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NRaleighLiberal

(59,940 posts)
Mon Feb 20, 2017, 07:42 PM Feb 2017

TPM - more on Sater from Marshall - "Another Thought about Felix Sater"

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/another-thought-about-felix-sater

By JOSH MARSHAL LPublished FEBRUARY 20, 2017, 2:07 PM EDT

After writing last night's post on the various adventures and crimes of Felix Sater, something occurred to me. This is not a reported claim but a possibility to consider in light the information that has now emerged.

It seems clear that the FBI and the CIA knew quite a lot about Felix Sater. They worked with him and had him performed services tied to 'national security' for over a decade. It seems quite likely though we don't know for certain that he worked on the CIA's behalf purchasing weapons on the Central Asian and post-Soviet black market in the years when such weapons were easier to come by. If this is true, that also certainly required him to have pretty deep relationships in the post-Soviet criminal underworld and possibly with state actors as well. These specifics we cannot be certain of. What is clear, from Court statements and the federal governments actions is that Sater was performing services which the US government considered very valuable and very secret.

Sater was also clearly dirty. He had been convicted of securities fraud in league with New York City organized crime families. He had been sued multiple times for defrauding investors in other projects. He had also played a key role arranging investments from Russian and post-Soviet sources to fund various Trump enterprises. There are other things which may be true, for which there is a substantial amount of circumstantial evidence. But everything I'm focusing on here rests on very firm foundations.

With someone like Sater you must always leave open the possibility that the reputation is simply the work of an effective self-promoter and con-man. Sater certainly qualifies. But the extreme lengths the federal government went to to conceal Sater's crimes and protect him from punishment makes clear that there was a lot more than talk behind Sater's reputation.

snip... more to read.


follows on from yesterday's article - posted here http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028680831
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