Background Briefing: August 8, 2018

On By gram

 

New US Sanctions on Russia for the Use of a WMD

 

The Growing Similarity Between Putin’s Kleptocracy and Trump’s America

Then, with the Manafort trial underway revealing exorbitant corruption and Trump’s former campaign manager’s shadowy ties to kleptocrats and oligarchs, we will speak with Diana Pilipenko, the associate director for anti-corruption and illicit finance at the Center for American Progress who previously managed corporate investigations and analysis at the Big Four accounting firm of Deloitte. She joins us to discuss the growing similarity between the kleptocracy Putin oversees in Russia and our current government as we learn today that the first congressman to support Trump was charged with insider trading and from Forbes magazine that Trump’s Secretary of Commerce stole $120 million from a business partner and quietly settled the matter before joining the Trump Administration.

 

Turkey and the US on a Collision Course

Then finally we speak with an expert on Turkey, Max Hoffman, Associate Director for National Security and International Policy at the Center for American Progress who joins us to discuss the collision course that has U.S. – Turkey relations heading for a showdown with two autocratic leaders Trump and Erdogan butting heads and unlikely to back down. We examine why there has been little effort by the Trump Administration to free three Turkish nationals who worked for the State Department but because of Vice President Pence’s ties to the evangelical community, the release of an imprisoned American fundamentalist pastor has become at top priority.