Bill Clinton is lying about his involvement with arrested pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, according to investigative journalist Conchita Sarnoff – who first revealed the former president’s extensive flights on Epstein’s “lolita express” in a 2010 Daily Beast exposé.
Clinton claimed in a Monday statement that he only took “a total of four trips on Jeffrey Epstein’s airplane” in 2002 and 2003, and that Secret Service accompanied him at all times.
According to Sarnoff’s research as well as flight logs obtained by Fox News in 2016, that’s a complete lie.
Sarnoff, who heads up the Alliance to Rescue Victims of Trafficking and the author of “Trafficking,” told Fox News Monday evening: “I know from the pilot logs and these are pilot logs that you know were written by different pilots and at different times that Clinton went, he was a guest of Epstein’s 27 times,” adding “many of those times Clinton had his Secret Service with him and many times he did not.”
“I’m saying, sadly, that he is not telling the truth,” added Sarnoff.
“First of all, Gerald Lefcourt, who was one of Epstein’s attorneys back during the original arrest and the original investigation, wrote a letter which has been made public … In that letter, Gerald Lefcourt claims that Epstein was one of the original funders of Clinton Global Initiative. He gave President Clinton four million dollars, according to a source who knows a story about that.”
This appears to be confirmed by a 2007 letter sent to federal prosecutors by Epstein’s then-attorneys Alan Dershowitz and Gerald Lefcourt, which reads: “Mr. Epstein was part of the original group that conceived the Clinton Global Initiative, which is described as a project ‘bringing together a community of global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges.”
Watch:
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2XFVjSU Tyler Durden
According to wiki, verschlimmbessern is to make something worse in an honest but failed attempt to make it better.
Other working titles for today’s T-Report included
So Much Communication, So Little Information
The Over-Engineered and Micro-Managed Market
The Catch-22 of Fed Policy
Why do Today what you Can do Next Meeting?
I’ll Gladly Cut Next Meeting for a Market Move Today
The titles all convey the same sentiment – that the Fed has gone overboard in terms of trying to manage expectations and is distorting markets and creating confusion.
If You Are Going to Buy Insurance, Why Not Buy it Now?
If the Fed’s rate cut is supposed to be an “insurance cut”, why not do that back in June?
What was the thought process? Yeah, I live in a flood plain, yeah, it’s the rainy season, yeah, the river is running high, but I was kind of hoping to lie on the couch and watch the game. Maybe I’ll buy that flood insurance next month?
If we ‘needed’ an insurance cut, why didn’t we get it? Because it wasn’t needed? But if it wasn’t needed in June, why after some good data, is it needed in July?
After a Decade of Failing on Inflation, Let’s Wait 1 Month and then Panic
Let’s ignore for a moment that many people question how relevant the common inflation measures are to today’s economy.
Let’s ignore for a moment the fact that the Fed’s favorite measure of inflation barely beats the alleged 2% target. The PCE didn’t even average 2% during the 8 years before the financial crisis, let after the financial crisis.
Let’s ignore for a moment how we came up with 2% as being some optimal level of inflation.
Let’s ignore for a moment the chart Academy sent around yesterday, highlighting that for all the academic/wonkish discussions on inflation expectations, they are pretty much just correlated to the price of oil.
But let’s not ignore the reality that if you are “committed” to inflation, then why wait a few more weeks? Is inflation going to miraculously appear out of nowhere? I understand about waiting to start a diet next week or next month, because there is always an excuse, but fighting the ‘dreaded’ deflation monster seems like something you should start today if you really believe it.
So, does the Fed desperately want inflation or was that just a good talking point to help markets along?
Everyone is Data Dependent Until the Data Doesn’t Support the Narrative
Since the last Fed meeting, the data has improved slightly. The Citi economic surprise index, while still negative has ticked higher.
Trade tensions between the U.S. and China have subsided recently.
The ECB is in the midst of a dramatic makeover that could mix politics and monetary policy in a potentially positive way to step up growth.
If the data wasn’t bad enough to cut rates last month, why is it bad enough now?
Schadenfreude
This word has nothing to do with today’s T-Report, but it is my favorite word in the English language. Seriously, how can you not love a word that means “glee at another’s misfortune”? Verschlimmbessern pales in comparison (and yes, I have issues ).
Do You Do What the President Tells You?
Personally, I’m about 50/50 on responding well to being told to do something. My caddy tells me to slow down my practice swing. You know the next practice swing is going to be my fastest of the round.
So how does the Fed, and Powell in particular, respond to the pressure from the administration to cut rates? Do you do it? Do you fight it? Are you mature enough to not be tempted to go against the constant unwanted ‘advice’?
Has the situation changed enough that you can back off the dovish rhetoric and prove you are ‘independent’? I think the Fed will restrain themselves on this front, though it must take a lot of effort for such successful people not to want to push back on so much unwanted interference.
Do You Risk Disappointing the Market?
No.
What to Expect?
The Fed to double down on their concerns about a lack of inflation.
If the Fed wants to cut, mostly to appease markets, they will lean heavily on the inflation excuse.
Expect Powell to try and be as dovish as possible and fixate on inflation, or the lack thereof in the coming days.
It isn’t logical that they didn’t cut in June, but seem likely to cut in July, but it didn’t seem logical to ignore balance sheet reduction while hiking last year, so let’s not let logic stand in the way of trying to figure out what the Fed will do next.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2YJGL0H Tyler Durden
We first warned about “gamma gravity” in March as US equity markets seemed stuck in a constant, daily meltup ahead of the March option expiration “quad witch”, even as flows showed investors were consistently dumping shares.
Specifically, it was the “extreme” dealer gamma that was providing support for the S&P, because the higher the market rose, the more risk dealers had to buy to hedge positions.
And crucially, as we pointed out at the time, if gamma is no longer a factor in the market’s upside – as the weakness of the last few days might suggest – that means gamma gravity will be a factor in the downside.
The exposure comes from brokers and investment banks who sell investment strategies to their clients and then have to hedge their positions by trading in stocks and futures. It has become increasingly apparent that this trading by banks and brokers often goes against the markets, which suppresses daily movement of stocks and indexes.
When gamma is positive, options quickly get more valuable when the price of the related shares rise. The bank taking the opposite position to the investor then sells those shares. That damps volatility. When gamma is negative, it is the other way around, and banks buy shares when prices are rising and sell when they are falling.
“Dealers being long gamma is like a black-hole effect, a negative feedback loop that squishes volatility,” says Kokou Agbo-Bloua, global head of flow strategy and solution at Société Générale .
He calls the long stretches of low volatility a “gamma trap.”
Charlie McElligott, cross-asset strategist at Nomura in New York, publishes daily commentary on how he thinks dealers are positioned, based on Cboe and internal Nomura flow data, to identify where dealers’ hedging will start to exacerbate market moves.
“If you have a good estimate of dealers’ gamma exposure, you can anticipate their hedging flows and pile into that either way,” says Mr. McElligott.
The force is a byproduct of big investors embracing so-called low-vol investment strategies that promise income and smooth out gains and losses through the use of options markets.
Benn Eiffert of QVR Advisors, a specialist volatility trading fund, says his estimates for gamma positioning – which use data from the Cboe Global Market Inc.’s options platform – explain “this jumping back and forth between markets that are completely dead and markets that are suddenly and briefly very exciting,” he says.
But perhaps most worrisome is the echoes of 1987 we see and hear every day as “low vol” strategy investing(often selling put options with a life of one month or less with the effect of increasing gamma in the market)becomes more and more popular, just as “portfolio insurance” did 32 years ago…
Both creating a similar ‘gamma gravity trap’ making the market considerably more vulnerable to dramatic downside collapse (and upside meltups) than many believe. In fact, the gamma trap is making it harder to tell whether news or events are properly reflected in market prices, according to Helen Thomas, founder of U.K.-based research firm, Blonde Money.
“Dealer hedging behavior is creating pockets of sensitivity in the markets,” she says.
“If Trump tweets something about China when the S&P is at one level, it doesn’t matter. But if he does it when it’s, say, 20 points lower, it’s panic stations.”
“Panic stations” indeed… but 1987 could never happen again, right?
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2YL9vWW Tyler Durden
Since the Democratic debates in June, the tide seems to have receded for the party and its presidential hopefuls.
In new polls, only Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump comfortably.
The other top-tier candidates – Sens. Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, and Mayor Pete Buttigieg — are running even with Trump, a measurable drop. A Washington Post-ABC poll just found Trump at 47% approval, a new high for his presidency.
Apparently, the more the nation sees of the alternatives to Trump the Democrats have on offer, the better The Donald looks. For Democrats, this is not good, not good at all.
For while Trump has run a daily gauntlet of dreadful media for two years, these Democrats have had only one debate and a few weeks of close coverage.
Between now and the New Hampshire primary, they will be going after one another and receiving a far more thorough vetting by a media in constant search of failings and flaws, especially of front-runners.
Traditionally, all candidates suffer attrition as the primaries come closer. For it is then that their lagging rivals become more desperate in their attacks and the media coverage becomes more intense.
Other problems have now arisen for the Democrats because of the issues that have come to the fore: race, radicalism and the border.
None looks like a winning Democratic issue in November 2020.
The race issue surfaced in the debate when Biden was called out by Harris for his professed friendships with segregationist senators like Herman Talmadge and James O. Eastland, and for Joe’s impassioned public resistance to the court-ordered bussing of black and white children for racial balance in the public schools of the 1970s.
Harris defended bussing as a necessary remedy to segregation and added that, as a “little girl,” she had been a beneficiary.
If your friends like Eastland had their way, said Harris, I would not be here in the Senate. For days, the issue dogged Biden, who, last weekend, apologized for any “hurt” he caused.
Biden seems to have recovered most of the ground lost from Harris’ attack. But that this racially charged issue threw him on the defensive for weeks assures it will be raised again by opponents to trip up the front-runner.
Another issue certain to come up in future debates, and in the South Carolina primary where 61% of the Democratic vote is African American, is reparations for slavery.
Several candidates have already endorsed a commission to study reparations, and Biden and every other candidate will have to take a stand.
Yet, recent polls show that Americans, by 2-1, are opposed to paying reparations for a system of slavery that was abolished 150 years ago.
Bottom line:If the 2020 campaign becomes a conversation about reparations for slavery and the bussing of white kids from the suburbs into inner-city schools to achieve greater integration, the Democrats will be in a world of hurt.
On border security, indispensable to Trump in 2016, Democrats in the debates came out for ending criminal detention of people invading our country and for providing free health care for migrants who successfully break into the USA.
Detesting ICE as they do, and supporting sanctuary cities, left-wing Democrats routinely describe the Border Patrol as neo-fascists who run “concentration camps” where migrant children are forced to drink toilet water. The Democrats are becoming an open borders party.
What is their solution to the hundreds of thousands of migrants who annually arrive at our borders? Foreign aid. They want to create a Marshall Plan for Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador so refugees will stay home rather than come to the USA for the health care Democrats will provide at taxpayer expense.
Among other ideas advocated by leading Democratic candidates:
Free college for all, cancellation of all student loan debt, Medicare for All, an end to private health insurance and the companies that provide it, the abolition of the Electoral College, expansion of the Supreme Court to 15 justices, the abolition of ICE, a phase-out all fossil fuels for a carbon neutral country, and repeal of all Trump tax cuts.
What is causing the moderate Democrats to adopt what they used to regard as radical positions? The party base, which votes in primaries and is further left than it has ever been.
Also pulling the party leftward is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her sisters in Congress who receive extensive and indulgent media coverage and have a powerful following among millennials.
What the Democratic Party is risking today — and what many of its leaders recognize — is that it will be pulled so far outside the mainstream of American politics in the nomination battle, that its nominee will not be able to make it back close enough to the center to win.
If the Democratic Party, as its alternative to Trump, decides to run on this radical new agenda, America will punish that hubris with a second term for Trump.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2xFC9gu Tyler Durden
The price of prescription drugs has been surging this year, despite president Donald Trump campaigning on lowering drug prices prior to the 2016 election. According to new data from CBS, more than 3,400 drugs have raised their prices in 2019, which marks a 17% increase compared to the 2,900 increases at the same time in 2018.
And the average price hike for these drugs is an astounding 10.5%, which is about five times the rate of inflation as calculated by CPI. Hilariously – or sadly enough – the price of drugs is probably a better representation of real inflation to begin with. 41 drugs have raised their prices by more than 100%, including one version of the antidepressant Prozac, which is up 879% since last year.
These increases come at the same time that lawmakers and consumers continue to express concerns about prices outpacing wage growth and cost-of-living. Four out of five Americans believe that prescription drug pricing is unreasonable and about a third of patients say that they’re skipping prescription medicine because of the cost.
Michael Rea, founder and CEO of Rx Savings Solutions said: “In the political climate we live in and the conversations we’re having, that there are more drug price increases this year — you would think that wouldn’t be the case. It defines the difficulty that consumers have.”
According to CBS, other drug hikes have included:
Mometasone 0.1% Topical Cream. This topical steroid has increased 381% this year, Rx Savings Solutions found.
Promethazine/Codeine 6.25-10mg/5mL solution. This pain reliever and cough medication rose 326%, Rx Savings Solutions said
Guanfacine 2mg tablet. This ADHD treatment rose 118%, the study found.
Prices are rising primarily due to a combination of shareholder pressure and an inelastic market.
Rea continued: “It’s a good that people need, in many cases in order to stay alive. You have a lot of flexibility to drive prices higher and higher.”
Nowhere has this issue been more pronounced than with the price of insulin, which diabetics require to stay alive. Even though the medication is more than a century old, its price has more than doubled over five years causing hardship from many of those who need it to survive.
Customers are instead being told to find as much information as possible about their treatment options in order to potentially seek out savings. A Trump administration rule now allows pharmacists to provide pricing data, which they previously weren’t able to do.
The Trump administration also announced a new rule last month that requires pharmaceutical companies to reveal the price of many prescription drugs in their TV commercials. This will go into effect over the summer. Regardless, it is still difficult for consumers to get a handle on prices.
Hedge fund manager and short seller Jim Chanos, who has shorted many healthcare companies accused of price gouging over the last half decade (including Valeant, Mallinckrodt and DaVita) called the rising prices “not a good look” heading into the 2020 election.
Drug prices 2019: Manufacturers hiked prices on 3,400 drugs at an average increase of 5 times inflation (10.5% Y/Y)- CBS News | Not a good look going into the Election. https://t.co/E1kVNw0fya
In the latest blow to Netflix shares, WSJ reports that WarnerMedia is pulling ‘Friends’ from Netflix next Spring when it launches its new “HBO Max” streaming service, which will compete against an already crowded field of streaming rivals.
WarnerMedia, which was recently acquired by AT&T, unveiled its plans for the new streaming service, which is one of the incipient ‘Netflix Killers’ that will soon come to market, along with offerings from Apple, Disney and NBCUniversal.
Unsurprisingly, Netflix shares slumped on the news, as ‘Friends’ is one of the most widely watched shows on Netflix.
As we’ve explained in the past, despite its push into original content, Netflix is still mostly dependent on licensed content to hold viewers’ interest. The news follows reports from earlier this month that NBC is pulling ‘the Office’ – the most popular show on Netflix’s platform – next year when it launches its own streaming service.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2XUOZGb Tyler Durden
There was some good news, and some not so good news about the just concluded sale of $38 billion in 3 year notes (Cusip 7C8).
First, the good news was tha tthe yield of 1.857% was 0.4bps below the June auction stop of 1.861% and 0.1% through the When Issued of 1.858%.
The not so good news, however, is that demand across various buyer classes slumped, with the Bid to Cover sliding to 2.62 last month to 2.39, the lowest since March 2009, or in more than ten years. One look at the chart below shows that after peaking in 2012, the BTC for this tenor has been declining progressively for the past 7 years.
As for the internals, they were generally in line, with Indirects taking down 48.5%, down from 56.6% last month but above the the 45.7% six-auction average. And with Directs taking 17.9%, well above the June 13.4% and above the recent average of 16.3%, Dealers were left holding 33.6%, which was also below the recent average of 38%, suggesting somewhat stronger than expected foreign buyer participation.
Overall, a mediocre, forgettable auction, with negatives offsetting the modest positives.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2xBVUFt Tyler Durden
Amazon turns 25, so what will the next 25 years look like?
It is 1994. It costs $3 per hour to access dialup internet, consumers are using 3.5-inch floppy disks, Mosaic is the web browser it-girl for a split second, and every teenager has gone emo listening to Nirvana. Oh, what a time to be alive. This was also the year that Amazon and Yahoo! opened their web portal doors. But only one of these soon-to-be technology titans would flourish during the onslaught of bubbles and recessions and thrive no matter how the economy performs.
When Jeff Bezos founded Amazon 25 years ago, he decided he was going to change the world and become a billionaire in the process. Suffice it to say, Bezos and Co. transformed our day-to-day living, from the way we shop to jubilantly welcoming a digital spy into our homes. Amazon has become its own ecosystem – and it is just getting started.
From humble beginnings selling books online from a garage, Amazon has transformed into a trillion-dollar business that will soon own the planet. And it will not be done by force, but through satisfying consumer demand. Maybe Earth will be renamed Amazon, and we will all be called Primes. As we have learned, anything is possible.
The last quarter-century has been impressive, so the obvious question is: What will 2034 look like?
Do You Hear An Echo?
Like a lot of corporations, Amazon has not been immune to the allure of government contracts. It is reported that the company could soon enter into a $10 billion deal with the Department of Defense to develop a cloud system. Although the proposal seems innocuous, it could be the first step toward something more malevolent that could affect our liberties. Let’s be candid: The intelligence agencies would love to get their hands on Amazon’s enormous infrastructure, from customer information to real-time data – if they haven’t already.
The Echo device is a terrifying piece of technology because there are so many privacy concerns. Yet, the market is signaling that there is a demand to be voluntarily spied on for the sake of convenience and deals. The latest developments highlight that we should be more diligent.
Liberty Nation’s technology extraordinaire, Laura Valkovic, wrote in November 2018:
“Although Alexa is not ‘supposed’ to record until it hears the user say a programmed ‘wake word’ –usually ‘Alexa’ – to trigger a recording (which is sent to and stored on Amazon servers), the fact that the device constantly tracks for ‘wake words’ logically suggests that it is always listening to its surroundings. Numerous incidents and privacy breaches have revealed that Alexa has access to much more information than Amazon is letting on.”
In other words, Big Brother is watching. But this isn’t achieved through government mandates. Instead, consumers are choosing to dole out $100 to be monitored all the time by the Ministry of Love – no word yet if the body will be headed by Marianne Williamson, girlfriend.
What’s wrong with the public? Americans lambast the federal government’s odious surveillance state (rightfully so), but then millions purchase a personal digital assistant that is always listening a la The Lives of Others.
There is no accounting for the public’s taste.
It’s Time To Go Crypto
Mark Zuckerberg recently released the details of Libra, a cryptocurrency that allows users to pseudonymously purchase items, send money to others with nearly zero fees, patronize third-party wallet apps, or cash out your Libra units of currency. Facebook is not fully controlling Libra; instead, it will maintain a single vote and depend on an open-sourced blockchain. But it is establishing a subsidiary called Calibra that will manage Facebook’s crypto efforts and ensure users’ social media data will not coalesce with the currency, to prevent ad targeting. Indeed, a lot of people are frightened of Libra, including the federal government, which has requested that Zuckerberg hit the pause button on development. But if the social media juggernaut can get into the cryptocurrency game, then why can’t Amazon?
For years, there has been speculation that Amazon would start accepting bitcoin. Amazon has acquired several cryptocurrency-related domain names and even launched a disappointing digital currency in 2013 that was on the same level as Air Miles or frequent flyer points. But the website may bypass the top dog in crypto and launch its own virtual currency. Some experts believe that it is only a matter of time before Amazon delves into crypto. Changpeng Zhao, CEO of crypto exchange Binance, recently tweeted:
“For any internet (non-physical) based business, I don’t understand why anyone would not accept crypto for payments. It is easier, faster and cheaper to integration than traditional payment gateways. Less paperwork. And reaches more diverse demographic and geography.
Amazon will have to issue a currency sooner or later.”
Amazon could do one of two things. The first is issue a finite number of Amazon Coins. The second is to institute an inflationary monetary initiative that matches the company’s growth rate. This would be another layer in the Amazon ecosystem: award coins to application developers, encourage in-app purchases, and reward customers with these digital coins. Considering how immense Amazon is, there are many options the website could consider.
Primetime
This is Amazon’s world and we’re just living in it. Soon, it will be the solar system, then the galaxy, and then the universe. Perhaps Amazon will go beyond the four-dimensional continuum and ascend to an apotheosis that not even extraterrestrials of the seventh, eighth, or ninth dimensions can comprehend. Amazon can do anything it wants. That typically what happens when you are worth $1 trillion.
Twenty-five years ago, Amazon sold its first book on the dial-up internet and took several days to ship. Today, shoppers can purchase a house on their smartphones and have it delivered for free. In the next 25 years, will customers be able to purchase a teleportation device that allows you travel back in time to dance with Rita Hayworth in a speakeasy, or have a cozy tête-à-tête with Simone de Beauvoir over a cup of tea?
Amazon can do anything it wants. Just be sure that you have a Prime subscription so you are eligible for free two-day shipping for your time machine package.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2XwDzsS Tyler Durden
Less than two hours after Boeing came clean that second-quarter jet deliveries slid 54% from a year earlier to just 90 aircraft, reflecting the toll from a global grounding of the 737 Max after two fatal crashes, President Trump offered a silver lining (that investors immediately loved) Qatar plans to purchase aircraft in a “large transaction” with Boeing.
LIVE: Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim meets US President Donald Trump at the White House to discuss regional security in the Gulf, among other issues. https://t.co/vPB9UjnGSn
The reaction was to buy Boeing stock, because Qatar just fixed all their issues?
However, as Bloomberg notes, Trump didn’t indicate whether Qatar was signing a new agreement, or following up on previous agreements, including a $1.8 billion deal announced last month at the Paris Air Show for five Boeing-777 freighters. That sale wasn’t listed in Boeing’s June orders, meaning the final contracts hadn’t been signed.
Finally, we note that the Qatar purchase follows a dinner between Mnuchin and the emir Al Thani which included:
Trump
Mulvaney
Ivanka, Jared
Dina Powell
Hank Paulson
Mike Crapo
Tom Barrack
Bob Kraft
Stan Kroenke
David Rubenstein
Steve Roth
Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat
Wells Fargo CEO C. Allen Parker.
One wonders what else was offered to rescue Boeing?
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2XyKEEl Tyler Durden
Federal prosecutors will not call on Michael Flynn to testify in the trial against his former business partner, and is instead being listed as a co-conspirator in the case which concerns illegal lobbying for Turkey in an effort to expel a Turkish cleric living in exile in the United States, according to The Hill.
Ret. Gen. Michael Flynn
“the government will not be calling Michael T. Flynn as a witness in its case-in-chief,” reads an unsealed July 3 order from US District Judge Anthony Trenga in the Eastern District of Virginia.
Flynn’s attorney, Sidney Powell, took umbrage at the government’s label of “co-conspirator,” telling The Hill: “General Flynn followed the law and hired the FARA experts. The government is seeking to admit one document as ‘coconspirator hearsay’ even though it is otherwise admissible,” adding “Judge Trenga hasn’t ruled on anything yet but unsealing. General Flynn is still cooperating with the government even if they don’t call him as a witness.“
Bijan Kian
Powell provided The Hill with a 113-page memo opposing the designation, which reads in part: “While Mr. Flynn does not dispute the government’s right to decide how to present its case and which witnesses to call, the government’s sudden decision to reverse its long-stated position that Mr. Flynn is its cooperating witness, and to turn him into an unindicted coconspirator, is extremely prejudicial to Mr. Flynn.”
Kian was charged alongside Turkish national Kamil Ekim Alptekin last December with acting as an unregistered foreign agent in connection with the now-defunct Flynn Intel Group’s lobbying activities on behalf of the Turkish government.
Flynn was widely expected to testify at Kian’s trial, which is slated to begin on July 15.
Powell said at a status conference on June 24 in Washington, D.C. — where Flynn’s separate trial is being held — that her client still anticipated testifying against Kian.
“Oh yes, sir. That cooperation is fully ongoing,” Powell told Judge Emmet Sullivan, a Clinton appointee. –The Hill
Flynn pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to the FBI about his discussions with the Russian ambassador, and agreed to cooperate with Robert Mueller’s now-over special counsel investigation as well as the Kian case. Mueller as recommended that Flynn receive little to no jail time.
Tuesday’s filing indicates that a hearing was held in Alexandria, Va., the same day that Flynn challenged the new designation, about whether the court filings should remain under seal.
Trenga said in the order that he determined that some of the court documents should be unsealed, while others — largely those made by government lawyers — should remain under guard.
Kian pleaded not guilty shortly after he was charged and is set to go to trial next week. –The Hill
Flynn’s sentencing, originally scheduled for last December, has been delayed several times in order to cooperate in the Kian case.
Kian, meanwhile, (who also goes by Bijan Rafiekian and Alptekin) “conspired covertly and unlawfully to influence U.S. politicians and public opinion concerning a Turkish citizen living in the United States whose extradition was then being sought by the Government of Turkey,” according to filings.
While Flynn’s name is not in the original indictment against Kian, he matches the description of “Person A,” who is one of the co-founders of “Company A.”
And now, Flynn is known as “co-conspirator.”
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2XBtLsH Tyler Durden
