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National Prayer Breakfast (attended by Russian spy Maria Butina & Alexander Torshin) & perhaps Cambridge Analytica are tied to a well connected businessman, John Yenason, in Pennsylvania, where Alfa Bank repeatedly pinged a Trump server in the run up to the 2016 election. 1/
"[D]uring an interview with The Citizens’ Voice in March, Yenason acknowledged he tried to arrange a meeting between the Russians and Trump’s campaign — although he maintained it was not at the behest of the Russians." 2/ https://www.citizensvoice.com/news/russian-in-contact-with-local-man-facing-charges-in-probe-1.2362613
3/ "Yenason, a former Harveys Lake councilman who describes himself as a devout Christian, said he first met Butina and Torshin after he was invited to attend a prayer breakfast in Russia in 2016."
4/ "Later that year, Yenason invited Butina to be a guest speaker at a fundraiser for the Hershel Woody Williams Medal of Honor Foundation in Louisville, Kentucky, which was taking place the same week as the NRA’s annual meeting, according to Yenason’s account."
5/ "Realizing Trump would most likely be in town to accept the NRA’s endorsement in the presidential election, Yenason and his friend Rick Clay decided to reach out and see if he would make an appearance as well, according to Yenason’s account."
6/ "The email, titled 'Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite,' made it to Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, a top campaign aide, who rejected the offer, the Times reported."
10/ More recently, Diane Feinstein sent a letter to Cambridge Analytica asking about its communications with numerous individuals, including John Yenason. https://twitter.com/WendySiegelman/status/1018956991740497921
11/ Yenason is a well-known businessman in Wilkes-Barr, Pennsylvania. https://www.timesleader.com/news/697062/wilkes-barre-businessman-yenason-mentioned-in-dems-russia-report-speaks-out
12/ Recall that Alfa Bank was discovered to have continuously pinged a Trump server in Lititz, Pennsylvania in the run-up to the 2016 election. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/15/was-there-a-connection-between-a-russian-bank-and-the-trump-campaign
13/ The Clay email (initiated by Trump) was apparently sent around May 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/us/politics/trump-russia-kushner.html
14/ Connection between Cambridge Analytica, the Alfa Bank server, and FB addressed here: https://twitter.com/dcpoll/status/1049328850260426752
15/ Meanwhile, another well known PA businessman, Bob Bolus, led the much publicized #MinersForTrump movement, which was pure propaganda started by a Russian troll farm. http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/news/russians-may-be-behind-2016-scranton-trump-rally-1.2304228
16/ image of Yenason with Pence. http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/news/russians-may-be-behind-2016-scranton-trump-rally-1.2304228
17/ Yenason with Trump http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/news/russians-may-be-behind-2016-scranton-trump-rally-1.2304228
18/ Yenason with Don Jr.
19/ Yenason and Sessions.
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23/ BTW, it was not my sleuthing that turned up these connections. It all came from @Phire2Fire! I just researched to further confirm what she sent me and put into a Thread. #StrongerTogether
24/ Meanwhile, Ukrainian mobster Semion Mogilevitch has strong ties to the Philadelphia area. https://www.phillyvoice.com/reputed-philly-mobster-bumped-fbis-ten-most-wanted-list/
25/ in 1984, David Bogatin (a Russian mobster & close ally of Mogilevich) met w/ Trump in Trump Tower right after it opened & bought 5 condos from Trump that were later seized by the govt, which claimed they were used to launder money for the Russian mob. https://www.vox.com/world/2018/9/12/17764132/trump-mueller-russia-mafia-putin-craig-unger
26/ Per @olgaNYC1211, Mogelivitch sent Bogatin to PA. Per LinkedIn, David Bogatin’s brother (Jacob) is still in PA. I wonder if he knows Yenason.
27/ More about PA’s Jacob Bogatin here: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theglobeandmail.com/amp/report-on-business/ybm-officers-pocketed-millions-us-says/article1013860/
28/ And more. https://www.the-american-interest.com/2016/12/19/the-curious-world-of-donald-trumps-private-russian-connections/
29/ I wonder if Bogatin benefited from this... https://twitter.com/jennycohn1/status/1072259561313120256?s=21
30/ #DeNaples https://www.timesleader.com/news/549456/wilkes-barre-council-members-question-current-future-dealings-with-denaples-businesses
31/ PA congressman Marino “was the fifth member of Congress to officially endorse Trump” and has “called Louis DeNaples [of Pennsylvania] — a convicted felon with mob ties — a “close friend””
https://billypenn.com/2016/11/11/donald-trump-turned-to-these-pa-congressmen-for-white-house-help/
https://billypenn.com/2016/11/11/donald-trump-turned-to-these-pa-congressmen-for-white-house-help/
32/ “Did Tom Marino's controversial past force him out of the running for Trump's drug czar?” Strong ties to DeNaples. http://www.pennlive.com/nation-world/2017/05/did_tom_marinos_controversial.html
33/ “DeNaples is a...PA business magnate” known for his “no contest plea to fraud..., ties to the Bufalino crime family & perjury charges ... related to...gaming...” Marino “collected ...250k...working for DeNaples b4 winning a seat in Congress...” http://www.pennlive.com/nation-world/2017/05/did_tom_marinos_controversial.html
34/ Trump’s Drug Czar Pick Was Accused of 'Judge-Shopping' to Get Cocaine Expungement for Friend https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2017-04-13/apparent-drug-czar-pick-was-accused-of-judge-shopping-to-get-cocaine-expungement-for-friend%3fcontext=amp
37/ Going back to the Trump Tower server in Lititz, PA (the one that Alfa Bank pinged repeatedly in 2016), the town of Lancaster, PA is just 8.5 miles from Lititz and is the location of DeVos-funded Bethany Christian Services. https://www.npr.org/2018/08/02/630112697/devos-family-money-is-all-over-the-news-right-now
38/ DeVos-funded Bethany Christian (w/ locations in both PA & MI) used to adopt out Russian children, but Russia banned this after the Magnitsky Act sanctions. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2012/12/26/russia-anti-us-adoption-bill/1791467/
39/ More recently, Bethany Christian Services has dealt with immigrant children separated from their parents due to Trump’s immigration policy. It has adopted some of these children out to Americans after the biological parents were deported. https://apnews.com/97b06cede0c149c492bf25a48cb6c26f
40/ Bethany Christian Services charges $20-40k for international adoptions and $23k for domestic adoptions. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ajc.com/lifestyles/parenting/considering-the-adoption-route-georgia-there-more-than-one-path/ngCCATJpLPHPRAOdux6pjN/amp.html
41/ Per @C_Stroop, DeVos-funded Bethany Christian Services (which is a mere 8.5 miles from the Trump Tower server that AlfaBank repeatedly pinged In 2016) had an annual budget of $9.1 million in 2010, of which $694k was spent directly on serving children. https://www.playboy.com/read/the-book-of-sessions-america-blearily-awakens-to-a-new-theocracy
42/ Other than Alfa Bank’s attempts to communicate w/ Trump Tower’s domain thru the server in Lititz, PA (8.5 miles from DeVis-funded Bethany), the only entity attempting to communicate w/ Trump Tower’s domain w/ frequency was Spectrum Health, a MI company w/ close ties to DeVos.
43/ Link for post 42: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/15/was-there-a-connection-between-a-russian-bank-and-the-trump-campaign
44/ The Alfa Bank server pinged the Trump Tower server in Lititz, PA about 2k times between May and September 2016. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/15/was-there-a-connection-between-a-russian-bank-and-the-trump-campaign
45/ A small group of prominent computer scientists discovered these pings and concluded they likely reflected a covert communication channel. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/15/was-there-a-connection-between-a-russian-bank-and-the-trump-campaign
46/ In 8/2016, these prominent computer scientists shared the Alfa Bank-Trump Tower server info. w/ Eric Lichtblau of the NYT who wrote it up. But the FBI asked Lichtblau to delay publishing the story as the FBI investigated. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/15/was-there-a-connection-between-a-russian-bank-and-the-trump-campaign
47/ In 10/ 2016, an FBI official told Lichtblau there could be an innocuous explanation for the computer traffic. But on 10/3016, Harry Reid wrote a letter to Comey, charging that the FBI was withholding info about ‘close ties & coordination’ between the Trump campaign & Russia.”
48/ The NYT could have bolstered Reid’s claim by publishing what the computer scientists had told Lichtblau about the Trump Organization & Alfa Bank potentially communicating.
49/ Instead, the NYT ignored Reid’s concerns and ran a heavily edited version of what Lichtblau had written, omitting any reference to what the computer scientists had told Lichtblau about the Trump Organization & Alfa Bank potentially communicating.
50/ The NYT story ran the day after Reid’s letter and effectively buried Reid’s concerns with the now infamous caption, “investigating donald trump, f.b.i. sees no clear link to russia.”
51/ The NYT story also managed to eclipse a story that ran in Slate the same day, which (unlike the NYT story) “made a detailed case for the possibility of a covert link between Alfa Bank and Trump” and relied on the conclusions of computer scientists associated w/ those...
52/ ... who had spoken to Lichtblau.
53/ The Slate story also included this bombshell: “On September 21st, [Slate] wrote, the Times had delivered potential evidence of communications to B.G.R., a Washington lobbying firm that worked for Alfa Bank. Two days later, the Trump domain vanished from the Internet.”
![53/ The Slate story also included this bombshell: “On September 21st, [Slate] wrote, the Times had delivered potential evidence of communications to B.G.R., a Washington lobbying firm that worked for Alfa Bank. Two days later, the Trump domain vanished from the Internet.”](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dup_zF7UcAA_wM3.jpg "53/ The Slate story also included this bombshell: “On September 21st, [Slate] wrote, the Times had delivered potential evidence of communications to B.G.R., a Washington lobbying firm that worked for Alfa Bank. Two days later, the Trump domain vanished from the Internet.”")
54/ “The Trump domain had been shut down after the Times contacted Alfa Bank’s representatives—but before the newspaper contacted Trump,” which suggests the Alfa Bank representative had contacted the Trump Organization & told them to shut it down. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/15/was-there-a-connection-between-a-russian-bank-and-the-trump-campaign
55/ Computer scientists have various theories about what Alfa Bank & Trump Tower might have communicated about. One theory is that the communications could have been used to transfer data, such as the millions of stolen FB emails, from Cambridge Analytica to Russia to ...
56/ ... assist Russia in its targeted propaganda campaign to elect Trump.
57/ This theory harmonizes with @TeaPainUSA’s detailed analysis of June 2018. https://twitter.com/teapainusa/status/1004092208373534720?s=21
58/ Another interesting @TeaPainUSA article: https://teapainusa.wordpress.com/2017/07/10/spectrum-healths-role-in-the-trump-russia-server-scandal/
59/ Here is an earlier thread by @RubyWorms also discussing Yenason's ties to Butina. https://twitter.com/RubyWorms/status/1032405029729329152
@threadreaderapp please unroll. Thx!
