Boris Epshteyn, a veteran Trump aide, was investigated by attorneys for Donald Trump over allegations he was attempting to benefit financially from his close access to the President-elect, according to CNN, which cited multiple sources for its reporting.

CNN’s Sarah Murray reports (video below) the investigation “is an indication of how seriously some around Trump took these allegations that Boris Epshteyn was trying to charge people, essentially, for access to Trump and those in his orbit.”

The investigation was internal, not criminal, and came amid allegations that Epshteyn, an attorney who served on Trump’s first two campaigns and in the Trump White House, had attempted to charge, in one instance, a potential candidate as much as $100,000 a month for “services.”

The allegations, according to CNN, included “multiple instances of Epshteyn allegedly requesting payment in exchange for promoting candidates for administration positions or offering to connect individuals with people in the upcoming administration relevant to their industries, sources said.”

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Epshteyn, CNN adds, also lobbied Trump to name former U.S. Congressman Matt Gaetz as his Attorney General nominee. Trump did, but Gaetz ultimately withdrew after it became clear the instigation into his alleged actions, including possible sex trafficking of a minor and sex with a minor, would likely make it difficult for even Republican Senators to vote to confirm him.

One of the allegations against Epshteyn included a claim that he had sought financial compensation from Scott Bessent, Trump’s nominee for U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, “to promote his name with Trump and others at Mar-a-Lago.” Bessent reportedly did not pay Epshteyn.

“The back-and-forth between Epshteyn and Bessent resulted in a heated confrontation last week in the lobby of Mar-a-Lago, where Epshteyn raised his voice at Bessent, according to two sources briefed on the matter,” CNN reported. “In at least one other instance, Epshteyn asked for payment in exchange for introductions and influence with the incoming Trump administration, according to two sources.”

CNN adds that “one person who spoke to the legal team that investigated Epshteyn” said, “The way I see it is it’s very much a pay-for-play.”

“This person described a separate incident in which Epshteyn allegedly tried to request payment for questionable consulting services, offering to connect the person with incoming administration officials relevant to their industry or lobbying firms that will be the most well-connected to the new administration,” according to CNN. “The investigator assured the person that their interaction with Epshteyn wasn’t an isolated incident.

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One person who spoke to Trump investigators said Epshteyn had “gone to everybody for it,” while another “brushed off the notion that this was pay-for-play.”

“This is how Washington works,” they said.

According to CNN, the investigators made an “initial recommendation that Epshteyn should be removed from Trump’s proximity and that he should not be employed or paid by Trump entities, according to two sources.” But, as of Monday afternoon, “it does not appear the transition team will heed that recommendation.”

Epshteyn, 43, is an American born in Russia. A Republican, he has a law degree from Georgetown Law, where he met Eric Trump. Politico reported the “two remained friends, with Epshteyn attending Trump’s 2014 Mar-a-Lago wedding. When Trump’s father launched his 2016 campaign, Epshteyn took on the role of emissary to traditional media.”

He also worked on rapid response issues for the Palin portion of the 2008 McCain-Palin presidential campaign.

In September of 2016, Media Matters reported that Epshteyn had “financial ties” to the former Soviet Union.

“Media outlets have been hosting Donald Trump senior adviser Boris Epshteyn, who has used the platform to defend Russian President Vladimir Putin from criticism and to claim that the Clintons, not Trump, have ‘been way too cozy with the Russians.’ Outlets have failed to disclose during discussions about Russia that Epshteyn has financial ties to the former Soviet Union, which include consulting for ‘entities doing business in Eastern Europe’ and moderating a Russian-sponsored conference on ‘investment opportunities in Moscow.'”

Epshteyn was indicted this year over his alleged role in a fake electors scheme in Arizona.

Last month, The New York Times reported Epshteyn was part of a group of Trump advisers who proposed that if Trump were elected, “he bypass traditional background checks by law enforcement officials and immediately grant security clearances to a large number of his appointees after being sworn in, according to three people briefed on the matter.”

Watch CNN’s report below or at this link.

Murray: We’re learning that lawyers for Trump have been investigating whether Boris Epshteyn sought to gain financially from his access to Donald Trump and others in Trump’s orbit.. pic.twitter.com/bKQbQd9zqm

— Acyn (@Acyn) November 25, 2024

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Tulsi Gabbard, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Director of National Intelligence, would, if confirmed by the U.S. Senate, oversee the entire U.S. Intelligence Community, encompassing all 18 agencies. Like many of Trump’s nominees, Gabbard, a controversial former Democratic Congresswoman and failed presidential candidate turned ultra-MAGA Republican who, as Mother Jones reports, has numerous political action committees (PACs).

“It’s uncommon for a politician to have three or four separate PACs, though they can be used for different purposes,” political scientist and campaign finance expert Sarah Bryner told Mother Jones. “The most common number is one. Generally the more you have is because of obfuscation. It confuses people.”

Mother Jones’s D.C. Bureau Chief David Corn, writes: “If Gabbard reaches a Senate confirmation hearing, there will be much for the senators to grill her on, especially her sympathetic views regarding Putin and Russia and her support for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, as well as her efforts to help Edward Snowden and Julian Assange, who each exposed top-secret information that caused damage for the intelligence community.”

“A key question will be whether someone as excessively partisan as Gabbard can be a fair-minded and even-handed overseer of the intelligence agencies, the intelligence they produce, and the covert actions they mount. Senate Intelligence Committee investigators should be sure to examine the network of organizations she has built and the flow of money in and out of her nonprofit. There are few jobs in the federal government as important as managing the sprawling US intelligence community. With no direct intelligence experience, Gabbard deserves scrutiny of all matters that can shed light on her fitness for this post,” Corn warns.

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Former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton called Gabbard “the worst cabinet-level appointment in history,” and told CNN (video below) it is “an absolute necessity” Gabbard and all of Trump’s nominees have a full FBI background check.

According to Mother Jones, Gabbard’s PACs include Defend Freedom, Inc., which is “is one of a network of organizations Gabbard has assembled in recent years.”

Gabbard also has a Super PAC called For Love of Country, Inc., which “described itself as ‘Tulsi’s vehicle for messaging in the 2024 election, including a national ad campaign to communicate with middle-of-the-road voters, disenfranchised Democrats, and undecided Independents.’ It claimed, ‘For Love of Country PAC will use traditional and disruptive methods to blend the tried-and-true approach with innovation to reach otherwise unlikely voting demographics.'”

“It looks as if this PAC funded by pro-Trump Republican money-bags mostly existed to cover the costs of Gabbard’s political team,” Corn writes.

There is another PAC, Our Freedom, Our Future, and still another, Team Tulsi, along with a nonprofit, We Must Protect.

“Tens of thousands of people,” Mother Jones reports, contributed to Gabbard’s Defend Freedom PAC. “Through mid-October it raised $1.9 million, including a $16,552 transfer from another Gabbard PAC called Team Tulsi.”

But, out of “all the money it pulled in, Defend Freedom, Inc. devoted only $20,000 to contributions for a small number of candidates, all far-right MAGA-ish Republicans: US Senate candidates Kari Lake and Tim Sheehy, and US House contenders Joe Kent, Brian Jack, and Mayra Flores. (Before running for a congressional seat in 2022, Flores published social media posts promoting QAnon.) Where did all the money go?”

“Gabbard’s outfit spent $1.3 million on operating expenses—at least $1 million on fundraising and direct mail, according to its filings with the Federal Election Commission. Like many PACs, it acted mainly as a money-churning machine that generated donations that mostly profited vendors and consultants.”

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Corn also reports that Gabbard’s For Love of Country PAC “banked hefty checks from several big-money Republican funders. The biggest amount came from a donor named David Flory, who sent Gabbard’s PAC a whopping $100,000. On the PAC’s FEC filing, it neglected to note—as it is compelled to do—Flory’s occupation and employer.

Corn details how he tried to track down more information about the donation and the donor.

“Asked about the $100,000 contribution to Gabbard’s PAC and the address tied to it, [Flory] said, ‘Doesn’t sound familiar,’ and he tried to end the conversation. Pressed as to whether he had made a donation to Gabbard, he said, ‘I’m not interested in talking to you about it.’ Sounding irritated, he addressed his wife, ‘Julie, don’t take these calls. Just hang up on them.’ He then left the call.”

On social media, Corn adds: “An investigation of Tulsi Gabbard’s PACs shows much of the funds raised have gone to fundraising & to pay her advisers, not the stated mission of the PACs. Plus, she won’t reveal the donors to a charity she runs. All this needs vetting.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

It is an absolute necessity that Tulsi Gabbard & other top-level appointees have a full FBI background investigation. This isn’t discriminatory against Tulsi Gabbard; everyone should have a full background check, especially the nominee for Director of National Intelligence. pic.twitter.com/qS4Opg9amQ

— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) November 25, 2024

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Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. Secretary of Defense, has expressed opposition to the United Nations as a “fully globalist” entity and attacked NATO as “a relic” that should be “scrapped and remade in order for freedom to be truly defended.” He has also advocated for the United States to ignore the Geneva Conventions, which govern humanitarian treatment in war. He has suggested that America’s military should tell Al Qaeda if they do not surrender, “we will rip your arms off and feed them to hogs,” while calling for a new “American crusade,” according to The Guardian.

“Our present moment is much like the 11th century,” Hegseth, a weekend co-host on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends,” wrote in his book, “American Crusade.”

The Guardian calls it “a striking passage” in which “he presents his support for Israel as a renewal of medieval crusades.”

“We don’t want to fight, but, like our fellow Christians a thousand years ago, we must. We need an American crusade,” Hegseth wrote. “We Christians – alongside our Jewish friends and their remarkable army in Israel – need to pick up the sword of unapologetic Americanism and defend ourselves.”

“For us as American crusaders, Israel embodies the soul of our American crusade – the ‘why’ to our ‘what’.”

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“Faith, family, freedom, and free enterprise; if you love those, learn to love the state of Israel. And then find an arena in which to fight for her,” he added.

Last week, news broke of Hegseth’s tattoos, one of which includes the words, “Deus vult.”

“Several experts have cited the use of ‘Deus vult’ by extremist groups,” according to The National Catholic Reporter. “The phrase — attributed to Pope Urban II ahead of the First Crusade in 1095, which sought to regain Christian control of the Holy Land from Muslim rule — has become an online hashtag, and has also appeared in anti-Muslim graffiti, with two Arkansas mosques defaced in 2016 with the text.”

Earlier this month The Bulwark noted that Hegseth “has made clear that he sees himself and Donald Trump—whom he has approvingly called a ‘Crusader in Chief’—as leaders in a holy war to reclaim America.”

They cite this passage from Hegseth’s 2020 book:

“Like crusaders and patriots past, Donald Trump’s red hat rebellion demonstrates that unapologetically going on offense is the only tenable strategy for the defense of our republic. Surrounded by the Left, with the odds stacked against us, only a crusade will do.”

The Guardian also reports that in his book Hegseth “asks bluntly: ‘Why do we fund the anti-American UN? Why is Islamist Turkey a member of Nato?'”

Hegseth “has attacked several key US alliances such as Nato, allied countries such as Turkey and international institutions such as the United Nations in two recent books, as well as saying US troops should not be bound by the Geneva conventions,” and “has tied US foreign policy almost entirely to the priority of Israel, a country of which he says: ‘If you love America, you should love Israel.'”

“Elsewhere,” The Guardian adds, “Hegseth appears to argue that the US military should ignore the Geneva conventions and any international laws governing the conduct of war, and instead ‘unleash them’ to become a ‘ruthless’, ‘uncompromising’ and ‘overwhelmingly lethal’ force geared to ‘winning our wars according to our own rules’.”

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In his 2024 book, “The War on Warriors,” Hegseth asks: “What if we treated the enemy the way they treated us?”

“Would that not be an incentive for the other side to reconsider their barbarism? Hey, Al Qaeda: if you surrender, we might spare your life. If you do not, we will rip your arms off and feed them to hogs.”

“We are just fighting with one hand behind our back – and the enemy knows it,” Hegseth complains. “If our warriors are forced to follow rules arbitrarily and asked to sacrifice more lives so that international tribunals feel better about themselves, aren’t we just better off winning our wars according to our own rules?!”

“Who cares what other countries think?” he concludes.

The Guardian also points to Hegseth’s successful efforts to have Donald Trump, during his first term, “pardon US soldiers charged or convicted of war crimes.”

Attorney Adam Cohen, Vice Chair of Lawyers for Good Government, pointing to The Guardian’s report writes: “The man Trump picked to be SecDef Said ‘The military and police..will be forced to make a choice’ Because ‘there will be some form of civil war’ So MAGA should start ‘an AMERICAN CRUSADE’ To ‘mock, humiliate, intimidate, and crush our leftist opponents’ HE MUST NOT BE CONFIRMED”

Cohen was pointing to another article at The Guardian on Hegseth, from Friday, that reads in part:

“In one of his five published books he wrote that in the event of a Democratic election victory in the US there would be a ‘national divorce’ in which ‘The military and police … will be forced to make a choice’ and ‘Yes, there will be some form of civil war.'”

“Hegseth’s 2020 book exhorts conservatives to undertake ‘an AMERICAN CRUSADE’, to ‘mock, humiliate, intimidate, and crush our leftist opponents’, to ‘attack first’ in response to a left he identifies with ‘sedition’, and he writes that the book ‘lays out the strategy we must employ in order to defeat America’s internal enemies’.”

Fred Wellman, an Army veteran of 22 years who served four combat tours, is now a political consultant and the host of “On Democracy.” Responding to Cohen’s post, he writes: “Pete Hegseth must step aside.”

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Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license