FBI Agents Swarm D.C. home of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska

[Milchshake]

Baby oh baby this is getting good. The bagman for Putin, Trump, and McConnell.



FBI agents on Tuesday swarmed the home of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska in Washington, D.C., an agency spokesperson confirmed to NBC News.

The reason for their presence wasn’t immediately clear. The spokesperson said the agency is conducting “law enforcement activity at the home,” but wouldn’t elaborate.
Deripaska is a billionaire oil tycoon with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He was among two dozen Russian oligarchs and officials who were sanctioned by the Treasury Department in April 2018.

A press release announcing the sanctions said Deripaska has been investigated for money laundering and accused of “threatening the lives of business rivals, illegally wiretapping a government official, and taking part in extortion and racketeering.”

...

NBC News reported in 2018 that Deripaska had been repeatedly denied a visa to enter the United States over his alleged ties to organized crime. But the Russian government had recently given Deripaska diplomatic status, allowing him to enter the country with immunity, several current and former U.S. officials said at the time.

Like the villain from LEthal Weapon 2?

[Edge-]

NBC News reported in 2018 that Deripaska had been repeatedly denied a visa to enter the United States over his alleged ties to organized crime. But the Russian government had recently given Deripaska diplomatic status, allowing him to enter the country with immunity, several current and former U.S. officials said at the time.[/I]

Like the villain from LEthal Weapon 2?

Wait...you can like...do that? Just casually grant one of your citizens diplomatic status in an attempt to grant them diplomatic immunity? I always assumed it was a two-way street and both countries needed to agree on it or something.

Is that shit retroactive? Because man does that seem ripe for abuse.

[Fugus]

God I would love to his this guy bring down McConnell.

[Breccia]

Whoa, did this come out of nowhere? Or did, I dunno, Cohen say something?

[Poopymonster]

Wait...you can like...do that? Just casually grant one of your citizens diplomatic status in an attempt to grant them diplomatic immunity? I always assumed it was a two-way street and both countries needed to agree on it or something.

Is that shit retroactive? Because man does that seem ripe for abuse.

I think it's more of a gentleperson's agreement.
We both agree not to give diplomatic status to bell ends.

Notice it was "recently" it happened? "After January 6th" sounds pretty recent to me.

[Egomaniac]

Wait...you can like...do that? Just casually grant one of your citizens diplomatic status in an attempt to grant them diplomatic immunity? I always assumed it was a two-way street and both countries needed to agree on it or something.

Is that shit retroactive? Because man does that seem ripe for abuse.

I think the host country can choose to bypass diplomatic immunity at any time... they just have to be willing to accept the consequences. 99% of the time it probably isn't worth the hassle (on the "big picture" scale) to arrest and charge the person. Also, I think espionage is like an automatic exclusion from diplomatic immunity.

[Milchshake]

Whoa, did this come out of nowhere? Or did, I dunno, Cohen say something?

A good portion of it was established in the Mueller report. The large amount of constraint that Mueller and Rosenstein inflicted on themselves, meant there was no follow through.



Hypothetical; if Deripaska has access to the Pee Tape, would he have a copy at his DC Dacha?

[Fugus]

I think it's more of a gentleperson's agreement.
We both agree not to give diplomatic status to bell ends.

Notice it was "recently" it happened? "After January 6th" sounds pretty recent to me.

I would think Diplomatic status has to be agreed by both sides on the individual to keep the person vetted some. But that wouldn't stop Trump from overriding his own people to approve the change.

Something like the country appoints them as a diplomat then the country in question approves them be to being a qualified diplomat to their country.

If anyone knows otherwise please correct me.

[Shadowferal]

I thought had to be mutually agreed upon after a vetting process to weed out the wrong element.

[Milchshake]

Meanwhile in New York, another search of Oleg Deripaska's properties is reportedly underway.

[Breccia]

Meanwhile in New York, another search of Oleg Deripaska's properties is reportedly underway.

His lawyers are claiming his relatives lived there. I don't think the FBI care if that's true or not.

[Poopymonster]

His lawyers are claiming his relatives lived there. I don't think the FBI care if that's true or not.

Relatives? As in more than one?
Isn't there is a crime statute for this?

[madethisfor1post]

What time we expecting Turnips for Trump™ to come with their talking points? Kinda want to make some popcorn.

[Nastard]

What time we expecting Turnips for Trump™ to come with their talking points? Kinda want to make some popcorn.

He'll need a little time for someone else to create talking points for him to parrot. Maybe 16 hours?

[Breccia]

Oh, one thing that I should have thought of earlier.

So Deripaska loaned Manafort millions of dollars, leading to Manafort being arrested and convicted of bank fraud and stuff, for which Trump pardoned him. I could stop there, Trump pardoning a friend for bank fraud and being an unlicensed Russian agent in the White House. Manafort was this close to cracking and telling prosecutors everything[/url], too.

But, that means Manafort could be required to testify against Deripaska. He can't refuse, he can't take the Fifth, he was pardoned.

*ahem*

And then!

Deripaska can Prisoner's Dilemna right back, providing evidence of things Manafort hasn't been arrested for yet. Trump did not issue Manafort a blanket pardon.

Which means Manafort might go back to jail, with no hope of being released this time.

This, of course, is what Manafort should see as a very realistic outcome. And he's not in a good place to defend himself. Just because he was pardoned doesn't make all the evidence Mueller etc. collected magically go away. Also, being convicted for a decades-long multi-million-dollar international money laundering fraud is pretty solid evidence that someone is a bad person, and would 100% go to motive, or of course could be evidence of other related crimes that just don't happen to be public yet.

Manafort shouldn't be worried, he should be terrified. Russian spies might be many things, but two of them are "vindictive" and "even more vindictive".

[Kaleredar]

What time we expecting Turnips for Trump™ to come with their talking points? Kinda want to make some popcorn.

Well just remember as per their normal logic, you can’t prove this guy did anything wrong.

And if you can prove it, you can’t prove he was doing it maliciously.

And if you can prove that, you can’t prove that any of the GOP/conservatives knew about it.

And if you can prove that, you can’t prove any of them were directly involved.

And if you can prove that, you can’t prove that he did so with Russia’s knowledge.

And if you can prove that, you can’t prove that Russia did anything wrong in this situation moreso than the US.

And if you can prove that Russia engages in this activity far more than the US, can you really prove anything because isn’t morality just a vague construct and what if we’re all the dream of a sleeping butterfly?

There, I just saved us all five pages of certain someones posting in circles and contributing nothing.

[Shalcker]

Oh, one thing that I should have thought of earlier.

So Deripaska loaned Manafort millions of dollars, leading to Manafort being arrested and convicted of bank fraud and stuff, for which Trump pardoned him. I could stop there, Trump pardoning a friend for bank fraud and being an unlicensed Russian agent in the White House. Manafort was this close to cracking and telling prosecutors everything[/url], too.

But, that means Manafort could be required to testify against Deripaska. He can't refuse, he can't take the Fifth, he was pardoned.

Testify that he defrauded Deripaska for millions of dollars in Ukraine?

Because that seems to be extent of their interactions.

Deripaska can Prisoner's Dilemna right back, providing evidence of things Manafort hasn't been arrested for yet. Trump did not issue Manafort a blanket pardon.

Evidence of what exactly?

It's not like they were running something together; and Deripaska sued him already.

[Levelfive]

Well just remember as per their normal logic, you can’t prove this guy did anything wrong.

And if you can prove it, you can’t prove he was doing it maliciously.

And if you can prove that, you can’t prove that any of the GOP/conservatives knew about it.

And if you can prove that, you can’t prove any of them were directly involved.

And if you can prove that, you can’t prove that he did so with Russia’s knowledge.

And if you can prove that, you can’t prove that Russia did anything wrong in this situation moreso than the US.

And if you can prove that Russia engages in this activity far more than the US, can you really prove anything because isn’t morality just a vague construct and what if we’re all the dream of a sleeping butterfly?

There, I just saved us all five pages of certain someones posting in circles and contributing nothing.

This is a thing of beauty. *chef's kiss*

[postman1782]

Testify that he defrauded Deripaska for millions of dollars in Ukraine?

Because that seems to be extent of their interactions.

Evidence of what exactly?

It's not like they were running something together; and Deripaska sued him already.

All of the fraud and collusion that Russians did to get Trump elected. Since we know that Russia did thanks to the Senate Intel Committee report led by Republicans.

[Shalcker]

All of the fraud and collusion that Russians did to get Trump elected. Since we know that Russia did thanks to the Senate Intel Committee report led by Republicans.

If you already know about all the fraud and collusion go push for it to be persecuted.