Is Trump Trying to Set Up an "Alternative DeepState"?

In another thread, a member said:

Quote:

Originally Posted by acbytesla (Post 12850847) I would assert that asking Ukraine to investigate a political opponent is more than opposition research.

And I responded:

Quote:

Sorta. It's some sort of oppo research + foreign meddling weirdness there's not even a term for. The closest thing to it I've ever heard of is the October Surprise conspiracy theory. https://sandiegofreepress.org/2017/0.../#.XZ7BO-jYrnF

I think that "foreign meddling weirdness" is basically "CIA foreign operations".

Trump's problem is that the formal Intelligence Community hates him. They're not sufficiently beholden to him, and they don't see him as their Lord and Master.

So, he's just trying to get dingbat Giuliani to start some sort of "off the books" version of the Deep State to do his bidding and serve the Trump Empire.

It's not just Ukraine.

Here, too:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...1bzkAoLnCBRdnM

Quote:

President Donald Trump pressed then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to help persuade the Justice Department to drop a criminal case against an Iranian-Turkish gold trader who was a client of Rudy Giuliani, according to three people familiar with the 2017 meeting in the Oval Office. Tillerson refused, arguing it would constitute interference in an ongoing investigation of the trader, Reza Zarrab, according to the people. They said other participants in the Oval Office were shocked by the request.

Quote:

Zarrab was being prosecuted in federal court in New York at the time on charges of evading U.S. sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program. He had hired former Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Giuliani, who has said he reached out repeatedly to U.S. officials to seek a diplomatic solution for his client outside the courts.

(Charges here )

Zarrab, Jamshidy, Najafzadeh and their co-conspirators used an international network of companies located in Iran, Turkey and elsewhere to conceal from U.S. banks, OFAC and others that the transactions were on behalf of and for the benefit of Iranian entities. This network of companies includes Royal Holding A.S., a holding company in Turkey; Durak Doviz Exchange, a money services business in Turkey; Al Nafees Exchange, a money services business; Royal Emerald Investments; Asi Kiymetli Madenler Turizm Otom, a company located in Turkey; ECB Kuyumculuk Ic Vedis Sanayi Ticaret Limited Sirketi, a company located in Turkey; and Gunes General Trading LLC; and others. As a result of this scheme, the co-conspirators induced U.S. banks to unknowingly process international financial transactions in violation of the IEEPA.

Each defendant is charged with conspiracies to defraud the United States, to violate the IEEPA, to commit bank fraud and to commit money laundering.

Quote:

‘Prisoner Swap’ In a phone interview this month, Giuliani initially denied that he ever raised Zarrab’s case with Trump but later said he might have done so. He said he’d been speaking with U.S. officials as part of his effort to arrange a swap of Zarrab for Andrew Brunson, an American pastor jailed in Turkey who was later released in 2018. “Suppose I did talk to Trump about it -- so what? I was a private lawyer at the time,” Giuliani said. “Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe at some point I dropped his name in a conversation. Or maybe one of his people talked to him about it because I was trying to do a prisoner swap.” Giuliani said he discussed the Zarrab case with State Department officials and disclosed that two years ago, although he declined to say if he ever spoke directly to Tillerson about the case, saying “you have no right to know that.”

Sure seems to me like Trump and Giuliani are trying to set up their own little Trump-specific CIA-esque network.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2ntSwLo