Our coverage of Sater

Everything You Need to Know About Felix Sater

Who is Felix Sater? It is the question readers of mainstream media outlets have been asking themselves this week after it was revealed that the confidant of President Donald Trump played a role in trying to secure a business deal for the real estate mogul in Moscow.

WhoWhatWhy readers, on the other hand, know all about this Moscow-born “Senior Advisor” to Trump. In the most comprehensive article published anywhere on Sater, we pulled back the curtain on this con man-turned-FBI informant and how he links the president to shady figures in the former Soviet Union.

Significantly, we also underlined an inherent View article …

WWW Exclusive: Felix Sater Links Trump to Comey’s Replacement

President Donald Trump’s own words link the firing of James Comey as FBI director to the Bureau’s Russia probe. That move, however, might not have been well thought out because Andrew McCabe, Comey’s deputy and temporary replacement, could have unique firsthand knowledge of potential ties between Trump and organized crime in the former Soviet Union.

This creates an intriguing if complex and nuanced situation that could influence Trump as he decides whether to replace McCabe as interim director.

How this important but overlooked factor — discussed in no other reporting of the drama around the Comey firing, the search for an View article …

More About Felix Sater — the Problematical Friend Trump Forgot

Note to Readers: Our recent 6,500-word exclusive on Donald Trump and Russia was, admittedly, long. But based on the tremendous response, you liked it a lot. We still weren’t able to fit in everything important, so in the coming days we’ll be publishing supplementary pieces with noteworthy material and additional reporting and analysis. Here is one such piece.

WhoWhatWhy’s March 27 exclusive on Donald Trump, the FBI, Russia, and the mob focused on several key figures. One was Felix Sater, a Trump associate and prized FBI informant. We delved into his criminal past, his company, Bayrock, View article …

Why FBI Can’t Tell All on Trump, Russia

Reporters: Jonathan Z. Larsen is the former editor of The Village Voice, whose reporting team included the late Wayne Barrett and Robert I. Friedman. These people and the paper produced many of the important early investigative reports on Donald Trump and on the mob. Larsen is now a senior editor and board member of WhoWhatWhy. Russ Baker, a former investigative reporter for The Village Voice, is Editor-in-Chief of WhoWhatWhy. C. Collins is a WhoWhatWhy reporter.

UPDATES: Please see the following for more on this ever-unfolding mystery:

More About Felix Sater — The Problematical Friend Trump Forgot (4/5/2017)

View article …

Why FBI Can’t Tell All on Trump, Russia

As much as President Donald Trump would like to make the various investigations into Russia’s interference in the US election go away, it is still the biggest story of the year. WhoWhatWhy has done its part in advancing it by publishing several exclusives on the issue.

The biggest one was undoubtedly our bombshell article on whether the FBI’s Russia investigation was compromised because it could interfere with the Bureau’s objective of fighting organized crime originating in the former Soviet Union. Part of that story details Trump’s various ties View article …

Tell Us, Mr. Sater, About Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin

Felix Sater, a business associate of President Donald Trump and a key figure in his efforts to build one of Trump’s signature towers in Moscow, is scheduled to appear before the House Intelligence Committee Friday. His testimony will be held behind closed doors — which should suit Sater well.

WhoWhatWhy is one of the few news outlets that has shined a light on Sater, his shady associates, his Russia connections, and his role in the president’s business dealings.

Everything You Need to Know About Felix Sater

To learn more about Sater, you can listen to this podcast with WhoWhatWhy’s Editor-in-Chief Russ Baker and reporter Jonathan Larsen:

Behind-the-Scenes Interview on Exclusive Trump-Russia-FBI Story

Special counsel Robert View article …

More Federal Secrecy in Case of Trump Associate Felix Sater

A US judge on Monday unsealed a host of documents related to Felix Sater, a longtime business associate of President Donald Trump. These are documents that reporters have long sought to review to determine the nature of Trump’s ties with Sater, who has mob ties in both Russia and the US.

Based on a quick initial scan of the documents, they hint at a still untold story of great public interest. But with key sentences and paragraphs blacked out, they don’t seem to help us get much closer to understanding the web of relationships between Trump, Sater, the FBI, and View article …

Subpoena of Trump Organization Records Brings Mueller Closer to Sater, Cohen

News that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has subpoenaed Trump Organization records puts the president in a really tough spot with no good choices.

The move shows that Mueller clearly couldn’t care less about the “red line” President Donald Trump drew in July last year during an interview with the New York Times. The president was asked whether investigating his personal and family finances unrelated to Russia would be crossing a red line.

“I would say yes,” Trump said back then. But that is precisely what Mueller seems to be doing now. Such a move could View article …

Peter B. Collins, Russ Baker, Pat Thurston, Donald Trump

Everyone Wants to Talk #TrumpRussia

Our ex clusive on Donald Trump, Russia, the mob, and the FBI drew a lot of interest. Here are two more podcasts featuring our Editor-in-Chief, Russ Baker. Each offers a different exploration of the issues.

Listen to Russ Baker on KGO with Pat Thurston:

Listen to Russ Baker talking with Peter B. Collins:

Click HERE and HERE to Download Mp3

Pat Thurston KGO Interview – View article …

Government Must Tell if Trump Associate Had Russian Mob Ties

Several weeks ago, WhoWhatWhy published an investigative story on Donald Trump, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Russian mob. It addressed challenges the FBI faces in fully investigating and reporting to the public what it knows about Trump’s past and his relationships.

One of the figures in that story — and in a followup piece — is a former Trump business associate named Felix Sater. Our article pointed out that Sater, a man with a criminal past, had become a “cooperating witness” for the FBI and had been so while View article …

Russ Baker Talks with Comedians on Trump, Russian Mafia, and FBI

WhoWhatWhy’s Editor-in-Chief Russ Baker joins “serious comedians” Tim Dillon and Ray Crump in studio to discuss his recent groundbreaking article on Donald Trump, the Russian mob, and the FBI.

Featured prominently in the discussion is Felix Sater, a curious Trump associate whose business card claimed “Senior Advisor to Donald Trump”, yet in a deposition Trump claimed he wouldn’t recognize him if he was in the room.

It turns out that Sater, a convicted criminal with mob connections, had become an FBI informant inside a mob organization with roots in Russia and ties to Vladimir Putin.

What does it all mean? View article …

Who Is Michael Cohen?

President Donald Trump’s former in-house legal bulldog and top aide Michael Cohen has been on a rollercoaster ride the past couple of years. He started out by aggressively defending Trump, pumping his chest, and trying to clean up — or cover-up — the messes left by his former boss. Then he abruptly reversed himself in almost every respect, throwing himself at the mercy of prosecutors, even calling his old boss to task and saying he was voting Democratic in the last election.

On Thursday, he pled guilty to lying to Congress about Trump’s View article …

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