Katie Zavadski
@katiezavadski
THREAD: So what happened here? I'll recap the timeline. It starts in Turkey, way back in 2013, when Reza Zarrab was arrested and gold bars were found on his plane.
Turkish prosecutors launched an investigation, found widespread corruption: Bribes to top Turkish ministers. Erdogan + son allegedly hiding cash.
But Erdogan & co crushed the investigation. Erdogan became president. The corruption probe was slammed as a Gulenist plot.
Then, for some v. strange reason, Zarrab came to Disney World with his family in March 2016. He probably should've known better. He was arrested.
No one in the U.S. really noticed, but Erdogan did. He was pissed. He repeatedly asked for Zarrab's freedom.
www.thedailybeast.com/did-the-feds-flip-turkish-businessman-reza-zarraband-could-he-bring-down-michael-flynn
Atilla, for some equally strange reason, came to the U.S. the following March. Also arrested.
IT GOT STRANGER. This spring, Zarrab hired—in addition to his many and v. expensive private trial lawyers—Rudy Giuliani and Michael Mukasey to talk his way into a diplomatic resolution between the Trump and Erdogan administrations.
www.thedailybeast.com/rudy-giuliani-called-iran-insane-now-hes-trying-to-free-an-alleged-sanctions-crook
Now, this may be my personal favorite twist, at least until the last few weeks. Giuliani, who fearmongered about Iran, took a lot of $$$ to try to get off a guy who violated sanctions.
Judge Berman called bullshit, said Giuliani was "disingenuous."
www.thedailybeast.com/judge-rips-disingenuous-rudy-giuliani-in-iran-sanctions-case
But then it got weirder still. Reza Zarrab's legal team, led by Ben Brafman, stopped showing up and filing motions in the case, fueling speculation that he'd flipped + was now cooperating w American prosecutors. For Atilla, a small fish? Nah—Maybe 4 Flynn.
If that weren't enough proof that Zarrab was cooperating, IMO---- Brafman took on Harvey Weinstein as a client just as trial was supposed to start. 😝😝😝 Unlikely he'd do that if he were heading into a 9-5 six-week trial. (Or however long this would last.)
And then—BOOM—Reza Zarrab was checked out of a federal prison in early November. Probably holed up at a hotel with Feds. U.S. Attorney's office insisted he was "still in federal custody." His Turkish lawyers told em they didn't know where he was.
This came amid revelations that maybe Robert Mueller was investigating whether Michael Flynn talked about taking $15 million to #FreeReza and kidnap Fethullah Gulen.
I don't know what light, if any, Zarrab can shed on that talk. But maybe something.
And then, boom: The NYT reported last week that Michael Flynn's lawyers tore up their joint defense agreement with Team Trump. As Barbara McQuade wrote for @thedailybeast, that can be a BFD:
www.thedailybeast.com/if-michael-flynn-is-cooperating-with-robert-mueller-then-case-against-donald-trump-gets-much-more-serious
And then finally, yesterday, Flynn's lawyer paid a visit to Mueller. Are they talking plea deal? IDK. But Zarrab will testify soon, and I'm looking forward to hearing what non-Atilla things he might have to say, bc you know defense is gonna probe plea:
www.thedailybeast.com/turkish-businessman-reza-zarrab-pleads-guilty-with-possible-implications-for-michael-flynn
In court, prosecutors tried to paint Atilla, not Zarrab, as the mastermind of sanctions cheat plot.
"This is a case of lies. Lies told to the United States by people doing the bidding of the Islamic Republic of Iran," they said.
YAWN. How quickly their language changes.
But they did do a good job breaking down the cash-for-gold-for-oil plot down in less than an hour. A complex sanctions-busting case transformed into Zarrab as frontman for Iran, and cash bribes being stored in shoeboxes and given to bank bosses and government ministers.
And on the Reza Zarrab note:
Merhaba tüm yeni Türk arkadaşlarım. Bu oldukca ilginç bir dava. Fikirlerinizi email veya DM yoluyla gönderin lutfen. (tercume için annem ve Ebru'ya teşekkürler.)
Translated from Turkish by Bing
@thedailybeast And on the Reza Zarrab House Lanscape note: Hello to all new Turkish friends. This is quite an interesting case. Send via email or DM your ideas please. (thanks to my mom for assembler and Ebru.)