Epstein Secrets

et be a presidential game changer of the kind that everyone knew would surely come. Still, these were chemical weapons launched by a repeat offender, Bashar al-Assad. In any other presidency, such an atrocity would command a considered and, ideally, skillful response. Obama’s consideration had in fact been less th

ying international law, had used chemical weapons. There was video documenting the attack and substantial agreement among intelligence agencies about Assad’s responsibility. The politics were right: Barack Obama failed to act when confronted with a Syrian chemical attack, and now Trump could. The downsid

egated to find a crime would find one—likely many. Everybody became a potential agent of implicating others. Dominos would fall. Targets would flip. Paul Manafort, making a good living in international financial gray areas, his risk calculation based on the long-shot odds that an under-the-radar privateer would

e, The (TV show), 30, 76, 92, 109, 200 Arif, Tevfik, 100 Armey, Dick, 81 Arthur Andersen, 278 Art of the Deal, The (Trump and Schwartz), 22 Assad, Bashar al-, 183, 190 Atlantic City, 30, 99, 210 Atwater, Lee, 57 Australia, 78 Ayers, Nick, 240 Azerbaijan, 254 Bahrain, 231 Baier, Bret, 159-60 Bak

prentice, The (TV show), 30, 76, 92, 109, 200 Arif, Tevfik, 100 Armey, Dick, 81 Arthur Andersen, 278 Art of the Deal, The (Trump and Schwartz), 22 Assad, Bashar al-, 183, 190 Atlantic City, 30, 99, 210 Atwater, Lee, 57 Australia, 78 Ayers, Nick, 240 Azerbaijan, 254 Bahrain, 231 Baier, Bret, 159

would be gone. All this was part of the background to one of the most preposterous meetings in modern politics. On June 9, 2016, Don Jr., Jared, and Paul Manafort met with a movieworthy cast of dubious characters in Trump Tower after having been promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton. Don Jr., enco

Mike Pompeo meeting with Taliban delegation in Qatar in September 2020 Trump ordered missile strikes in April 2O17 and in April 2018 against the Assad regime in Syria, in retaliation for the Khan Shaykhun and Douma chemical attacks, respectively.[S9'1[392] In December 2018, Trump declared "we have

fforts "15541 The links between Trump associates and Russian officials were widely reported by the press.[55515561 One of Trump's campaign managers, Paul Manafort, worked from December 2004 to February 2010 to ..help pro-Russian politician Viktor Yanukovych win the Ukrainian presidency Other Trump associates,

ns like the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the Organization of American States, and to defend embattled allies like Syria's Bashar al-Assad. There is also growing replica- tion of what might be called authoritarian best practices, vividly on display in the new Chinese law on nongovernment

Republicans, including presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan. But by the time he became Donald Trump's campaign chairman in 2016, Manafort was best known for his work on behalf of foreign political leaders, including several with distinctly autocratic pedigrees: Ferdinand Marcos, the str

ly Right),” Quartz, January 15, 2015, http:// gqz.com/326487/putin-has-friends-on-europes-far-right-and-left-but-mostly-right/. 11. Amber Phillips, “Paul Manafort’s Complicated Ties to Ukraine, Explained,” Washington Post, August 19, 2016, https://www.washing- tonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/08/19/paul-manaforts