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George Soros' Media Outfit Scrambles Facts to Link Trump to Terrorism

By , Money Morning •

George Soros
Hungarian-born hedge fund billionaire George Soros.

Republican bogeyman George Soros is once again trying to shake up the 2016 presidential election with his team at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) -- which he owns.

You see, the consortium just revealed that GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump's real estate organization rented Manhattan office space from 1998 to 2003 to Iran's Bank Melli. Bank Melli is a financial institution that U.S. authorities later linked to terrorist groups and Iran's nuclear program in 2008. The ICIJ's story, "Trump's Organization Did Business with Iranian Bank Later Linked to Terrorism," was published this morning on its own website.

A trip to the organization's web page also reveals its support and funding sources: the Open Society Foundation (a George Soros outfit), the Ford Foundation, and a host of other Soros-affiliated outfits, such as the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) and American Prospect Inc. (a journalist training institution).

Soros' anti-Trump obsession is well-documented. For example, he's given $1 million to American Bridge 21st Century, a liberal opposition research super PAC that has been targeting Trump since he first announced his bid for the presidency on June 16, 2015.

Then in January, Soros told Bloomberg TV, "By fear mongering, Donald Trump, and the others, Cruz and so on, are doing the work of ISIS."

And in March, the activist investor committed $3 million to the super PAC Immigrant Voters Win this past March. The organization is devoted to increasing turnout in Hispanic areas with known low voting inclination.

All of these examples were blatant moves on Soros' part to sway voters from the "Trump train."

But there is a major factual problem with the ICIJ's "shocking revelation"...

George Soros' ICIJ Ignores Federal Laws by Which Trump Abided

Soros
The GM Building in Manhattan that Trump purchased in 1998.

Trump inherited Bank Melli, one of Iran's largest state-controlled banks, as a tenant when he purchased the General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) Building on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan in 1998.

This fact is a matter of public record.

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Though, at the time, the United States had a sweeping embargo in place that prohibited Americans from doing business with Iranian companies, some Iranian organizations were granted licenses exempting specific transactions from sanctions.

The ICIJ admitted itself this morning: "The legal ramifications of the Trump Organization taking rent payments from Bank Melli are unclear."

That's because there weren't any legal ramifications to begin with.

You see, if any payments transacted through Bank Melli between 1998 and 2003 (under Trump's ownership and during Iranian sanctions) were indeed licensed, it may have been legally impossible for the Trump Organization to oust the bank because it was protected by the federal authorities.

And since the Treasury Department does not publicly disclose individual licenses granting companies exemptions from international sanctions rules, the public will never know if Bank Melli was operating in the GM Building legally or not.

Regardless, it's not a jump to assume the institution's legal status was viable, considering it ran uninterrupted as a licensed business in the center of one of the busiest cities in the world.

But according to the ICIJ's report, the mere presence of the bank in Donald Trump's mid-New York City real estate property links the billionaire businessman to terrorism...

George Soros' ICIJ Performs Factual Acrobatics

You see, in 2008, U.S. authorities alleged that Bank Melli had been used between 2002 and 2006 to funnel money to a unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard that has sponsored terrorist attacks.

This period of time briefly overlapped with Trump's ownership years of the GM Building (between 1998 and 2003).

However, what the ICIJ failed to make clear was the fact that Bank Melli officially moved out of the property in 2003, for unknown reasons. That means Trump's organization presided over the building while Bank Melli was operative for only roughly a year.

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And, again, even if Trump had wanted to remove the bank from his property in the first place, it's entirely possible he'd have been disallowed due to federal intervention.

But readers shouldn't be surprised the ICIJ doesn't mention any of these material details...

After all, it's Hungarian billionaire George Soros calling the shots at the ICIJ...

How George Soros Has Used the ICIJ to Play Politics in the Past

On April 6, via the ICIJ's massive data dump known as the Panama Papers, George Soros tried to out Russian President Vladimir Putin as a scheming, money-hoarding dictator.

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And to a large extent, it worked.

Mainstream media particularly latched onto Putin's association with longtime friend, the cellist Sergei Roldugin, as the owner of two offshore firms involved in a number of suspicious deals. For example, one of Roldugin's companies received a loan of $6 million in 2007, which was written off three months later for just $1, reported the BBC on April 6.

Still, mainstream media overlooked this one crucial detail: The link to Putin in the Panama Papers was indirect, just like Trump's "connection to terrorism" in the ICIJ's headline this morning.

Up Next

When you head to the polls in November, it'll be too late to pick our country's next leader. Instead of letting the 225 million eligible U.S. voters decide who should guide our country, the country's richest - like George Soros and Carl Icahn - will buy the winner in a secret $1.1 billion bidding war instead.

That's because this silent auction for America excludes 99% of Americans, but affects 100%. It's ripping away at our financial security and independence.

It's time to make votes count...

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