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House Judiciary Chair Asks Erickson for Documents on Trump-Russia-Wikileaks Connections

South Dakota made the A-List! Yay! Right alongside Corey Lewandowski, Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, Michael Flynn, Julian Assange, Jared Kushner, and Donald Trump’s sons Don and Eric, Paul Erickson of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, gets a letter from House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler requesting documents for the committee’s probe of allegations of obstruction of justice and public corruption in the Trump campaign and Administration.

This document request lists the reading material Chairman Nadler wants from Erickson’s files:

All documents relating to the following:

  1. Any loan, financing transaction, or capital investment by the Russian Federation, any Russian national, any Russian business, or any other Russian entity to the Trump Organization, Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, or any of their Business Interests. This request shall include the period from January 1, 2015 to the present and shall exclude documents relating to the purchase of individual condominium, cooperative, or apartment units.
  2. Any contacts, direct or indirect, from January 1, 2015 to January 20, 2017 between or involving the Russian Federation and its officials, agents, intermediaries, and/or instrumentalities and any of the following: Donald Trump, the Trump Campaign, the Trump Organization, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Michael Cohen, Michael Flynn, Jeff Sessions, Jared Kushner, Thomas Bossert, Roger Stone, Jerome Corsi, George Papadopoulos, Carter Page, Konstantin Kilimnik, K.T. McFarland, and/or Erik Prince.
  3. Any contacts, direct or indirect, from January 1, 2016 to the present between or involving Wikileaks and its officials, agents, intermediaries, and/or instrumentalities.
  4. Any contacts, direct or indirect, from January 1, 2016 to the present between Paul Manafort and/or Rick Gates and any of the following individuals: Konstantin Kilimnik, Serhiy Lyovochkin, and/or Rinat Akhmetov.
  5. Any contacts, direct or indirect, from January 1, 2016 to the present between Michael Cohen and any of the following: Viktor Vekselberg, Andrew Intrater, or Columbus Nova or its officials, agents, intermediaries, and/or instrumentalities [Rep. Jerrold Nadler, chairman, House Judiciary, document request to Paul Erickson, 2019.03.04].

The document request says nothing about the wire fraud and money laundering for which Paul Erickson is currently under federal indictment. The request says nothing about Erickson’s foxy red girlfriend, convicted Russian agent and frequent South Dakota visitor Maria Butina. It is entirely possible that Erickson’s response to this request could honestly consist of one honest line: “Ain’t got none!” His affair with Butina, who worked diligently to network with NRA officials and prominent Republicans, who managed to attend an early Trump presidential campaign vent and pose a question to the candidate while herself posing as a journalist, may have absolutely no connection with the various connections cropping up between the Russians and the winning presidential campaign of the 2016 election.

But Chairman Nadler would just like to make sure. So would we South Dakotans.

34 Comments

  1. Donald Pay 2019-03-04 16:32

    Yeah, I’m not sure that direct link is what I’d be looking for. Erickson may have laundered money between Russia and the nexus around Donald Trump, but I’m not sure this gets at any of that. Erickson would be one link in a chain between the two, but probably not that direct a link. Also, it doesn’t get at the Russian money feeding the anti-Muslim hate groups and county Republican Party operations set up in South Dakota. I could see where that link might have been one that laundered money to Trump or to others who then passed it on to Trump.

  2. jerry 2019-03-04 20:13

    There is some serious juice in this request that will surely come back to bite the SDGOP on their ample rumps. The funneling of dark money into South Dakota politics will be exposed for what it is, more corruption.

  3. Debbo 2019-03-04 23:14

    The entire list if 81 individuals or groups who are asked to testify is here:
    https://goo.gl/QPwLqF/

    I did not see Jason, Jeremiah Murphy or other DFP trolls’ names.

  4. Debbo 2019-03-04 23:17

    The best questioners have been the 3 freshmen Democratic women– AOC, Pressly and Tlaib. If anyone is like to nail SD’s boy and tear back the curtain on the SDGOP, it’s likely to be one of those 3. I wonder if there is a chance of exposing #2`s shortcomings?

  5. Roger Cornelius 2019-03-04 23:30

    From everything that has been written about Erickson, it seems that he is not much more then an opportunist and grifter. If anything, I suspect Erickson would be an unwitting conduit between Russia and the NRA.
    Debbo, as for #2 he has some serious explaining to do about that trip to Moscow on the 4th of July.
    Late this afternoon congress announced it would use any and all means available to recover the information Trump hid from his staff and the State Department about his meeting with various Russian officials including Putin.

  6. Roger Cornelius 2019-03-05 11:45

    Intelligent people with integrity never use Breitbart as a source.

  7. bearcreekbat 2019-03-05 12:13

    Roger, out of curiousity I read Jason’s linked article. Contrary to Jason’s assertion, the article failed to quote a single lie, false statement, or misrepresentation by Chuck Todd. Instead, the author, John Nolte, gave his claimed impressions of what Todd meant to say (but didn’t say as evidenced by each direct quote from Todd that the article repeats) and then Nolte even falsely claimed what Todd supposedly meant to say was not true. Todd’s name simply was used as a jumping off point to spread more anti-media false propaganda, with no real ot meaningful reference to anything remotely relevant about Todd or his statements.

    As for Breitbart as a source of facts, here is what Rationalwiki says about Breitbart:

    [Breitbart is] like the unwanted love child of Fox News . . . who serves as an American Pravda for Donald Trump and others like him. “Screaming hateful absurdities” might be more appropriate. . . .

    It is inadvisable to use Breitbart as a source, where Wikipedia editors have agreed to not allow Breitbart to be used as citations for facts, similar to how Daily Mail was blacklisted, . . . . (italics added)

    https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Breitbart.com

    Nolte was described as a “regular writer” for Breitbart, consisting of:

    . . . a mix of Hollywood D-listers and wannabees who felt that their lack of success was due to politics and bloggers hoping to gain greater visibility. . . . .

    My experience is that most links and sources cited by Jason in his comments are from extreme right wing sources that cannot be trusted to provide unedited factual information. A gentle description of these cites would be “propaganda spin doctors.”

  8. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2019-03-05 12:31

    Count on Jason to take us off topic. I didn’t cite Chuck Todd. I cited the original documents of Chairman Nadler’s request.

    Jason is like a psycho Packers fan. He sits at the sports bar, screaming at the game on the big screen. He hears we’re across the street having a book club meeting about the new Frederick Douglass biography, so he runs across the street, comes into our meeting room, and starts screaming, “Packers!!! Packers!!!”

    Good grief, how tiring.

  9. leslie 2019-03-05 12:32

    Yes but Cohen testified never having been in Prague. This is not over, for Dusty and Erickson either. Ouch!

  10. Jason 2019-03-05 12:47

    The topic is Russian collusion, Hillary paying for a fake dossier, and the FBI using Fake Dossier to get a FISA warrant.

    I notice BCB hasn’t said Rep. Jim Jordan was wrong.

    Go ahead BCB. Do it.

  11. Jason 2019-03-05 12:48

    Ok Cory,

    Let’s discuss the facts about Hilary and the Russians?

  12. Roger Cornelius 2019-03-05 13:16

    The topic is the request for documents from the Trump administration and other areas where Trump may have broken the law.
    I wonder how much of this information Robert Mueller already has.

  13. bearcreekbat 2019-03-05 13:25

    Okay Jason, the quotes from Jordan were wrong.

    (1) Whether Cohen was in Prague doesn’t “undermine the whole dossier.”

    (2) The dossier was not the lead thing that led to the FISA warrant.

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/crime-courts/why-team-trump-wrong-about-carter-page-dossier-secret-warrant-n893666

    (3) The dossier was paid for by more sources than Clinton, including a Republican organization opposing Trump in the primary.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/27/us/politics/trump-dossier-paul-singer.html

    Cory, let me know if you prefer I don’t point out Jason’s false statements due to lack of relevance here. I thought he might have a point about relevance to Trump’s Russian connections, and, while I decline to enter into his junior high style back and forth insults and banter, I am inclined to question the veracity of propaganda in his comments and links.

  14. Porter Lansing 2019-03-05 13:33

    Roger … The documents are to create a backup dossier in the eventuality that the new Attorney General won’t release Mueller’s report to the public. Yesterday, the House Intelligence Committee hired a seasoned former Southern District of NY fed prosecutor with extensive experience going after Russian organized crime to lead it’s vast investigations into Pres. Trump. His name is Dan Goldman and he’s the next Mueller. He also took down the Genovese crime family. Don was squirming in the wind on Twitter, this morning.

  15. Porter Lansing 2019-03-05 13:38

    BCB’s got the proper intel on the dossier. The warrants were issued not only because the dossier was real but because the agent who compiled it had a stellar reputation in bringing honest facts to the FISA court. The dossier has indicted innumerable crooks, thus was admitted with validity and integrity. Sean Hannity’s led the “witch hunt” against the dossier and we all know who’s butt his nose sniffs daily.

  16. mike from iowa 2019-03-05 14:15

    Better yet, Troll, tell us which parts of the dossier have been found to be untrue. So far pretty much all of it has been confirmed except maybe pee tapes and I have heard of no official finding on that.

    I’m still waiting.

  17. Porter Lansing 2019-03-05 15:05

    Poor guy. Is nothing sacred? 😳 A top House tax writer said Tuesday that Democrats plan to formally demand President Donald Trump’s tax returns in about two weeks. “We’re almost ready to go,” said Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.), one of the most outspoken proponents of using an arcane law to unmask Trump’s tax returns. – Politico

  18. Debbo 2019-03-05 15:27

    It’s heating up. House Oversight has requested records on how Kushner’s security clearances came about. WH sent a letter of refusal which was received today. Rep. Cummings says they’ve made enough requests. Subpoenas are next.

  19. Roger Cornelius 2019-03-05 17:35

    All these document request are concerning nearly every part of Trump’s life, family, and business.
    Yesterday during a brief press conference Trump said he would cooperate with the congressional document request.
    Well, that was yesterday and was just another Trump lie, today the White House started to push back and stonewall the request.
    Next congress will subpoena all these documents and people and it will all end up in court for the next couple of years.
    On top of this potential court mess will be Mueller’s report and the fight to make it public.
    And don’t forget that the Southern 6th District of New York is waiting for Trump with open arms.

  20. leslie 2019-03-05 20:54

    Trump can’t stand the light of day. He’llf fight with everything he’s got, as president that is formidable. We’ll never see them.

  21. Jason 2019-03-05 23:20

    BCB,

    Note that my links are dated well after July of 2018. Do you always rely on old, outdated information?

  22. Roger Cornelius 2019-03-05 23:32

    BCB
    Do you “always” rely on old, outdated information? Note the “always”.

  23. bearcreekbat 2019-03-06 11:42

    Jason, to be fair, this time I will you give you an opportunity to state why you want to ask me your question or have me participate in a discussion with you, before I respond further or simply ignore you.

    I am at a point where I have concluded it is not productive to discuss most topics with you nor to deal with your questions. I have concluded that you are unwilling to change your views or consider factual information I identify for you on any topic. And as I previously explained, I do not answer questions that appear to be juvenile, sarcastic, or do not appear to desire an honest, objective response.

    If I see a post from anyone, including you, that seems to be a mistake, or that seems to be an attempt to spread false information to support some propaganda narrative, I will often make an effort to correct mistakes or false claims by identifying actual objective facts, hopefully without a partisan slant.

    Feel free to post whatever Cory permits you to post and I will feel free to correct mistakes, false statements and propaganda. But know that in the future it will normally be a waste of your time, as well as the readers’ time, for you to posit questions or claim to desire discussions with me, as I will normally be inclined to simply ignore them.

  24. mike from iowa 2019-03-06 12:28

    https://www.lawfareblog.com/steele-dossier-retrospective

    The dossier is actually a series of reports—16 in all—that total 35 pages. Written in 2016, the dossier is a collection of raw intelligence. Steele neither evaluated nor synthesized the intelligence. He neither made nor rendered bottom-line judgments. The dossier is, quite simply and by design, raw reporting, not a finished intelligence product.

    These materials buttress some of Steele’s reporting, both specifically and thematically. The dossier holds up well over time, and none of it, to our knowledge, has been disproven.

  25. mike from iowa 2019-03-06 14:35

    From Politico and out of Marlboro Barbie’s Butt- The Senate is on track to confirm the 34th Circuit Court judge of Trump’s presidency in the next week and the GOP has three more ready for floor action; that would give Trump roughly 20 percent of the Circuit Court seats in the country after just two years in office. At this rate, McConnell and Trump could leave few, if any, vacancies there for a potential Democratic president in 2021.

    Even more alarming for Democrats, the GOP is also preparing to pull the trigger on the “nuclear option” and change Senate rules once again with a simple majority to allow much quicker confirmation of lower court judges in the coming months.

    “The committee is working to put [judges] out on the floor and as soon as they come to the floor the leader’s making it a priority to move them,” said Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, McConnell’s top deputy. “It’ll be a high priority for the foreseeable future. I mean, it’s one of the things we can do without the House’s help.”

  26. Debbo 2019-04-04 15:58

    Oh, that’s really very bad news for Erickson’s and Dusty’s girlfriend.

  27. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2019-04-05 20:11

    Good article, Mike! Butina as supporter of Crimean terrorists and Russian violations of international law—go figure.

Comments are closed.