In U.S. President-Elect Donald J. Trump's own words......

The New York Times, 9 November 2016

On  8 November 2016 Donald J. Trump became president-elect of the United States of America by being first past the post in achieving over the required 270 Electoral College votes – achieving 279 to Clinton’s 228 votes.

In the popular vote by registered American voters Clinton gained 207,039 more votes than Trump.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/266038556504494082

Trump will be sworn in as President of the United States on 20 January 2017, a fixed date required by law.

Was Barack Hussein Obama the last president of the United States of America?

Have the American people swapped a democratically elected president for a democratically elected fascist despot?

I may not be the only person wondering…..

The New Yorker, 9 November 2016:

AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY  
David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker since 1998

The electorate has, in its plurality, decided to live in Trump’s world.

ILLUSTRATION BY OLIVER MUNDAY

The election of Donald Trump to the Presidency is nothing less than a tragedy for the American republic, a tragedy for the Constitution, and a triumph for the forces, at home and abroad, of nativism, authoritarianism, misogyny, and racism. Trump’s shocking victory, his ascension to the Presidency, is a sickening event in the history of the United States and liberal democracy. On January 20, 2017, we will bid farewell to the first African-American President—a man of integrity, dignity, and generous spirit—and witness the inauguration of a con who did little to spurn endorsement by forces of xenophobia and white supremacy. It is impossible to react to this moment with anything less than revulsion and profound anxiety.

There are, inevitably, miseries to come: an increasingly reactionary Supreme Court; an emboldened right-wing Congress; a President whose disdain for women and minorities, civil liberties and scientific fact, to say nothing of simple decency, has been repeatedly demonstrated. Trump is vulgarity unbounded, a knowledge-free national leader who will not only set markets tumbling but will strike fear into the hearts of the vulnerable, the weak, and, above all, the many varieties of Other whom he has so deeply insulted. The African-American Other. The Hispanic Other. The female Other. The Jewish and Muslim Other. The most hopeful way to look at this grievous event—and it’s a stretch—is that this election and the years to follow will be a test of the strength, or the fragility, of American institutions. It will be a test of our seriousness and resolve.

Early on Election Day, the polls held out cause for concern, but they provided sufficiently promising news for Democrats in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, and even Florida that there was every reason to think about celebrating the fulfillment of Seneca Falls, the election of the first woman to the White House. Potential victories in states like Georgia disappeared, little more than a week ago, with the F.B.I. director’s heedless and damaging letter to Congress about reopening his investigation and the reappearance of damaging buzzwords like “e-mails,” “Anthony Weiner,” and “fifteen-year-old girl.” But the odds were still with Hillary Clinton.

All along, Trump seemed like a twisted caricature of every rotten reflex of the radical right. That he has prevailed, that he has won this election, is a crushing blow to the spirit; it is an event that will likely cast the country into a period of economic, political, and social uncertainty that we cannot yet imagine. That the electorate has, in its plurality, decided to live in Trump’s world of vanity, hate, arrogance, untruth, and recklessness, his disdain for democratic norms, is a fact that will lead, inevitably, to all manner of national decline and suffering.

In the coming days, commentators will attempt to normalize this event. They will try to soothe their readers and viewers with thoughts about the “innate wisdom” and “essential decency” of the American people. They will downplay the virulence of the nationalism displayed, the cruel decision to elevate a man who rides in a gold-plated airliner but who has staked his claim with the populist rhetoric of blood and soil. George Orwell, the most fearless of commentators, was right to point out that public opinion is no more innately wise than humans are innately kind. People can behave foolishly, recklessly, self-destructively in the aggregate just as they can individually. Sometimes all they require is a leader of cunning, a demagogue who reads the waves of resentment and rides them to a popular victory. “The point is that the relative freedom which we enjoy depends of public opinion,” Orwell wrote in his essay “Freedom of the Park.” “The law is no protection. Governments make laws, but whether they are carried out, and how the police behave, depends on the general temper in the country. If large numbers of people are interested in freedom of speech, there will be freedom of speech, even if the law forbids it; if public opinion is sluggish, inconvenient minorities will be persecuted, even if laws exist to protect them.”

Trump ran his campaign sensing the feeling of dispossession and anxiety among millions of voters—white voters, in the main. And many of those voters—not all, but many—followed Trump because they saw that this slick performer, once a relative cipher when it came to politics, a marginal self-promoting buffoon in the jokescape of eighties and nineties New York, was more than willing to assume their resentments, their fury, their sense of a new world that conspired against their interests. That he was a billionaire of low repute did not dissuade them any more than pro-Brexit voters in Britain were dissuaded by the cynicism of Boris Johnson and so many others. The Democratic electorate might have taken comfort in the fact that the nation had recovered substantially, if unevenly, from the Great Recession in many ways—unemployment is down to 4.9 per cent—but it led them, it led us, to grossly underestimate reality. The Democratic electorate also believed that, with the election of an African-American President and the rise of marriage equality and other such markers, the culture wars were coming to a close. Trump began his campaign declaring Mexican immigrants to be “rapists”; he closed it with an anti-Semitic ad evoking “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”; his own behavior made a mockery of the dignity of women and women’s bodies. And, when criticized for any of it, he batted it all away as “political correctness.” Surely such a cruel and retrograde figure could succeed among some voters, but how could he win? Surely, Breitbart News, a site of vile conspiracies, could not become for millions a source of news and mainstream opinion. And yet Trump, who may have set out on his campaign merely as a branding exercise, sooner or later recognized that he could embody and manipulate these dark forces. The fact that “traditional” Republicans, from George H. W. Bush to Mitt Romney, announced their distaste for Trump only seemed to deepen his emotional support.

The commentators, in their attempt to normalize this tragedy, will also find ways to discount the bumbling and destructive behavior of the F.B.I., the malign interference of Russian intelligence, the free pass—the hours of uninterrupted, unmediated coverage of his rallies—provided to Trump by cable television, particularly in the early months of his campaign. We will be asked to count on the stability of American institutions, the tendency of even the most radical politicians to rein themselves in when admitted to office. Liberals will be admonished as smug, disconnected from suffering, as if so many Democratic voters were unacquainted with poverty, struggle, and misfortune. There is no reason to believe this palaver. There is no reason to believe that Trump and his band of associates—Chris Christie, Rudolph Giuliani, Mike Pence, and, yes, Paul Ryan—are in any mood to govern as Republicans within the traditional boundaries of decency. Trump was not elected on a platform of decency, fairness, moderation, compromise, and the rule of law; he was elected, in the main, on a platform of resentment. Fascism is not our future—it cannot be; we cannot allow it to be so—but this is surely the way fascism can begin.

Read the rest of the article here.

Trump and the uncanny resemblance to horror.......

Is this what it's like watching a fascist regime rise to power? — GQ Magazine (@GQMagazine).

These are strong words, but they are still true: Trump's campaign tactics model the political Hitler of 1932-33 — Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) 

These are strong words, but they are still true: Trump's campaign tactics model the political Hitler of 1932-33 pic.twitter.com/0Twbch6D87

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) November 6, 2016

STATEMENT BY FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY OFFICIALS

The undersigned individuals have all served in senior national security and/or foreign policy positions in Republican Administrations, from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush. We have worked directly on national security issues with these Republican Presidents and/or their principal advisers during wartime and other periods of crisis, through successes and failures. We know the personal qualities required of a President of the United States.

None of us will vote for Donald Trump.

From a foreign policy perspective, Donald Trump is not qualified to be President and Commander-in-Chief. Indeed, we are convinced that he would be a dangerous President and would put at risk our country’s national security and well-being.

Most fundamentally, Mr. Trump lacks the character, values, and experience to be President. He weakens U.S. moral authority as the leader of the free world. He appears to lack basic knowledge about and belief in the U.S. Constitution, U.S. laws, and U.S. institutions, including religious tolerance, freedom of the press, and an independent judiciary.

In addition, Mr. Trump has demonstrated repeatedly that he has little understanding of America’s vital national interests, its complex diplomatic challenges, its indispensable alliances, and the democratic values on which U.S. foreign policy must be based. At the same time, he persistently compliments our adversaries and threatens our allies and friends. Unlike previous Presidents who had limited experience in foreign affairs, Mr. Trump has shown no interest in educating himself. He continues to display an alarming ignorance of basic facts of contemporary international politics. Despite his lack of knowledge, Mr. Trump claims that he understands foreign affairs and “knows more about ISIS than the generals do.”

Mr. Trump lacks the temperament to be President. In our experience, a President must be willing to listen to his advisers and department heads; must encourage consideration of conflicting views; and must acknowledge errors and learn from them. A President must be disciplined, control emotions, and act only after reflection and careful deliberation. A President must maintain cordial relationships with leaders of countries of different backgrounds and must have their respect and trust.

In our judgment, Mr. Trump has none of these critical qualities. He is unable or unwilling to separate truth from falsehood. He does not encourage conflicting views. He lacks self-control and acts impetuously. He cannot tolerate personal criticism. He has alarmed our closest allies with his erratic behavior. All of these are dangerous qualities in an individual who aspires to be President and Commander in-Chief, with command of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

We understand that many Americans are profoundly frustrated with the federal government and its inability to solve pressing domestic and international problems. We also know that many have doubts about Hillary Clinton, as do many of us. But Donald Trump is not the answer to America’s daunting challenges and to this crucial election. We are convinced that in the Oval Office, he would be the most reckless President in American history.

Donald B. Ayer Former Deputy Attorney General

John B. Bellinger III Former Legal Adviser to the Department of State; former Legal Adviser to the National Security Council, The White House

Robert Blackwill Former Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Planning, The White House

Michael Chertoff Former Secretary of Homeland Security; former Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, Department of Justice

Eliot A. Cohen Former Counselor of the Department of State

Eric Edelman Former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy; former National Security Advisor to the Vice President, The White House

Gary Edson Former Deputy National Security Advisor, The White House

Richard Falkenrath Former Deputy Homeland Security Advisor, The White House

Peter Feaver Former Senior Director for Strategic Planning, National Security Council, The White House

Richard Fontaine Former Associate Director for Near East Affairs, National Security Council, The White House

Jendayi Frazer Former Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs; former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs

Aaron Friedberg Former Deputy National Security Advisor to the Vice President, The White House

David Gordon Former Director of Policy Planning, Department of State

Michael Green Former Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Asia, National Security Council, The White House

Brian Gunderson Former Chief of Staff, Department of State

Paul Haenle Former Director for China and Taiwan, National Security Council, The White House

Michael Hayden Former Director, Central Intelligence Agency; former Director, National Security Agency

Carla A. Hills Former U.S. Trade Representative

John Hillen Former Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs

William Inboden Former Senior Director for Strategic Planning, National Security Council, The White House

Reuben Jeffery III Former Under Secretary of State for Economic Energy and Agricultural Affairs; former Special Assistant to the President for International Economic Affairs, National Security Council, The White House James Jeffrey Former Deputy National Security Advisor, The White House

Ted Kassinger Former Deputy Secretary of Commerce

David Kramer Former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor

James Langdon Former Chairman, President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, The White House

Peter Lichtenbaum Former Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration

Mary Beth Long Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs

Clay Lowery Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs; former Director for International Finance, National Security Council, The White House

Robert McCallum Former Associate Attorney General; former Ambassador to Australia

Richard Miles Former Director for North America, National Security Council, The White House

Andrew Natsios Former Administrator, U.S. Agency for International Development

John Negroponte Former Director of National Intelligence; former Deputy Secretary of State; former Deputy National Security Advisor

Meghan O’Sullivan Former Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan

Dan Price Former Deputy National Security Advisor

Tom Ridge Former Secretary of Homeland Security; former Assistant to the President for Homeland Security, The White House; former Governor of Pennsylvania

Nicholas Rostow Former Legal Adviser to the National Security Council, The White House

Kori Schake Former Director for Defense Strategy, National Security Council, The White House

Kristen Silverberg Former Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations

Stephen Slick Former Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Intelligence Programs, National Security Council, The White House

Shirin R. Tahir-Kheli Former Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Democracy, Human Rights and International Operations, National Security Council, The White House; former Ambassador and Senior Advisor for Women’s Empowerment, Department of State

William H. Taft IV Former Deputy Secretary of Defense; former Ambassador to NATO

Larry D. Thompson Former Deputy Attorney General

William Tobey Former Deputy Administrator, National Nuclear Security Administration, Department of Energy; former Director for Counter Proliferation Strategy, National Security Council, The White House

John Veroneau Former Deputy U.S. Trade Representative

Kenneth Wainstein Former Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, The White House; former Assistant Attorney General for National Security, Department of Justice

Matthew Waxman Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense; former Director for Contingency Planning and International Justice, National Security Council, The White House

Dov Zakheim Former Under Secretary of Defense

Roger Zakheim Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense

Philip Zelikow Former Counselor of the Department of State

Robert Zoellick Former U.S. Trade Representative; former Deputy Secretary of State

August 2016

Only days until American's go to the polls in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election and eyes turned towards Russia again

This was Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, on the campaign trail via Twitter 7 days out from polling day:

It's time for Trump to answer serious questions about his ties to Russia. https://t.co/D8oSmyVAR4 pic.twitter.com/07dRyEmPjX

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 31, 2016

This is the person who appears to have registered trump1.contact-client.com which is the server alleged to have possible links with the Russian-based Alfa Bank co-founded
by billionaire Mikhail Fridman:

Whois details for trump1.contact-client.com:

Website Title	Cendyn/ONE | Data Intelligence™ for Hotels and Resorts
Server Type	Server
Response Code	200
SEO Score	91%
Terms	193 (Unique: 133, Linked: 82)
Images	4 (Alt tags missing: 4)
Links	56   (Internal: 44, Outbound: 8)

Whois Record ( last updated on 2016-11-01 )

Domain Name: CONTACT-CLIENT.COM
Registry Domain ID: 123709352_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com
Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com
Update Date: 2011-07-18T04:28:07Z
Creation Date: 2004-06-29T14:41:05Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2021-06-28T14:41:05Z
Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC
Registrar IANA ID: 146
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@godaddy.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.4806242505
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited
Domain Status: clientRenewProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientRenewProhibited
Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientDeleteProhibited
Registry Registrant ID: Not Available From Registry
Registrant Name: Charles Deyo
Registrant Organization:
Registrant Street: 1515 N. Federal Hwy
Registrant City: Boca Raton
Registrant State/Province: Florida
Registrant Postal Code: 33432
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone:
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email: nocontactsfound@ecureserver.net
Registry Admin ID: Not Available From Registry
Admin Name: Charles Deyo
Admin Organization:
Admin Street: 1515 N. Federal Hwy
Admin City: Boca Raton
Admin State/Province: Florida
Admin Postal Code: 33432
Admin Country: US
Admin Phone: 561-555-3143
Admin Phone Ext:
Admin Fax:
Admin Fax Ext:
Admin Email: 
Registry Tech ID: Not Available From Registry
Tech Name: Charles Deyo
Tech Organization:
Tech Street: 1515 N. Federal Hwy
Tech City: Boca Raton
Tech State/Province: Florida
Tech Postal Code: 33432
Tech Country: US
Tech Phone: 561-555-3143
Tech Phone Ext:
Tech Fax:
Tech Fax Ext:
Tech Email: emcmullin@cendyn.com
Name Server: NS3.CDCSERVICES.COM
Name Server: NS2.CDCSERVICES.COM
Name Server: NS1.CDCSERVICES.COM

In 2007 Cendyn, an interactive marketing company focused on the hospitality industry, was selected.....as the Trump Organization’s exclusive interactive marketing agency. 

Alfa Bank has issued a denial:

01 November 2016

Alfa Bank says no connection between Alfa Bank and Trump and any suggestion to the contrary is false —

Earlier today in the US, Slate published an article titled - Was a Trump Server Communicating With Russia? Alfa Bank wishes to make clear that there is no connection between Alfa Bank and Donald Trump, the Trump campaign, or the Trump organization. Any suggestion to the contrary by this article is false.

Alfa Bank hired Mandiant, one of the world's foremost US cyber security experts, to investigate and it has found nothing to support the allegations. Mandiant found no substantive contact, email or financial link between Alfa Bank and the Trump Campaign or Organization during its investigation. Mandiant have conducted a deep dive and investigated Alfa Bank's IT systems both remotely and on the ground in Moscow and there was no evidence of notable contact between the alerted domain and Alfa Bank.

Neither Alfa Bank nor its principals, including Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, have or have had any contact with Mr. Trump or his organizations. Fridman and Aven have never met Mr. Trump nor have they or Alfa Bank had any business dealings with him. Neither Alfa Bank nor its officers have sent Mr. Trump or his organisation any emails, information or money. Alfa Bank does not have and has never had any special or exclusive internet connection with Mr. Trump or his entities. The assertion of a special or private link is patently false.

Mandiant has made clear to Alfa Bank that the information reporters gave us – given to them by an anonymous cyber group - is inconclusive and does not suggest an exclusive internet connection between Alfa Bank and Trump.

Mandiant's working hypothesis is that the activity the reporters' sources allege was caused by email marketing/spam campaign by a marketing server, which triggered security software. This activity may indeed have been initiated by someone for the purpose of discrediting parties to this traffic.

Commenting on these allegations Mandiant said Mandiant, a FireEye company, has been retained by Alfa Bank to investigate information given to them by various media. The information that has been presented is a list of dates, times, IP Addresses and Domain Names. The list appears to be a scanned copy of a printed log. There is no information which indicates where the list has come from. The list contains approx. 2800 look ups of a Domain Name over a period of 90 days. The information presented is inconclusive and is not evidence of substantive contact or a direct email or financial link between Alfa Bank and the Trump Campaign or Organization. The list presented does not contain enough information to show that there has been any actual activity opposed to simple DNS look ups, which can come from a variety of sources including anti-spam and other security software.

As part of the ongoing investigation, Alfa Bank has opened its IT systems to Mandiant, which has investigated both remotely and on the ground in Moscow. We are continuing our investigation. Nothing we have or have found alters our view as described above that there isn't evidence of substantive contact or a direct email or financial link between Alfa Bank and the Trump Campaign or Organization.

Founded in 1990, Alfa-Bank is one of the largest private banks in Russia, which offers a wide range of products and operates in all sectors of the financial market, including interbank, corporate and retail lending, deposits, payment and account services, foreign exchange operations, cash handling services, investment banking, and trade finance, as well as other ancillary services to corporate and retail customers.

According to its IFRS Consolidated Financial Statements as of 31 December 2015, the Alfa Banking Group, which comprises Joint Stock Company Alfa-Bank as well as its subsidiary financial companies, had total assets of $31.5 bn, gross loans of $21.7 bn, and total equity of $4.3 bn. Net profit after tax for 2015 amounted to $480 mln.

As of December 31, 2015 the Alfa Banking Group serves around 255,000 corporate customers and 13.6 mln individuals (including 1.9 mln individual customers of PJSC «Baltiyskiy Bank»), while the branch network consists of 745 offices across Russia and abroad, including a subsidiary bank in the Netherlands and financial subsidiaries in the United Kingdom and Cyprus.

However, apart from this unsubstantiated allegation, Donald Trump does appear to have longstanding ties with Russia according to The Washington Post on 27 July 2016:

6. On Wednesday morning, CBS's Norah O'Donnell asked Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort if Trump had "financial relationships with any Russian oligarchs." Manafort replied, "That's what he said, that's what I said. That's obviously what our position is."

7. The problem is that Donald Trump has in the past had obvious economic interests in Russia. The Washington Post outlined them in June.

8. A quote in that piece from Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr. — who is also an executive with Trump's business — makes clear how the company in 2008 sought business from wealthy Russians. "In terms of high-end product influx into the U.S., Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets," he said at a conference that year, according to news reports. "We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia."

9. The year prior, Trump said in a deposition that "Russia is one of the hottest places in the world for investment," and that he planned to "be in Moscow at some point."

10. Donald Jr. also described what it took to do business in the country. "Russia is just a different world," he reportedly said. "Though the legal structure is in place for what we have today, and even 99 percent is covered, that 1 percent not covered could be 100 percent covered over there because it is a question of who knows who, whose brother is paying off who, etc."

11. Our article also delineated a number of other known Trump business links to Russia, including:

* A 1987 trip to Moscow, then still part of the Soviet Union, to find a site for a luxury hotel.

* A 1996 effort to build a condominium complex in the country.

* A 2005 push to convert an old pencil factory into another Trump Tower.

* The 2008 sale of a mansion in Palm Beach to Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev.

* Partnering with Aras Agalarov, the "Trump of Russia," on a project in Moscow in 2013 that didn't come to fruition.

* Hosting the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow in 2013, when he still owned it, earning a cut of the money spent to lure it there — including some from Agalarov.

12. Part of the problem for Trump is that he seems to be unusually friendly with Putin.

Donald J. Trump 

✔@realDonaldTrump

Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow - if so, will he become my new best friend?

1:17 PM - 19 Jun 2013

13. As columnist Marcus Hawkins noted on Twitter, Trump has backed away from past assertions that he has a close relationship with Putin.

14. During a Republican debate in November, Trump said that "I got to know him very well because we were both on "60 Minutes," we were stablemates, and we did very well that night."

15. In an interview with a local station in Miami on Tuesday, Trump changed his story, as Hawkins notes. "I have nothing to do with Russia, nothing to do, I never met Putin, I have nothing to do with Russia whatsoever," he said. Asked if he had any outstanding loans from Russian banks or investors, Trump replied, "Absolutely not. It's ridiculous." It was advantageous in November to seem close to Putin; it is disadvantageous to be seen that way now.

Update: In 2014, Trump said he met Putin and that he spoke "directly and indirectly" with him.

16. Let's loop back to Trump's tweet about how he has "ZERO investments in Russia." He prefaced it with "for the record."

17. There are actual records that could prove his point, as Chris Cillizza pointed out on Tuesday: his tax records.

18. Trump has continually refused to release his tax records, saying that it's because some of them are being audited. A former IRS commissioner we spoke with said that this 1) wasn't prohibitive and that Trump could release the returns that are under audit if he wanted to and 2) he could easily release the older ones that aren't under audit. (Trump says he won't.)

19. Trump has used the lure of someday releasing his tax records as a way of deferring other questions. In May, he told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that he would reveal how much he paid in taxes only when he released his returns.

20. When Mitt Romney was under pressure to release his taxes in 2012, we'll note, Trump bragged about how he wouldn't hesitate to turn his own over. "I actually think that it's a great thing when you can show that you've been successful, and that you've made a lot of money, that you've employed a lot of people," he said. "I actually think that it's a positive."

21. On CBS on Wednesday, Manafort seemed to largely close the door on the records ever being released. "Mr. Trump has said that his taxes are under audit and he will not be releasing them," Manafort said.

Update: During a press conference a few hours later, Trump reverted to his old argument that he would release his taxes once the audit was done.

22. The burden of proof is on those like Will who claim that Trump may have financial links to interests in Russia — a burden that would be very hard to meet without the release of Trump's tax records or other documents detailing the income that Trump has reported.

23. From a political standpoint, that works to Trump's disadvantage, allowing his opponents to raise questions about something that can only be answered concretely by releasing documents he'd like to keep private…..

AP News, 3 November 2016:

Trump has been contradictory when describing his relationship with Putin. He told ABC in July that he had "no relationship with" with the Russian leader and had no recollection of ever meeting him. But several times in prior years, he'd stated the opposite.

"I do have a relationship with him," Trump said in one 2013 interview in Moscow.

The ABC interview in which Trump said he'd "never met" Putin directly contradicted a 2015 interview Trump did with talk-radio host Michael Savage.

Asked point-blank by Savage whether he'd ever met Putin, Trump responded: "Yes. One time, yes. Long time ago."

Throughout the campaign, Trump has repeatedly tapped top advisers with close ties to Russia. Among them: former campaign chair Paul Manafort.

Trump brought on Manafort in March. Manafort, a longtime Republican operative who'd spent recent years advising a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party before its ouster over alleged corruption, and his deputy Rick Gates took over functional control of managing the Trump campaign in June.

In August, The New York Times reported that a hand-written ledger of cash payments made by Ukraine's ousted government listed Manafort as being paid $12.7 million. Ukrainian prosecutors said the payments detailed in the ledger were an effort to obscure bribes.

A few days later, The Associated Press reported that Manafort and Gates had orchestrated a secret Ukrainian lobbying campaign in Washington. Participants said the men had sought to obscure the true backer of the work — Ukraine's pro-Russian ruling party — by routing lobbying funds through a nonprofit front group.

Manafort and Gates denied having been involved in the lobbying. But emails obtained by the AP explicitly showed Gates giving orders to the lobbyists.

Manafort departed the campaign the following day.

Perhaps a more telling concern about the fitness for office of Donald J Trump is the court case alleging rape of a 13 year-old girl which next comes before the court in December 2016.

Amended Complaint Filed 9/30/2016 by LawNewz on Scribd

https://www.scribd.com/document/326057027/Amended-Complaint-Filed-9-30-2016
https://www.scribd.com/document/326770514/Judge-Status-Conference-Order-Jane-Doe-V-Trump

Twitter takedown and court cases over the seas in Clinton & Trump Land

Lumen (formerly Chilling Effects) database record of a takedown request which saw a tweet removed and a Twitter account suspended:

DMCA Takedown Notice (Tweet)

SENDER

Kaj Eriksen Inc.

[Private], , ,Sent on October 23, 2016

RECIPIENT

Twitter

[Private]San Francisco, CA, 94103, US

Received on October 23, 2016

SUBMITTER

Twitter, Inc.

ALLEGEDLY INFRINGING URLS:

https://t.co/FaGCCC5x3X

https://twitter.com/liberalsexposed/status/790220186829791232

The Twitter hashtag timeline the offending tweet was posted in was probably #LiberalsExposed which is a thread focussing on the current U.S. presidential election.

JUSTIA Dockets and Filings:

Kittos v. Donald J. Trump For President, Inc. et al  [Former refugee sues Trump campaign]

Plaintiff David Kittos alleged that Defendants Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., Donald Trump, Sr., Donald Trump, Jr. and Michael Pence used an authorized copy of his photograph in a campaign advertisement in violation of the Copyright Act. Specifically, Defendant Donald Trump, Jr. tweeted the plaintiff's photograph with this accompanying text: "[i]f I had a bowl of skittles and I told you just three would kill you. Would you take a handful? That's our Syrian refugee problem."

Plaintiff: David Kittos

Defendant: Donald J. Trump For President, Inc., Michael Pence, Donald Trump, Jr., Donald Trump, Sr. and Does 1-10

Case Number: 1:2016cv09818

Filed: October 18, 2016

Court: Illinois Northern District Court

Office: Chicago Office

County: XX Outside US

Presiding Judge: Gary Feinerman

Nature of Suit: Copyright

Cause of Action: 17:501 Copyright Infringement

Jury Demanded By: Plaintiff

Benaissa v. Keep America Great Pac [Democrat PAC fundraiser being sued by US surgeon over allegations found in this August 2016 political media release]

Plaintiff: Rafik Benaissa

Defendant: Keep America Great Pac, Francesca Lucia, Jon Cooper, Nathan Lerner, Scott Dworkin, Chuck Westover and Jarad Geldner

Case Number: 1:2016cv07796

Filed: October 5, 2016

Court: New York Southern District Court

Office: Foley Square Office

County: NewYork

Presiding Judge: Gregory H. Woods

Nature of Suit: Assault, Libel, and Slander

Cause of Action: 28:1332

Jury Demanded By: Plaintiff

Doe v. Trump et al [Allegations of sexual assault of a child said to have occurred in 1994]

Defendant: Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey E. Epstein

Plaintiff: Jane Doe

Case Number: 1:2016cv07673

Filed: September 30, 2016

Court: New York Southern District Court

Office: Foley Square Office

County: XX Out of State

Presiding Judge: Ronnie Abrams

Nature of Suit: Assault, Libel, and Slander

Cause of Action: 28:1332

Jury Demanded By: Plaintiff

Peterson v. Clinton et al [Democrat PAC fundraiser and Hillary Clinton being sued]

Defendant: Hillary Rodham Clinton, DNC Services Corporation and USA

Plaintiff: Harold Peterson

Case Number: 1:2016cv00429

Filed: September 23, 2016

Court: New Hampshire District Court

Office: Concord Office

Presiding Judge: Joseph N. Laplante

Nature of Suit: Civil Rights: Other

Cause of Action: 28:2201 Declaratory Judgment

Jury Demanded By: None

Allister v. Rodham Clinton et al [Self-described “Aspiring President of The United States” sues 26 people/institutions (including presidential candidate Hillary Clinton) and goes down in flames on 13 December 2016]

Plaintiff: Sonja M. Allister

Defendant: Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, Benjamin Carson, Catherine Parrish Carpenter Andrews, Kevin Matthew Andrews, Emily McCormick, Bowdre George Longo, Roswell Police Department, C. T. Jackson, Shelby Sanford, Lynn Apt, Roswell Police Department Group, The City of Atlanta, Kasim Reed, Alpharetta Police Department, Peachtree City Police Department, Atlanta Police Department, East Point Police Department, College Park Police Department, Grady Memorial Hospital, Atlanta, GA, The City of Alpharetta, The City of Peachtree, The City of Roswell and The State of Georgia

Case Number: 1:2016cv03273

Filed: August 31, 2016

Court: Georgia Northern District Court

Office: Atlanta Office

County: Fulton

Presiding Judge: Richard W. Story

Nature of Suit: Other Civil Rights

Cause of Action: 42:1983

Jury Demanded By: None