然而，美国检方在夏威夷一项最新的犯罪指控很可能会让这位前首相千疮百孔的辩词更加不可信。在第一次审判认罪后，他将要面临第二次审判。这个丑闻之所以重新浮出水面，与一位有名的夏威夷政治说客被起诉有关，她就是45岁的尼基•马里•卢姆•戴维斯（Nickie Mali Lum Davis）。 尼基•马里•卢姆•戴维斯于1993年毕业于美国最大的私立学校普纳荷学校（Punahou School),她的父母是著名的民主党筹款活动人士基尼卢姆和诺拉卢姆夫妇（Gene and Nora Lum)。
英文：PRC National A was a dissident of the PRC. living in the United States on a temporary visa.The government of the PRC, inculding PRC Minister A and the president of the PRC, were seeking the removal of PRC National A form the United States back to the PRC.
Malaysia’s convicted former prime minister, Najib Razak, has argued first that the global fugitive Low Taek Jho had nothing to do with 1MDB and then more recently that he was ‘duped’ by the conman, who helped funnel nearly $5 billion out of the fund and into Najib’s political campaigns and personal accounts.
However, the latest criminal indictment brought by US prosecutors in Hawaii is likely to make that already unconvincing line of defence even harder to sustain for the ex-PM, currently facing his second trial following his conviction in the first.
The reason being that the case against a well-known local political lobbyist, 45-year-old Nickie Mali Lum Davis, shows that it was none other than Jho Low who was directly involved in paying a group of Republicans to organise Najib’s high profile trip to Washington in September 2017 to visit President Donald Trump, as part of a concerted strategy to force the Department of Justice to drop its cases over 1MDB.
After Jho Low fixed the trip, paid the lobbyists $8 million for their services and set in motion plans to shelve the case, Najib duly turned up in Washington to beguile President Trump with promises of massive Malaysian investment in the American economy (making sure to occupy the Trump Hotel with scores of his extended entourage for several nights).
It raises the inevitable question, how could Malaysia’s Prime Minister not have known what was going on and claim not have been in communication with the top fixer in these and so many other efforts to cover up 1MDB during 2017?
The case against Lum Davis joins the dots between several 1MDB players already identified by Sarawak Report (see base of report). It reveals the lobbyist accepted cash from foreign actors to lobby President Trump and his administration without registering those payments according to the law.
The Indictment opens:
From no later than March 2017 to at least in or about January 2018, NICKIE LUM DAVIS agreed with Persons A and B [identified by Sarawak Report as singer Pras Michael and Deputy Chairman of the Republican National Committee Elliot Broidy] to act as agents of Foreign National A [Jho Low] in exchange for millions of dollars in undisclosed wire transfers originating from foreign accounts associated with Foreign National A. DAVIS specifically agreed to facilitate Person B’s lobbying of the President of the United States (“the President”), his Administration, and the United States Depa1tment of Justice (“DOJ”) to drop the investigation of Foreign National A for his role in the embezzlement of billions of dollars from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (“lMDB”), a strategic investment and development company wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia. As part of their efforts, the defendant [Nickie Lum Davies] and Person B [Elliot Broidy] willfully failed to disclose to the Administration and DOJ officials that Person B was acting on behalf of Foreign National A [Jho Low].”
The indictment makes clear the attempts were unsuccessful, since the DOJ did not suspend the case. However, prosecutors are demanding a return of all the money received by the lobbyist with a potential penalty of imprisonment.
The filing is part of a wider DOJ investigation that has unravelled how Jho Low sought to influence the US government on behalf of Najib and also China involving a wide network of Americans now facing charges or likely to face charges.
The include a government lawyer George Higgenbotham who has pleaded guilty over his involvement and to misleading banks about the source of payments from Jho Low; the celebrity rapper and friend of Jho Low, Pras Michael, who is defending his case and Elliot Broidy one of the most senior fundraisers in the Republican Party, who together with his lawyer wife now stand accused of devastating revelations over their role in selling access to Najib.
See the report filed on Hawaiian TV News and Sarawak Report will shortly bring full details on the devastating allegations and likely developments in this story,
Foreign lobbying scandal entangles
well-known political fundraiser in
Hawaii
Federal Courthouse, Honolulu, Hawaii. (Source: Hawaii News Now)
By Rick Daysog|August 20, 2020 at 8:20 PM HST - Updated August 21 at 9:11 AM
HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - A prominent Hawaii political fundraiser has found herself entangled in a major international scandal involving allegations of illegal lobbying by foreign interests.
In a criminal complaint filed this week, 45-year-old Nickie Mali Lum Davis and several mainland political fundraisers are being accused of using their clout to illegally to influence the Trump administration in exchange for $8 million.
“It’s the same charge actually as Paul Manafort was charged and convicted of — for failing to register all of his lobbying activities on behalf of foreign interests,” said Ian Lind, an investigative reporter and blogger.
Davis’ attorney declined comment.
A Punahou graduate and prominent political fundraiser finds herself in the middle of a major international scandal. (Source: Ian Lind)
Court documents show that among other activities, Davis and two political fundraisers helped arrange a meeting in 2017 between President Donald Trump and Malaysian Prime Minster Najib Razak.
Razak was recently sentenced to 12 years in prison for his role in the 1MDB scandal, which involved the theft of $4.5 billion from his country.
The complaint indicates that Malaysian billionaire Jho Low, the accused ringleader of the 1MDB thefts, met with the fundraisers.
Davis and other alleged conspirators are suspected of trying to get the Trump administration to quash a U.S. Justice Department investigation into the scandal but federal prosecutors said they were unsuccessful.
Davis’ partners were not charged but the complaint says one of them is former Republican National Committee deputy Finance Chair Elliott Broidy. He could not be reached.
The case will not only be closely watched in Washington but it also underscores the heightened political tensions between the U.S. and China.
Besides Malaysian interests, the complaint alleges Davis and her alleged conspirators worked for China in its effort to extradite billionaire and outspoken dissident Guo Wengui, who remains in the U.S.
The Davis case is being handled by Hawaii’s U.S. Attorney Kenji Price and Assistant U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson, who alleged that the fundraisers met in 2017 with Chinese officials in Shenzen, China and with Jyo Low in Bangkok that same year.
The complaint described in detail the email correspondence between the American fundraisers and the Chinese and Malaysian officials.
“What they’ve laid out is almost mind boggling in complexity going all the way from Washington, D.C. to China,” Lind said.
A 1993 Punahou graduate, Davis is well known in national Republican political circles on the mainland.
After a career in entertainment industry in Los Angeles, she moved back to Hawaii around 2015 and now lives in a $3.5 million dollar home in the ultra-posh Kahala neighborhood.
“And quickly she became active again in local society circles,” said Lind.
Although she’s major backer of Republican candidates, Davis is the daughter of prominent Democratic fundraisers Gene and Nora Lum, who were active in Hawaii politics during the early 1990s, said Lind, who has written extensively about the Lum family.
In 1998, her father Gene Lum were sentenced to 10 months in jail for making illegal campaign contributions to Democratic candidates.
“They got snagged in what was an investigation into illegal fundraising ... from foreign interest that aren’t allowed to contribute,” said Lind.
Copyright 2020 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.
President Donald Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon leaves federal court, Thursday, Aug. 20, 2020, after pleading not guilty to charges that he ripped off donors to an online fundraising scheme to build a southern border wall. | AP Photo/Craig Ruttle
By MAX COHEN
08/21/2020 12:10 PM EDT
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Steve Bannon on Friday vowed to fight on after being arrested for allegedly diverting money meant for a privately funded border wall for personal expenses, labeling his indictment a “political hit job."
"I am not going to back down. This is a political hit job. Everybody knows I love a fight,” Bannon said on an episode of his show “War Room.” “I was called 'honey badger' for many years. You know, 'Honey badger doesn't give.' So, I'm in this for the long haul. I'm in this for the fight."
President Donald Trump on Thursday quickly distanced himself from his former senior adviser, hours after a federal grand jury in New York indicted Bannon on charges of money laundering and wire fraud.
Trump criticized the group Bannon was a part of, “We Build the Wall,” for interfering in a government-run endeavor to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Bannon, who was charged with three other men, pleaded not guilty to cheating donors and diverting $1 million raised by the group to another organization he controlled.
“What he said yesterday was absolutely correct,” Bannon said of his former boss. “Building the wall is a function of government. But look how much trouble President Trump has had.”
Bannon’s comments were first reported by Right Wing Watch.
Upon exiting a Manhattan courthouse on Thursday, Bannon declared his arrest a baseless political ploy designed to halt the construction of the wall — a theme he returned to on his Friday broadcast.
"This is to stop and intimidate people that have President Trump's back on building the wall. We are never going to stop pushing the wall," Bannon said."This stuff is complete nonsense. I am not going to back down one inch.”
The former top White House adviser also made light of the chaotic scene on Thursday that occurred as he left the courthouse and was swarmed by the media.
“How did I miss turning to the TV cameras and going to the print cameras? Donald Trump would never make that mistake,” Bannon said.
埃利奥特·布罗依迪
普拉斯·米歇尔
右为卢姆·戴维斯
右为爱德华·肯尼迪
罗恩·布朗
左为黄建南
