Watch the tards clam up about a President using his office for personal gain while in office haha....only a crime when a non Trumptartd does it I guess.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/22/gaetz-florida-house-ethics-rules-377098 Matt Gaetz appears to run afoul of House ethics rules The Florida Republican spent thousands of dollars on a speechwriting consultant. Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz has privately engaged in several spending practices in his nearly four years in office that appear to be in conflict with the House’s ethics rules, a POLITICO investigation has found. Gaetz, a close ally of President Donald Trump from the Florida Panhandle, improperly sent tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to a limited liability company linked to a speech-writing consultant who was ousted from the Trump administration, in direct conflict with House rules. In another possible violation, a private company installed a television studio in his father’s home in Niceville, Fla., which Gaetz uses when he appears on television. Taxpayers foot the bill to rent the television camera, and the private company that built the studio — which Gaetz refuses to identify — takes a fee each time he appears on air, his office said. It’s unclear how much it cost the private company to construct the studio. This may run afoul of the House gift rule, which prohibits any lawmaker, aide, and their family members from accepting gifts worth more than $50. The official definition of a gift is very broad and covers virtually any good or service with monetary value. Gaetz’s office denies wrongdoing in both cases. Gaetz’s aides said the House Ethics Committee approved both arrangements but declined to produce any evidence that that was the case. His latest actions suggest a broader pattern by the second-term lawmaker of pushing the bounds of — if not outright defying — restrictions intended to guard against corruption and conflicts of interest. The Florida Republican concedes that he improperly sent $28,000 in taxpayer funds to a limited liability company connected to the speech-writing consultant, Darren Beattie, a former White House aide who was ousted after appearing at a convention known as a forum for racist and white supremacist views. Gaetz’s aides said it was a clerical error that they are now working to reverse. House rules explicitly prohibit spending taxpayer dollars on speech-writing consultants. Gaetz’s office likewise declined to detail the television studio arrangement or produce documentation that it was approved. House officials and experts on the chamber's rules said it was extraordinarily unusual and likely violates the gift ban rule. Gaetz is part of a new breed of Republican elected officials in the Trump era — a loud, bombastic voice defending the president, his policies and allies. He has a flair for publicity — at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, he wore a gas mask to the House floor, a stunt that provoked widespread public reaction. But he’s has been a minor player legislatively; he doesn’t pass many bills and has never been involved with high-stakes negotiations. Yet the media has become enamored with the 38-year-old lawmaker. He is an ardent defender of Roger Stone and lobbied Trump for his pardon. Gaetz’s spending has already been under review. The Office of Congressional Ethics recently dropped an investigation into Gaetz’s office rental agreement after POLITICO reported in April that he had rented his office in Pensacola, Fla., from a longtime friend, political donor and policy adviser. Both the friend — local businessman Collier Merrill — and Gaetz said the rental deal was hashed out privately and below market value. POLITICO began examining Gaetz’s office operations at the beginning of June. In the House’s disbursement report — which covers virtually all of the chamber’s expenditures — Gaetz disclosed 14 separate $2,000 payments to Presidential Communications and Strategies, a limited liability company that appeared to be registered by an unidentified agent in a tiny town in Wyoming. The checks were sent to an apartment in Arlington, Va., according to sources familiar with the arrangement. The payments were to Beattie, according to multiple sources familiar with the arrangement. Gaetz announced hiring Beattie as a speech-writing adviser in April 2019, but he was never added to Gaetz’s congressional payroll, according to House disbursement records. Instead, Gaetz paid him through the Wyoming-based LLC. “Speech writers,” “communications advisers” and political consultants all fall in the category of outside hires that individual lawmakers are barred from using taxpayer money to retain. Consultants may be hired for some services, including maintenance, janitorial work or technical assistance. Under special circumstances, and with prior approval of House officials, lawmakers may be permitted to hire consultants for legal matters. The agreement involving the speech-writing consultant appears to have begun after Beattie was ousted from the Trump administration after his appearance at the H.L. Mencken Club Conference. The Southern Poverty Law Center calls attendees of the conference “a band of white nationalists, pseudo academic and academic racists.” Gaetz announced on Twitter that he would hire Beattie — who holds a doctorate in political science from Duke University — as a special adviser for speech writing last April. There may be perceived advantages to staying off the government payroll, including that Beattie would not need to abide by the strict limits on outside income. Beattie did not respond to a request for comment. Notes left at the apartment to which the checks were sent went unanswered. After ignoring inquiries about the payments to the arrangement with Beattie for six weeks, Gaetz’s office replied Friday evening via chief of staff Jillian Lane Wyant: “Although the contractual arrangement was approved by the necessary House authorities, a second review by the Finance Office determined that the services could not be contracted for in exactly that fashion, and our office is currently working through the best way to proceed with both Finance and the House Ethics Committee. “The funds were all immediately returned to the House as soon as the review determined this was not the right way to structure this,” Wyant added. “This is nothing more than a glorified clerical error – and while it is baffling that Politico should find this newsworthy – it is disappointing Politico plots to demean individuals who’ve made an innocent clerical mistake and are working to correct it.” Gaetz was likewise circumspect about the television studio. On July 9, the Florida Republican’s office said he uses his allowable allotment of taxpayer funds to pay $100 per month to “rent a camera to communicate with constituents and the nation.” It said the “hard costs” were covered by a private company, which then charges television networks each time they connect to the studio. Gaetz, they said, is not involved in the transactions. The $100 fee is not evident on any of the congressman’s spending records, and his office did not respond to requests about the private company that’s profiting off of his television appearances.
Democrats the biggest thugs and criminals and enabled by other extreme liberals in the Federal Government with no respect for US laws. One day, law and order will be served on these law breakers. ET trolls with your lies and disinformation is in this group as well. Karma is coming when you least expect it.
Former IRS Investigator Reveals Evidence Of Possible Mar-A-Lago Money Laundering https://bipartisanreport.com/2020/0...ence-of-possible-mar-a-lago-money-laundering/ President Donald Trump has never been forthcoming when it’s come to his finances. Following the recent revelation of $380,000 that the Trump campaign had paid to Trump’s own business in 43 separate payments, former federal tax crimes investigator Martin Sheil shared in a piece published in the Daily Beast that the situation suggested possibilities like money laundering. After all, the 43 separate payments were broken up to be just under the threshold beyond which businesses are required to report transactions to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Even if there’s no intention to hide something like money laundering, businesses can still be held liable for intentionally evading reporting requirements through methods like structuring, which means breaking large payments down into smaller components. The Trump Organization has previously faced problems on this front — the difference is that it wasn’t campaign money that was under consideration. In March 2015 — not that long ago at all! — the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort was hit with a $10 million fine for “willful and repeated violations” of the legislation demanding the reporting of relevant transactions. Now, in the latest situation in which the $380,000 was broken down into 43 separate payments, Sheil said: ‘The Trump Organization’s record of the payment raises many questions I’m familiar with from my 30-year career as an investigator at the IRS. “Is the $380,000 income? If so, what was delivered in exchange for it? Were these payments for past services rendered or for future expected returns? Who were the donors? Why didn’t the Trump Organization just report the entire $380,000 in total? Why break that down into separate transactions? Why was each payment identically described as ‘Facility Rental/ Catering Services’? Is something being disguised here?’ The disguising could be a part of a money laundering scheme, Sheil said. The Trump Organization has staggeringly claimed that the payments were broken down because Mar-A-Lago supposedly can not process credit card payments of more than $10,000. It’s 2020, and the business owner is the president of the United States — do they seriously expect observers to take that excuse at face value? Perhaps if the president was more forthcoming about his financial issues, then it would be easier to take him seriously. ‘There are criminal penalties for structuring, or breaking a bigger payment into small chunks to evade reporting requirements, including a statutory maximum prison sentence of up to five years and/or a monetary fine of up to $250,000… Something smells in Mar-a-Lago, and there certainly exists enough smoke here to justify a thorough search for the fire.’ Investigators could actually take up the topic. Prosecutors in Manhattan and members of Congress have been trying to compel the release of Trump’s financial records. A court case surrounding the Manhattan investigation has been going well — although they referred the case for further proceedings, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled recently that Trump did not have absolute immunity from the subpoena for his financial records just because he’s the president. Trump has repeatedly sought to use his job as some kind of shield to avoid accountability for his actions, but in the Manhattan-tied Supreme Court case, even his own two nominees voted against him.
Ted Suhl, a manager at Southeastern Asset Management, the largest shareholder of KODK with 55.3% ownership of stock (convertible bonds and pfd) had his bribery prison sentence commuted by Trump last year. This week Kodak stock up 2,189% after Trump backs pivot into drug industry
“Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner earned at least $36.2 million as they served in the White House last year, reporting a boost in income from some companies they own that hold residential and commercial properties,” the New York Times reports. “President Trump’s daughter and her husband, who serve as top advisers to him, reported a minimum combined income that was at least $7 million higher than in 2018, when they reported making at least $29 million.”