Craig Unger - American Kompromat - How the KGB Cultivated Donald Trump, and Related Tales of Sex, Gr
November 14, 2025 • 54 mins
American Kompromat unravels the Russian-influenced operations that amassed the dirty little secrets of the richest and most powerful men on earth. American Kompromat is based on extended and exclusive interviews with high-level sources in the KGB, CIA, and FBI, as well as lawyers at white-shoe Washington firms, associates of Jeffrey Epstein, and thousands of pages of FBI reports, police investigations, and news articles in English, Russian, and Ukrainian. A narrative offering jaw-dropping context, and set in Upper East Side mansions and private Caribbean islands, gigantic yachts, and private jets, American Kompromat shows that, from Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein, Russian operations transformed the darkest secrets of the most powerful people in the world into potent weapons that served its interests. Among its many revelations, American Kompromat addresses what may be the single most important unanswered question of the entire Trump era ― and one that Unger argues is even more important now that Trump is out of office: Was Donald Trump a Russian asset? Just how compromised was he? And how could such an audacious feat have been accomplished? To answer these questions and more, Craig Unger reports, is to understand kompromat ― operations that amassed compromising information on the richest and most powerful men on earth, and that leveraged power by appealing to what is, for some, the most prized possession of all: their vanity. This is a story that transcends the end of the Trump administration, illuminating a major underreported aspect of Trump’s corruption that has profoundly damaged American democracy.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
It's the Opperman Report and now here is investigator at Opperman. Okay,
welcome to the Opperman Report. I'm your host, private investigator
at Opperman. You can find me at Operman Investigations and
Digital Friends and Consulting. Can you reach out to me
through my email, Oppermaninvestigations at gmail dot com. Our guest
(00:22):
today is returning Guests, third time back, Craigunger. You can
find him at Craigunger dot com. You might remember him
from Vanity Fair who was the editor of Vanity Fair
magazine for years and years and years. But now he's
got a sub stack under Craig Unger and you can
find him on X two at Craighunger. Now check it out.
We had him on the first time about the House
(00:45):
of Trump and the House of Putin. Then we had
him on about uh No, it was a Den of
Spies about Reagan Carter and the Secret History of the
Trees and that stole in the White House the October Surprise.
And when I had him on about that, I got
so much response. Everyone that bought that book from that
interview has loved that book and they've been raving about
(01:08):
that book. Reagan Carter and the secret History of the
Trees and that stole the White House. But today we
have them on about American Compromise, about how the KGB
has so much dirt on mister Trump that's even a
car wash could not clean him up.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Mister Craig Hunger, are you there, sir?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
I am here. Great to be back.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah, thank you so much. Like I said, I always
enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
But before we get into excellent books, here, remind the
audience who is Craig Hunger.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Well, I think the most relevant thing is I've written
six books on the Republican Party's assault on democracy. And
it started out more than twenty years ago with a
book called House of Bush, House of saud about the
events leading up to the to the events of nine
(01:57):
to eleven and how the the Bush administration was secretly,
very very close to the Saudis who were behind it.
And I've taken that theme again and again over the
ensuing years, and now I've done six books showing how
the checks and balances that protected our democracy have been
(02:19):
eroded again and again and again by the Republicans.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah, and now, because you're not Spring Chicken either, man,
I'm sixty three years old and I've never seen anything
like what we're seeing right now. What do you think,
Craig Hunger, what do you think our hopes are to
get out of this mess?
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Well? It is devastating. I have to say. When I
wrote Dennis Five's I thought that would be the last
in this series and that we were through with Trump
once and forever. But now he's back again, and you
see the rising authoritarianism that Trump is just going willy
nilly after one agency or one part of the administration
(03:04):
that used to protect that provide the checks and balances,
the accountability, that protected our democracy. And in just nine
months that he's been in offices administration, he's just unbelievable
amounts of damage.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
How is he able to do this? Though?
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Are there is there no one with a backbone in
DC anymore like that that believes in the Constitution? Does
he have blackmail dirt on these politicians? Does is Putin
guiding this and directing him, telling him how Putin did
it in Russia? He took over a joint and made
a fortune. He's richest man on the planet. Probably is
(03:45):
he the one that guiding Trump through this?
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Well?
Speaker 3 (03:48):
He curtinly has a relationship with Trump and if you
look for the last couple of weeks, you may may
have seen that Trump was flip flopping back and forth.
I like Zelensky, I hate him, I like him, I
don't uh Russia, you know. And once again in the
past week or so, we saw Trump saying that he
was going to give Tomahawk missiles to Zolensky and Ukraine
(04:11):
could use him and that would be a real game
changer in terms of Ukraine winning the uh, the war
against Russia. Uh. And then before you could uh uh
you know, do anything about it, uh, Putin is back
on the phone with Trump, and as soon as he
(04:31):
gets off, Trump tells Zolenski, no, no, no, you have
to surrender or the Russians will destroy you. You You've
got to sign a surrender now or the or the
Russians are absolutely going to kill everyone in Ukraine. So uh,
Trump does respond to to does what Pudin tells him
to do. We've seen it again and again and again.
(04:54):
He has not really imposed the strongest kinds of sanctions
he should against Russia, which really would help Ukraine win
the war. And you know, and I think what my
books show is how did it was Trump compromised by Russia.
And I do it two ways. I mean I think
(05:14):
of House of Trump, House of Putin and American a
Comproment as really two halves of what would have been
a much too long book. And the House of Trump
has a Putin was really about the Russian mafia and
how about how Trump was installed with them? And American
(05:34):
Compromont is really about Russian intelligence starting with a KGB
and how they started to cultivate Trump as an intelligence
asset back in nineteen eighty more than forty five years ago.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Well, we'll take us back to the House of Trump,
House of Putin.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
We had we had John as a guest years ago
talking about that book there, so people do alreadys can
go back to the arcasm refreshing memory that way too,
but remind us, So, how was the Russian mafia involved
with mister Trump.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Well, the Russian mafia was. It was really pretty simple.
In nineteen eighty four, a guy named David Boganan, who
according to FAI files, was part of the Russian mafia,
and he walked into Trump Tower. This was Trump's glitzy
Fifth Avenue building where he lived. I mean, it was
(06:31):
the Crown Jewel of his empire, and he's getting enormous
amounts of publicity. And David Boganen put down six million
dollars in cash. I mean, I think that's close to
thirty million dollars today. This is over forty years ago,
and he said, I'll take five condos just like that.
(06:51):
And you know, the rules for money laundering in real
estate are very very poorly regulated, so that you can't
really prosecute Donald Trump. You would have to prove that
he knew where the money was coming from. He'd have
to prove that he knew what was coming from sex
trafficking or drugs cartels run by the mafia or whatever.
(07:14):
And all Trump has to do is turn a blind
eye to it and not ask the wrong questions. But
if you are able to make an all cash purchase,
and you do it through a limited liability corporation or
another company that allows you to shield your identity, well bam,
(07:36):
you can buy real estate and no one can prosecute
you for money laundering. And that's how that's what was
going on with an awful lot of Russia once you know,
you know, when the Soviet Union crumbled and the Russian
Federation went up. But most Americans thought, Wow, we won,
(07:57):
the West has won the Cold War. But in fact
something else was going on that was very, very important.
And you had you know, all the big industries in
Russia were government owned. Remember whether it was a steel industry,
the oil industry, aluminum, or whatever. These were all run
by the government. And when they were privatized, suddenly billions
(08:20):
and billions of dollars went into the private hands of oligarchs.
And oligarchs wanted to use that money in the West,
and that meant they had to launder those money, that money,
and there is no better way to launder money on
a large scale than through real estate. So to launder
(08:41):
billions and billions of dollars, it would be nice to
know someone who had a few thousand condo units to sell.
And that's precisely how Donald Trump ed the picture. And
you know, I could certainly trace it back to nineteen
eighty four. The FBI has records on this in nineteen
eighty four, when David Boganin went into Trump Tower.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
What about through the casinos too, Yes.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
That happened with the casinos as well. Casinos are and
gambling is a teristic way to launder money. If you
need help with that, ed, but it's I mean, you
just think about it. It can be done on such
a big scale through real estate because once you've bought
(09:30):
that five million dollar co op or whatever, you can
sell it and if any want to ask you where
the money came from, and you can say, well, I
just told my condo, and then you can flip it
back and forth between friends again and again and again.
And Trump, of course, had literally thousands of luxury condos
(09:53):
all over the world, and I mean they're Trump Towers,
and I don't know how many cities, but twenty or
thirty by now.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
And we were talking off there about Felix Sator, who
has just lost a lawsuit involving money laundering exactly like
we're saying, and some of those were through Trump condos,
and I know, did he go back that far? Like
when did he get involved with Trump?
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Well, Felix Sator was managing director of a group called
the bay Rock Group, and I think boys in two
thousand and two that Bayrock took up offices in Trump Tower.
I think they were on the twenty fourth floor and
Donald Trump's office was just a couple of flights above that,
(10:36):
and they came up with a new model for Donald
Trump's to make money. And in the past he had
been a real estate developer, and to develop real estate
you have to raise the money. You have to raise
a few hundred million dollars and developed the project yourself
with development companies and get construction companies and contract and
(11:00):
so forth. But that's not the way things started to
work once Felix Sader entered the pictures and when Bayrock
and Felix Sader came in, Trump became sort of the
Colonel Sanders of luxury real estate. And by that I
mean he went into franchising. He was the first brand
(11:24):
to you know, become the luxury brand for upscaleese real estate.
And that meant he didn't have to put up a
dime to develop these buildings. He wasn't really the developer.
All he was doing was allowing his name to be used,
excuse me, and in return for that, he got as
(11:47):
much as twenty five percent of the profits, which was
a huge under a huge amount given that he really
wasn't doing much work or putting any capital at risk.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Yeah, when I interviewed Yorghi Scillazza, the fellow who was
in the Cohen text messages saying he stopped the flow
of pe tapes. And when I interviewed him exclusive interview
by the way, I point out to the audience no
one else has. And they tested up with the mule
Commission and stuff, and he talked about these deals. He
hooked up Trump with the mayor of Moscow and stuff
like that, and that Trump not only was he getting
(12:21):
those percentages really for doing nothing, but then they would
send him he would charge an appearance fee to sign
up at the at the contract signing, the show up
in front of the cameras. He would charge an extra
several million dollars.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
That doesn't surprise me one iota, you know, I mean
Trump was, I mean he was very clever at getting
paid for everything he'd get paid for and taking almost
no risks at all in these developments. There were Trump
powers in Georgia, in Kazakhstan, in Panama until too and soho,
(13:02):
many of which either never were built or if they
were built, they went filling up and they had to
change their names. But these were there was one failed
project after another. But even though they failed again and again,
Donald Trump made money off of them.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Yeah exactly, Yeah, because he mentioned that too, that a
lot of these deals didn't even go through and he
still made money, and they were trying to sue him
forward to make him go through with the deal, and
he still wouldn't do it. Now, back to Felix Sater
for a second, though, did your reporting on him did
you uncover any connections as an FBI informant or a
some type of intelligence agent.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Well, yes, he he you know, I mean, Peter's family
allegedly ad ties to the Russian mafia, so Felix did.
So that's one thing. But Felix himself was busted a
couple of times, once in a a bar room fight
(14:02):
in which he stabbed someone who actually served time for that,
and later in a pump and dump stopped stock swindle.
And when he was caught up in that, Felix turned
state's evidence and became an FBI informant. So this is
a very interesting development in a way, because I don't
(14:26):
know if you're familiar with the Whitey Bulger. Oh yeah,
you are, okay, well great, Well I should probably explain
to your listeners though that if you saw the movie
That Departed by Martin Scorselee Scorsese, and there was another
movie called Black Mass Daring Johnny Depp. It was also
pretty good, but it was these movies were based on
(14:48):
Whitey Bulger, who was a Boston area mobster and there
was a war between the Irish mafia and the Italian
mafia in the Boston area and Whitey Bulger became FBI
informant and they sort of let him do his thing.
The FBI let him do whatever he wanted pretty much
(15:08):
as long as he was informing for them. But as
a result of that, he got a ready with one
murder after another, and I think in Whitey's case, it
was something like seventeen different murders and the FBI just
turned a blind eye to it. So the question with
Felix is was he on a different scale sort of
(15:33):
like Whitey BULGEA that is, the FBI turned a blind
eye to what he was doing. And he was doing
an awful lot with Donald Trump while he was acting
as an informant for the FBI.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
This would have been such a scandal even ten years ago.
You know what I mean, I just got you just
lost a losses by the money larder, fifty two million dollars.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
What you know, You're You're absolutely right and what's sort
of shocking to me. And as I say, I've been
writing these books for twenty years now, and you see
what used to be a scandal just gets you know,
people just raise an eyebrow. And when I started out
in journalism, which god, it's over fifty years now, but
(16:24):
for me, the big stories and what got me excited
about journalism were things like Watergate, the Pentagon Papers, the
Meli massacre, and those are stories that were each done
by one or two people, and once they were revealed,
the entire country stood up and paid attention and changed.
(16:49):
They changed the national conversation, and they changed the course
of history, and we remember them fifty years later. But
today you can say the president's rapist or he's a
multiple felon, and people yawn and it doesn't make a
bit of difference. And it's just extraordinary to me. And
(17:10):
you see how the press does not have the clout
it once did. I mean, we talked about freedom of
the press. It's in the First Amendment. To me, it
is absolutely essential if we're to have an enlightened electorate
who can vote in a democracy and knows what to
(17:33):
vote for. But what we have today is not nearly
as strong as what we had thirty or forty years ago.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Back to Sata real quick now, I once again when
I had Yorgy squats on the show when he was
being interrogated by Mueller's people and before the grand jury,
they were asking him about Felix Safe, what did he
know about Sator?
Speaker 2 (18:01):
What the young Sate doing is doing that?
Speaker 1 (18:03):
And if if Stator is working with FBI and DOJ,
why are they asking questions about him?
Speaker 2 (18:10):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Like maybe there was a some kind of conflict within
the Justice Department of some people working on something some
people working.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
On other things.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Well, I think there is something there, and I think
it has to do with Felix being uh an FBI
informant and uh and there you know, there were a
lot of problems with the FBI. And and to me,
this whole, if you look at the entire Donald Trump fiasco,
Trump is this is probably the greatest intelligence failure in
(18:46):
American history. We have a Russian asset in the Oval
Office in the White House and he's tearing down the
East Way in the White House as we speak. And
how did we allow that to happen? And I think
the FBI is at fault. And one of the things
I kept noticing as I was investigating the Russian mafia
(19:08):
and Donald Trump's ties to it, is you would see
that one of the most powerful Russian mobsters is a
guy named Semi and Mogilavis and Mogulaevitch had a crew,
many of whom actually lived in Trump Tower, in the
crown jewel of Donald Trump's empire. They were living there.
(19:31):
I mean, He's president in the United States and the
FBI and the Russian monsters are living there. What is
all that about? If you understand the Russian mafia, you
will also understand that they are really an enforcement arm
of Russian intelligence. It's not like in the United States
where the mafia was always at war with the FBI.
(19:52):
That's not the case in Russia. They use organized crime
as an arm of Russian INTI diligence. And yet here
we had Russian mobsters. I found thirteen of them who
owned property or were living in Trump Tower. And how
did the American FBI let let Trump get away with that?
(20:15):
And I think one of the reasons may be that
you had people like Felix Sader, who was nullified because
he was he was an informant for the FBI, so
they couldn't they couldn't expose that. And I also found
(20:35):
that you would key people in the FBI I'm thinking
of William Sessions was a director of the FBI. He
was later followed by Lewis Free, another director of the FBI,
and they both ended up working for Russian mobsters. In
William Susan's case, he actually became the attorney representing Semyon Mogawavis,
(20:58):
who was on the FBI Most Wanted List ten most
wanted list. I mean, how do you square that circle?
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Yeah, well there's if you go to my Twitter, there's
a guy who wrote a whole long thread about the
Free and all this Russian connections and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
It got it got to be so I couldn't follow.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
I really got a little carried away there and also mechanical.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
To the NYPTE.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Then the New York ahead of the FBI is in
prison right now for taking money from I think it's
a Malogovich.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Yes, yes, no, absolutely, and and no right and and
some of the you know, and people are paying attention
to this. I mean, this is sort of horrifying in
terms of why did the FBI and the some except
the CIA did wasn't really doing much about this. When
you know, I think when the when the Soviet Union
(21:55):
collapsed in uh uh was it ninety one? You know,
everyone in the West said, hooray, we won the West
being the communism, it's all over. Well, Actually, something else
was going on that no one was paying attention to.
And you had those industries which were state owned, the
(22:19):
Russian oil industry, the steel industry, it's a lunar industry.
These were multi billion dollar industries that were suddenly privatized,
and you had with that, you had the assent of
all these enormously wealthy, multi billionaire oligarchs. And you know,
(22:40):
it's so good being a billionaire oligarch. If you can't
get your money out of Russia, you want to get
it out to the West to spend it on all
the goodies of Western culture. And that means you need
to lounder the money. And the best way to londer
that money, or one of the best ones, is through
real estate. And that means you need a guy like
(23:00):
Donald Trump to help you longer that money.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Craig Hunger years ago, I did a bunch of shows
about the Rossneft deals, And have you looked into that
because that it appears that one time people were speculating
that Trump was appointed to broker that deal.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Do you have any information about that?
Speaker 3 (23:20):
Yeah, I'm afraid I don't. I know. There are so
many deals like this. Yeah, yeah, I haven't mastered all
of them.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Then what about that fellow Dimitri who is the fertilizer
king and then the art sucker who did that deal
down there on Palm Beach with that big property with
Epstein and Trump? Did you look into that one?
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Yes, we're below love right.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
I can't pronounce these dance.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
I'm not sure I'm doing so well, but I mean,
this is the deal. As I understand that, this is
where Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein's friendship fell apart. And
uh this. Epstein had wanted to buy that house and
he consulted I ride about this an American compliment. He
(24:08):
consulted with Trump for advice because there was one thing
he didn't like about the house is the location of
the swimming pool. And as I recall, he wanted to
move the entire swimming pool like ten feet to the
left or something like that, which I mean, if you
think about its kind of insanely expensive and difficult to do.
(24:32):
So he was consulting Donald Trump about it, and before
he knew it, Donald Trump had run circles around Epstceine
and bought the house out from under him and Trump.
I think he paid about forty five million dollars for
this place called the Maison de la Mete, and I
(24:56):
think it was in Palm Beach, Florida. It was certainly
in southern Florida.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
It's definitely in Palm Beach.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Now my question though, is about that and now that
fellow Dmitri once again I had to pronounce it, yeah, Brovalovich.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Then later on there was some speculation that he was
spotted at the negotiations in Saudi Arabia.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
But when.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
For the Ukraine deal that uh uh, Rubio was at
and they said he was there and there would be
no reason to have him there for any kind But
this guy's no negotiating experiences or do you have any
information about that?
Speaker 3 (25:35):
I do not have it on on that, but you
know what with level and ended up paying dub buying
it from Trump for ninety five million played million. And
that's the kind of treatment Donald Trump was getting from
the Russians.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Now back to American compromise. Now we're getting into the
blackmail dirt that the Russians have on mister Trump.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
What can you tell us about that?
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Well, there is a lot of I mean, I wish
I could pin down a lot of different things, but
one is they have to know an awful lot about
his finances. Because all the machinations I write about both
in House of Trump House a Pudin and an American Compromise,
You're talking about Russian mobsters, Russian oligarchs living in all
(26:26):
these Trump buildings and partnering with him in these Trump
Tower franchising deals all over the world. And that means
these people know about what's going on with Trump's finances,
and they're likely to share it with Russian intelligence. So
that's one thing they're going to know pretty much for sure.
(26:48):
The more salacious stuff that everyone's interested in, of course,
is sex, and unfortunately I don't know everything. There are
a lot of things. I'm very very suspicious. I have
talked to people in the Russian mafia who've told me
they've actually seen sex tapes, but I've never been able
(27:11):
to corroborate those allegations that I've only had one source
at most, and I've never had two on any one instance.
But you know, Trump did travel to Russia several times.
I know in nineteen ninety six, he went there for
the grand opening of a place called the Beverly Hills
(27:33):
Casino in Moscow. Was run by Chuck Norris, the Hollywood
actor who's sort of a Marshall Arts specialist as well,
and he had a casino slash strip club, and Trump
came there for the grand opening. So that's something that's
(27:56):
not been widely reported. But Trump was there ninety six.
And you know, if you think about strip clubs, they
all have d ip rooms that are a little private,
and the Russians are known for having cameras everywhere in
hotel rooms for people, uh where where Trump stayed, and
(28:20):
presumably in the ip rooms and strip clubs.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
That's fascinating.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
You know. Back in New York too, there was a
lot of talk about Trump being at scores all the
time and dating those scores girls are not dating them,
but you know, actually, you know, spending time with those
scores girls.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
But now you don't hear any of that stuff anymore.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
Right Well there, I mean, it's interesting, I didn't I
didn't even know about Scores certainly, but Trump, you know,
there are so many allegations out there, and many women
have stood up and and you know it's of course
now an awful lot of people, including myself, want to
(29:05):
see those Epstein's files released, the Jeffrey Epstein files released,
and to what extent Donald Trump had mentioned in them
is a big, big question. And will any of the
girls in that world talk about him is a question
we don't know the answer to.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Yeah, it simply there's at least one that received a
settlement from Trump, I believe, and has now been silenced forever.
But now what about wouldn't the Russian intelligence wouldn't they
have done their own investigations in connections between Trump and
Epstein and have their own reporting on that.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Yes, they would. In fact, you know, I interviewed a
guy named John Mark Dugan, who is deputy sheriff in
the Palm Beats County Sheriff's Department, And when I interviewed
him by phone, he said he was in Osco. At
least I guess have been lying. I don't really know,
(30:02):
but he told me he fled the country to Moscow
with over six hundred videotape sex tapes that had come
from the Epstein investigations. Now, whether he's telling the truth
or not, I cannot I cannot guarantee. But he also
(30:24):
showed him a photo of himself with a man named
Pavel Borodin, who was one of the top officials in
Vladimir Prudin's administration. And it's sort of extraordinary because John
Mark Dugan was kind of a nobody in Palm Beach, Florida,
and suddenly he's there with one of the highest officials
(30:44):
in the prudent administration. How does he get there? And
you have to ask does he have those sex tapes?
And is he brokering them with the Russians? And that
was certainly the implication of what he was trying to
get across. On the other hand, I have to say,
this is not someone you would find very trust for me.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
No, yeah, yeah, I've dealt with Mark Dugan there for
quite some time. I interviewed him before he claimed he
had those tapes. I asked him if he had any
information on Trumpet Epstein. He said no. Then later on
he came out and said, oh, yeah, now I got
these tapes.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
I brought them back to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Then I told him off the air because then I
worked on some epicent cases as a private eye, and
he went to Russia because he had a girlfriend over there.
He left his wife and his family to live with
his girlfriend in Russia.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
He told me he didn't have any connections to any
kind of Russian intelligence or anything like that.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
But so this picture is news to me.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
But I, uh, you know what I think it is.
It appears in my book American Compromande. If you look
at the photos there, it should be there.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Yeah, because and also to the photo he shows of
that hard drive that he claims has the uh this
this these videos on them, and also to his fellow
his friend there too that visited him there at Chepsick,
who's a true crime writer who was part of.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
This story originally.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Now he also believes that's a Dugan is a mistaken
but politely. But even that hard drive wasn't even manufactured
until years after all this Epstein stuff. I think that
he's been pretty much debunked and Dougan uh right, Unfortunately,
you know, what are you gonna do?
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Though?
Speaker 3 (32:21):
Man?
Speaker 2 (32:21):
This seems to be what is it about that? Uh?
Speaker 1 (32:28):
So much of the press reporting on Trump, don't report
what they know. They're like, there's so much just covered
up about him. Does he have dirt on them, blackmail,
dirt on the press, or is his relationship?
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Is he paying them?
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Well? I think people are scared and and I you know,
and and part of it is I mean, and you know,
I've always felt The New York Times was guilty of this,
and and most publications are in a way that it's
you know, the phrase we uses access journalists them, and
and that is if you're I'm not really a Washington reporter,
(33:05):
but if you're there, you want more than anything else.
Access is coin of the realm. If you can get
access to Donald Trump, wow, you're golden. You're gonna have
a fun page story every day. But if you're going
to have access to them, you know what, you can
end up carrying water for them, because they're not going
to give you access if you're critical of them all
(33:26):
the time. And that has been used, and I think
a lot of reporters fall prey to that again and
again and again, and and it's it's terrible. I mean,
it means that our free press isn't really pree because
everyone wants to have access to the powers to be
in the White House.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
You know so many people who report on Epstein. I
don't want to mention any names. Why make enemies, right,
But the thing is is there members at mar A Lago.
They're friends with all these people. They were friends with Trump,
Epstein and Maxwell when then when they were members there,
they were friends with these people. And now they're they're
the authorities. They're the ones given us information. Which reminds
you ever talked to Michael Wolfe about his information?
Speaker 3 (34:10):
I've talked to him. I've known Michael for years. I
mean we were both a Vanity Fair for many and
uh yeah, and I mean some of the stuff I mean,
you know, uh, which is in uh American Compromade. I
mean I will uh he's end up writing and in
(34:33):
his most recent book. I had some of it from
him in American Compromade. But he you know, he he
uh uh. I spent a lot of time with Jeffrey Epstein,
and uh, you know, I was also Epstein was close
to the circles of Vanity Fair and uh oh really yeah,
(34:53):
so that uh you know, I'm not sure if that's
how Michael met with him, but uh so one of
the people there were closer to him, and I kept
a distance from those people.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Yes, smart movie.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
It might have been through Steve Bannon, because I know
a Wolf is friends with Bannon and Epstein. But let
me ask you this, No, I believe it was Bannon
who introduced a Wolf to Epstein. But what Wolf says
that the reason for the falling out between Trump and
Epstein was because all that business about Trump hitting on
his friend's wives. And Epstein told that same story to
(35:31):
a group of comedians too. He would have these comedians
come in and have luncheon with them, you know, we
paid people to hang out with him, you know, and
they confirmed that same story that it was a Trump
hitting on his friend's wives.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
And that's the same story Wolf told you.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
But your thinking is that it's that deal in Palm
Beach with Dmitri, the fertilizer fellow.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
Yeah, that was Trowly one of it. I mean, there
may have been multiple reasons for falling out, but you know,
Dean did want that house, and Trump bought it and
then doubled his money really quickly.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Now you also too, you mentioned when Putin came to
power that he privatized all these industries and he turned
them over to his cronies. And it seems so much
of Trump as playing by Putin's playbook. Try saying that
Putin's playbook playing by Putin's playbook.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
You know, do you.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
See Trump making any inroads in sid that to try
and privatize industry.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Well, I think he is doing a very similar kind
of thing. And I mean, especially if you start to
look at the Keech Brolagarchs, you know, the Elon Musk
World and Peter Keel and all those people who you know.
I mean, I have to say, it wasn't until recently
that I thought of these people as you know, they're
(36:58):
they're I mean, they're one of the read since Trump
is in power, and uh uh Trump uh plays them
quite you know, and and they need his approval. They
want to be on good terms with them, and and
they have trillion dollar companies and they're responsible to their
shareholders and they'll do anything to make sure they have
(37:18):
a good bottom line. And Trump knows exactly how to
play them. And I think it's really unfortunate because when
when you look at what is happening with social media,
it's become much more important than the old legacy media
media and uh you know, I, for one was I
used to use Twitter a lot and it was a
(37:38):
great source of news for me. And I knew who
the best reporters in the world was, and I'd follow
them on Twitter and I had a great flow of news.
And then along comes Elon Musk and everything changes and
uh you know, and they're working for Trump and uh
you know, and as a result they great get great
(38:00):
tax baks and so forth, and in return they spend
a lot of money making sure he gets re elected.
If you look at Elon Munk's purchase of Twitter in
a way, it was a forty four billion dollar campaign
contribution to Donald Trump.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
Yeah, very interesting to it.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
The part of one of his partners in Idea was Oracle,
which is a data mining company. And just think of
all of our private messages on Twitter back and forth.
Even you and I have private message on Twitter, and
I saw your post recently said hey, I get you know,
look at me. Laura Loomer gets one hundred thousand likes
and follows, and case Craig Hunger gets barely a thousand.
Speaker 3 (38:43):
You know, wait, my god, just well percisely. So once month,
just to match over, I was shadow band and what
that means is they they put they tweaked the algorithms
so that if you've been critical of Trump, no one
can see your tweets. And you know, and I think
it's it was horrible, and I think it had a
(39:04):
real impact in the last presidential election.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
And Craig Gunger just imagine ten years ago if someone
like Laura Lumer was visiting the Obama White House, someone
lunatic like that, you know, was visiting the president, that
would be the u just scandal in the world.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
Absolutely. I mean, this guy is so teflon, it's ridiculous
y and I you know, I just wonder, you know,
I keep thinking it's going to collapse. It's going to collapse.
It's going to collapse, and it had I've been wrong
for ten years, but it's someday, sooner or later, it
will collapse. You know.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
What makes you think that? Though?
Speaker 1 (39:45):
Do you have any hopes for the midterms or he's
talking about running again in twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
Eight right, Well, as I say, I've been well again
again predicting this, so any bets on. I mean, I
think things will start to come to a head one
way or another before the midterms and there may be
the insurration. He may call it the Insurrection Act or
(40:14):
martial law or imposed martial law. But I don't think
he can win the midterms in a straight up, fair
and square election, and they're going to pull out all
the stops they can. And I think there'll be demonstrations.
We just went through another note Kings, and I think
they'll be bigger next time. And if he tries to
(40:38):
rig those elections, maybe there'll be a general strike. Who knows,
but something will happen, you know, especially if he declares
martial law or or the Insurrection Act.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
Now you're in New York City, right I am?
Speaker 3 (40:56):
Yeah, Well, actually you know what, I just moved out here.
I mean the city as we speak, but most of
my time out i'm mom shelter Mott Island, about eighty
miles outside of the city. Oh.
Speaker 2 (41:07):
Very nice, very nice.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
But I understand that there was Ice was just showed
up in New York and from my understanding, they haven't
been welcomed and there's been some street opposition to ICE agents.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
Have you noticed that, Yeah, yeah, no, I haven't seen
it personally. I've just seen it on TV. But ICE
is not very popular here. That's for sure.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
Yeah. Now, what does Eric Hunger think about mayor? Mom?
Speaker 3 (41:31):
Donnie No, Craig, Craig hung What do I call you? Eric?
I think you said, Eric.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
Craig. I'm looking ready. I'm staring at your name too.
What do you think of a mayor a Mandani?
Speaker 3 (41:46):
Well, I think it's good to have a new young
generation out there. I mean, it looks like he's going
to win, which will be very, very interesting. And you know,
I am all for him. I am not registered to
vote in New York City anymore. I moved down to
Shelter Island, just off Long Island, so that's where I
(42:08):
vote now in Suffolk County, so I no longer get
to vote in the city.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
I asked you last time you were on here, we
were talking about Dennis Spies, Ragan Carter on the Secret
History of the Trees and that Stole the wineus about
the October Surprise when you're on a guest on that show.
And I asked you then, because you're so famous for
your work about Russia and Poutin and Trump, and but
it's just been so discredited just by people saying Russia, Russia,
(42:40):
Russia what and even Mueller didn't discredit it, you know,
he said, you know, uh, if we could clear him,
we would, But we can't clear him. He said, we
would have cleared him if we could. What what what
inspires this?
Speaker 2 (42:53):
What?
Speaker 1 (42:54):
How does this myth of it being discredited or being debunked?
Where does that come from?
Speaker 3 (43:00):
You know? Well, the country no longer shares the same
set of facts. We don't have a factual reality. And
it's really enormously frustrating. I mean, everything is siloed thanks
to social media, I think, and I know for sure.
I mean, if you look at my sub sack, part
(43:20):
of my subseack, I call the Trump rush a timeline,
and I've had I think thirty or thirty one articles
now showing again and again and again all the ties
between Donald Trump and Russian money. And I mean, no
one has a few to single one. I mean, you know,
they will marginalize it, but they but they or they'll
(43:43):
make sure. You know, we talked just a moment ago
about me being shadow band, so I can't get my
material out to the rest of the country. I mean,
is that freedom in the press? What's going on here?
But no one has to the single fact in either
my books on Trump. So I stand by everything I've written,
(44:06):
and it starts, you know, with with an American compromise.
I go back to nineteen eighty and you see the
Russian intelligence a KGB reaching out to Donald Trump in
nineteen eighty when he's developing his very first successful project
(44:30):
that what is now the Grand Hyatt Hotel right near
Grand Central Station. Like every hotel, it needed TV sets
in every single room. And you might think that a
Hyatt would go to Samsung or Sony for its television sets,
but instead they went to Trump puts in charge then,
(44:51):
and he went to a place called joy Blood Electronics,
which was a small electronics place owned by Soviet emigrats,
and this was really a front for the KGB where
he bought all those television sets and they gave him
an offer he couldn't refuse. And that's how the KGB
(45:14):
started wooing Donald Trump, and I believe they cultivated him
as an asset, an intelligence asset, not an agent. I
mean there's a difference between an agent is someone who's
on salary. He or she knows he's working for an
intelligence agency, and they can be tasks with specific operations.
(45:35):
An asset is more is also known as a special contact.
They do they do? You know, he he's friendly with
the Soviet intelligence, They're friendly with him, and you do
favors for each other, and that's how that kind of
relationship works.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
You know. And what are the odds that if an
intelligence gold mine like that that they wouldn't put surveillance
equipment inside those TV sets at least for the presidential
suite and the more high end suites you know, in
the conference rooms and things like that. You know, of
course they would absolutely What do you make And there's
so many people discredit the Christopher Steele reporting and Christopher
(46:19):
Steel dossier. Do you have any problems with his reporting
in that dossier or do you believe it's been discredited?
Speaker 3 (46:26):
Well, it's important to understand what it is and what
it isn't. And you know, he's reporting raw data that
has not been corroborated. And just like you know, when
I'm doing my investigative reporting, I try to get two
or more sources for everything that's contentious that I'm reporting.
(46:49):
And frequently I can't verify something and I leave it
on my computer. And if you went into my computer
right now, you'd find lots of stuff that can't be corroborated,
and some of it's problem untrue because I couldn't corroborate it.
And that's the way I regard the steal report. It
was not meant to be seen as this is something
(47:10):
that's been completely corroborated. So, you know, I do think
pretty it's pretty clear though from my reporting, that the
Russians had been an awful lot that they were doing
with Donald Trump, and that they wanted to do to
make sure that Trump was elected president. And I mean,
(47:31):
one thing I go back to in American compromant is
you know, Trump made his first visit to the Soviet
Union in nineteen eighty seven. It was orchestrated by the
kt B. It was you know, this is Russian intelligence
is orchestrating it. And when he came back from Russia,
(47:53):
it was a Soviet Union. Then when he came back,
he immediately decided he wanted to run for president in
the nineteen eighty eight residential election, and he took out
a full page ad in the New York Times, Washington Posts,
and the Boston Globe, and he gave every talking point
imaginable that the KGB was pushing uh And and I
(48:17):
had a source who had been in the KGB, a
guy named Jurish Fits. He was a major in the KGB.
He had been in Washington Station recruiting Americans to spy
for the Soviet Union. And he told me when when
he saw that ad in the New York Times. He
(48:40):
was in the in the KGB at that time, and
he and everyone in the KGB celebrated that they had
completed another successful active measure, that is an operation getting
out KGB talking points and getting them actually published in
the New York Times under the name of Donald Trump.
(49:04):
And that was an active measure by the KGB.
Speaker 2 (49:10):
Incredible.
Speaker 1 (49:11):
We only got about five minutes left, and we got
so much great response about the last appearance here Den
of Spies, Reagan Carter in the Secret History of the
Treason that Stole the White House. And I encourage people
to go back and listen to that entire interview because
we do touch upon American compromant and a House of
Trump and House of Putin.
Speaker 2 (49:29):
But describe the October surprise.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
What was that anybody that's our age that saw that
watched Jimmy Carter about to be inaugurated and the look
on his face that they wouldn't release the hostages until
after the one minute after you know, a regular sword,
and that affected everybody.
Speaker 2 (49:46):
Everyone knew that it was rigged. But describe what's in
jennas spies for us.
Speaker 3 (49:52):
Well, Jimmy Carter was president. He was running for reelection
in nineteen eighty against Ronald Reagan, and early in the
campaign you had the Iranian Revolution in which Islamic fundamentalists
formed the Islamic Republic of Iran, and in doing so
they see fifty two American hostages and then kept them
(50:15):
imprisoned in what had been the American embassy in Terhran.
And the entire election became about whether or not Jimmy
Carter could win there their release before the election or not.
If he did, he'd be re elected. If he couldn't
get them out, Ronald Reagan would win. And what I
(50:35):
discovered is that the Reagan campaign, it was being managed
by William Casey, who later became head of the CI
and was one of the greatest, most brilliant spies in
American history. And he had a secret intelligence operation going
where he was secretly meeting with the Mullahs of Iran
(50:55):
and made a deal with them in which he said, look,
we will send you weapons for your war to fight Iraq,
but in return, we want something, and we want you
not to release the hostages. If you don't release the hostages,
we will win the election and we'll give you a
(51:15):
better deal than Jimmy Carter will. And that's exactly what happened.
And I started investigating this more than thirty five years ago,
and it was widely discredited. I mean, there was all
sorts of disinformation about it, and it took me many,
many years, but I think I finally definitively proved it
(51:36):
in Dennispies. And I was able to do so because
I literally got the receipts that by that, I mean
invoices for weapons that were being sent by operatives of
William Casey, Reague's campaign manager, and they were shipped to Iran,
(51:59):
and I all the receipts from the Office of the
President of Iran. And I was also able to get
some intelligence operatives who worked for Bill Casey and setting
that up, who finally were able to talk to me
(52:19):
on the record and taped interviews.
Speaker 1 (52:22):
Yeah, book just came out October twenty twenty five, Den
of Spies, Reagan, Carter and the Secret History of the
Trees and that stole the White House. So go back
listen to that interview. But also to buy the bookman,
because five and a half start four point four stars
on an Amazon and every there's always one jerk that
doesn't like the book. But everyone who's everyone that's emailed
(52:45):
me or contacted me after they bought this book has
loved this book.
Speaker 2 (52:48):
They've been very proud of very well, thank you.
Speaker 3 (52:50):
No, I'm very proud of it. I think it may be.
Speaker 2 (52:52):
The best one should be.
Speaker 3 (52:55):
And it's also just down on paperback, I should say excellent.
Speaker 1 (52:58):
And then House of Trump House putin. We did an
interview about that, and then American Compromise today you can
pick that up.
Speaker 2 (53:05):
But what are you working on next?
Speaker 3 (53:07):
Well, I'm trying to figure it out, you know. When
you do these books, I try to look ahead two
or three years and figure out where it will land,
you know, and during an election or whatever. To be honest,
right now, I don't know where the hell we're going
to land in two years, you know, and so I'm
looking at various stuff so I don't have you know,
(53:27):
it takes me a while, but I haven't quite figured
out the next book.
Speaker 1 (53:31):
Maybe something on the tech bros, you know, and then
control over social media, like you said, because it's not
just shadow banning Craiggunger and Eric Hunger too.
Speaker 2 (53:40):
It was probably a nice guy, but.
Speaker 1 (53:42):
Not only the Shadow band and Craigguger the great author,
but it's also elevating these people that just are total
whack jobs or nobody's or sometimes just complete hoaxes, just
complete frauds and hoaxes. Man, just get elevated on social
media somehow by this group of wing nuts. Craig Unger,
thank you so much once again. Man, always bring the
(54:04):
gold every time you come here.
Speaker 2 (54:06):
So thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (54:06):
Craig Anger dot com, Craig Anger on Twitter, and Craig
Unger on substack. Now you can find one substack and
I encourage people to check you out over there.
Speaker 2 (54:16):
So thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (54:18):
Thank you, Ed. I enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (54:20):
Great to have you man, Thank you so much. Good
night night
It's the Opperman Report and now here is investigator at Opperman. Okay,
welcome to the Opperman Report. I'm your host, private investigator
at Opperman. You can find me at Operman Investigations and
Digital Friends and Consulting. Can you reach out to me
through my email, Oppermaninvestigations at gmail dot com. Our guest
(00:22):
today is returning Guests, third time back, Craigunger. You can
find him at Craigunger dot com. You might remember him
from Vanity Fair who was the editor of Vanity Fair
magazine for years and years and years. But now he's
got a sub stack under Craig Unger and you can
find him on X two at Craighunger. Now check it out.
We had him on the first time about the House
(00:45):
of Trump and the House of Putin. Then we had
him on about uh No, it was a Den of
Spies about Reagan Carter and the Secret History of the
Trees and that stole in the White House the October Surprise.
And when I had him on about that, I got
so much response. Everyone that bought that book from that
interview has loved that book and they've been raving about
(01:08):
that book. Reagan Carter and the secret History of the
Trees and that stole the White House. But today we
have them on about American Compromise, about how the KGB
has so much dirt on mister Trump that's even a
car wash could not clean him up.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Mister Craig Hunger, are you there, sir?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
I am here. Great to be back.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah, thank you so much. Like I said, I always
enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
But before we get into excellent books, here, remind the
audience who is Craig Hunger.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Well, I think the most relevant thing is I've written
six books on the Republican Party's assault on democracy. And
it started out more than twenty years ago with a
book called House of Bush, House of saud about the
events leading up to the to the events of nine
(01:57):
to eleven and how the the Bush administration was secretly,
very very close to the Saudis who were behind it.
And I've taken that theme again and again over the
ensuing years, and now I've done six books showing how
the checks and balances that protected our democracy have been
(02:19):
eroded again and again and again by the Republicans.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah, and now, because you're not Spring Chicken either, man,
I'm sixty three years old and I've never seen anything
like what we're seeing right now. What do you think,
Craig Hunger, what do you think our hopes are to
get out of this mess?
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Well? It is devastating. I have to say. When I
wrote Dennis Five's I thought that would be the last
in this series and that we were through with Trump
once and forever. But now he's back again, and you
see the rising authoritarianism that Trump is just going willy
nilly after one agency or one part of the administration
(03:04):
that used to protect that provide the checks and balances,
the accountability, that protected our democracy. And in just nine
months that he's been in offices administration, he's just unbelievable
amounts of damage.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
How is he able to do this? Though?
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Are there is there no one with a backbone in
DC anymore like that that believes in the Constitution? Does
he have blackmail dirt on these politicians? Does is Putin
guiding this and directing him, telling him how Putin did
it in Russia? He took over a joint and made
a fortune. He's richest man on the planet. Probably is
(03:45):
he the one that guiding Trump through this?
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Well?
Speaker 3 (03:48):
He curtinly has a relationship with Trump and if you
look for the last couple of weeks, you may may
have seen that Trump was flip flopping back and forth.
I like Zelensky, I hate him, I like him, I
don't uh Russia, you know. And once again in the
past week or so, we saw Trump saying that he
was going to give Tomahawk missiles to Zolensky and Ukraine
(04:11):
could use him and that would be a real game
changer in terms of Ukraine winning the uh, the war
against Russia. Uh. And then before you could uh uh
you know, do anything about it, uh, Putin is back
on the phone with Trump, and as soon as he
(04:31):
gets off, Trump tells Zolenski, no, no, no, you have
to surrender or the Russians will destroy you. You You've
got to sign a surrender now or the or the
Russians are absolutely going to kill everyone in Ukraine. So uh,
Trump does respond to to does what Pudin tells him
to do. We've seen it again and again and again.
(04:54):
He has not really imposed the strongest kinds of sanctions
he should against Russia, which really would help Ukraine win
the war. And you know, and I think what my
books show is how did it was Trump compromised by Russia.
And I do it two ways. I mean I think
(05:14):
of House of Trump, House of Putin and American a
Comproment as really two halves of what would have been
a much too long book. And the House of Trump
has a Putin was really about the Russian mafia and
how about how Trump was installed with them? And American
(05:34):
Compromont is really about Russian intelligence starting with a KGB
and how they started to cultivate Trump as an intelligence
asset back in nineteen eighty more than forty five years ago.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Well, we'll take us back to the House of Trump,
House of Putin.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
We had we had John as a guest years ago
talking about that book there, so people do alreadys can
go back to the arcasm refreshing memory that way too,
but remind us, So, how was the Russian mafia involved
with mister Trump.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Well, the Russian mafia was. It was really pretty simple.
In nineteen eighty four, a guy named David Boganan, who
according to FAI files, was part of the Russian mafia,
and he walked into Trump Tower. This was Trump's glitzy
Fifth Avenue building where he lived. I mean, it was
(06:31):
the Crown Jewel of his empire, and he's getting enormous
amounts of publicity. And David Boganen put down six million
dollars in cash. I mean, I think that's close to
thirty million dollars today. This is over forty years ago,
and he said, I'll take five condos just like that.
(06:51):
And you know, the rules for money laundering in real
estate are very very poorly regulated, so that you can't
really prosecute Donald Trump. You would have to prove that
he knew where the money was coming from. He'd have
to prove that he knew what was coming from sex
trafficking or drugs cartels run by the mafia or whatever.
(07:14):
And all Trump has to do is turn a blind
eye to it and not ask the wrong questions. But
if you are able to make an all cash purchase,
and you do it through a limited liability corporation or
another company that allows you to shield your identity, well bam,
(07:36):
you can buy real estate and no one can prosecute
you for money laundering. And that's how that's what was
going on with an awful lot of Russia once you know,
you know, when the Soviet Union crumbled and the Russian
Federation went up. But most Americans thought, Wow, we won,
(07:57):
the West has won the Cold War. But in fact
something else was going on that was very, very important.
And you had you know, all the big industries in
Russia were government owned. Remember whether it was a steel industry,
the oil industry, aluminum, or whatever. These were all run
by the government. And when they were privatized, suddenly billions
(08:20):
and billions of dollars went into the private hands of oligarchs.
And oligarchs wanted to use that money in the West,
and that meant they had to launder those money, that money,
and there is no better way to launder money on
a large scale than through real estate. So to launder
(08:41):
billions and billions of dollars, it would be nice to
know someone who had a few thousand condo units to sell.
And that's precisely how Donald Trump ed the picture. And
you know, I could certainly trace it back to nineteen
eighty four. The FBI has records on this in nineteen
eighty four, when David Boganin went into Trump Tower.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
What about through the casinos too, Yes.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
That happened with the casinos as well. Casinos are and
gambling is a teristic way to launder money. If you
need help with that, ed, but it's I mean, you
just think about it. It can be done on such
a big scale through real estate because once you've bought
(09:30):
that five million dollar co op or whatever, you can
sell it and if any want to ask you where
the money came from, and you can say, well, I
just told my condo, and then you can flip it
back and forth between friends again and again and again.
And Trump, of course, had literally thousands of luxury condos
(09:53):
all over the world, and I mean they're Trump Towers,
and I don't know how many cities, but twenty or
thirty by now.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
And we were talking off there about Felix Sator, who
has just lost a lawsuit involving money laundering exactly like
we're saying, and some of those were through Trump condos,
and I know, did he go back that far? Like
when did he get involved with Trump?
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Well, Felix Sator was managing director of a group called
the bay Rock Group, and I think boys in two
thousand and two that Bayrock took up offices in Trump Tower.
I think they were on the twenty fourth floor and
Donald Trump's office was just a couple of flights above that,
(10:36):
and they came up with a new model for Donald
Trump's to make money. And in the past he had
been a real estate developer, and to develop real estate
you have to raise the money. You have to raise
a few hundred million dollars and developed the project yourself
with development companies and get construction companies and contract and
(11:00):
so forth. But that's not the way things started to
work once Felix Sader entered the pictures and when Bayrock
and Felix Sader came in, Trump became sort of the
Colonel Sanders of luxury real estate. And by that I
mean he went into franchising. He was the first brand
(11:24):
to you know, become the luxury brand for upscaleese real estate.
And that meant he didn't have to put up a
dime to develop these buildings. He wasn't really the developer.
All he was doing was allowing his name to be used,
excuse me, and in return for that, he got as
(11:47):
much as twenty five percent of the profits, which was
a huge under a huge amount given that he really
wasn't doing much work or putting any capital at risk.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Yeah, when I interviewed Yorghi Scillazza, the fellow who was
in the Cohen text messages saying he stopped the flow
of pe tapes. And when I interviewed him exclusive interview
by the way, I point out to the audience no
one else has. And they tested up with the mule
Commission and stuff, and he talked about these deals. He
hooked up Trump with the mayor of Moscow and stuff
like that, and that Trump not only was he getting
(12:21):
those percentages really for doing nothing, but then they would
send him he would charge an appearance fee to sign
up at the at the contract signing, the show up
in front of the cameras. He would charge an extra
several million dollars.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
That doesn't surprise me one iota, you know, I mean
Trump was, I mean he was very clever at getting
paid for everything he'd get paid for and taking almost
no risks at all in these developments. There were Trump
powers in Georgia, in Kazakhstan, in Panama until too and soho,
(13:02):
many of which either never were built or if they
were built, they went filling up and they had to
change their names. But these were there was one failed
project after another. But even though they failed again and again,
Donald Trump made money off of them.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Yeah exactly, Yeah, because he mentioned that too, that a
lot of these deals didn't even go through and he
still made money, and they were trying to sue him
forward to make him go through with the deal, and
he still wouldn't do it. Now, back to Felix Sater
for a second, though, did your reporting on him did
you uncover any connections as an FBI informant or a
some type of intelligence agent.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Well, yes, he he you know, I mean, Peter's family
allegedly ad ties to the Russian mafia, so Felix did.
So that's one thing. But Felix himself was busted a
couple of times, once in a a bar room fight
(14:02):
in which he stabbed someone who actually served time for that,
and later in a pump and dump stopped stock swindle.
And when he was caught up in that, Felix turned
state's evidence and became an FBI informant. So this is
a very interesting development in a way, because I don't
(14:26):
know if you're familiar with the Whitey Bulger. Oh yeah,
you are, okay, well great, Well I should probably explain
to your listeners though that if you saw the movie
That Departed by Martin Scorselee Scorsese, and there was another
movie called Black Mass Daring Johnny Depp. It was also
pretty good, but it was these movies were based on
(14:48):
Whitey Bulger, who was a Boston area mobster and there
was a war between the Irish mafia and the Italian
mafia in the Boston area and Whitey Bulger became FBI
informant and they sort of let him do his thing.
The FBI let him do whatever he wanted pretty much
(15:08):
as long as he was informing for them. But as
a result of that, he got a ready with one
murder after another, and I think in Whitey's case, it
was something like seventeen different murders and the FBI just
turned a blind eye to it. So the question with
Felix is was he on a different scale sort of
(15:33):
like Whitey BULGEA that is, the FBI turned a blind
eye to what he was doing. And he was doing
an awful lot with Donald Trump while he was acting
as an informant for the FBI.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
This would have been such a scandal even ten years ago.
You know what I mean, I just got you just
lost a losses by the money larder, fifty two million dollars.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
What you know, You're You're absolutely right and what's sort
of shocking to me. And as I say, I've been
writing these books for twenty years now, and you see
what used to be a scandal just gets you know,
people just raise an eyebrow. And when I started out
in journalism, which god, it's over fifty years now, but
(16:24):
for me, the big stories and what got me excited
about journalism were things like Watergate, the Pentagon Papers, the
Meli massacre, and those are stories that were each done
by one or two people, and once they were revealed,
the entire country stood up and paid attention and changed.
(16:49):
They changed the national conversation, and they changed the course
of history, and we remember them fifty years later. But
today you can say the president's rapist or he's a
multiple felon, and people yawn and it doesn't make a
bit of difference. And it's just extraordinary to me. And
(17:10):
you see how the press does not have the clout
it once did. I mean, we talked about freedom of
the press. It's in the First Amendment. To me, it
is absolutely essential if we're to have an enlightened electorate
who can vote in a democracy and knows what to
(17:33):
vote for. But what we have today is not nearly
as strong as what we had thirty or forty years ago.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Back to Sata real quick now, I once again when
I had Yorgy squats on the show when he was
being interrogated by Mueller's people and before the grand jury,
they were asking him about Felix Safe, what did he
know about Sator?
Speaker 2 (18:01):
What the young Sate doing is doing that?
Speaker 1 (18:03):
And if if Stator is working with FBI and DOJ,
why are they asking questions about him?
Speaker 2 (18:10):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Like maybe there was a some kind of conflict within
the Justice Department of some people working on something some
people working.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
On other things.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Well, I think there is something there, and I think
it has to do with Felix being uh an FBI
informant and uh and there you know, there were a
lot of problems with the FBI. And and to me,
this whole, if you look at the entire Donald Trump fiasco,
Trump is this is probably the greatest intelligence failure in
(18:46):
American history. We have a Russian asset in the Oval
Office in the White House and he's tearing down the
East Way in the White House as we speak. And
how did we allow that to happen? And I think
the FBI is at fault. And one of the things
I kept noticing as I was investigating the Russian mafia
(19:08):
and Donald Trump's ties to it, is you would see
that one of the most powerful Russian mobsters is a
guy named Semi and Mogilavis and Mogulaevitch had a crew,
many of whom actually lived in Trump Tower, in the
crown jewel of Donald Trump's empire. They were living there.
(19:31):
I mean, He's president in the United States and the
FBI and the Russian monsters are living there. What is
all that about? If you understand the Russian mafia, you
will also understand that they are really an enforcement arm
of Russian intelligence. It's not like in the United States
where the mafia was always at war with the FBI.
(19:52):
That's not the case in Russia. They use organized crime
as an arm of Russian INTI diligence. And yet here
we had Russian mobsters. I found thirteen of them who
owned property or were living in Trump Tower. And how
did the American FBI let let Trump get away with that?
(20:15):
And I think one of the reasons may be that
you had people like Felix Sader, who was nullified because
he was he was an informant for the FBI, so
they couldn't they couldn't expose that. And I also found
(20:35):
that you would key people in the FBI I'm thinking
of William Sessions was a director of the FBI. He
was later followed by Lewis Free, another director of the FBI,
and they both ended up working for Russian mobsters. In
William Susan's case, he actually became the attorney representing Semyon Mogawavis,
(20:58):
who was on the FBI Most Wanted List ten most
wanted list. I mean, how do you square that circle?
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Yeah, well there's if you go to my Twitter, there's
a guy who wrote a whole long thread about the
Free and all this Russian connections and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
It got it got to be so I couldn't follow.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
I really got a little carried away there and also mechanical.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
To the NYPTE.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Then the New York ahead of the FBI is in
prison right now for taking money from I think it's
a Malogovich.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Yes, yes, no, absolutely, and and no right and and
some of the you know, and people are paying attention
to this. I mean, this is sort of horrifying in
terms of why did the FBI and the some except
the CIA did wasn't really doing much about this. When
you know, I think when the when the Soviet Union
(21:55):
collapsed in uh uh was it ninety one? You know,
everyone in the West said, hooray, we won the West
being the communism, it's all over. Well, Actually, something else
was going on that no one was paying attention to.
And you had those industries which were state owned, the
(22:19):
Russian oil industry, the steel industry, it's a lunar industry.
These were multi billion dollar industries that were suddenly privatized,
and you had with that, you had the assent of
all these enormously wealthy, multi billionaire oligarchs. And you know,
(22:40):
it's so good being a billionaire oligarch. If you can't
get your money out of Russia, you want to get
it out to the West to spend it on all
the goodies of Western culture. And that means you need
to lounder the money. And the best way to londer
that money, or one of the best ones, is through
real estate. And that means you need a guy like
(23:00):
Donald Trump to help you longer that money.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Craig Hunger years ago, I did a bunch of shows
about the Rossneft deals, And have you looked into that
because that it appears that one time people were speculating
that Trump was appointed to broker that deal.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Do you have any information about that?
Speaker 3 (23:20):
Yeah, I'm afraid I don't. I know. There are so
many deals like this. Yeah, yeah, I haven't mastered all
of them.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Then what about that fellow Dimitri who is the fertilizer
king and then the art sucker who did that deal
down there on Palm Beach with that big property with
Epstein and Trump? Did you look into that one?
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Yes, we're below love right.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
I can't pronounce these dance.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
I'm not sure I'm doing so well, but I mean,
this is the deal. As I understand that, this is
where Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein's friendship fell apart. And
uh this. Epstein had wanted to buy that house and
he consulted I ride about this an American compliment. He
(24:08):
consulted with Trump for advice because there was one thing
he didn't like about the house is the location of
the swimming pool. And as I recall, he wanted to
move the entire swimming pool like ten feet to the
left or something like that, which I mean, if you
think about its kind of insanely expensive and difficult to do.
(24:32):
So he was consulting Donald Trump about it, and before
he knew it, Donald Trump had run circles around Epstceine
and bought the house out from under him and Trump.
I think he paid about forty five million dollars for
this place called the Maison de la Mete, and I
(24:56):
think it was in Palm Beach, Florida. It was certainly
in southern Florida.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
It's definitely in Palm Beach.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Now my question though, is about that and now that
fellow Dmitri once again I had to pronounce it, yeah, Brovalovich.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Then later on there was some speculation that he was
spotted at the negotiations in Saudi Arabia.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
But when.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
For the Ukraine deal that uh uh, Rubio was at
and they said he was there and there would be
no reason to have him there for any kind But
this guy's no negotiating experiences or do you have any
information about that?
Speaker 3 (25:35):
I do not have it on on that, but you
know what with level and ended up paying dub buying
it from Trump for ninety five million played million. And
that's the kind of treatment Donald Trump was getting from
the Russians.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Now back to American compromise. Now we're getting into the
blackmail dirt that the Russians have on mister Trump.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
What can you tell us about that?
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Well, there is a lot of I mean, I wish
I could pin down a lot of different things, but
one is they have to know an awful lot about
his finances. Because all the machinations I write about both
in House of Trump House a Pudin and an American Compromise,
You're talking about Russian mobsters, Russian oligarchs living in all
(26:26):
these Trump buildings and partnering with him in these Trump
Tower franchising deals all over the world. And that means
these people know about what's going on with Trump's finances,
and they're likely to share it with Russian intelligence. So
that's one thing they're going to know pretty much for sure.
(26:48):
The more salacious stuff that everyone's interested in, of course,
is sex, and unfortunately I don't know everything. There are
a lot of things. I'm very very suspicious. I have
talked to people in the Russian mafia who've told me
they've actually seen sex tapes, but I've never been able
(27:11):
to corroborate those allegations that I've only had one source
at most, and I've never had two on any one instance.
But you know, Trump did travel to Russia several times.
I know in nineteen ninety six, he went there for
the grand opening of a place called the Beverly Hills
(27:33):
Casino in Moscow. Was run by Chuck Norris, the Hollywood
actor who's sort of a Marshall Arts specialist as well,
and he had a casino slash strip club, and Trump
came there for the grand opening. So that's something that's
(27:56):
not been widely reported. But Trump was there ninety six.
And you know, if you think about strip clubs, they
all have d ip rooms that are a little private,
and the Russians are known for having cameras everywhere in
hotel rooms for people, uh where where Trump stayed, and
(28:20):
presumably in the ip rooms and strip clubs.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
That's fascinating.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
You know. Back in New York too, there was a
lot of talk about Trump being at scores all the
time and dating those scores girls are not dating them,
but you know, actually, you know, spending time with those
scores girls.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
But now you don't hear any of that stuff anymore.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
Right Well there, I mean, it's interesting, I didn't I
didn't even know about Scores certainly, but Trump, you know,
there are so many allegations out there, and many women
have stood up and and you know it's of course
now an awful lot of people, including myself, want to
(29:05):
see those Epstein's files released, the Jeffrey Epstein files released,
and to what extent Donald Trump had mentioned in them
is a big, big question. And will any of the
girls in that world talk about him is a question
we don't know the answer to.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Yeah, it simply there's at least one that received a
settlement from Trump, I believe, and has now been silenced forever.
But now what about wouldn't the Russian intelligence wouldn't they
have done their own investigations in connections between Trump and
Epstein and have their own reporting on that.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Yes, they would. In fact, you know, I interviewed a
guy named John Mark Dugan, who is deputy sheriff in
the Palm Beats County Sheriff's Department, And when I interviewed
him by phone, he said he was in Osco. At
least I guess have been lying. I don't really know,
(30:02):
but he told me he fled the country to Moscow
with over six hundred videotape sex tapes that had come
from the Epstein investigations. Now, whether he's telling the truth
or not, I cannot I cannot guarantee. But he also
(30:24):
showed him a photo of himself with a man named
Pavel Borodin, who was one of the top officials in
Vladimir Prudin's administration. And it's sort of extraordinary because John
Mark Dugan was kind of a nobody in Palm Beach, Florida,
and suddenly he's there with one of the highest officials
(30:44):
in the prudent administration. How does he get there? And
you have to ask does he have those sex tapes?
And is he brokering them with the Russians? And that
was certainly the implication of what he was trying to
get across. On the other hand, I have to say,
this is not someone you would find very trust for me.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
No, yeah, yeah, I've dealt with Mark Dugan there for
quite some time. I interviewed him before he claimed he
had those tapes. I asked him if he had any
information on Trumpet Epstein. He said no. Then later on
he came out and said, oh, yeah, now I got
these tapes.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
I brought them back to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Then I told him off the air because then I
worked on some epicent cases as a private eye, and
he went to Russia because he had a girlfriend over there.
He left his wife and his family to live with
his girlfriend in Russia.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
He told me he didn't have any connections to any
kind of Russian intelligence or anything like that.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
But so this picture is news to me.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
But I, uh, you know what I think it is.
It appears in my book American Compromande. If you look
at the photos there, it should be there.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Yeah, because and also to the photo he shows of
that hard drive that he claims has the uh this
this these videos on them, and also to his fellow
his friend there too that visited him there at Chepsick,
who's a true crime writer who was part of.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
This story originally.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Now he also believes that's a Dugan is a mistaken
but politely. But even that hard drive wasn't even manufactured
until years after all this Epstein stuff. I think that
he's been pretty much debunked and Dougan uh right, Unfortunately,
you know, what are you gonna do?
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Though?
Speaker 3 (32:21):
Man?
Speaker 2 (32:21):
This seems to be what is it about that? Uh?
Speaker 1 (32:28):
So much of the press reporting on Trump, don't report
what they know. They're like, there's so much just covered
up about him. Does he have dirt on them, blackmail,
dirt on the press, or is his relationship?
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Is he paying them?
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Well? I think people are scared and and I you know,
and and part of it is I mean, and you know,
I've always felt The New York Times was guilty of this,
and and most publications are in a way that it's
you know, the phrase we uses access journalists them, and
and that is if you're I'm not really a Washington reporter,
(33:05):
but if you're there, you want more than anything else.
Access is coin of the realm. If you can get
access to Donald Trump, wow, you're golden. You're gonna have
a fun page story every day. But if you're going
to have access to them, you know what, you can
end up carrying water for them, because they're not going
to give you access if you're critical of them all
(33:26):
the time. And that has been used, and I think
a lot of reporters fall prey to that again and
again and again, and and it's it's terrible. I mean,
it means that our free press isn't really pree because
everyone wants to have access to the powers to be
in the White House.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
You know so many people who report on Epstein. I
don't want to mention any names. Why make enemies, right,
But the thing is is there members at mar A Lago.
They're friends with all these people. They were friends with Trump,
Epstein and Maxwell when then when they were members there,
they were friends with these people. And now they're they're
the authorities. They're the ones given us information. Which reminds
you ever talked to Michael Wolfe about his information?
Speaker 3 (34:10):
I've talked to him. I've known Michael for years. I
mean we were both a Vanity Fair for many and
uh yeah, and I mean some of the stuff I mean,
you know, uh, which is in uh American Compromade. I
mean I will uh he's end up writing and in
(34:33):
his most recent book. I had some of it from
him in American Compromade. But he you know, he he
uh uh. I spent a lot of time with Jeffrey Epstein,
and uh, you know, I was also Epstein was close
to the circles of Vanity Fair and uh oh really yeah,
(34:53):
so that uh you know, I'm not sure if that's
how Michael met with him, but uh so one of
the people there were closer to him, and I kept
a distance from those people.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Yes, smart movie.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
It might have been through Steve Bannon, because I know
a Wolf is friends with Bannon and Epstein. But let
me ask you this, No, I believe it was Bannon
who introduced a Wolf to Epstein. But what Wolf says
that the reason for the falling out between Trump and
Epstein was because all that business about Trump hitting on
his friend's wives. And Epstein told that same story to
(35:31):
a group of comedians too. He would have these comedians
come in and have luncheon with them, you know, we
paid people to hang out with him, you know, and
they confirmed that same story that it was a Trump
hitting on his friend's wives.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
And that's the same story Wolf told you.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
But your thinking is that it's that deal in Palm
Beach with Dmitri, the fertilizer fellow.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
Yeah, that was Trowly one of it. I mean, there
may have been multiple reasons for falling out, but you know,
Dean did want that house, and Trump bought it and
then doubled his money really quickly.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Now you also too, you mentioned when Putin came to
power that he privatized all these industries and he turned
them over to his cronies. And it seems so much
of Trump as playing by Putin's playbook. Try saying that
Putin's playbook playing by Putin's playbook.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
You know, do you.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
See Trump making any inroads in sid that to try
and privatize industry.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Well, I think he is doing a very similar kind
of thing. And I mean, especially if you start to
look at the Keech Brolagarchs, you know, the Elon Musk
World and Peter Keel and all those people who you know.
I mean, I have to say, it wasn't until recently
that I thought of these people as you know, they're
(36:58):
they're I mean, they're one of the read since Trump
is in power, and uh uh Trump uh plays them
quite you know, and and they need his approval. They
want to be on good terms with them, and and
they have trillion dollar companies and they're responsible to their
shareholders and they'll do anything to make sure they have
(37:18):
a good bottom line. And Trump knows exactly how to
play them. And I think it's really unfortunate because when
when you look at what is happening with social media,
it's become much more important than the old legacy media
media and uh you know, I, for one was I
used to use Twitter a lot and it was a
(37:38):
great source of news for me. And I knew who
the best reporters in the world was, and I'd follow
them on Twitter and I had a great flow of news.
And then along comes Elon Musk and everything changes and
uh you know, and they're working for Trump and uh
you know, and as a result they great get great
(38:00):
tax baks and so forth, and in return they spend
a lot of money making sure he gets re elected.
If you look at Elon Munk's purchase of Twitter in
a way, it was a forty four billion dollar campaign
contribution to Donald Trump.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
Yeah, very interesting to it.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
The part of one of his partners in Idea was Oracle,
which is a data mining company. And just think of
all of our private messages on Twitter back and forth.
Even you and I have private message on Twitter, and
I saw your post recently said hey, I get you know,
look at me. Laura Loomer gets one hundred thousand likes
and follows, and case Craig Hunger gets barely a thousand.
Speaker 3 (38:43):
You know, wait, my god, just well percisely. So once month,
just to match over, I was shadow band and what
that means is they they put they tweaked the algorithms
so that if you've been critical of Trump, no one
can see your tweets. And you know, and I think
it's it was horrible, and I think it had a
(39:04):
real impact in the last presidential election.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
And Craig Gunger just imagine ten years ago if someone
like Laura Lumer was visiting the Obama White House, someone
lunatic like that, you know, was visiting the president, that
would be the u just scandal in the world.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
Absolutely. I mean, this guy is so teflon, it's ridiculous
y and I you know, I just wonder, you know,
I keep thinking it's going to collapse. It's going to collapse.
It's going to collapse, and it had I've been wrong
for ten years, but it's someday, sooner or later, it
will collapse. You know.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
What makes you think that? Though?
Speaker 1 (39:45):
Do you have any hopes for the midterms or he's
talking about running again in twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
Eight right, Well, as I say, I've been well again
again predicting this, so any bets on. I mean, I
think things will start to come to a head one
way or another before the midterms and there may be
the insurration. He may call it the Insurrection Act or
(40:14):
martial law or imposed martial law. But I don't think
he can win the midterms in a straight up, fair
and square election, and they're going to pull out all
the stops they can. And I think there'll be demonstrations.
We just went through another note Kings, and I think
they'll be bigger next time. And if he tries to
(40:38):
rig those elections, maybe there'll be a general strike. Who knows,
but something will happen, you know, especially if he declares
martial law or or the Insurrection Act.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
Now you're in New York City, right I am?
Speaker 3 (40:56):
Yeah, Well, actually you know what, I just moved out here.
I mean the city as we speak, but most of
my time out i'm mom shelter Mott Island, about eighty
miles outside of the city. Oh.
Speaker 2 (41:07):
Very nice, very nice.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
But I understand that there was Ice was just showed
up in New York and from my understanding, they haven't
been welcomed and there's been some street opposition to ICE agents.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
Have you noticed that, Yeah, yeah, no, I haven't seen
it personally. I've just seen it on TV. But ICE
is not very popular here. That's for sure.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
Yeah. Now, what does Eric Hunger think about mayor? Mom?
Speaker 3 (41:31):
Donnie No, Craig, Craig hung What do I call you? Eric?
I think you said, Eric.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
Craig. I'm looking ready. I'm staring at your name too.
What do you think of a mayor a Mandani?
Speaker 3 (41:46):
Well, I think it's good to have a new young
generation out there. I mean, it looks like he's going
to win, which will be very, very interesting. And you know,
I am all for him. I am not registered to
vote in New York City anymore. I moved down to
Shelter Island, just off Long Island, so that's where I
(42:08):
vote now in Suffolk County, so I no longer get
to vote in the city.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
I asked you last time you were on here, we
were talking about Dennis Spies, Ragan Carter on the Secret
History of the Trees and that Stole the wineus about
the October Surprise when you're on a guest on that show.
And I asked you then, because you're so famous for
your work about Russia and Poutin and Trump, and but
it's just been so discredited just by people saying Russia, Russia,
(42:40):
Russia what and even Mueller didn't discredit it, you know,
he said, you know, uh, if we could clear him,
we would, But we can't clear him. He said, we
would have cleared him if we could. What what what
inspires this?
Speaker 2 (42:53):
What?
Speaker 1 (42:54):
How does this myth of it being discredited or being debunked?
Where does that come from?
Speaker 3 (43:00):
You know? Well, the country no longer shares the same
set of facts. We don't have a factual reality. And
it's really enormously frustrating. I mean, everything is siloed thanks
to social media, I think, and I know for sure.
I mean, if you look at my sub sack, part
(43:20):
of my subseack, I call the Trump rush a timeline,
and I've had I think thirty or thirty one articles
now showing again and again and again all the ties
between Donald Trump and Russian money. And I mean, no
one has a few to single one. I mean, you know,
they will marginalize it, but they but they or they'll
(43:43):
make sure. You know, we talked just a moment ago
about me being shadow band, so I can't get my
material out to the rest of the country. I mean,
is that freedom in the press? What's going on here?
But no one has to the single fact in either
my books on Trump. So I stand by everything I've written,
(44:06):
and it starts, you know, with with an American compromise.
I go back to nineteen eighty and you see the
Russian intelligence a KGB reaching out to Donald Trump in
nineteen eighty when he's developing his very first successful project
(44:30):
that what is now the Grand Hyatt Hotel right near
Grand Central Station. Like every hotel, it needed TV sets
in every single room. And you might think that a
Hyatt would go to Samsung or Sony for its television sets,
but instead they went to Trump puts in charge then,
(44:51):
and he went to a place called joy Blood Electronics,
which was a small electronics place owned by Soviet emigrats,
and this was really a front for the KGB where
he bought all those television sets and they gave him
an offer he couldn't refuse. And that's how the KGB
(45:14):
started wooing Donald Trump, and I believe they cultivated him
as an asset, an intelligence asset, not an agent. I
mean there's a difference between an agent is someone who's
on salary. He or she knows he's working for an
intelligence agency, and they can be tasks with specific operations.
(45:35):
An asset is more is also known as a special contact.
They do they do? You know, he he's friendly with
the Soviet intelligence, They're friendly with him, and you do
favors for each other, and that's how that kind of
relationship works.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
You know. And what are the odds that if an
intelligence gold mine like that that they wouldn't put surveillance
equipment inside those TV sets at least for the presidential
suite and the more high end suites you know, in
the conference rooms and things like that. You know, of
course they would absolutely What do you make And there's
so many people discredit the Christopher Steele reporting and Christopher
(46:19):
Steel dossier. Do you have any problems with his reporting
in that dossier or do you believe it's been discredited?
Speaker 3 (46:26):
Well, it's important to understand what it is and what
it isn't. And you know, he's reporting raw data that
has not been corroborated. And just like you know, when
I'm doing my investigative reporting, I try to get two
or more sources for everything that's contentious that I'm reporting.
(46:49):
And frequently I can't verify something and I leave it
on my computer. And if you went into my computer
right now, you'd find lots of stuff that can't be corroborated,
and some of it's problem untrue because I couldn't corroborate it.
And that's the way I regard the steal report. It
was not meant to be seen as this is something
(47:10):
that's been completely corroborated. So, you know, I do think
pretty it's pretty clear though from my reporting, that the
Russians had been an awful lot that they were doing
with Donald Trump, and that they wanted to do to
make sure that Trump was elected president. And I mean,
(47:31):
one thing I go back to in American compromant is
you know, Trump made his first visit to the Soviet
Union in nineteen eighty seven. It was orchestrated by the
kt B. It was you know, this is Russian intelligence
is orchestrating it. And when he came back from Russia,
(47:53):
it was a Soviet Union. Then when he came back,
he immediately decided he wanted to run for president in
the nineteen eighty eight residential election, and he took out
a full page ad in the New York Times, Washington Posts,
and the Boston Globe, and he gave every talking point
imaginable that the KGB was pushing uh And and I
(48:17):
had a source who had been in the KGB, a
guy named Jurish Fits. He was a major in the KGB.
He had been in Washington Station recruiting Americans to spy
for the Soviet Union. And he told me when when
he saw that ad in the New York Times. He
(48:40):
was in the in the KGB at that time, and
he and everyone in the KGB celebrated that they had
completed another successful active measure, that is an operation getting
out KGB talking points and getting them actually published in
the New York Times under the name of Donald Trump.
(49:04):
And that was an active measure by the KGB.
Speaker 2 (49:10):
Incredible.
Speaker 1 (49:11):
We only got about five minutes left, and we got
so much great response about the last appearance here Den
of Spies, Reagan Carter in the Secret History of the
Treason that Stole the White House. And I encourage people
to go back and listen to that entire interview because
we do touch upon American compromant and a House of
Trump and House of Putin.
Speaker 2 (49:29):
But describe the October surprise.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
What was that anybody that's our age that saw that
watched Jimmy Carter about to be inaugurated and the look
on his face that they wouldn't release the hostages until
after the one minute after you know, a regular sword,
and that affected everybody.
Speaker 2 (49:46):
Everyone knew that it was rigged. But describe what's in
jennas spies for us.
Speaker 3 (49:52):
Well, Jimmy Carter was president. He was running for reelection
in nineteen eighty against Ronald Reagan, and early in the
campaign you had the Iranian Revolution in which Islamic fundamentalists
formed the Islamic Republic of Iran, and in doing so
they see fifty two American hostages and then kept them
(50:15):
imprisoned in what had been the American embassy in Terhran.
And the entire election became about whether or not Jimmy
Carter could win there their release before the election or not.
If he did, he'd be re elected. If he couldn't
get them out, Ronald Reagan would win. And what I
(50:35):
discovered is that the Reagan campaign, it was being managed
by William Casey, who later became head of the CI
and was one of the greatest, most brilliant spies in
American history. And he had a secret intelligence operation going
where he was secretly meeting with the Mullahs of Iran
(50:55):
and made a deal with them in which he said, look,
we will send you weapons for your war to fight Iraq,
but in return, we want something, and we want you
not to release the hostages. If you don't release the hostages,
we will win the election and we'll give you a
(51:15):
better deal than Jimmy Carter will. And that's exactly what happened.
And I started investigating this more than thirty five years ago,
and it was widely discredited. I mean, there was all
sorts of disinformation about it, and it took me many,
many years, but I think I finally definitively proved it
(51:36):
in Dennispies. And I was able to do so because
I literally got the receipts that by that, I mean
invoices for weapons that were being sent by operatives of
William Casey, Reague's campaign manager, and they were shipped to Iran,
(51:59):
and I all the receipts from the Office of the
President of Iran. And I was also able to get
some intelligence operatives who worked for Bill Casey and setting
that up, who finally were able to talk to me
(52:19):
on the record and taped interviews.
Speaker 1 (52:22):
Yeah, book just came out October twenty twenty five, Den
of Spies, Reagan, Carter and the Secret History of the
Trees and that stole the White House. So go back
listen to that interview. But also to buy the bookman,
because five and a half start four point four stars
on an Amazon and every there's always one jerk that
doesn't like the book. But everyone who's everyone that's emailed
(52:45):
me or contacted me after they bought this book has
loved this book.
Speaker 2 (52:48):
They've been very proud of very well, thank you.
Speaker 3 (52:50):
No, I'm very proud of it. I think it may be.
Speaker 2 (52:52):
The best one should be.
Speaker 3 (52:55):
And it's also just down on paperback, I should say excellent.
Speaker 1 (52:58):
And then House of Trump House putin. We did an
interview about that, and then American Compromise today you can
pick that up.
Speaker 2 (53:05):
But what are you working on next?
Speaker 3 (53:07):
Well, I'm trying to figure it out, you know. When
you do these books, I try to look ahead two
or three years and figure out where it will land,
you know, and during an election or whatever. To be honest,
right now, I don't know where the hell we're going
to land in two years, you know, and so I'm
looking at various stuff so I don't have you know,
(53:27):
it takes me a while, but I haven't quite figured
out the next book.
Speaker 1 (53:31):
Maybe something on the tech bros, you know, and then
control over social media, like you said, because it's not
just shadow banning Craiggunger and Eric Hunger too.
Speaker 2 (53:40):
It was probably a nice guy, but.
Speaker 1 (53:42):
Not only the Shadow band and Craigguger the great author,
but it's also elevating these people that just are total
whack jobs or nobody's or sometimes just complete hoaxes, just
complete frauds and hoaxes. Man, just get elevated on social
media somehow by this group of wing nuts. Craig Unger,
thank you so much once again. Man, always bring the
(54:04):
gold every time you come here.
Speaker 2 (54:06):
So thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (54:06):
Craig Anger dot com, Craig Anger on Twitter, and Craig
Unger on substack. Now you can find one substack and
I encourage people to check you out over there.
Speaker 2 (54:16):
So thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (54:18):
Thank you, Ed. I enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (54:20):
Great to have you man, Thank you so much. Good
night night
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