had 45 day wi4 45 days wi. Reporter he did admit that he and guzman did some business together. You moved some of his money into the Trump Ocean Club in. Yes, i did. Reporter how many . It was not many. I think maybe maximum ten units. Reporter did you investigate ventur ventura . Translator yes. Alexander ventura was under investigation for fraud. Reporter what did you find out . Translator well, at the time i was working four or five fraud cases he was involved in. Reporter fraud because ventura seems to have gotten too greedy. After a while, collecting a 3 commission wasnt enough. He started selling units on paper in several buildings to more than one buyer at a time. Eventually, his pyramid scheme collapsed. He was arrested and charged with fraud. Somehow he managed to get bail and escape the country. In a statement to nbc news, a spokesman wrote that the Trump Organization was not the owner, developer or seller of the Trump Ocean Club panama project and that the Trump Organization was not responsible for the financing of the project and had no involvement in the sale of units or the retention of any real estate brokers. The spokesman said the Trump Organization had no relationship with ventura or knowledge of the allegations against him. We also asked ivanka for comment. But her team referred us back to this statement. I believe this is the picture of you with President Trump. Thats correct. Thats maralago. Reporter you are meeting with him. You stop. You pose for the photograph. Yes. Reporter ventura didnt mind showing us old pictures as long as we didnt show what he looked like now. Your interaction with him is, good job, keep up the good work . Keep selling. Reporter how many units did you sell . I believe i sold about between 350 to 400 units from the project. Reporter that would be worth how much . A little bit over 100 million. When the Trump Organization goes into a licensing deal, when it sells its name and its brand, on one side the Trump Organization is deeply involved. The family are involved. They can be very hands on, very, very interested when they want to be. When it come to problems like dodgy money involved, they dont want to know. Thats the developers responsibility. Reporter you spent your life around criminals or investigating criminals. I was a criminal. Reporter what do you think about the kind of business that trump was lending his name to . Im not trying to protect him. But he is not the one thats doing all of this. He simply has a name. Corporation. Thats what it is. Reporter do you think people should be judged by the company they keep and the businesses they run . Definitely, 100 . If i was somebody like trump, i would do a background check. I would want to know who they buy their underwear from. So there isnt any connection to any form of crime. Reporter as a former money launderer, the Trump Ocean Club, how would you rate it . For Money Laundering . Reporter for Money Laundering. I would say aaa. Reporter theres no suggestion the president or his family were directly involved in any of the illegal activity that went on here. As we said, they were just licensing out the trump brand. Initially managing the building. Its just that this building was a magnet for dirty money. We found no sign of an attempt by the Trump Organization to protect that brand which is perhaps now our nations most prominent brand from being tarnished by association. The building was opened in 2011. And on stage were three men, our future president , the developer and panamas president who was then a close friend. Thank you very much for being here today. You are my friend. Reporter he is now awaiting an extradition decision in a jail cell in a federal Detention Center in miami. We will tell you that whole story next. Welcome back to panama. Since it was completed in 2011, that building behind me, the Trump Ocean Club we told you all about, has seen some hard times. The Development Company went bankrupt. It seems most everybody who invested in the building lost money. Except, of course, for the Trump Organization. It was forced out of the buildings management but still runs the hotel side. We found when we stayed there the building seems almost empty, the Trump Organization continues to collect a licensing fee, just for the use of the name. Financial filings suggest that by 2010, those fees added up to more than 70 million. The former president of panama, he didnt do as well. The man who helped the Trump Ocean Club get off the ground is now in a federal Detention Center in miami feeling a lot less president ial than he did when he helped inaugurate the building. A bill air with sharp elbows and political ambitions. He was a Perfect Match for donald trump. I want to just thank you very much for being here today. And you are my friend. Great honor. Reporter he was first to realize his political ambition by the time the Trump Ocean Club opened in 2011, he was president of panama. His very presence sent a message, this was a well connected project. He liked to mention every time that he has a very Good Business relation with trump. Reporter a law professor is an opposition member and outspoken critic of martinelli. He said the Trump Building could not have opened its doors without the blessing of the president. Did he help get this building off the ground . Sure. Because panama, you can do this kind of thing without the president advice or president agreement. Reporter martinelli, who a u. S. Diplomat described as having a limited Attention Span and making strong impulsive decisions had much in common with the future president of the United States. Like trump, he also built himself a lucrative real estate business. Money wasnt enough. He wanted power. Which is why he decided to run for president. This woman is head of the branch of transparency international. She found many similarities with candidate trump. Lack of experience in government management. Campaigning on the ticket of the outsie outsid outsider. Reporter martinelli ran a colorful campaign. His antics earned him the nickname the crazy one. A name he happily embraced. He created a slogan that he used during the campaign. We the crazy people are the majority. Reporter and they were. Martinelli won by a landslide on the promise of a Better Future for panama. For a while it seemed he kept his word. The economy boomed, unemployment dropped, he oversaw an expansion of the panama canal and opened a subway system. Soon allegations of corruption started to surface. Martinelli was more than a president. He was a monarch. Reporter this man accuses martinelli running the business like his own business. He ruled not only the executive branch, he had his hands in the legislative branch. He had his hands in the judiciary. He broke the law. He broke the constitution. Violated every possible rule. Got away with it for a time. He really was a person that was looking out for his own interest and not the interest of the country. What happened in the country was without precedent. It was the Largest Scale robbery of our treasury. Reporter not long after his term ended, he quietly boarded a private jet and disappeared. Days later, panamas Supreme Court charged him with embezzlement and illegal wiretapping. What did he do to you . He violated and tapped conversations i had with my wife, my kids. My entire staff, my professional staff. Also with my combampaign manage and my campaign team. Reporter he ended up living in the lap of luxury in miami. Eventually, the law caught up with him and he is now sitting in a federal Detention Center waiting a decision on his fate. Panama is demanding his extradition. He is appealing to the courts. Ultimately, the decision will be made by the state department, raising the question of whether there could be interference from the white house. If would you have asked me in january before mr. Trump took the oath of office, i would have said no. But with everything that we have learned since january to now of how there are very blurred lines regarding the business interests of the Trump Organization and the business of government, my answer will be i dont know. I would be outraged if mr. Trump intervenes and overrules the lawyers and Legal Department at the state to help his friend mr. Martinelli stay in the u. S. And avoid justice. Reporter whether or not the president would still call martinelli a friend is now anyones guess. Thats not the point really. What this situation shows is how sticky the whole issue of conflicts of interest, real or perceived can be. How do we frame what we have uncovered here . Do we see it through the lens of Corporate Responsibility and ethical standards or are there also legal issues to consider . We will be talking next to a former prosecutor about that. Nice man cave nacho . [ train whistle blows ] what . stop it mmhmm. Weve been saving a lot of money ever since we switched to progressive. This bar is legit. And now we get an even bigger discount from bundling home and auto. I can get used to this. It might take a minute. Swing and a miss slam dunk touchdown together sports touchdown Money Managers are pretty much the same. All but while some push High Commission investment products, Fisher Investments avoids them. Some advisers have hidden and layered fees. Fisher investments never does. And while some advisers are happy to earn commissions from you whether you do well or not, Fisher Investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. Maybe thats why most of our clients come from other Money Managers. Fisher investments. Clearly better money management. But can also loweresterol, your bodys natural coq10. Qunol helps restore this hearthealthy nutrient with 3x better absorption. Qunol has the 1 cardiologist recommended form of coq10 qunol, the better coq10. 40 million americans are waking up to a gillette shave. And at our factory in boston, 1,200 workers are starting their day building on over a hundred years of heritage, craftsmanship and innovation. Today were bringing you americas number one shave at lower prices every day. Putting money back in the pockets of millions of americans. As one of those workers, im proud to bring you gillette quality for less, because nobody can beat the men and women of gillette. Gillette the best a man can get. Welcome back to panama city. We have told you all about our investigation into the building behind me and how we found that it drew in dirty money from all over the world. Keep in mind that even though its called the Trump Ocean Club, this building doesnt actually belong to our president. He is just licensing his name for a profit. The question is, does that mean that he and his company should not be held responsible for what happens in the building . To help us answer that question, we turned to arlow brown. Mr. Brown, thank you very much for joining us. Thanks for having me. Should we be concerned about this . Well, any u. S. Real Estate Company that makes a decision to do business in a high risk jurisdiction where Money Laundering occurs needs to be careful, needs to take a number of precautions. Does it seem to you that those precautions were taken, or do we not know at this stage . I dont know based on your reporting. But i can tell you what the real risks are in a situation like that. Basically, the u. S. Company needs to be careful both in terms of going into the deal and on the way out. Going into the deal, you need to worry a little bit about whether money is going to grease the skids for any foreign politicians, which is a violation of u. S. Law. Then, of course, when its time to sell the condos, you do have to be cautious about whether the people buying those condos are criminals looking to wash their money. Here the issue, the statement we received from the Trump Organization made a clear line saying that it wasnt directly involved in sales. So, therefore, doesnt really take responsibility for who was buying, who was selling. Does the fact that the Trump Organization was getting a piece, getting a percentage of the units that were sold, does that make a difference . The fact that it was licensing its name really doesnt make a difference at all in terms of how u. S. Money laundering law operates. The only issue really thats im talking about getting a piece of the units that were sailed. It was incentivized. Every unit, the Trump Organization got a check for it. That may or may not matter. The critical question is, did the Trump Organization or any Similar Organization know that the money coming in was criminal from criminal activity or did it turn a blind eye . You prosecuted cases like this. What would it look like if you are talking about a company that was operating here in panama but wasnt directly controlling the buying and selling but it turns out our investigation has shown the people buying and selling were dubious. Does that parent company, the company that was lending its name, bear any responsibility . Its all going to turn on not the technical niceties, not the formalities of were you licensing, were you not. Its going to turn on nittygritty facts of what did the u. S. Company know about its panamanian partner and its conduct and what didnt it know. Thats a very fact intensive thing that is very interesting. Its about intent really. If they knew what was going on and didnt do anything, its a problem. If they didnt know, they can claim they didnt know. Right. Thats exactly right. Former public corruption unit chief of the Southern District of new york, thank you for joining us tonight. Thank you. We take a look at the Bigger Picture of the global trump brand and ask, is the president s business getting in the way of the business of the presidency . Check this out, bro. Whats that, broheim . I switched to geico and got more. More savings on Car Insurance . Yeah brofessor, and more. Like renters insurance. More ways to save. Nice, brotato chip. Thats not all, brotein shake. Geico has motorcycle and rv insurance, too. Oh, thats a lot more. Oh yeah, im all about more, teddy brosevelt. Geico. Expect great savings and a whole lot more. Trust 1 doctor recommended dulcolax. Use dulcolax tablets for gentle dependable relief. Suppositories for relief in minutes. And dulcoease for comfortable relief of hard stools. Dulcolax. Designed for dependable relief. This job that they created to do Online Grocery grocery. And to have that oneonone experience with the customers, hes meant for it. Im joey gabe, personal shopper for walmart and i love to see a smile on my customers face. Welcome back to on assignment. Were in panama city. Were taking a step back from all the news. There seems to be always a lot of news these days. To take a closer look at our president s Business Empire around the world. Starting with that building behind me. Donald trump rose to National Prominence as a casino mogul. Opening day at what donald trump in typical understatement is calling the eighth wonder of the world. The trump taj mahal. Then the casino business caught up with him. A Witching Hour for donald trump if he cant make an Interest Payment of 47 million on work out a deal with his creditors. His taj mahal casino in Atlantic City faces bankruptcy. A series of the financial troubles resulted in him filing for corporate bankruptcy six times. He got out of the casino business. He expanded his interesting overseas. The panama tower is one of Many International Business Ventures he dabbled in. The Business Empire now spans across five continents and nearly two dozen countries. According to the washington pos post, donald trump has licensed his name to at least 50 different licensing or management deals. Take, for example, argentina, where donald trump licensed his name for a 35 story trump tower. When the president of argentina called President Trump to congratulate him on his win, local reports in argentina surfaced that President Trump asked the president to help him get approvals for his project pushed through. Those reports were denied by the argentine president s office. The city also denied the permit. Trump has a deal for a tower under construction in uruguay. Eric trump traveled there to check on the progress. His trip cost 100,000 in hotel rooms for secret service. The russian billionaire used a Staterun Bank to finance the project, a bank under u. S. Sanctions. In the former soviet republic, trump lent his name to a fivestar hotel. According to the new yorker, Donald Trumps partners in the deal were a powerful family with ties to irans revolutionary guard. A few weeks before taking office, trump canceled the deal. Leaving an almost complete never opened hotel. Not before earning nearly 3 million from the project according to his Financial Disclosure forms. In turkey, trump has licensed his name to trump towers istanbul. His partner comes from a wealthy well connected family in turkey. But more recently, the turkish president has gone after trumps partner. The president is exerting political pressure on trump. Turkeys leader asked the u. S. To extradite someone they want. Those are some of the deals. There are many more. Most of the business deals are with foreign heavy hitters and with the president refusing to divest ownership of any of his businesses, some experts argue that they are potential violations of the clause of the constitution. Which prohibits the president from accepting payments or anything of economic value from foreign governments. In fact, were going to have one of the experts on next. She said something that really struck me. Because ive been traveling the world for a living for quite some time. Lately, im hearing what shes hearing. Whats distressing to me is people laughing at us. Theyre laughing at us. I dont want to sound paranoid, but dya think our recent online sales success seems a little. Strange . Na. Ever since we switched to fedex ground business has been great. Theyre affordable and fast. Maybe too affordable and fast. What if. People arent buying these books online, but they are buying them to protect their secrets . . hi bill. If that is your real name. Its william actually. Hmph affordable, fast fedex ground. When it comes to travel, i sweat the details. Late checkout. Downalternative pillows. And of course, price. Tripadvisor helps you book a. Hotel without breaking a sweat. Because we now instantly. Search over 200 booking sites. To find you the lowest price. On the hotel you want. Dont sweat your booking. Tripadvisor. The latest reviews. The lowest prices. So, verizon and google have teamed up on the pixel 2. Its a match made in tech heaven. Its like verizon is the oil and google is the balsamic. No, actually, they separate into a suspension. Its more like the google pixel 2 is the unlimited storage. And verizon is the best unlimited plan. What if its like. H2 and o . Yeah. Yeah, like that. I had a feeling that would score with you guys. Good meeting. vo when you really, really want the best, get up to 50 off the pixel 2 on googles exclusive wireless partner, verizon. Anyone who calls it a hobby doesnt understand. We know that a persons passion is what drives them. [ clapping ] and thats why every memorial we create is a true reflection of the individual. Only a dignity memorial professional can celebrate a life like no other. Find out how at sanfranciscodignity. Com. Or a little internet machine . It makes you wonder shouldnt we get our phones and internet from the same company . Thats why Xfinity Mobile comes with your internet. You get up to 5 lines of talk and text at no extra cost. So all you pay for is data. See how much you can save. Choose by the gig or unlimited. Xfinity mobile. A new kind of network designed to save you money. Call, visit, or go to xfinitymobile. Com. Welcome back to panama city. As we told you, we spent a lot of time here in panama investigating the dirty money that poured into the Trump Ocean Club building over there. One of the things we kept hearing from people we talked to was, what do you expect if you do business in panama, corruption is just part of the deal. People dont just say that about panama. They say that about many of the countries where the president s company does business. Theres an often repeated suggestion out there that the Trump Organization targets countries with lax regulations and a culture of corruption. That got us wondering, is that a fair suggestion . We decided to look at all the countries we could find which the Trump Organization considered as possible locations to expand into and run them against the annual ratings published by transparency international, a wellrespected Anticorruption Campaign group. The results are pretty telling. Take a look at this. Out of all the countries where the president has explored or closed deals, more than half are in countries that get a score below 50. Thats out of 100. In school, we used to call that a fail. Transparency international gives it just 30 points. The philippines doesnt do much better coming in at 35. Ar gn t argentina and indonesia score a little better. The country were in, panama, gets 38 points. Compare that with our own National Average which stands at 74 out of 100. Thats quite a difference. Does the fact that President Trump has so many businesses in places with a Bad Reputation harming out national reputation. Are we all guilty by association . I spoke to one person who has been thinking about that a lot lately. I thought the american system was supposed to be designed amem was supposed to be designed differently. I thought we were not suppose today look like panama and the philippines or you name it. Sarah chase learned about corruption the hard way. She learned for nearly a decade in afghanistan where she investigated and exposed dirty official, a risky thing for an American Woman to do. So hes using his governmental power to protect that monopoly. Now shes brought that experience back to the u. S. Where she provides expert testimony to congressional hearings. Now a court case which the president himself is a defendant. The president of the United States is receiving money, fees. Just a flood of items of value from a variety of different foreign governments without ever having consulted congress or congress made a statement as to whether thats legal or not. That, according to the liberal Watchdog Group that filed the lawsuit is a violation of the foreign emoluments clause. It states no tit. The wording is quaint but she believes it has a modern application. If you choose by shouldering the people of the United States as their president you cant be serving yourself as a business man. Choose, one or the other. Why not let congress pursue this . Why the lawsuit. This is a violation of the constitutional provision. Congress has shown no interest in defending that constitutional provision. If we cant test the constitution in the courts, where can we test it. Chase wrote a brief for the case. High on that list, the Trump Ocean Club in panama. She says the president continues to receive items of value in the form of infrastructure repairs and permits from the panama government. What if this was the first project he chose to do internationally . It is of concern to me because what it suggests is that this was a Business Operation seeking easy money. That often means illegal money. It means dealing with a government that is bent on selfenrichment, rather than bent on serving its own people. Its a bad sign. Before he took office, the president tried, some say unsuccessfully, to draw a line under his past, by putting his Business Empire into a trust held by his sons. His lawyers also dug deep into the statute books and pulled out a getout clause which excepts a president from prosecution from conflict of interest. I have a no conflict because im president. Is he right . Is the president above conflict of interest laws. America has been relying on a tissue of norms and expectations. It turns out that a determined cleptocrat will blow through the current laws werent build for the Trump Administration but chase, who wrote a book, believes that as a nation we are on a slippery slope. The United States is somehowisomehohowing really concerning signs that i recognize from most of the corrupt countries around the world. So when the United States starts doing things, its like a green light. It sets the example for other countries. What does that do for americas standing in the world. It dents americas standing. Whats distressing to me is people laughing at us. But similarly, in other countries where governments really are bent on maximizing private gain, they see similarities between how they want to run their country and how President Trump is running the United States. It just opens the vanguards. In a District Court in new york, the president s lawyers argued for the case to be thrown out. Claiming the interpretation of the emolument clause was flawed. Chayes says whatever the outcome, speaking out is what counts here. We are americans. Should we demand any less of our government than south koreans are demanding of theirs . We dont get a democracy because god handed it down, we get it because we demand it and insist on it. Im really struck at how passive, frankly, the American People seem to be at the moment when our very system of government is in danger. When you hear sober, thoughtful people Start Talking about our system of government being in danger p, i ap time to start paying attention. Youre watching on assignment panama city, stay with us. chris the very first time i met bruce i saw on his lapel hes got a purple heart. bruce we started talking about the service. I outrank him. chris [laughs] yeah. Meals on wheels reaches so many people. Its impactful beyond anything ive ever done in my life. bruce the meals and his friendship really mean, means a lot to me. vo through the subaru share the love event, weve helped deliver over onepoint seven million meals to those in need. Get a new subaru and well donate two hundred fifty dollars more. chris and bruce put a little love in your heart. Welcome back. Its been a busy day for us here in panama city. Theres been a lot of reaction to our story already. Ranging from a democratic congressman calling for an urgent investigation into this story by congress, the justice department, Robert Mueller to the on the other hand a viewer who wrote in to tell me, go trump my 401k doing great, medimead med ya still mad at losing the election. Should it play by whatever rules the local or Global Market play by. We know which side of the argument President Trump is on, he told us himself. In 2012 he called into squawk box to express a very clear opinion about the law that forbids American Companies from bribing foreign officials. Every other country goes into these places and they do what they have to do. Its a horrible law and it should be changed. I mean, were like the policemen for the world. Itsry dig yous. Question answered. Rachel will be back on monday and on assignment will be back in the new year. So for now, good night from panama city. What are you trying to conceal, buddy . A repeat offender smuggles contraband into the jail. My case is considered high profile because the guy killed was a local celebrity. After murdering a louisville rap star, an inmate becomes a marked man. He might as well do himself a favor and kilel

© 2024 Vimarsana

comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.