In the russia scandal. And of course theres a Dividing Line between the editorial page of a newspaper and the News Division of a newspaper, but its hard not to notice that hard news and investigative journalists and particularly National Security specialist journalists at the Wall Street Journal have also been flying the coop in unusual numbers recently. Just this week the Wall Street Journal lost this guy, you recognize him, from National Reporting that has been of intense interest, particularly on the russia scandal. This is shane harris. National security reporter at the Wall Street Journal. Hes the one who broke that Bombshell Story about peter smith, the republican activist who actually contacted Russian Hackers during the campaign to try to get dirt on Hillary Clinton from the hackers to help the Trump Campaign. Youll also remember that peter smith mysteriously committed suicide not long after talking to shane harris for that story. Well, the Wall Street Journal just lost shane harris. The journal this week also lost pauls son whos the one who broke that remarkable story
vladimir putin. A big chunk of their Editorial Staff we now know fled that paper in the wake of its turn towards supporting trump, and it may or may not be related but we are also watching them lose a ton of reporting fire power from the news side. Now that we know that they spiked a Second Followup Editorial piece on trump and his mafia ties after that really good first one, im sort of desperate to know what was in that piece that they spiked, that they never ran. Most mafiarelated stories about the Trump Organization and donald trump feature some amount of involvement from this man. This was felix saters Trump OrganizationBusiness Card, Senior Adviser to donald trump. In the year 2000 he was one of a dozen people arrested in a mafia high professional stock high profile stock scam. This got a lot of attention at the time because it was a gigantic swindle, about a 40 million scam that involved a lot of people. The fbi, federal prosecutors
after he pled guilty, they did not lock him up. In fact, they didnt even sentence him after his guilty plea for more than ten years. They arrested him, they secured his cooperation, they got him to plead guilty to something but then instead of sentencing him for that guilty plea, instead of putting him in prison for that guilty plea, they turned him back out into the wild. They let him go back into New York City so he could become an informant for the government about Organized Crime. He did that work for, again, more than ten years. He actually ended up becoming a Side Bar Minor Controversy during the Confirmation Hearings for attorney general Loretta Lynch because she had been the prosecutor in brooklyn who had brought that big mob case, and who had overseen this case, but for that decade, while prosecutors left him out there
in the wild, collecting information, and giving the government information about the workings of the mob, what he was doing during that decade was Real Estate Deals for the Trump Organization. That was his day job while he was a Mob Informant for the government. He worked with the Trump Organization on a trump tower project for phoenix, arizona that never ended up getting built. He worked with the Trump Organization on a trump tower in ft. Lauderdale that did get built but then foreclosed. And somewhat famously, felix sater, this excon Mob Informant, he also worked on putting the financing together for the trump soho city which this week dropped the name trump off the front of the building. It opened in 2008. In 2010 we know felix sater was still working for the Trump Organization as a Senior Adviser to donald trump. But thats a problem, because hes an excon, served time in prison before the whole stock scandal thing for which he got arrested. In the financial industry and in
the Real Estate Business it can be legally dicey to have somebody whos a convicted felon involved in any of your business dealings. Felix sater is a convicted felon and hes very much involved in the Trump Organization and his business dealings. In november 2013, in a deposition, donald trump played down any connections he might have with felix sater and certainly claimed not to have any knowledge of felix sater being connected to Organized Crime. I dont think he was connected to the mafia. He got into a bar room fight. In fact, he was supposedly very close to the government of the United States as a witness or something, but i dont think he was connected to the mafia. About how many times have you conversed with mr. Sater . Over the years . Over the years. If you could estimate. Not many. Not many . If he were sitting in the room right now, i really wouldnt know what he looked like. 2013 donald trump proclaiming that his Senior Adviser, he
wouldnt know what he looked like. That was 2013. By 2015 donald trump apparently was refreshed because he came to know him again because we now know that in october 2015 felix sater was working with the Trump Organization once again, this time to put together the financing and approvals necessary to build a trump tower in moscow. Donald trump insisted throughout the campaign that he had no current and no pending Business Deals with russia. We now know despite those denials he and the Trump Organization were pursuing what would have been one of the biggest Real Estate Deals of his life. Donald trump himself in october 2015 signed a Letter Of Intent to pursue a trump tower in moscow. This is a project that was spearheaded by Trump Organization lawyer Michael Cohen and by felix sater. The New York Times obtained felix saters emails about the trump tower moscow project this past august and they showed that in addition to the exciting
financial prospects for this trump tower in moscow, for some reason felix sater thought it would be a big political payoff too. He believed if that project, that real estate tower in moscow, if it got off the ground it would have great political consequences for donald trump. He wrote to Trump Organization lawyer Michael Cohen, quote, our boy can become President Of The Usa and we can engineer it. I will get all of putins team to buy in on this. I will manage this process. I will get putin on this program and we will get donald elected. Whats the connection between trump getting elected president and some big Real Estate Deal in moscow . I dont know, hard to say. Why on earth would the president of russia be involved either in a Real Estate Deal or in making trump president or something that connects the two . No idea. The Trump Organizations defense about its ties to felix sater over the years is that sometimes they deny they have any idea who he is. He must have made that Business Card at the kinkos. Do they still have kinkos . They either say we dont know who he is when they do have to acknowledge their dealings with him, they tend to dismiss him as somebody who brags a lot, maybe he shouldnt be believed. To that point, my favorite detail in all the Felix Sater MobRussia Trump Reporting is when felix sater bragged to Trump Organization lawyer Michael Cohen that he really could get this trump tower moscow thing off the ground and that he really could get putin on board, and that he thereby could get trump connected. In making these connections and writing it out in emails that we can read in the New York Times, he just bragged about how much juice he had to make these connections and do this kind of stuff in russia. He said, quote, michael, i arranged for ivanka to sit in putins private chair at his desk and office in the kremlin. I know how to play it. We will get this done. So the New York Times obtains
that email and they contact ivanka trump to find out if what felix sater said about her was true. Her response to the times was that, yes, she in fact had gone to moscow with felix sater. She said she had taken, quote, a brief tour of red square and the kremlin and took care to insist she was only there as a tourist, she said, quote, it is possible she sat in mr. Putins chair. Its possible. Who among us can say whether or not for sure weve sat in putins chair . This could be his chair, i dont know. So if youre interested in the Trump Campaign and its connections to russia, if youre interested in the scandal and figuring out if there was anything done between the Trump Organization and russia that might have had some later connection to what happened between russia and the president ial election, if you are trying to figure that stuff out, felix sater would be a pretty good guy to talk to. Even if he is a little nutty, hes right there in the bulls eye in terms of figuring this story out. Well, heres the amazing thing. Two days ago, wednesday of this week, the House Intelligence Committee finally decided that maybe we should do an interview with felix sater while were investigating this russia thing. They scheduled it during the house vote on the tax bill and they scheduled it not in washington d. C. That means when it came time finally to talk to this incredibly central, interesting figure with all sorts of long, lurid, fascinating criminal Organized Crime, russia, trump, real estate history, the republican led House Intelligence Committee decided that that witness should be interviewed specifically at a time and place where no member of congress could attend the interview. They had staff do the interview instead and they had it happen out of state. We know for sure that no members of Congress Went to the interview. Not because theyll tell us but because we have the roll call
vote for the house when they were voting on the tax bill that day and you can see from the time stamp that it happened at 12 55 p. M. Thats when they finalized the vote. There were Seven Members of the house Who Werent Present and didnt vote on the tax bill but none are members of the Intelligence Committee. All the Intelligence Committee members were there in person for that tax vote, so we know they werent in new york interviewing felix sater. There was a second vote at 6 47 p. M. There were a total of 11 members of the house who didnt cast a vote. It was the seven who missed in the morning plus four more. None who missed that vote were members of the Intelligence Committee either. All Intelligence Committee members were present and voted then too. That means none of them, republican or democrat, were in new york interviewing felix sater. They were all in washington. No members of congress get to interview felix. How come he gets that privilege . Why do that particular interview with that particular witness in a way that no member of congress could go to . Turns out he is not the only one and the next ones even better. Thats next. Stay with us. 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 when heartburn hits fight back fast with tums chewy bites. Fast relief in every bite. Crunchy outside. Chewy inside. Tum tum tum tum tums chewy bites. Turn up your swagger game with one a day mens. A complete multivitamin with key Nutrients Plus b vitamins for heart health. Your one a day is showing. Sometthats when he needs the way ovicks vaporub. s sleep. Proven cough medicine. With 8 hours of vapors. So he can sleep. Vicks vaporub. Goodnight coughs. It wasntaking ceasy at first. She learned how to better communicate her needs. And you learned how to not ignore yours. I discovered how to make healthier meals. And i discovered how much i enjoyed them. Narrator becoming a caregiver is a Learning Experience for everyone. Find articles, tips and tools from experts
and others who have been in your place. The Caregiving Resource Center at aarp. Org caregiving. We learned today that the republicanled House Intelligence Committee which is supposed to be investigating trump and russia, they interviewed a character named felix sater two days ago, a key figure linking the trump Business Empire to russia. Hes also got interesting Organized Crime ties that might make him a particularly juicy target for aggressive interrogation. For some reason the House Intelligence Committee decided they would do their interview with felix sater in new york with no members of Congress Present two days ago. Now weve learned that today the House Intelligence Committee did another out of state interview today on the friday before christmas in new york. They interviewed a woman who has served as assistant to donald trump and a Senior Vice President at the Trump Organization for three decades. Every email, every phone call, every meeting, every piece of paper that has gone to or come from donald trump for 30 years has gone through the hands of
rhona graff. Thats what you call a key witness if youre interested in the behavior, meetings, ties, contacts, and communications of donald trump over the years. Republicans in the House Intelligence Committee decided that she would be interviewed today also in New York City in a way that was impossible for any actual members of congress to attend. We dont know if any members of congress made it to new york for the rhona graff interview today. We think some of them might. Were pretty sure most of them at least didnt. So the House Intelligence Committee is supposed to be how congress is investigating the russia scandal. It is getting a little weird over there. These lastminute, no members interviews with incredibly key sensitive central witnesses. The news this week that republicans on that committee have formed a secret republicanonly Working Group thats using the materials obtained by the committee supposedly for its russia investigation to instead run
their own Working Group which is designed to indict the fbi. Republicans on the Committee Also this week announced more plans to call yet more senior fbi officials before their committee not apparently because they want to ask them tough questions about russia but apparently because they want to make the fbi itself a scandal. The reason i say it seems like thats their intention is because of republicans increasingly strident antifbi criticism in public statements. But also because of their strategy of bringing in fbi officials and then selectively leaking information about these officials closed door testimony to sympathetic media outlets. That has led to some predictably sneering coverage this week