Trump Administration Admits It Cribbed Forbes Magazine to Create Oligarch List

[deminks]

https://www.buzzfeed.com/johnhudson/trump-administration-admits-it-cribbed-forbes-magazine-to?utm_term=.ouP20YDa3#.hqEXnrJj4

The revelation is likely to invite criticism that a congressionally-mandated list designed to punish Russia for interfering in the US election was not completed in good faith.

The striking similarity between a newly-released Treasury Department report of Russian oligarchs and a 2017 list of wealthy Russians published in Forbes Magazine is no coincidence.

On Tuesday, a Treasury Department spokesperson confirmed to BuzzFeed News that the unclassified annex of the report was derived from Forbes’ ranking of the “200 richest businessmen in Russia 2017.”

The revelation is likely to invite criticisms of the thoroughness of the Treasury Department’s report and reinforce the notion that the list is primarily a who’s who of Russian elite rather than an official accounting of Kremlin-linked political corruption as some US lawmakers intended.

Congress mandated the report in a law President Trump grudgingly signed in August. At the time, the president called the legislation “seriously flawed.”

(snip)

Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the Federation Council’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, said it appeared that the US administration “simply copied the Kremlin’s phonebook.” Putin, meanwhile, called the list an “unfriendly act,” but downplayed any need to retaliate.

(end snip)

I smell more collusion.

Collusion to ignore the sanctions enacted by Congress.

[procon]

1. Incompetent amateurs.

Trump has sworn to faithfully execute the laws of this great nation, but he isn't serious about sanctioning Russia. This list of Oligarchs stolen from a magazine isn't a substitute for the legislation ordering Russian sanctions passed by congress. Maybe Forbes is flattered, but they also point out that they never intended that list to be accurate. Yet it was good enough for Trump's stupid staff to do a C&P from the internet and put it out as an official government document without any vetting or fact checking.