2015. It is not often you celebrate the 70th anniversary of a world event. Instead of waiting around for more obvious numerical milestone like 75 year anniversary. People who fought in world war ii are disappearing from the earth. You lose the opportunity to pay them tribute. The 70th anniversary we made a really big deal about it around the world in 2015. It was a big deal here in the United States and anywhere that world war ii veterans were able to be recognized by their country men. In russia and in china in 2015 even as everybody was making a big deal of it russia and china went to a whole other level. They went hog wild for the 70th anniversary of the end of world war ii. And not just in the way that had them celebrating, you know, the survivors of that war, the folks who actually fought in those wars. What russia and china did for that anniversary in 2015 is they decided to hold absolutely gigantic, unprecedentedly gigantic displays of their own National Military power. It was an unusual thing. China organized what may have been one of the Largest Military parades in modern international history. China showed off look at these. The tanks and missile launchers. A lot of them in this weird intense digital blue camo. They showed off their domestically made drones and aircraft. They took great care to make sure every weapon and missile and vehicle they showed was domestic. Was chinese made. No foreign weapons. They rolled out dozens of what they call carrier killers. Chinesemade missiles that the chinese say they say these missiles are big enough and powerful enough to sink an american Aircraft Carrier in a single strike. Thats these missiles here. Chinas military has over 2 Million People in it. They put a lot of them in this parade for the 70th anniversary of the end of world war ii. Even at one point had helicopters flying over the parade route spelling over 70 for 70 years. Just massive. And according to reports from the time from 2015 when it happened, 80 of the weapons that china displayed in that huge parade had never before been seen by the general public until they put them in that parade. This was the reviewing stand that day. You see president xi of china looking for happy there standing next to him, looking exactly the way he always does in every picture where his shirt is on, is russian president vladimir putin. Putin was not to be outdone in 2015. Russia also staged an absolutely enormous military display to mark the 70th anniversary of the defeat of the nazis. The russians rolled more military equipment through the streets of moscow than they had ever done before, including over the entire history of the soviet union. Biggest Russian Military parade ever in 2015. They did a flyover like they do at all these things. The russian one, at one point a flyover that involved more than 100 aircraft. Yeah, the chinese spelled out 70 with their helicopters while the russians spelled out 70 with their fighter jets. Missiles and tanks and tens of thousands of troops, no expense spared. Biggest one theyve ever had. And it was a little weird that both russia and china chose to do that in 2015. It was like this kind of north koreanstyle display from both of those countries. Incidentally, i should mention, north korea also held a parade. But in north korea, while its impressive, thats not weird. Thats like what north korea does. Whats north korea famous for . Prison camps where they work and starve their own people to death in massive numbers. Bizarre leadership that kills their relatives with antiaircraft guns. Super creepy mass organized gymnastics and enormous military parades. Tahdah. And in 2015, they did the thing with the 70 as well. I think those were like biplanes. Anyway. No expense spared. Russia, china, north korea. Theres no law against parading your military, whether or not its an important anniversary. But through american eyes, this is a little weird, right . If this gives you the willies to look at, its because its supposed to. This is an unabashed, uncomplicated, undisguised display of military threat, military prowess or national insecurity, depending on how you look at it. This is not something that we do here in the United States. Although, when our new president was planning his inauguration this year, there were some strange signs that maybe the United States was going to approach the Trump Inauguration with sort of a pyongyang accent. The president elect told the Washington Post the week of his inauguration, before he was inaugurated, quote, were going to show the people as we build up our military. We are going to display our military. That military may come marching down pennsylvania avenue. That military may be flying over new york city and washington, d. C. , for parades. I mean, were going to be showing our military. The day after the president elect made those comments to the Washington Post, with nobody quite knowing what to make of that, the Huffington Post took him seriously and followed up with sources who were described at the time as being familiar with the plans of the president ial inaugural committee. What those sources said at the time was, in fact, the Trump Administration was really making inquiries, really was talking to the pentagon about rolling the tanks down the streets of washington, d. C. Thanks, missile launchers, mraps. What else you got . Jessica was the reporter on this piece for the Huffington Post right before the inauguration. This is from her piece at the time. During the preparation for fridays transfer of power, a member of trumps Transition Team floated the idea of including tanks and missile launchers in the inaugural parade. The source said they were legit thinking red square north koreastyle parade. There was i remember that week leading up to the inauguration. There was a lot to get used to. There was a lot weird in the news that week. That report in particular, though, stuck with me. It stuck with a lot of people even after the white house denied it. Asked for an on the record confirmation of what they were learning through their sources. And the white house said all requests for comment on this issue should be directed to the defense department. They werent going to talk about it at all. The reporter Jessica Schulberg explained when she asked the white house in december about these plans, they had heard about, to use military equipment during the inauguration, quote, a trump aide refused to address the matter on record but offered a vehement offtherecord denial. A vehement denial. Oh, dont be crazy. We were never considering that. That Huffington Post reporter stuck with that story and filed a freedom of information act request with not the white house but the military. There was an asker but also an askee. Now shes been able to publish the evidence showing that in fact, the trump folks, the Trump InaugurationCommittee Really was, quote, seriously considering adding military vehicles to the inaugural parade. The conversation started as, can you send us some pictures of military vehicles we could add to the parade. Defense Department Official says to his or her colleague, i explained that such support would be out of guidelines. Im reluctant to produce an improvised list of military vehicles that we might be held to. Also concerned that we need an opportunity to staff this request and to make deliberate decisions about vehicle choice and configuration, paint scheme, uniform for crew members, et cetera before we start providing pictures which might be regarded as binding. So this email from one pentagon official to another, which has now been released by the freedom of information act request shows the pentagon freaking out because the trump folks really did ask them to do this thing. They wanted options of what it looks like. We now have this direct evidence because the trump people really did want to rent freaking missile launchers and tanks during the inauguration. They wanted to do that just to celebrate trump. Look at all our missiles, everybody. And you know, credit to Jessica Schulberg for staying on that story and giving us what is now the real history of what happened there. The real story of it, which we otherwise would not have gotten without her reporting and without her continuing to report after the white house vehemently denied it. And i think there are two revelations that come out of this. One big and one small. The small one is, oh, my god, they wanted to do that. The bigger revelation from this is that there is no use in going to this white house for factual information. And i dont say that lightly, and i dont say that with any ad hominum intention. I mean it because they proved it. Even if the thing you are trying to get factual information about is just the behavior of this white house, hey, white house, hey, administration, did you do this thing . Whatever they say in response to a question like that should not be taken as evidence as to whether or not they did nothing. It sounds terrible to say that about your own government, about the leadership of your own country. That they cant be trusted in any circumstance to give you factual truthful information. But in the case of this administration, i really dont mean it in a mean way. I mean it in a specific and strategic way. I mean it in terms of how we as americans should be approaching the news about our new president. How to approach what counts as factual advancement of our understanding of what is happening in our country and in our politics and in our government. I mean, they proved literally on day one, they proved from their swearing in day that they will flatout deny stuff that they have done and they will say theyve done things when they havent done those things. And that ends up being important for approaching a hilarious and creepy story like this. Like they want to show off cruise missiles on the national mall. Its interesting for a story like that but its really important when it gets to the big stuff. And that dynamic, that important dynamic of remembering to ignore what they say, that is the key dynamic at work in the two big stories that broke today. As i mentioned, one of these happened in new york. It is a criminal matter. The other one happened in washington. And it is not a criminal matter, at least yet, but it might be. And thats next. Stay with us. 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The fact he works for a turkish governmentrun bank, a Staterun Bank controlled by the government of turkey and has been arrested for those particular charges, that is potentially awkward right now for the Trump Administration because that would be the same turkish government that we now know had Trumps National security adviser secretly on their payroll, working for them, working for the turkish government while participating in topsecret National Security briefings and had access to all of the most sensitive intelligence in the u. S. Government. So thats an awkward thing here for the administration, if the turkish government was simultaneously sponsoring an effort through one of its governmentrun banks to evade sanctions on iran and also simultaneously paying somebody right at the center of Trumps National security apparatus. Thats bad. This is also awkward politically because this is happening right before rex tillerson, the secretary of state, is due to go to turkey. Hell be in turkey the day after tomorrow. But that arrest announced today is awkward for the administration because of what the prosecutors are describing as the crime here. This guy who was arrested today works at this turkish governmentrun bank. Hes being charged with conspiracy to evade sanctions on iran. The person he allegedly conspired with is another guy who is being prosecuted by that same office, by what used to be Preet Bhararas office and this other defendant who was allegedly involved in this conspiracy to evade the sanctions on iran, that other defendant made news yesterday when it was announced in this iranian sanctions case, he has hired for his defense team rudy giuliani. So in this federal prosecution out of the Southern District of new york, the turkish government is wrapped up in an alleged conspiracy to evade the sanctions on iran, to do business with iran, despite u. S. Laws that ban that. Thats the same government that put Trumps National security adviser secretly on its payroll and now one of the defendants in that case has hired trumps best friend basically to run his defense. Hypothetically if this prosecution in any way links back to the Trump Administration or to the trump transition or to the Trump Campaign, once again were going to have another question of whether or not attorney general Jeff Sessions should recuse himself from overseeing that case because of his own personal entanglements here. His own personal involvement with, hypothetically, the people or entities in question. But also once again, its the same office in the Southern District of new york. If you had to pick one window through which youd have to watch all of the scandals in this new american era, you might choose the one that meet be Preet Bhararas office. Theres this turk irk banking case today. Theyre also prosecuting off the top of my head, also prosecuting Deutsche Bank and its russian Money Laundering scandal. Proving to be a key line of inquiry when it comes to his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. And Deutsche Bank his biggest lender. The office is also the office that prosecuted the number two official at a russian Stateowned Bank valued veb. We talked about this last night. The New York Branch of this russian bank, the guy the number two guy in charge there was at the same time he was working at that bank also secretly a russian spy. Working at this bank in new york as his cover story but really he appears to have been an agent of russian intelligence. And we know that because Preet Bhararas office prosecuted for it. We now know that the director of that bank, the gentleman on the right here is the guy who inexplicably met with the president s soninlaw, with Jared Kushner in a meeting not disclosed until yesterdays new york times. We can fill in a few more details on that meeting or on the man who met with Jared Kushner. This head of this russianowned russian Stateowned Bank who had this convicted russian spy as the number two official in the new york office. This guy heading up that bank met with Jared Kushner in either december or january during the transition. We now know that he was personally appointed to his position running that bank by vladimir putin. Putin installed him in that job personally last year. Not that long ago. At the time that sergei garkov was appointed, reuters reported that he had been recommended to that job by this man, a former finance minister under vladimir putin. Also almost famous in journalistic circle because he organized in moscow a big meeting between donald trump and a whole bunch of russian businessmen while trump was in moscow in 2013 to hold his Miss Universe pageant. That guy who organized that meeting for trump reportedly recommended Sergei Gorkov for his job. Putin installed gorkov in that job last year right before his second in command in new york was tried and convicted as a russian spy. Gorkov then in december or january for some reason was meet with Jared Kushner. And again it was not disclosed until yesterday. Once again that story runs through Preet Bhararas office because they convicted the spy. His office also has geographical jurisdiction over any potential criminal cases that may arise involving the Trump Organization and trump tower. If there was ever, for example, to be an emoluments clause criminal prosecution bought against the president for receiving money from foreign governments through his businesses, that prosecution would likely be brought by the Preet Bharara office. It was two days after ethics groups asked him to start such an investigation into the president that he was suddenly notified