(Final Part)

Last week, I published part 1 of my article describing the efforts of a Black American group’s plans to lobby for Trump’s reelection with the financial support of wealthy Turkish businessmen who would invest billions of dollars in the United States. One of these businessmen was Ali Akat.

During his visit to the U.S., Akat met with XStrategies CEO Alexander Bruesewitz at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, discussing Turkey’s intent to invest $12 billion in the U.S. and create 25,000 jobs. Akat was photographed at the U.S. Capitol with three Republican congressmen, Joe Wilson of South Carolina, Pete Sessions of Texas and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania. He also met with billionaire Tom Barrack and Lara Trump at the Trump International Hotel.

Salon.com reported that Akat told the Turkish press that “Scott took him to Republican National Committee headquarters, where he was photographed giving an address, and the White House. Here is a rough translation of the relevant passage: ‘During the meetings with Darrell Scott, he supported the project warmly. He forwarded our project to Donald J. Trump, his colleagues and family. He took me to the Republican headquarters first. I had the opportunity to explain the project there, and it was liked by everyone. Then he took me to the White House, based on the seriousness of the matter. We had contacts in the White House. We had meetings with Donald J. Trump’s special assistants and assistants Andrew Giuliani, Clayon T. Henson, Ronny L. Jackson, Jennifer S. Korn and Alexandra E. Veletsis.’”

“The Turkish article included a photograph of Akat and Darrell Scott reviewing a thick binder together in a conference room at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next door to the White House, according to people familiar with the building. The building hosts most of the White House staff,” according to Salon.com.

“Akat told a Turkish-American [news] outlet that 15 Turkish companies were ready to push ahead with business in the U.S. Around this time, Darrell Scott publicized his trips aboard Air Force One and White House visits in his URC capacity, as he and URC[Urban Revitalization Coalition] co-chair Kareem Lanier worked directly with Trump and advisers including Jared Kushner (whom Scott calls ‘J-Rock’ ) on what would become the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council, effected in an executive order that December. Scott’s visits included his evening watching the midterm election returns with Trump in the White House,” Salon.com reported. “The day before Scott and Trump watched the election, Trump exempted Turkey from energy sanctions that his administration had slapped on Iran in November. This was sharply criticized by some U.S. officials, who saw the move as capitulation to Erdogan’s strong-arm tactics — especially as negotiations related to Halkbank, a Turkish financial institution that is now under federal investigation for evading Iranian sanctions.”

Salon.com reported: “On the same day Trump gave Turkey a pass on sanctions, Ferhan Ademhan — a wealthy Turkish industrialist and investor who also has ties to Akat, as well as to [Turksih writer Rabia] Kazan and, through her, Trump campaign surrogate and Pence ally Martha Boneta — posted on Facebook: ‘America has released 8 countries [from the sanctions] it applied to Iran. Our country has been released as well. We have been rid of this burden on behalf of our country.’ A few weeks later, Akat was back at the president’s Washington hotel, posting photos of Trump and Giuliani as well as gifts from the White House.”

“On Dec. 12, Trump signed an executive order establishing the White House Urban Revitalization and Opportunity Council. The order appends ‘opportunity zone’ development to nearly every paragraph. Darrell Scott was present at the signing, and Trump singled him out for praise. That day, the National Diversity Council — a group founded by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, where Scott and Lanier served as senior officials and Kazan sat on the advisory board — posted the news on Twitter, pointing out the irony that Cohen had been sentenced to prison the same day: ‘URGENT President Trump IMPORTANT Speech Signs Exec Order amid Cohen Sentenced 3 Years in Prison https://youtu.be/LRZviaXbHOI,’” Salon.com reported.

A few weeks after Cohen’s offices and homes were raided by the FBI, confiscating phones and computers, National Diversity Council (NDC) director Bruce Levell, who Kazan says had shaken her down for $1,000, expressed concern to Kazan in a text message, obtained by Salon: “Trust me. Don’t talk to anybody about NDCTrump. Delete. Cohen under fire. Thanks.”

“On Dec. 23, after the Opportunity and Revitalization Council had been officially created, Trump tweeted about ‘discussing heavily expanded Trade’ with Erdogan….  Two days later, the Daily Sabah — which is owned by Erdogan’s son-in-law — published another interview with Akat, indicating that the trade talks had advanced. He pegged the prospective economic package at $1 billion. The article, published on Christmas Day, was headlined, ‘Turkish-American bilateral trade expected to soar next year,’” according to Salon.com. “The following month Trump tweeted about trade policy with Turkey again…: ‘Also spoke about economic development between the U.S. & Turkey — great potential to substantially expand!’”

Salon.com concluded that “This effort — backed by Scott and Lanier at the URC, among others —  would have entailed changes in U.S. trade policy to give Turkish manufacturing companies priorities in the United States, seemingly contradicting Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda.”

According to experts from “CREW [Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics], the Campaign Legal Center and OpenSecrets told Salon that on its face this initiative would raise concerns about possible violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which requires Americans who lobby on behalf of foreign interests to register with the government.”

Salon.com reported that “The URC might also face tax law liabilities. At one point the group was a tax-exempt 501c (3) nonprofit, which can accept donations, including from foreign nationals, without having to disclose sources. But because the URC apparently never filed a tax return, the IRS automatically revoked its tax-exempt status this May.”

This is a bizarre tale of a couple of individuals doing the bidding of the Trump campaign to make the President look good in front of Black Americans, while claiming to attract investments from Turkish sources to poor Black community areas. Their efforts need to be further investigated by the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service.

(Part I)

 The Salon.com website published on September 4 and 5, 2020, a lengthy two-part expose of a Black American group that tried to raise funds from Turkish businesses in support of President Trump’s reelection. The articles were titled, “How a pro-Trump Black group became an off-the-books Turkish lobbying campaign: A Salon investigation reveals a strange tale of Black Trump surrogates who tried to leverage Turkish billions,” and “The Turkey hustle: How a pro-Trump Black group became unofficial lobbyists for Erdogan: A sketchy nonprofit linked to the Trump campaign tried to orchestrate a massive trade deal.” The articles were written by Roger Sollenberger and Kathleen O’Neill.

Salon.com reported that “In 2018, officials with a controversial pro-Trump nonprofit called the Urban Revitalization Coalition (URC) — which recently lost its tax-exempt charity status and made headlines earlier this year with suspicious cash giveaways to Black voters — facilitated an off-the-books foreign influence campaign on behalf of powerful people in Turkey.”

“URC officials Darrell Scott and Kareem Lanier, both prominent Trump surrogates in the Black community, are said by multiple sources to have used the organization as a vehicle to ‘solicit donations,’ including from wealthy Turkish nationals. Some of these solicitations came by way of former MAGA-world star [Turkish writer] Rabia Kazan,” according to Salon.com.

Furthermore, “an associate of Scott and Lanier named Bruce Levell, a Trump surrogate, former congressional candidate and Small Business Association advocate…allegedly shook down Kazan for cash, then asked her to destroy records after reports of government raids on former Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s home and offices,” Salon.com reported.

These Black American efforts were intended to shape U.S. policy expecting a large investment in the United States by Turkish businessmen. According to Salon.com, “some of these activities, described in detail below, raise serious legal questions, such as violations of rules governing tax and lobbying law, experts tell Salon. Legal experts and people familiar with the URC told Salon that given these activities, the organization appears to have functioned as a shell lobbying and fundraising operation, and a go-between that communicated with both the Trump administration (and Trump campaign) and Turkish interests close to Erdogan. This is a story about how peripheral players, including foreign nationals, worked on the legal margins of lobbying, campaign and foreign agent laws amid the chaotic free-for-all of the Trump presidency. They blurred official and unofficial administration posts with other organizational and campaign roles, and obscured the source and usage of funds from both the public and government agencies such as the IRS and Federal Elections Commission.”

It all started in 2018, when “URC officials first curried financial favors and investments from Turkish business representatives in connection with an economic initiative launched by the Trump administration,” according to Salon.com. “Turkish business emissaries secured meetings in New York and Washington that extended to Trump officials, Republican members of Congress and campaign surrogates such as Tom Barrack [billionaire and close friend of Pres. Trump], and Lara Trump [the president’s daughter-in-law and Trump campaign adviser].”

This multi-billion dollar scheme was intended to open the American manufacturing market to Turkish companies. “The fact that these meetings were apparently geared towards influencing official U.S. policy, experts say, raises questions about whether those involved should have registered with the Department of Justice as foreign agents,” Salon.com reported.

“The URC made headlines when it held campaign-tinged events with cash giveaways for Black voters in poor communities, including a $25,000 raffle last December — something the organization had told the IRS it wouldn’t do. Politico described the raffles as a nationwide strategy of holding events ‘in Black communities where they lavish praise on the president while handing out thousands of dollars in giveaways,’” according to Salon.com.

“Multiple people familiar with the workings of the URC told Salon that it was clear that Scott and Lanier established the organization to do what they had frequently told Rabia Kazan they were prevented from doing within Michael Cohen’s politically-focused predecessor organization, the National Diversity Coalition, which was effectively an arm of the Trump campaign. That is, to take in money. There’s documentary evidence that the URC sought and received large sums of money in at least one instance. It received a $238,000 grant from America First Policies, a pro-Trump dark money organization affiliated with the super PAC America First Action. The URC received the grant in 2018, a few months after directing Kazan to seek financial contributions. Because the URC never filed a tax return, however, it is impossible to know how much money the group took in or how that money was spent,” Salon.com reported.

Turkish businessman Ali Akat, “who met several times with Scott and Lanier, was supposedly discussing a comprehensive, multi-billion-dollar investment plan that would open opportunities for Turkish companies to gain manufacturing and packaging footholds by investing and building factories in Opportunity Zones,” according to Salon.com. “The plan would have taken advantage of a loophole in U.S. tariffs. Akat told Turkish media that Turkish business owners could evade high duties if they exported unfinished products to the U.S., where those products would be assembled and packaged, ideally by Turkish companies in Opportunity Zones.” (To be continued next week)

John Bolton, Pres. Trump’s former National Security Adviser, published a fascinating book on his work at the White House from April 2018 to September 2019. His revealing book, “The Room Where it Happened: A White House Memoir,” shows why Pres. Trump is unfit for office and incompetent. Bolton emphasized repeatedly that everything Trump did was either to secure his reelection or for his own self-interest, contrary to the interests of the country. 

Today we will focus solely on Trump’s unholy relationship with the dictator of Turkey, Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom Pres. Trump calls “The Sultan.” Turkey is mentioned 135 times in Bolton’s 570-page book. Erdogan is mentioned 95 times. This shows the importance the White House places on Turkey and Erdogan, Pres. Trump’s “close friend.” Surprisingly, neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan is mentioned in the book even though Bolton made a trip to both countries during his tenure.

In “The Room Where It Happened,” Bolton compares Erdogan’s tone on a phone call with Trump to “Mussolini speaking from his Rome balcony,” describing the Turkish leader as a “radical Islamicist.”

Erdogan, during his multiple visits to the White House and 20 phone calls with Pres. Trump, repeatedly raised the following three priority demands from Trump

1) The release of Turkish businessman Reza Zarrab from arrest in the United States by appealing to Pres. Trump to drop the charges against him. Zarrab, with Erdogan’s blessing, had laundered $20 billion to Iran through the Turkish government-owned Halkbank to circumvent the U.S. sanctions on Iran;

2) The extradition from the United States to Turkey of Fethullah Gulen, the Turkish cleric, who after his close alliance with Erdogan, split with him and became the Turkish President’s enemy number one. Erdogan falsely accused Gulen of leading the Turkish coup attempt in 2016.

3) The acquiescence of Trump to withdraw US troops from Northern Syria, allowing Turkey to invade that area and eliminate the Kurdish population’s presence inside the Syrian border.

Bolton related in his book that during the G20 summit meeting in Argentina on Dec. 1, 2018, Erdogan gave Trump a memo requesting that Zarrab be freed from U.S. jail. According to Bolton’s book, Trump told Erdogan that “he would take care of things, explaining that the Southern District [of New York] prosecutors were not his people, but were Obama people, a problem that would be fixed when they were replaced by his people.”

When Bolton was dispatched to Turkey to warn Erdogan that he should not invade Northern Syria, Bolton received a last minute phone call from Pres. Trump asking him to refrain from telling the Turkish President that the U.S. troops will not withdraw from Northern Syria, even though most of the White House senior staff disagreed with the President’s decision.

Trump also violated U.S. laws and congressional demands by refusing to sanction Turkey, a NATO member, for purchasing Russian anti-aircraft S-400 missiles.

David Ignatius published an article in the Washington Post last week, titled, “Trump’s corrupt dealings with Turkey are some of the most startling stories in Bolton’s book.” Bolton recalls that he told Attorney General William P. Barr in April 2019 that Trump’s repeated efforts to help Erdogan showed his “penchant to, in effect, give personal favors to dictators he liked.” Ignatius described Trump’s corrupt dealings with Trump as “the clearest, most continuous narrative of misconduct by Trump that has yet surfaced.”

Ignatius linked the Trump-Erdogan friendship to Trump’s “personal business interests. When he launched Trump Towers Istanbul in April 2012, his daughter Ivanka Trump tweeted thanks to Erdogan, the prime minister at the time, for attending. With them was a Turkish businessman named Mehmet Ali Yalcindag, whom Donald Trump described at the opening as a “great friend” of Ivanka. Kushner, her husband, was there, too.”

Trump was surrounded by a group of pro-Turkish staff, such as his first National Security Adviser Michael Flynn who was forced to register as a foreign agent after it was revealed that Flynn’s consulting firm was paid $500,000 from a Turkish businessman who headed the state-run Turkish business federation. Flynn’s task was to get Gulen extradited to Turkey.

Another pro-Turkish adviser was Rudolph W. Guliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, who contacted then U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara on Feb. 24, 2017, stating that he was traveling to Ankara as the representative of Zarrab. Guliani pressured the Justice Department for “some agreement between the United States and Turkey” for the release of Zarrab, according to Guliani’s statement filed in federal court. Trump fired Bharara in March 2017, but the case against Zarrab was continued by the new U.S. Attorney, Geoffrey Berman, who was also fired by Trump last week.

Not surprisingly, Erdogan was angered by Bolton’s revelations. Fahrettin Altun, the Turkish presidency’s communications director, said on Twitter:  “Recent publication of a book authored by a high-level former U.S. official includes misleading, one-sided and manipulative presentations of our leader President Erdogan’s conversations with the US President Donald Trump.”

Unfortunately, Bolton refused to testify in Congress during Pres. Trump’s Congressional Impeachment Hearings, even though it would not have made a difference. Just about all Republican Senators blindly follow Trump’s lead no matter how wrong he is. As Trump arrogantly proclaimed during the campaign, “I could stand in the middle of 5th Ave. and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.”