Lock him up, already. But let POOTWH go home to throw hamburders first.
Trump fined $10,000 in what judge calls second violation of gag order
“The witness is not credible,” judge says of Trump after calling the former president to the witness stand
A New York judge on Wednesday fined Donald Trump $10,000 for violating a gag order — and warned the former president that the penalties will only get worse if he keeps breaking the rules set for a civil trial in which he is accused of falsely inflating his property values.
The five-figure penalty came after Judge Arthur Engoron unexpectedly called Trump to the witness stand to explain, under oath, a comment he made earlier in the day. Trump’s surprise testimony only lasted a few minutes, but in that time he failed to convince the judge of either his honesty or good intentions.
The dispute began outside of court, during a break in the testimony, when Trump said he believed that both Engoron and the person next to him were extremely partisan. Trump complained that Engoron, a Democrat, is “a very partisan judge, with a person who’s very partisan sitting along side of him, perhaps even much more partisan than he is.”
Learning of those comments, Engoron — who had previously issued a gag order that barred the former president from making any public statements about court personnel — summoned Trump to explain exactly what he meant.
Trump said he was referring not to the judge’s law clerk, who sits next to him in court, but to Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, who had been on the witness stand earlier Wednesday.
Engoron said he didn’t believe Trump’s explanation.
“As the trier of fact I find that the witness is not credible," Engoron said, adding that he believed Trump was "referring to my ... principal law clerk, who is sitting much closer to me.” The judge noted there’s a barrier between the witness stand and the bench, and said that was part of the reason he believed Trump meant the clerk and not Cohen.
The $10,000 fine comes on top of a $5,000 fine Engoron issued against Trump last week for what he found was a previous violation of his gag order.
The face-off between the judge and the former president was not the first time the issue of the law clerk came up in Wednesday’s court session. On Wednesday morning, Trump lawyer Alina Habba had complained that the clerk was rolling her eyes throughout Tuesday’s cross-examination, calling it “distracting.”
After Engoron issued the fine, Trump’s lawyers asked him to reconsider. The judge said he would not reverse course.
“Don’t do it next time, or it’ll be worse,” the judge said.
The confrontation between the judge and the former president came at a critical moment in the trial, when Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen was testifying against him. The lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James accuses Trump of falsely inflating the worth of his real estate empire — an accusation that Cohen has made repeatedly since he and Trump had a bitter falling out.
The showdown between Cohen and Trump in court has been years in the making, and Cohen could prove to be an important witness in the judge’s ultimate decision over how much to penalize Trump or his business.
After the dust-up over the gag order, Trump’s lawyers made a longshot request for the judge to cut the trial short and issue a directed verdict, but the judge rejected that motion.
With that, Trump got up and walked out of the courtroom, muttering, “I’m leaving.”
“I saved his a**,” President Trump said about the US outcry about Khashoggi’s killing, according to Business Insider, quoting from a copy of Woodward’s book. “I was able to get Congress to leave him alone. I was able to get them to stop,” Trump said.
Why was this important?
Read the full letter at the link below. Nothing to see here, right? Same-same? Let me guess, you (general you) haven't heard of Hunter's laptop yet? Don't worry, the new lapdog speaker of the house and Gym Jordan will ensure that you do. Bought and paid for Jared Dear Boy is awful quiet and uncooperative these days. Wonder why?
As the Honorable Congressman Jaime Raskin states in his letter to Jared Dear Boy:
I write to renew prior concerns expressed by our Committee over reports that you
improperly traded on your government position while carrying out the Trump Administration’s
foreign policy in the Middle East. Specifically, I am writing because you may have acted to
benefit your personal financial and business interests to the tune of billions of dollars from the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia shortly after leaving government office and also because of your
ongoing failure to cooperate with the Committee’s continuing investigation into this matter.
I am deeply troubled by your continued refusal to produce documents regarding the Saudi
government’s $2 billion investment in your fund in light of recent prominent reporting that Saudi
Arabia made that investment in Affinity just months after you left a senior White House position
where you were responsible for shaping Middle East policy. Disturbingly, these reports revealed
that Affinity “structured those funds in such a way that it did not have to disclose the source.”
Furthermore, after following your advice to make his first foreign trip as President to
Saudi Arabia and cultivate a relationship with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Donald
Trump continued to overlook Saudi Arabia’s egregious human rights abuses and insulate the
Crown Prince from accountability for his authoritarian actions.
In a recorded interview, President Trump characterized the nature of the debt that the
Crown Prince owed him, after you and the President helped the Crown Prince to survive the
storm of global outrage following his agents’ assassination and dismemberment of Washington
Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey. Mr. Trump said simply, “I saved his ass.” In the
same vein, President Trump also reportedly instructed former Secretary of State Michael
Pompeo to tell the Crown Prince “he owes us” for specific positions and actions that you
recommended to the former president—recommendations which he followed—regarding Saudi
policy and the treatment of the Crown Prince himself.
In a June 2, 2022, letter, Committee Democrats detailed concerns about your receipt of a
$2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia months after influencing U.S. foreign policy to benefit
the Kingdom.6
Recent reports have renewed the Committee’s concerns that this investment may
have constituted a quid pro quo for your official actions in the White House.
While in office, you helped reshape U.S. foreign policy toward Saudi Arabia to give the
Kingdom what one scholar has called “complete immunity” from consequences for its repressive
and undemocratic actions, pushing for arms sales to the nation despite widespread concerns over
its egregious human rights violations in Yemen, and protecting the Crown Prince from public
criticism and political accountability after his intelligence forces murdered Mr. Khashoggi.
As your own memoir makes clear, you pushed for former President Trump’s inaugural
trip to be to Saudi Arabia—unprecedented in White House history—over the advice of senior
diplomats in the State Department and after consulting directly with the Crown Prince. This trip
represented the first of “many boons” that you would deliver to the Crown Prince while serving
as a senior official of the U.S. government.
In October 2018, Saudi agents brutally killed and dismembered journalist and regime critic Jamal Khashoggi, a murder which U.S. intelligence assessments determined was likely
carried out on the orders of the Crown Prince. In the aftermath of Mr. Khashoggi’s murder, you
“became the prince’s most important defender inside the White House” and reportedly “offered
the crown prince advice about how to weather the storm, urging him to resolve his conflicts
around the region and avoid further embarrassments.”
Your efforts to protect the Crown Prince may have allowed him to maintain his position
at the top of the Saudi government and, thus, his ability to deliver significant financial benefits to
you and your father-in-law after the end of the Trump Administration. Abdullah Alaoudh, the
director for the Gulf at Democracy for the Arab World Now, has stated that “[w]ithout the
absolute protection of Trump and Kushner, MBS would definitely have fallen.” President
Trump expressed an explicit awareness of the Crown Prince’s debt: when Secretary Pompeo
embarked on a state visit to the Middle East to visit the Crown Prince, he wrote that President
Trump told him “My Mike, go and have a good time. Tell him he owes us.”
In another instance, you met privately—without U.S. diplomats present—with officials
from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) and reportedly discussed those
nations’ planned blockade of Qatar, a U.S. ally that hosts the largest U.S. military base in the
Middle East. When Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. carried out this blockade shortly thereafter, President Trump publicly supported their actions over the objections of senior U.S. officials,
including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
Throughout this time, you reportedly exchanged personal messages on WhatsApp with
the Crown Prince, worrying senior officials who believed such informal contacts, outside normal
diplomatic channels, could leave you “susceptible to Saudi manipulation.”13 These concerns
were heightened by reports that the Crown Prince told confidants that you were “in his pocket.”
During the final two months of the Trump Administration, after President Trump lost
reelection to President Biden, you and your senior aide Avi Berkowitz traveled twice to Saudi
Arabia, reportedly meeting with senior Saudi officials both times. Mr. Berkowitz traveled to the
region on at least one other occasion at the end of the Administration, just months before joining
Affinity. While these trips were nominally to advance U.S. government priorities, you returned
to the region shortly thereafter as a private citizen, reportedly to raise funds for Affinity.
According to reports, the day after leaving government employment, you founded
Affinity. Although Affinity was structured in a way to keep its funding hidden, it was revealed
that, within months of its formation, it received a $2 billion investment from the Saudi
government.16 The Saudi sovereign wealth fund, chaired by the Crown Prince, made this
investment despite senior Saudi officials’ serious concerns about the “inexperience of the
Affinity Fund management” and its conclusion that your fund’s investment proposal was
“unsatisfactory in all respects.” Notwithstanding these glaring objections, the Saudi sovereign
wealth fund, Public Investment Fund (PIF), went ahead with the investment with the goal of
forming “a strategic relationship with the Affinity Partners Fund and its founder, Jared
Kushner”—raising widespread speculation that the extraordinary investment was made for
essentially political reasons.
The latest records submitted by Affinity to the Securities and Exchange Commission
show that $2.51 billion out of Affinity’s $2.54 billion in assets under management came from
“non-United States persons.” Because of Affinity’s structure, it is unclear the extent to which
the $2.51 billion in funds under management were personally approved by a foreign leader you
negotiated with in your official capacity when in office.
The Committee first engaged with Affinity’s staff on June 13, 2022. On that call and in a
subsequent email, Affinity stated that it had “nothing to hide” and confirmed that it was
“committed to working with the Committee to provide appropriate details, documents, and
information to help inform your investigation.”19 Despite its assurances of cooperation, Affinity
failed to produce any documents until July 26, 2022—a full eight weeks after the Committee sent
its request letter. When you finally did produce a small subset of documents, Affinity failed to
produce a single communication related to the reasons behind your firm’s receipt of $2 billion
from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund or documents substantively related to the Saudi
government’s investment in the firm.20 Instead, Affinity’s production consisted mainly of
publicly-available materials, including a 435-page Cato Institute report detailing a human rights
analysis for every country in the world, a 171-page Saudi Central Bank report, and documents
that were not responsive to the Committee’s requests. After October 12, 2022, Affinity’s
counsel simply ignored all requests and communications from Committee staff.
It’s what you do to the rear tires when you Jack up the front tires so you can steal the rims in that hell hole, shitty called NYC. In broad daylight even. Everyone knows that.
POOTWH giving me a run for my money with his posts. Gonna have to up my game. I’m looking for suggestions for a code name for the new speaker, by the way.
funny how he is turning on haberman now. she has done nothing but prop him up and be positive about him all these years in attempt to maintain her access. i can't stand her. it is funny now that he is finally going after her. even if he is unhinged and divorced from reality.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
It’s what you do to the rear tires when you Jack up the front tires so you can steal the rims in that hell hole, shitty called NYC. In broad daylight even. Everyone knows that.
POOTWH giving me a run for my money with his posts. Gonna have to up my game. I’m looking for suggestions for a code name for the new speaker, by the way.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
It’s what you do to the rear tires when you Jack up the front tires so you can steal the rims in that hell hole, shitty called NYC. In broad daylight even. Everyone knows that.
POOTWH giving me a run for my money with his posts. Gonna have to up my game. I’m looking for suggestions for a code name for the new speaker, by the way.
It’s what you do to the rear tires when you Jack up the front tires so you can steal the rims in that hell hole, shitty called NYC. In broad daylight even. Everyone knows that.
POOTWH giving me a run for my money with his posts. Gonna have to up my game. I’m looking for suggestions for a code name for the new speaker, by the way.
fuckstick gave it to you already.
Christo-fascist Maga Mike
CFMM, I like it!
You need to publish a glossary. When I read your posts, it's like reading A Clockwork Orange for the first time.
It’s what you do to the rear tires when you Jack up the front tires so you can steal the rims in that hell hole, shitty called NYC. In broad daylight even. Everyone knows that.
POOTWH giving me a run for my money with his posts. Gonna have to up my game. I’m looking for suggestions for a code name for the new speaker, by the way.
fuckstick gave it to you already.
Christo-fascist Maga Mike
CFMM, I like it!
You need to publish a glossary. When I read your posts, it's like reading A Clockwork Orange for the first time.
I'll work on that. My mother read A Clockwork Orange to me when I was a kid. While in England. Didn't quite understand it then but I love the movie and Kubrick. Might explain a lot.
It’s what you do to the rear tires when you Jack up the front tires so you can steal the rims in that hell hole, shitty called NYC. In broad daylight even. Everyone knows that.
POOTWH giving me a run for my money with his posts. Gonna have to up my game. I’m looking for suggestions for a code name for the new speaker, by the way.
fuckstick gave it to you already.
Christo-fascist Maga Mike
CFMM, I like it!
You need to publish a glossary. When I read your posts, it's like reading A Clockwork Orange for the first time.
I'll work on that. My mother read A Clockwork Orange to me when I was a kid. While in England. Didn't quite understand it then but I love the movie and Kubrick. Might explain a lot.
What??? She read you that, before you could read? That's just not right
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
He’s probably under the assertion that the judge can only fine him 😂😂 I hope the judge does have the cojones to let him feel the inside of a cell soon! And fuck the MAGA’s let them take it to the streets like he’s hoping that’s what he’s really looking to start an actual civil war
we all know trump thinks he'll never face any consequences. but anyone think he's baiting the judge to put him in prison for a short period to enrage his base and convince indies that this is all partisan?
we all know trump thinks he'll never face any consequences. but anyone think he's baiting the judge to put him in prison for a short period to enrage his base and convince indies that this is all partisan?
It sure seems like it but I can't imagine that he would ask for that treatment. It would be great if pictures leaked of him after a week of no spray tanning and no hair helmet.
Remember the Thomas Nine !! (10/02/2018)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago 2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy 2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE) 2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston 2020: Oakland, Oakland:2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana 2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville 2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
we all know trump thinks he'll never face any consequences. but anyone think he's baiting the judge to put him in prison for a short period to enrage his base and convince indies that this is all partisan?
Honestly, at this point, I wonder if he's acting antagonistically in hopes something (and I'm not exactly sure what) could lead to a mistrial. But, I'm hugely uninformed on whether there's any legal way to make that happen. Then again, Donald Trump may be hugely uninformed as well.
'05 - TO, '06 - TO 1, '08 - NYC 1 & 2, '09 - TO, Chi 1 & 2, '10 - Buffalo, NYC 1 & 2, '11 - TO 1 & 2, Hamilton, '13 - Buffalo, Brooklyn 1 & 2, '15 - Global Citizen, '16 - TO 1 & 2, Chi 2
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
we all know trump thinks he'll never face any consequences. but anyone think he's baiting the judge to put him in prison for a short period to enrage his base and convince indies that this is all partisan?
Honestly, at this point, I wonder if he's acting antagonistically in hopes something (and I'm not exactly sure what) could lead to a mistrial. But, I'm hugely uninformed on whether there's any legal way to make that happen. Then again, Donald Trump may be hugely uninformed as well.
I think his strategy is to focus on his political campaign. That he will either win, get a mistrial or be able to kick it past the election (and he wins). It seems like he knows he can't win the trial, so he has to win the election. Just a guess.
He's either in complete denial or he's insane. His attorneys have to be telling him to shut the fuck up constantly. Why they haven't resigned I don't know. I guess he's paying them at least.
Remember the Thomas Nine !! (10/02/2018)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago 2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy 2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE) 2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston 2020: Oakland, Oakland:2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana 2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville 2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
He's either in complete denial or he's insane. His attorneys have to be telling him to shut the fuck up constantly. Why they haven't resigned I don't know. I guess he's paying them at least.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Comments
Trump fined $10,000 in what judge calls second violation of gag order
“The witness is not credible,” judge says of Trump after calling the former president to the witness stand
The five-figure penalty came after Judge Arthur Engoron unexpectedly called Trump to the witness stand to explain, under oath, a comment he made earlier in the day. Trump’s surprise testimony only lasted a few minutes, but in that time he failed to convince the judge of either his honesty or good intentions.
The dispute began outside of court, during a break in the testimony, when Trump said he believed that both Engoron and the person next to him were extremely partisan. Trump complained that Engoron, a Democrat, is “a very partisan judge, with a person who’s very partisan sitting along side of him, perhaps even much more partisan than he is.”
Learning of those comments, Engoron — who had previously issued a gag order that barred the former president from making any public statements about court personnel — summoned Trump to explain exactly what he meant.
Trump said he was referring not to the judge’s law clerk, who sits next to him in court, but to Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, who had been on the witness stand earlier Wednesday.
Engoron said he didn’t believe Trump’s explanation.
“As the trier of fact I find that the witness is not credible," Engoron said, adding that he believed Trump was "referring to my ... principal law clerk, who is sitting much closer to me.” The judge noted there’s a barrier between the witness stand and the bench, and said that was part of the reason he believed Trump meant the clerk and not Cohen.
The $10,000 fine comes on top of a $5,000 fine Engoron issued against Trump last week for what he found was a previous violation of his gag order.
The face-off between the judge and the former president was not the first time the issue of the law clerk came up in Wednesday’s court session. On Wednesday morning, Trump lawyer Alina Habba had complained that the clerk was rolling her eyes throughout Tuesday’s cross-examination, calling it “distracting.”
After Engoron issued the fine, Trump’s lawyers asked him to reconsider. The judge said he would not reverse course.
“Don’t do it next time, or it’ll be worse,” the judge said.
The confrontation between the judge and the former president came at a critical moment in the trial, when Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen was testifying against him. The lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James accuses Trump of falsely inflating the worth of his real estate empire — an accusation that Cohen has made repeatedly since he and Trump had a bitter falling out.
The showdown between Cohen and Trump in court has been years in the making, and Cohen could prove to be an important witness in the judge’s ultimate decision over how much to penalize Trump or his business.
After the dust-up over the gag order, Trump’s lawyers made a longshot request for the judge to cut the trial short and issue a directed verdict, but the judge rejected that motion.
With that, Trump got up and walked out of the courtroom, muttering, “I’m leaving.”
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
As the Honorable Congressman Jaime Raskin states in his letter to Jared Dear Boy:
I write to renew prior concerns expressed by our Committee over reports that you improperly traded on your government position while carrying out the Trump Administration’s foreign policy in the Middle East. Specifically, I am writing because you may have acted to benefit your personal financial and business interests to the tune of billions of dollars from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia shortly after leaving government office and also because of your ongoing failure to cooperate with the Committee’s continuing investigation into this matter.
I am deeply troubled by your continued refusal to produce documents regarding the Saudi government’s $2 billion investment in your fund in light of recent prominent reporting that Saudi Arabia made that investment in Affinity just months after you left a senior White House position where you were responsible for shaping Middle East policy. Disturbingly, these reports revealed that Affinity “structured those funds in such a way that it did not have to disclose the source.”
Furthermore, after following your advice to make his first foreign trip as President to Saudi Arabia and cultivate a relationship with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Donald Trump continued to overlook Saudi Arabia’s egregious human rights abuses and insulate the Crown Prince from accountability for his authoritarian actions.
In a recorded interview, President Trump characterized the nature of the debt that the Crown Prince owed him, after you and the President helped the Crown Prince to survive the storm of global outrage following his agents’ assassination and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey. Mr. Trump said simply, “I saved his ass.” In the same vein, President Trump also reportedly instructed former Secretary of State Michael Pompeo to tell the Crown Prince “he owes us” for specific positions and actions that you recommended to the former president—recommendations which he followed—regarding Saudi policy and the treatment of the Crown Prince himself.
In a June 2, 2022, letter, Committee Democrats detailed concerns about your receipt of a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia months after influencing U.S. foreign policy to benefit the Kingdom.6 Recent reports have renewed the Committee’s concerns that this investment may have constituted a quid pro quo for your official actions in the White House.
While in office, you helped reshape U.S. foreign policy toward Saudi Arabia to give the Kingdom what one scholar has called “complete immunity” from consequences for its repressive and undemocratic actions, pushing for arms sales to the nation despite widespread concerns over its egregious human rights violations in Yemen, and protecting the Crown Prince from public criticism and political accountability after his intelligence forces murdered Mr. Khashoggi.
As your own memoir makes clear, you pushed for former President Trump’s inaugural trip to be to Saudi Arabia—unprecedented in White House history—over the advice of senior diplomats in the State Department and after consulting directly with the Crown Prince. This trip represented the first of “many boons” that you would deliver to the Crown Prince while serving as a senior official of the U.S. government.
In October 2018, Saudi agents brutally killed and dismembered journalist and regime critic Jamal Khashoggi, a murder which U.S. intelligence assessments determined was likely carried out on the orders of the Crown Prince. In the aftermath of Mr. Khashoggi’s murder, you “became the prince’s most important defender inside the White House” and reportedly “offered the crown prince advice about how to weather the storm, urging him to resolve his conflicts around the region and avoid further embarrassments.”
Your efforts to protect the Crown Prince may have allowed him to maintain his position at the top of the Saudi government and, thus, his ability to deliver significant financial benefits to you and your father-in-law after the end of the Trump Administration. Abdullah Alaoudh, the director for the Gulf at Democracy for the Arab World Now, has stated that “[w]ithout the absolute protection of Trump and Kushner, MBS would definitely have fallen.” President Trump expressed an explicit awareness of the Crown Prince’s debt: when Secretary Pompeo embarked on a state visit to the Middle East to visit the Crown Prince, he wrote that President Trump told him “My Mike, go and have a good time. Tell him he owes us.”
In another instance, you met privately—without U.S. diplomats present—with officials from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) and reportedly discussed those nations’ planned blockade of Qatar, a U.S. ally that hosts the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East. When Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. carried out this blockade shortly thereafter, President Trump publicly supported their actions over the objections of senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
Throughout this time, you reportedly exchanged personal messages on WhatsApp with the Crown Prince, worrying senior officials who believed such informal contacts, outside normal diplomatic channels, could leave you “susceptible to Saudi manipulation.”13 These concerns were heightened by reports that the Crown Prince told confidants that you were “in his pocket.”
During the final two months of the Trump Administration, after President Trump lost reelection to President Biden, you and your senior aide Avi Berkowitz traveled twice to Saudi Arabia, reportedly meeting with senior Saudi officials both times. Mr. Berkowitz traveled to the region on at least one other occasion at the end of the Administration, just months before joining Affinity. While these trips were nominally to advance U.S. government priorities, you returned to the region shortly thereafter as a private citizen, reportedly to raise funds for Affinity.
According to reports, the day after leaving government employment, you founded Affinity. Although Affinity was structured in a way to keep its funding hidden, it was revealed that, within months of its formation, it received a $2 billion investment from the Saudi government.16 The Saudi sovereign wealth fund, chaired by the Crown Prince, made this investment despite senior Saudi officials’ serious concerns about the “inexperience of the Affinity Fund management” and its conclusion that your fund’s investment proposal was “unsatisfactory in all respects.” Notwithstanding these glaring objections, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, Public Investment Fund (PIF), went ahead with the investment with the goal of forming “a strategic relationship with the Affinity Partners Fund and its founder, Jared Kushner”—raising widespread speculation that the extraordinary investment was made for essentially political reasons.
The latest records submitted by Affinity to the Securities and Exchange Commission show that $2.51 billion out of Affinity’s $2.54 billion in assets under management came from “non-United States persons.” Because of Affinity’s structure, it is unclear the extent to which the $2.51 billion in funds under management were personally approved by a foreign leader you negotiated with in your official capacity when in office.
The Committee first engaged with Affinity’s staff on June 13, 2022. On that call and in a subsequent email, Affinity stated that it had “nothing to hide” and confirmed that it was “committed to working with the Committee to provide appropriate details, documents, and information to help inform your investigation.”19 Despite its assurances of cooperation, Affinity failed to produce any documents until July 26, 2022—a full eight weeks after the Committee sent its request letter. When you finally did produce a small subset of documents, Affinity failed to produce a single communication related to the reasons behind your firm’s receipt of $2 billion from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund or documents substantively related to the Saudi government’s investment in the firm.20 Instead, Affinity’s production consisted mainly of publicly-available materials, including a 435-page Cato Institute report detailing a human rights analysis for every country in the world, a 171-page Saudi Central Bank report, and documents that were not responsive to the Committee’s requests. After October 12, 2022, Affinity’s counsel simply ignored all requests and communications from Committee staff.
2023-02-15. JBR to Kushner re Saudi Arabia.fnl_.pdf (house.gov)
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
chocking?
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
POOTWH giving me a run for my money with his posts. Gonna have to up my game. I’m looking for suggestions for a code name for the new speaker, by the way.
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
www.headstonesband.com
Except mine are a bit more factual. We’ve been hearing about the failing NYT since 2016. Maybe POOTWH meant falling, like Seattle?
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
www.headstonesband.com
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
You mean Hal didn't write that?
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
www.headstonesband.com
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
www.headstonesband.com
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14