Mueller Investigating Ukrainian’s $150,000 Payment for a Trump Appearance

New York Times ^ | April 9, 2018 | Michael S. Schmidt and Maggie Haberman

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

Didn’t they investigate Trumps charity as well? I think they did yet to date the Clinton money laundering foundation remains untouched.

[DoughtyOne]

Bill and Hillary were getting $100-$200k a pop from corporations a few years back, for speeches lasting about an hour.

That looked like some kind of a payoff system playing out.

Not a peep about that.

There was a LONG list of corporation playing along too.

[Baladas]

this guy is such a hack, someone paid Trump for an appearance, whoop-de-doo. He is grasping at straws trying to find a crime.

[Liz]

Inside the negotiations to secure a Bill Clinton speaking engagement: Bartering, bickering and outsize expense reports......

Contracts and internal emails connected to half a dozen speeches Clinton gave in the Bay Area soon after departing the White House offer a glimpse into the unusual demands and outsize expense reports associated with bringing him to town. The events took place as part of a speaker series sponsored by the Foothill Deanza Community College District, another by UC Davis and another run by a for-profit firm. The documents became public through an open-records request filed by the Republican National Committee amid a presidential race in which the lucrative speaking fees paid to the Clintons are being closely examined.

They show a former president who deftly avoided discussing past scandals by refusing questions that were not screened by his staff in advance. There is the nearly $1,400 bill for a day’s worth of phone calls from San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel and the $700 dinner for two. (Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...

---

The Wash/Post reported Hillary earned $11.7 million for 51 speeches since Jan 2014.....she pocketed an astonishing $625,000 for two speeches in one day.

---

Bill’s honoraria increased dramatically. He pocketed some $50 million during Hillary’s four-year term as Secretary of State....including an Irish scholarship fund, a Korean conglomerate, and, a Nigerian newspaper company......each of whom paid Clinton more than half a million dollars for a single speech.

---

The Clinton Foundation dutifully tells the press the impeached Bill was such a “beloved president” that people wanted to hear what he had to say. That being the reason why countries paid him so much to speak.

REALITY CHECK But not many people could speak or understand English in far-off Nigeria, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Russia, places where the beloved impeached president pocketed big bucks for speeches.......word is they paid people to sit in the seats pretending they were listening to the “beloved impeached president.”

---

The conniving Bill Clinton avoided questions about lewinsky and his impeachment by not answering questions that had not been screened.

He and Hillary would become so skilled at churning profits out of their lectures that they would net more than $150 million from speaking alone after he left the White House.

[Liz]

Here’s how Hillary prepared for a $300,000 speech.

CIRCA 2014—WASH/PO By Rosalind S. Helderman and Philip Rucker

Plans for UCLA visit give rare glimpse into Hillary Clinton’s paid speaking career.....she was paid $300,000 to speak to UCLA students and faculty in March. (UCLA) When officials at the University of California at Los Angeles began negotiating a $300,000 speech appearance by Hillary Rodham Clinton, the school had one request: Could we get a reduced rate for public universities? The answer from Clinton’s representatives: $300,000 is the “special university rate.”

That e-mail exchange and other internal communications, obtained this week by The Washington Post under a Freedom of Information Act request, provide a rare glimpse into the complex and meticulous backstage efforts to manage the likely 2016 presidential candidate’s lucrative speaking career.

At UCLA, efforts to book Clinton and then prepare for her visit were all-consuming, beginning almost immediately after she left her job as secretary of state on Feb. 1, 2013, until she delivered her Luskin Lecture for Thought Leadership speech on March 5, 2014.

The documents show that Clinton’s representatives at the Harry Walker Agency exerted considerable control over her appearance and managed even the smallest details — from requesting lemon wedges and water on stage to a computer, scanner, and a spread of hummus and crudité in the green room backstage.

PIC Gene Block, UCLA’s chief executive and chancellor, presents a medal to Hillary Rodham Clinton after her speech at the school March 5. (Nick Ut/AP)

Top university officials discussed at length the style and color of the executive armchairs Clinton and moderator Lynn Vavreck would sit in as they carried on a question-and-answer session, as well as the kind of pillows to be situated on each chair. Clinton’s representatives requested that the chairs be outfitted with two long, rectangular pillows — and that two cushions be kept backstage in case the chair was too deep and she needed additional back support.

After a lengthy call with a Clinton representative, UCLA administrator Patricia Lippert reported to campus colleagues, “She uses a lavalier [microphone] and will both speak from the audience and walk around stage, TED talk style. We need a teleprompter and 2-3 downstage scrolling monitors [for] her to read from.”

During a walk-through of Royce Hall five days before the lecture, the e-mails show, Clinton’s team rejected the podium planned for her use during her 20- to 30- minute speech, setting off a scramble on campus to find a suitable podium and rent a new university seal to match.

In the nearly two years since stepping down as secretary of state, Clinton has made dozens of paid appearances across the country at industry conventions and Wall Street banks as well as at universities. Her UCLA fee, like those at other universities, went to the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, the family’s nonprofit group.

But critics have argued that the carefully staged events and high speaking fees could complicate Clinton’s ability to run a populist campaign built around the economic struggles of the middle class.

Versions of Clinton’s standard speaking contracts have surfaced publicly this year — including her luxury travel requirements — but the contracts do not contain the extensive detail seen in the UCLA communications.

It is unclear how personally involved Clinton was in the UCLA negotiations and whether the requests from her agency were being directed by her or merely from underlings anticipating her preferences. A Clinton spokesman declined to comment on the speaking arrangements.

It is commonplace for celebrity speakers to request special accommodations — and Clinton was no exception. Her representatives asked for a case of still water, room temperature, to be deposited stage right. They also asked that “a carafe of warm/hot water, coffee cup and saucer, pitcher of room temperature water, water glass, and lemon wedges” be situated both on a table on stage as well as in another room where Clinton would stand for photos with VIPs.

For the green room, Clinton’s representatives requested: “Coffee, tea, room temp sparkling and still water, diet ginger ale, crudité, hummus and sliced fruit.” They also asked for a computer, mouse and printer, as well as a scanner, which the university had to purchase for the occasion.

When university officials decided to award Clinton the UCLA Medal, Clinton’s team asked that it be presented to her in a box rather than draped around her neck. That request was sent to the university’s chancellor, Gene Block.

“Chancellor Block has agreed to accommodate Hillary Clinton’s request to have the medal presented in a box,” Assistant Provost Margaret Leal-Sotelo wrote in one e-mail.

Lippert replied: “I can either have the jewelers box open or closed, in case the Chancellor doesn’t want to risk opening it.” By contract, Clinton’s approval was needed for any promotional materials. Clinton gave permission for the university to record the event, but “for archival purposes only.”

For public distribution, Clinton’s speaking agency approved only a two-minute highlight video to upload to YouTube. “Please make sure it is available only for one (1) year from the date of posting,” a Harry Walker Agency official added.

Clinton posed for individual photos with 100 VIPS, or 50 couples — “We get a total of 50 clicks,” one university official explained — as well as two group photos. Lippert wrote to colleagues that Clinton’s representatives wanted the group shots “prestaged,” with participants assembled and ready to take the photographs before Clinton arrived “so the secretary isn’t waiting for these folks to get their act together.” Reiterating the request, Lippert added, “She doesn’t like to stand around waiting for people.”

Like many major universities, UCLA regularly pays high-profile speakers to visit campus. Many of the visits are funded through a private endowment and not with tuition or public dollars. Clinton’s appearance was privately funded as part of a lecture series endowed by Meyer Luskin, an investor and president of Scope Industries, a food waste recycling company.

[P.O.E.]

What scares me is that so many people put up with, and even encourage her.

[Liz]

THAT is scary.

[Liz]

A major upheaval in S/A leadership occurred after Hillary lost. The then-reigning Saudis were assured she was a "shoo-in." Money rained down on the Clintons every which way but loose.

EXCLUSIVE: Persian Gulf Sheikhs Gave Bill & Hillary $100 Million [VIDEO]

A Daily Caller News Foundation investigation reveals that Bill and Hillary Clinton received at least $100 million from autocratic Persian Gulf states and their leaders, potentially undermining Democratic presidential candidate Hillary’s claim she can carry out independent Middle East policies.

As a presidential candidate, the amount of foreign cash the Clintons have amassed from the Persian Gulf states is “simply unprecedented,” says national security analyst Patrick Poole. “These regimes are buying access. You’ve got the Saudis. You’ve got the Kuwaitis, Oman, Qatar and the UAE. There are massive conflicts of interest. It’s beyond comprehension,” Poole told TheDCNF in an interview.

Overall, the Clinton Foundation has received upwards of $85 million in donations from five Persian Gulf states and their monarchs, according to the foundation’s website. Activist groups have charged the five states — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — committed numerous human rights abuses.

==============================================

AND THIS---Course, this is just a wild guess on my part (smirk), but I don't think the Saudi Royals like being jerked around by a coupla hicks from Arkansas.

The Saudis put hundreds of millions into the Clintons pockets when she was Secy of State, thinking she'd be president. Must be a lot of nay-saying in the desert now that the Clintons are political dead meat.

==================================================

Turns out the Saudis helped stage Hillary's election night "victory"---giving her a huge expensive flat screen TV supposedly to air her crashing through a symbolic 500,000 dollar glass ceiling. (This from a kingdom where women are not allowed to drive).

Saudi Arabia Funded 20% Of Hillary's Presidential Campaign, Saudi Crown Prince Claims
Zerohedge ^ | Jun 14, 2016 3:57 AM | Tyler Durden / FR Posted by xzins

(NOTE: It is illegal in the United States for foreign countries to try to influence the outcome of elections by funding candidates. That appears not to have stopped the Saudis, however.)

“Saudi Arabia provided with full enthusiasm 20 percent of the cost of Hillary Clinton’s election"......the report quoted Saudi Prince Mohammed as having said. According to the US Federal Election commission, over the past two years Clinton has raised a little more than $211.8 million. 20% of this sum is $42.4 million.

The Saudi Press Agency reported on Monday that the senior royal was due to fly to Washington where he will meet Obama admin officials to discuss US-Saudi ties.

--SNIP--

Links between Saudi Arabia and the Clinton family, including with Hillary’s campaign, are well reported. In 2008, it was revealed that the Gulf kingdom had donated between $10m and $25m to the Clinton Foundation, a charity set up by Hillary’s husband and former US President Bill Clinton.

Last year the Centre for Studies and Media Affairs at the Saudi Royal Court paid public relations firm the Podesta Group $200,000 for a month- long project to provide “public relations services”. The Podesta Group was founded in 1988 by brothers John and Tony Podesta. John Podesta is the chair of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign.

===============================================

============================================

Saudi Royals greet then-Secy Hillary (she checks to make sure she's on-camera).
The pay-to-play suck-up begins.

[Eleutheria5]

$150,000? Are there still condos in the NY Metro that go for so little?

[i_robot73]

>
The federal government must be dismantled and rebuilt. But, first things first. Deep State must be prosecuted, tried and hung.
>

Should have stopped the sentence @ ‘dismantled’. It’s quite adept at ‘rebuilding itself’ (why *cutting* a dept/agency/funds doesn’t mean Schiff. Only abolishing).

[mosesdapoet]

WHERE’S THE URANIUM HERE ? While this is making a lot of noise This is hardly radio active .

[xzins]

If nothing else, it’s funny

[BTerclinger]

Flick Lives wrote:

“So the Ukrainians, who hate the Russians, paid Trump, who is Putin’s puppet, so he could win the election. Makes perfect sense”.

BTTT

[Lisbon1940]

Luskin is also their School of Public Affairs. It’s across the way from Anderson School of Management.

[Jane Long]

What a laughable joke this Ukrainian Speking fee donation BS is....especially when compared and contrasted to all of Klinton Inc payola, while in or while perusing GOVT OFFICE!!!, over the years.

[DoodleDawg]

So this was over a year before Trump announced his candidacy? What possible relevance does it have?

[epluribus_2]

He’s a billionaire. Duh.

[Lent]

Muellhead is a leech on the Republic. Sucking the life out of her. Who created this monstrocity with no guidelines and no end in sight? They should be given a special place in history as the biggest dopes of all time.

[PMAS]

“Victor Pinchuk, a Ukrainian steel magnate, has sought closer ties for Ukraine to the West. He donated $150,000 to the Trump Foundation in 2015 in exchange for a brief appearance by Mr. Trump via video at a conference in Ukraine.”

So ?

[ssaftler]

This is beginning to sound like an old investigation that the Demo-rats cooked up some years ago that turned up nothing. I recall some Congress-idiot saying

“The fact that we could find nothing there means there must be something there!”

Or some such Washington Newspeak...