Thread by @jamesfourm

1/ Rebekah Mercer is on the board of The Heritage Foundation. Top donors:

Sarah Scaife Foundation/Allegheny Foundation (same family)

Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation / DeVos Urban Leadership Initiative (so, Erik Prince)

Howard Charitable Foundation
conservativetransparency.org/recipient/the-…

2/ Howard Charitable Foundation is run by Alan Howard, who also heads Brevan Howard Asset Management.

Brevan Howard has performed poorly lately. Maybe some friends in China can help them out? Erik Prince's company is owned by the Chinese gov't after all.
ft.com/content/b49d54…

3/ January 2015:

Alan Howard spent $33 million on a penthouse at Trump International Hotel & Tower on Central Park West.

He paid nearly $12 million more than the pad's former owners forked out at the height of the real estate bubble in 2007.

"Weird"
nydailynews.com/life-style/rea…

4/ Then in October 2015 we see this ...

"Len Blavatnik, who is worth $21.3 billion, founded Access and is Alan Faena’s business partner on the exclusive 18-story tower in Miami Beach."

"British billionaire Alan Howard paid $14.5 million for unit 4A."
therealdeal.com/miami/2015/11/…

5/ But who's Len Blavatnik again?

"During the 2015-2016 election season, Ukrainian-born billionaire Leonard 'Len' Blavatnik contributed $6.35 million to leading Republican candidates and incumbent senators."

Business partners with Oleg Deripaska too.
dallasnews.com/opinion/commen…

6/ The Trump Inaugural Committee also took $1 million from Access Industries, which is owned by pro-Putin oligarch Len Blavatnik.

Trump's inauguration was run by Trump & Manafort's friend/business partner, Tom Barrack. Rick Gates worked on it too.
qz.com/963801/trumps-…

7/ Two senior Trump administration officials were once registered as lobbyists for Len Blavatnik's company, Access Industries. One of the men, David Bernhardt, is the No. 2 official in Trump's Interior Department.

Makan Delrahim is the other.
news.vice.com/en_ca/article/…

8/ Neil Gorsuch first had official contact with Trump’s team on Dec. 2, 2016, when Leonard Leo, executive VP of the Federalist Society, reached out to him.

Gorsuch interviewed with Makan Delrahim, who was then deputy White House counsel.
politico.com/story/2017/02/…

9/ After Gorsuch's interview with Delrahim, Donald Trump and Don McGahn interviewed Gorsuch in Trump Tower.

Less than two weeks later, Neil Gorsuch was chosen as the nominee to be the next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. He was, of course, confirmed in early 2017.

10/ So, @emlas and I believe Leonard Leo is the key connection. Why?

The Federalist Society is run by Leo.

Judicial Crisis Network (JCN) pledged $10 million to get Gorsuch confirmed. Leo setup JCN fundraising which came primarily from the Koch brothers.
opensecrets.org/news/2017/03/w…

11/ The Federalist Society and The Heritage Foundation bring together a lot of money and a lot of instrumental figures in the Trump administration. What common theme brings them together lately?

Attacking @Comey, Robert Mueller and the @FBI. cc @FBIWFO

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12/ Follow the money.

"Some of the conservative think tanks the Mercer foundation supported in 2015—the Federalist Society & the Heritage Foundation among them—have helped supply key personnel & policy ideas to the Trump administration since his victory."
publicintegrity.org/2017/04/28/208…

13/ Even EPA head Scott Pruitt ties in!

"The attorney general’s office also paid for two trips Pruitt took to speak at events hosted by the Federalist Society, the conservative lawyers network. Pruitt traveled to speak at two more Federalist Society events in 2016, and he ..

14/ ... flew from Tulsa to Washington, D.C. for only a few hours in order to meet with the organization’s executive vice president, Leonard Leo."

There's Leonard Leo again tied to Koch, Mercer, DeVos/Prince & the Sarah Scaife Foundation money. The #CNP.
huffingtonpost.com/entry/scott-pr…

15/ So, since it all looks pretty damn related, I leave you with this piece ...

⚡️ “This is #WhoFundsTheFederalist. ” by @JamesFourM

twitter.com/i/moments/9884…

16/ CODA:

It's worth remembering Trump's fixer (lawyer) Michael Cohen tried to setup a Trump Tower Moscow deal. He was also a member of Trump's campaign early on (officially).

Cohen remains a deputy finance chair at the RNC, but there's also this ...
businessinsider.com.au/michael-cohen-…

17/ Which is significant because Len Blavatnik's donations to the RNC in 2017 helped pay for Donald Trump's legal fees in the Russia investigation.

Russia is a Mafia State. Putin is the mob. Blavatnik is the mob. Michael Cohen & Trump are subsidiaries.
haaretz.com/amp/us-news/kr…

18/ This week:

The US softened its position on sanctions against Russian metals giant UC Rusal, and the U.S. Treasury discussed a path for lifting the sanctions on Rusal if Oleg Deripaska relinquished control.

Softening sanctions is never good, but ...
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

19/ Whose group owns a 26.5% stake in UC RUSAL?

Viktor Vekselberg and his business partner Len Blavatnik's Zonoville of course!

Viktor Vekselberg's American cousin/business partner also donated $250k to Trump's inauguration.

#ThoseCoincidences again.
businesswire.com/news/home/2018…

20/ Last point. Len & Alex Blavatnik have donated over $300,000 to the campaign of Florida's Democratic gubernatorial candidate Philip Levine.

Trump has to go, but this didn't start w/him. It won't end with him unless we demand better from *both* parties. floridapolitics.com/archives/25503…