Pete Sessions' daddy, ex-FBI Director William Sessions was on Semion Mogilevich's payroll.

[MelissaB]

Craig Unger
@craigunger
As I note in #HouseofTrump, Pete's dad is ex-FBI director William Sessions, who became atty for RU mobster Mogilevich. When he was in Congress, Pete was a vocal opponent of sanctions against RU.

Link to tweet

Pete Sessions’ daddy, ex-FBI Director William Sessions was on Semion Mogilevich’s payroll.

Link to tweet

From the Washington Post an article by Craig Unger

... snip

These were just some of the Russian mobsters who gravitated toward Trump as they laundered money and cultivated politicians. Over time, they learned how to work the system. They paid large sums for the most powerful legal talent in the land — enough, at times, to woo the very men who had once been charged with pursuing them. In 1997, former FBI director William Sessions traveled to Moscow and alerted the world to the horrifying dangers of the brutal Russian Mafia. But 10 years later, he took on as a client the Ukrainian-born Mogilevich. At the time, the U.S. Department of Justice was investigating racketeering charges against Mogilevich over questionable energy deals between Russia and Ukraine. Sessions’s successor as FBI director, Louis Freeh, also later represented Russian clients. All perfectly legal. In Freeh’s case, the client was Denis Katsyv’s Cyprus-based Prevezon Holdings. Freeh helped Prevezon settle a money laundering probe by the U.S. government after the company was accused of laundering more than $200 million in a Russian tax fraud scheme in which an American hedge fund manager and his firm, Hermitage Capital, were said to have been framed by the Russians. The ensuing scandal culminated in the death of Sergei Magnitsky, Hermitage’s accountant, and led to the passage of the Magnitsky Act, which sanctioned high-level Russian officials. Natalia Veselnitskaya, Prevezon’s defense lawyer, attended the much-discussed June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.; Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner; and Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/trumps-businesses-are-full-of-dirty-russian-money-the-scandal-is-thats-legal/2019/03/29/11b812da-5171-11e9-88a1-ed346f0ec94f_story.html

[SummerSnow]

1. This is very very interesting

[MelissaB]

2. From Craig Unger:

Craig Unger
@craigunger
As I note in #HouseofTrump, Pete's dad is ex-FBI director William Sessions, who became atty for RU mobster Mogilevich. When he was in Congress, Pete was a vocal opponent of sanctions against RU.

Link to tweet

I'm going to add this to the op.

[dixiegrrrrl]

30. Between the OP article and Unger.....I am shaken.

Most of us have been looking at trump as head of his own mafia, so the problems coming out of the WH seems limited to him.

Now we find out in the article that buying and selling law makers is part of Semion activities and NOT limited to U.SA. politicians.
Does explain a lot why the Repubs are so damn intransigent.

trump would have relished telling Graham all the lurid details of what would happen to him by the enforcers if he didn't come over to the dark side.

Anyone read Unger's House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia book ??

[Srkdqltr]

3. The more they get into this the more dirty dealings they find.

Seems like a lot of Trumps people are in the Russian pockets.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. I'm waiting for someone to find the Dana Rohrabacher connection.

He's the grand daddy of them all when it comes to Russia, going back decades.

He lost his seat in the 2018 blue wave.

[Anon-C]

4. Fucking A!

[liberalla]

6. Thank you! This deserves more time than I have right now...

posting reminder...

[SummerSnow]

7. Well, well, well...

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142379522#post1

[MelissaB]

9. And Rudy is there as well.

Mob, mob, mob.

[Pacifist Patriot]

8. WTF???

[BumRushDaShow]

10. WaPo has a chart up

The web of political connections surrounding two indicted Giuliani associates

By Philip Bump
Oct. 10, 2019 at 1:34 p.m. EDT

The last time Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were in the news, they were the targets of subpoenas from House Democrats as part of the impeachment inquiry involving President Trump. Parnas and Fruman are associates of Trump’s personal attorney Rudolph Giuliani. According to their attorney — Trump’s former attorney John Dowd — the pair are also represented by Giuliani, which conveniently shields their communications with Giuliani under attorney-client privilege. If that set of interactions seems complex, buckle up.

On Wednesday evening, Parnas and Fruman were arrested in Virginia. The pair were two of four individuals named in an indictment obtained by federal prosecutors investigating campaign finance violations involving excessive campaign contributions and illegal foreign spending. What’s described in the indictment is a complex set of interactions and campaign payments with Parnas and Fruman at the center.

In walking through their interactions, it’s important to remember one bit of context. The impeachment inquiry targeting Trump focuses on his interactions with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. During a call in late July, Trump asked that Zelensky and Ukraine investigate former vice president Joe Biden. That request was the culmination of an effort by Giuliani to elevate now-debunked allegations targeting the potential 2020 Democratic nominee. Giuliani’s investigation was itself aided by Parnas and Fruman. During the Trump-Zelensky call, the pair also discussed former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. The indictment focuses on a few specific incidents involving Parnas and Fruman.

One part of the indictment involves their interactions with an unnamed politician, identified in later reporting as former congressman Pete Sessions of Texas. Sessions (R) was the beneficiary of political contributions from Parnas, including a contribution that the indictment alleges was made with money provided by Fruman. Fruman and Parnas pushed Sessions to call for Yovanovitch’s ouster as ambassador. Sessions sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in May 2018 calling for Yovanovitch to be fired. The same day the letter was sent, Parnas posted a now-deleted photo of himself with Sessions. The indictment suggests that the effort to oust Yovanovitch by the pair came in part from pressure by a Ukrainian politician.

More: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/10/10/web-political-connections-surrounding-two-indicted-giuliani-associates/

[MelissaB]

11. Joe Manchin is on the chart.

Here is what the article says about this.

The company also gave $15,000 to a PAC called 35th Inc., which targeted Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) in the 2018 midterm elections.

[BumRushDaShow]

12. Yup.... like they have Biden there (both under assault)

But I am wondering who the 2 "Nevada politicians" are! (could be referencing the Senate seat and a House seat)

[pecosbob]

15. Paging Wellstone

Hoping that it's Mark Amodei would be rank speculation

[BumRushDaShow]

17. Hopefully some rumor or leak comes out...

[pecosbob]

21. The article says 2018 election so the Senator would likely be Dean Heller

The House candidate could be Mark Amodei, currently the only Republican federal office holder from Nevada.

[BumRushDaShow]

22. And it would be interesting to see if that was referencing

funding against the Democrats running (for Senator and for the lone GOP House seat) similar to how the chart shows 2 Democrats attacked by the PAC money (Biden & Manchin).

[BumRushDaShow]

36. Update - On Lawrence O'Donnell's show - the 2 were the NV gubernatorial & state AG (R) candidates.

Both lost.

[dixiegrrrrl]

34. I flashed on that storyline in The Godfather....3?

how they framed a Nevada politician via a prostitute murder charge, thus got him in their pocket.

Seems so tame now....

[dixiegrrrrl]

31. Thank you for that!!!!!

this is literally churning my stomach, tho.

[BumRushDaShow]

32. That chart grew more spokes

just from posts here on DU with others who received money from those 2 guys.

[pecosbob]

13. Today has been a veritable avalanche of newsy goodness

I feel like I'm swimming in a bowl of Captain Crunch.

[erronis]

18. Yes, me too. Although the wholesome all-oats granola type...

Still, there are days that make me happy to read the news.

Too often since the (R)epuglicons installed their trumpet, not anticipating the latest absurdity/atrocity.

[Marthe48]

14. maybe McCarthy was deflecting all those years ago

attack people as commies in the 1950s and incubate generational criminal traitors in the shadows. So overwhelming that there are so many crooks and traitors attracted to government positions.

[erronis]

19. Good point. Wouldn't that be the normal path for an invader (pathogen)?

Make your potential hosts doubt themselves and them sell them a fake "anti-virus" solution.

"You Can Only Trust Us Since We Say So. And We Are On T.V.!"

[bucolic_frolic]

16. All about money I'd guess

Oligarchs made billions in the breakup of the Soviet Union, and some of our GOP politicians found a way to join the caravan

[FM123]

20. Just. Wow.

[triron]

23. So many dots to connect!

[benld74]

25. Forget dots get the paint cans!!

[ProudProgressiveNow]

24. KR NT

[magicarpet]

26. Russian under this rock,...

Russians under that rock,...

Russians under every rock !

[Baked Potato]

27. It just never ends...

[2naSalit]

28. K&R

[ck4829]

29. K&R

[Proud Liberal Dem]

33. Unger was on Gaslit Nation

Talking about Free and Sessions and their Russian ties not too long ago

[Hotler]

35. Kicking. Must read. nt

[emmaverybo]

37. Unger has done amazing research on Trump's Russian connections. In July 2017, The New

Republic published his article “Trump’s Russian Laundromat.” Then he did the much denser, less user-friendly, but still mind-blowing book House of Putin, House of Trump. Missed this. Thanks. Worse and worser as the plot sickens.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

38. Political doesn't mean Republican. It means Putin friendly.

So wrong.

"Washington(CNN)President Donald Trump's new national security adviser Robert O'Brien told White House staff today he will slash the National Security Council staff by nearly half and increase the percentage of political appointees in the process, sources tell CNN."