Thread by @ZarinaZabrisky

⚡️💥🤑🚢🆘 #McConnell refused to bring the legislation to protect #Mueller to the Senate floor. A short thread on #MitchMcConnel and #ElaineChao's history of corruption. @WendySiegelman @grantstern @peterjukes @AHamiltonSpirit @dcpoll @lukeharding1968 cnn.com/2018/04/17/pol…

1. In Sep 2016, during a secret briefing for congressional leaders, the CIA informed the Congress about Russian interference with the election. McConnell objected to declassifying the information & making it public, claiming bipartisanship issues.
politico.com/story/2018/01/…

2. On January 31, 2017, Mitch McConnell’s wife Elaine Chao was sworn as a State Secretary of Transportation for Trump’s cabinet.

3. 3. Elaine Chao’s father, James Si-Cheng Chao, is the founder of the Foremost shipping company and a classmate of Jiang Zemin, the president of China in the ’90s.
thenation.com/article/mitch-…

4. McConnell and Elaine Chao met with Jiang several times, both in Beijing and in Washington. McConnell subsequently tempered his criticism of Chinese human rights abuses and supported Most Favored Nation trading status with China.

5. 💥In 2014, 40 kilograms, or about ninety pounds, of cocaine, were discovered on the Ping May, the vessel owned by Foremost. thenation.com/article/mitch-…

6. In 2014, Foremost was reported to engage in the business practice known in the merchant industry as the flag of convenience to limit his U.S. tax liability by flagging its ships in Liberia instead of the U.S.

7. Foremost was singled out in the story because Chao’s son-in-law Senator Mitch McConnell expressed disinterest in July 2014 for limiting a similar controversial business practice known as corporate inversion. ipfs.io/ipfs/QmXoypizj…

8. Over a period of five years, millions of dollars were quietly funneled to a Chao family foundation via two offshore firms that list a New York address but are not incorporated anywhere in the United States. theintercept.com/2018/02/05/mit…

9. Two entities with the same names, however, are incorporated in the Marshall Islands, the world’s most secretive offshore havens for firms seeking to avoid taxes and a preferred foreign locale for the Foremost.

10. The connection between the offshore accounts and the donation to the Chao family foundation were found through a search of the Paradise Papers.

11. Elaine Chao's father gave the couple a gift of between $5 million and $25 million in 2008.
politico.com/story/2009/06/…

12. McConnell’s net worth was about $26.7 million in 2016, according to a Center for Responsive Politics estimate.
theintercept.com/2018/02/05/mit…

13. McConnell said he won't bring the legislation to protect Mueller to the Senate floor. "I'm the one who decides what we take to the floor, that's my responsibility as the majority leader, we will not be having this on the floor of the Senate," he said. Hmmm. Wonder why.👆

on #McConnel's statement. @AlexandraChalup @annmarlowe @StollmeyerEU @bfry1981 @gcatgroove @RVAwonk @JustinElliott @Delavegalaw @Kasparov63 @TrickFreee @QuotingHistory