On Rossotrudnichestvo (a Kremlin-controlled Russian ethnic organization), Trump’s trip to Moscow in 2013, and why Felix Sater did not go to Moscow for the Pageant
(THREAD) I have argued in a previous thread that the “infamous” pee-tape of the Steele dossier exists. The pee-tape allegation has been widely ridiculed,
1/ and is almost universally regarded as evidence that the whole dossier — or large parts of it — must be untrue, even “fake,” as Trump has claimed.
2/ But in my thread I have shown that the case for the truth of the “pee tape” allegation turns out to be very STRONG, because it is supported by mutually corroborating evidence — just the kind of evidence that prosecutors look for to strengthen their cases.
3/ In this thread I will provide further reason for thinking that Felix Sater was Source E of the Steele dossier — a claim that formed an important part of my argument showing that the pee-tape does exist.
4/ My analysis involved the claim that Sater was NOT in Moscow at the time of the MIss Universe Pageant in 2013. (To see why this might be important, you will have to read my previous thread.)
5/ It is certainly a remarkable fact, if true, that Sater was not there for the event, since the idea of a Trump Tower project in Moscow was originally SATER’s idea, going back to 2005, and the Trump Tower project was much discussed at the event in Moscow in 2013.
6/ But there is a compelling reason for Sater’s absence in Moscow in November 2013. Why? Because in 2013 Trump was involved in litigation that made it very important for Trump to distance himself as far as possible from Sater.
7/ From a WaPo article, 17 May 2017: “Former Mafia-linked figure describes association with Trump”
8/ (This is transparently false. As I showed in my previous thread, NO ONE except members of his immediate family and MIchael Cohen were as close to Trump over the years as Sater — and in my thread I could only cite a fraction of the evidence.)
9/ In 2013, b/f & after his court testimony, it would have been particularly embarrassing and compromising for Trump if Sater were to have visited Moscow when Trump was there for the Pageant, and totally compromising for Sater to have gone to the Ritz Carlton in Moscow then.
10/ Yet we know that Source D of the dossier (Millian) was present in Moscow at the time of the Pageant, and was even familiar with the goings-on at the Ritz Carlton.
11/ Millian was also close to Trump (though not nearly as as close as Sater), but he did not represent the same kind of threat to Trump as Sater, who had become radioactive for Trump because of the lawsuit.
12/ Thus Millian COULD have been instrumental in arranging the 2013 trip to Moscow, just as Millian has in fact claimed he did.
13/ Millian claims to have helped organize Trump’s trips to Moscow in 2007 and 2013 (Trump’s most recent trips there).
14/ In an in-depth interview with Russian state agency Ria Novosti in April 2016, Millian said that “mutual acquaintances” had helped organise a visit by the real-estate mogul to the 2007 Millionaire’s Fair in Moscow, when he first met Trump.
15/ And in an interview with Brian Ross of ABC News on Jan 30, 2017, Millian said that:
16/ Here the “mutual acquaintances” and “our advisers” Millian refers to were likely Russian ethnics associated with the organization Rossotrudnichestvo, an organization for “Compatriots Living Abroad”
17/ that operates under the jurisdiction of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and distributes “foreign aid.” (It is, therefore, Kremlin-controlled.) Millian has been intimately involved with this organization for over a decade.
18/ (Interestingly, Rossotrudnichestvo is also mentioned in the dossier in connection with an alleged trip by Michael Cohen to Prague in August.) END
