This made me laugh this morning. It’s like the plot of very bad pulp fiction.
But buried in Trump’s 1699-page report was something much weirder. The Trump campaign made $35,000 in payments to an entity called “Draper Sterling” for “web advertising.” Three $10,000 payments and one $5,000 payment were placed on the campaign’s American Express card on the same day.
I thought it was just going to be someone stupidly embezzling money….oh, it is so much better.
Draper Sterling was registered with the New Hampshire Secretary of State to Jon Adkins, the co-founder of a medical device startup. Its headquarters is Adkins’ home address in residential New Hampshire.
===
Adkins co-founded the medical device company with Paul Holzer, a former Navy Seal and current medical student at Dartmouth. Holzer was involved in Charlie Baker’s run for governor in 2014 — he ran the campaign’s “voter contact strategy.” He was also part of the “management and strategy team” for Missourians For John Brunner, a candidate for governor.
Trump paid an additional $3,000 each to Holzer and Adkins in May for “field consulting.” Holzer listed Adkins’ home as his address.
This is when things get interesting.
The only other apparent public mention of Draper Sterling effectively accuses it of being a scam that helps perpetrate legally questionable activity.
It comes from an FEC complaint against an entity called “Patriots For America,” a federal super PAC seeking to influence the Missouri governor’s race
Patriots for America is run by Adam McLain, who is Paul Holzer’s brother.
And here is where it goes down the rabbit hole and an excerpt doesn’t quite capture the absurdity.
To recap, there is a nexus between Jon Adkins, Paul Holzer and Adam McLain that meets at the mysterious Draper Sterling. We still aren’t sure what Draper Sterling actually does but these individuals are going to considerable lengths to obfuscate their activities.
The only other apparent public mention of Draper Sterling effectively accuses it of being a scam that helps perpetrate legally questionable activity.
This is where things get really weird.
The number listed by McLain for “Patriots For America” forwards to a voicemail for Grace’s Grantham Cafe, a New Hampshire coffee shop that, according to its website, was supposed to open on Memorial Day. Grace’s Grantham Cafe is registered to Jon Adkins, the same person who registered Draper Sterling.
When ThinkProgress called Grace’s Grantham Cafe directly on the number listed on its website, Adam McLain answered. (McLain’s super PAC filing says he lives Virginia.)
Asked about his connection to Draper Sterling and what services it provided to his super PAC, McLain said he had “no comment.” Asked whether Grace’s Grantham Cafe was a real cafe that has opened, McLain said he had “no comment.” Asked whether Paul Holzer was his brother, McLain also said he had “no comment.” McLain said he didn’t find the questions “relevant.”
You have to read the whole thing to see how totally bizarre it is. Websites are disappearing and reappearing, mysterious restaurants that don’t exist, and now it looks like they are going to pin it all on Corey Lewandowski.
I must stock up on popcorn.
Calouste
Telling you, they’re not going through all this farce for a mere $35,000.
Patricia Kayden
Good that the media (or some parts thereof) are delving into the messiness that surrounds Trump’s incompetent campaign. This should be fun when we get a movie like Game Change out of this drama. I cannot stand Mark Halperin but Game Change is a great movie inasmuch as it captures Palin’s craziness.
LAO
@shomi: I think that the word you are looking for is AMUSED not SURPRISED, AMAZED, SHOCKED.
AnotherBruce
Good God, this is the second time I’ve read this, and I still don’t know what’s going on. Trump has been involved in quite a few cluster fucks in his time, hasn’t he? This one is especially inane.
WarMunchkin
I’d laugh if these people werent guaranteed financial security for the rest of their lives due to shit like this.
cmorenc
Unless there’s a dead girl or a live boy found in bed with Trump somewhere in there, I doubt any otherwise corrupt revelations that come from this will make any difference- it’s too convoluted for the length of contemporary media coverage when there’s visually more straightforward compelling circus acts going on with the Trump campaign. OTOH if it turns out the payments are hush money to keep quiet that these guys are in the know about something like Trump receiving blow jobs from his daughter, it’s game on.
Mike J
@Calouste:
$35k was enough for Trump to buy the attorneys general of Texas and Florida.
boatboy_srq
@Calouste: we’ve only found out about $35k. FSM knows has actually disappeared down that rabbit hole.
burnspbesq
Amateur hour, money laundering division.
Bex
Somebody in this mess loves TV drama shows. First Draper Sterling, then a “café” named after Lord Grantham on Downton Abbey.
TaMara (HFG)
@Bex: I didn’t even catch that! Perfect.
Monkeyfister
Willing to bet this all leads directly back to the Russian hacking job. These are Trump’s Plumbers. Just as stupid as Nixon’s were.
Chyron HR
@shomi:
BREAKING: Guy who declared war on this site in 2011 for not believing Representative Weiner when he lied about sending ladies pictures of his Anthony continues to hold insane grudge five years later.
maryQ
“It wasn’t a lie, it was ineptitude with insufficient cover.” Season one, Marriage of Figaro
TaMara (HFG)
@shomi: Reading comprehension isn’t your strong suit.
MomSense
@burnspbesq:
Seems like it.
dmsilev
@Calouste:
There was a payment in the FEC report of something like $1.5 million to an outfit called “Morning in America” for ‘ballot access consulting’. Is it really that difficult to get on the ballots of all of the states, or is this just another leech sucking up money (a lot of money by Trump-campaign standards; more than he spent on hats, even)?
Mike J
Fuck Trump. Real leaders are working right now. Turn on CSPAN
different-church-lady
I feel completely naive when it comes to stuff like this.
Recently I got a bankruptcy notice in the mail regarding a media company I did three days of work for back in February. They had paid me and the check had already cleared, but it was quite chilling to read the thing and think about having a couple of thousand dollars just disappear out of my income. But the thing that was really amazing was that the notice listed about 30 (thirty!) different company names involved in this one filing. At first I didn’t see any that I recognized, and I had to flip to page 2 before I got to a section where there were eight (8!) separate company names that were all minor variations on the company I had worked for.
Mike in DC
I didn’t see the Trump speech today. Got the gist of it. It’s dishonest and incoherent of course, but is it politically effective? That is, how much benefit, if any, will he get out of it?
RSA
From the TP article:
Even their bios reek of grift. “Paul Holzer, MD1” is still in med school, and “Jon Adkins, MBA1” is still in business school.
The Honorable RSA1
ETA: Damn, no superscripts.
lgerard
Interesting
The address for Xeno Therapeutics Inc., the medical device startup is a small apartment in Boston’s North End
? Martin
Let’s see how the ‘we need someone who knows how to run a business running this country’ rationale shows up as this campaign goes on.
nonynony
@cmorenc:
Best possible outcome of this and the “Morning in America” payout? The narrative that the Trump campaign might be getting swindled by people smarter than Trump is. After all that’s one of his selling points, right? He’s the guy who knows all the angles and will get the US the “best deal”.
I bet it turns out his campaign overspent on cheap red hats too. Because the man has no concept of really getting a good deal, he just knows how to bluster. Anyone who knows his blustery approach can probably play him like a fiddle and walk out of the room with more than Trump wanted to give up but with Trump positive that he got the best end of the deal.
ETA: I see @? Martin has the same idea I did…
Josie
@Monkeyfister:
I’d like for some enterprising journalist to investigate whether Manafort’s fingerprints are on the Russian hacking job. It is interesting that the Trump file was the main one lifted from the DNC database.
MattF
I guess that being an expert in conspiracies works both ways. But I am irked that they keep blaming Democrats for conspiracies– it ain’t fair.
Chip Daniels
I have this great investment opportunity in popcorn futures- its TREMENDOUS, let me tell you, you won’t believe how much popcorn futures are going to be worth. There is an UNPRECEDENTED, PERFECT STORM of OPPORTUNITY for those who want to invest- its unbelievable, trust me!
LAO
@Mike J: Can’t watch, but am following on twitter.
different-church-lady
@RSA: Both still there when I just punched it up:
http://xenotherapeutics.org/our-team/
Just did a screen grab.
different-church-lady
I can haz demoderation pleez. (For one lousy link, no less…)
Adam L Silverman
@RSA: I was just about to say: check out Holzer’s bio. Both his MD and his MBA are uncompleted, but he claims them as credentials. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve seen stuff like this done by people in the military – either for themselves or for others. In some cases its they simply don’t understand the difference between being ABD or having a completed PhD. There’s some sort of civilian credential blind spot.
Villago Delenda Est
It’s all about the grift with these assholes. None of them believe in honest work.
NotMax
Kind of surprised the producers of Mad Men didn’t trademark the name.
TaMara (HFG)
@Mike J: I’ve been trying to find a live link to FP it. No luck so far.
aimai
@Mike J: OMG I love that man. Love him.
aimai
@different-church-lady: Wow. That’s pretty fradulent fraud right there. Also: Geisel school of medicine? Is that like where Dr. Seuss went to get his MD?
Ella in New Mexico
@Calouste:
@Monkeyfister:
@Josie:
These three thoughts really put the almost incomprehensible story into perspective.
Seriously, is there a single Republican campaign out there that is not just one big pyramid/money laundering scheme? Here’s hoping they went too far for the law to ignore them this time. And that they keep the information simple enough that the average Trump voter can understand that he’s pretty much a fucking common criminal who lives in a gilded mansion.
sigaba
@Villago Delenda Est: Hard work is for suckers. The real money is in getting yourself appointed to a sinecure or selling $100 staplers through ginned-up contracts, or stock arbitrage or a million other little rentierisms. A lot of people think this is wrong but accept it anyways.
Adam L Silverman
@LAO: The House Leadership, as in the GOP leadership, turned the cameras off. They also have now declared the House is in recess. This is similar to what was pulled when Delay was Majority Leader in the 00s. Democrats wouldn’t be told were reconciliation committees were meeting or told the wrong rooms. When Democrats would schedule rooms for their own meetings or to meet with subject matter experts or the press, the GOP House leadership would instruct the physical plant folks to turn off the power to those rooms – so no A/C or heat or lights or sound systems. Or they’d just have them locked out and occasionally locked in.
The Dangerman
How much hookers and blow can you get for $35K? Asking for a friend.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@aimai: Dartmouth’s med school, says teh Google. When I saw it, I remembered an article mentioned where it was.
boatboy_srq
@? Martin: @nonynony: We already had the “CEO pResidency” in Shrub. As we know how well that turned out. Are memories really THAT short? (Don’t answer that)
Adam L Silverman
@TaMara (HFG): The House Studios, controlled by the House Leadership, which is the GOP leadership, shut the cameras off and has gaveled/declared the House to be in recess.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@Mike in DC: From what I can tell from the early reports is that there was nothing new. Just Trump calling Hillary crooked and a liar and blaming her for things that the Right has been blaming her for for years.
If the media does nothing except talk about the same charges over and over then it might have an effect but chances are the new cycle will big-foot whatever he had to say and it will fade into the ether.
Rehashing old bullshit isn’t going to do it for Trump. He needs to hit Hillz with someone new that will excite the press. Blaming her Benghazi again won’t get it done.
boatboy_srq
@Adam L Silverman: Any remaining presumption that Ryan isn’t just like all the other GOTea “leaders” of the past just went out the window.
Jamey
Here to say that that’s a pretty fucking good title for this blogpost.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mike in DC: Rehash of all the previous idiotic right wing memes about Hillary Clinton. Alex Jones probably helped put it together.
SiubhanDuinne
@aimai:
Close. It was actually named for him and his wife (Wikipedia):
Villago Delenda Est
@Ella in New Mexico: Drumpf doesn’t even have the audacious chutzpah to say, as Hans Gruber did, that he’s an exceptional thief.
LAO
@Adam L Silverman: Good to see that the GOP leadership remains a classy bunch.
Brachiator
All very byzantine. Is somebody going to jail, soon?
Villago Delenda Est
@MattF: Always projection with these assholes. Always.
cintibud
Was waiting for an open thread, but since it involves a Trump follower, maybe still on topic:
Trump inspires man to trash his business.
For those who don’t usually click on links in the comments (like me) here is the quick story. Owner of restaurant in backwoods SE Tennessee close to a popular whitewater river is inspired by Trump to run for congress as an independent. Like Trump, he knows how to attract attention. Like Trump, he doesn’t care what type of attention as his campaign recently erected a huge (sp) billboard proclaiming “Make America White Again”
The Whitewater Grill is very close to the Ocoee river, site of the whitewater competition in the 96 Olympics. The river is one of the most heavily used in the US as it features constant class 3-4 rapids, runs along a major highway and features quick but intense commercial rafting trips that allow for vacationeers to take a few hours out of their schedule to walk up and get on the river. It is also a focus for private whitewater boaters as the advanced-intermediate rapids allow kayakers and canoers to hone their skill for tougher and more remote runs. Water (grudgingly) provided by TVA allows the river to run all summer, long after all natural flow whitewater rivers have dried up. The tourism IS the local economy, providing many jobs that would not otherwise exist in this rural location.
In general, tourists are more affluent, come from bigger cities and do not like blatant racism. Most private boaters tend to lean liberal and many don’t care for non-blatant racism either. There have been many calls to boycott the Whitewater Grill and the news is spreading rapidly throughout the whitewater community. I predict the business will close or be sold by the end of the season.
TaMara (HFG)
@Adam L Silverman: I found a youtube of the opening statement. And a CNN link to the story, so I front paged it. Fuck house rethugs for being fuckers. (sorry, I’m just so over them, they have blood on their hands – not just from gun violence, but on climate change and every other thing they have stalled and opposed that put people at risk).
Adam L Silverman
@boatboy_srq: He seems to be in better physical shape. Also, he sleeps in his office and cleans up in the House gym’s locker rooms because he won’t even get an apartment in the DC area.
Adam L Silverman
@SiubhanDuinne: If you go to a doctor who got his MD there do you have to start your request with: “Would you, could you take a look? I may have possibly swallowed a hook?”
Villago Delenda Est
@TaMara (HFG): Over 4,000 American servicemen and women, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, too.
Eric U.
@The Dangerman: really depends on the class of the hookers, I think. I’m sure a night with someone like the person that got Spitzer in trouble could easily run you through $35k if you take them out to a fancy restaurant.
Villago Delenda Est
@Adam L Silverman: /highfive
Adam L Silverman
@TaMara (HFG): Tell us how you really feel?
cintibud
Having trouble with the link, will try again
http://newschannel9.com/news/local/congressional-candidates-controversial-billboard-has-polk-county-abuzz
Adam L Silverman
@cintibud: That’s like that guy in upstate NY who ran a King Obama breakfast special at his restaurant. The meal was $3.99 with $29.95 of taxes. Got a ton of publicity, the owner is big Trump supporter, believes all sorts of bigoted things about the President and his wife. Someone started digging into this guy. Turns out he was involved in a decent sized medicaid fraud. So now he’s losing his restaurant and he and his wife are headed to jail.
Stratplayer
@TaMara (HFG): Grantham is a town in NH. That’s the more likely connection.
cintibud
@Adam L Silverman: Yep, but at least that guy could state he was trying to make a point about taxes – this guy is just straight up white supremacist.
Good to see Karma bite though
Adam L Silverman
@cintibud: I fixed it. What you had done also captured the reply button, so if you hit reply, it started to give you a response and then took you right to the article. I’ll email Alain again, but there’s something not right with the embed link button/function. I always just use naked links and hit return. No problems ever. Other’s indicate that when they do that they wind up either in moderation or WP eats their comments. We clearly have a glitch.
Villago Delenda Est
@cintibud: Racist asshole needs to put the blame on his ancestors, who imported in all that slave labor.
cintibud
@Adam L Silverman: Thanks Adam, naked links for now!
Jeffro
@cintibud: I was about to say the same thing…there’s karma, and then. There Is. KARMA.
TaMara (HFG)
@Adam L Silverman: And today’s intertoobs goes to you sir, with a tip of my hat.
nonynony
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:
And here is one of the secret strengths of a Clinton campaign – the lack of novelty in the attacks mounted against her. Everyone has heard everything that Republicans have lobbed at Clinton before. We’ve literally been listening to it for decades. None of it ever sticks, usually it turns out to be completely fabricated and, where it isn’t completely fabricated, it’s overblown by the right to where whatever infraction might be there pales to what the right insists is actually there (like the e-mail scandal – a stupid mistake for the State Department to make, but not nearly the level of criminality the GOP has been braying about for years).
Without a new, novel allegation, there’s nothing to report. And even new allegations are going to be hard to come up with because the Demon Hillary has been accused of everything from financial crimes to cheating on Bill with Vince Foster to lesbian affairs to abetting drug smuggling to treason in her role of SoS to outright murder. What are you going to come up with that is sensational enough and horrible enough to get folks to be shocked at this point? Even the national Enquirer is stumped for new allegations and is just recycling golden oldies at this point. Even if Trump tries to make up some new rumor about her – how’s it going to be big enough to be worse than anything else she’s been accused of that doesn’t really matter to people?
nonynony
@cintibud:
I thought that maybe – maybe – this was an idiot whose name was White and maybe – maybe – he didn’t realize what he was doing.
Nope.
His name’s Rick Tyler. And he has other billboards and plans for billboards:
* A second sign used words from Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech along with an illustration of the Confederate flag surrounding the White House.
* “Fight federal tyranny / Stop the Muslim invasion”
and the very classy
* “Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be miscegenators.”
A real peach that guy. Whitewater Grill in Ocoee, TN folks – I would assume that it will become a place where the local white supremacists hang out to push back against the town’s boycott (if it isn’t already the place where the local white supremacists hang out).
Alain the site fixer
@Adam L Silverman: I’ll take a look. Updates coming tomorrow so I’ll try to wrap it into that.
lgerard
@nonynony:
He might want to remove the Wednesday taco special from his menu though
cintibud
@nonynony: I’ve eaten there many times after getting off the river. Seemed like a nice, family place. One can never tell. At least his son put up a FB post decrying what his father was doing and pretty much saying he was off his rocker. Thanksgiving dinner must be a good time at the Scotts.
Ocoee is a tourist spot in an otherwise empty area. Not enough white supremacists to keep that place afloat with the other restaurants in the area. I’ve seen several rafting companies post that they can no longer recommend the place to their customers. This guy really screwed the pooch IMO
Adam L Silverman
@Alain the site fixer: Thanks!
Adam L Silverman
@cintibud: I’m pretty sure I’ve eaten there too.
Brachiator
@nonynony:
This is not the first time that this piece of scum has crawled up out of his hole.
Hopefully, he will be flushed down the drain again this election cycle.
ciotog
Once again Pete Campbell is overlooked. “Not great, Bob!”
mr_gravity
@different-church-lady: Nothing says amateur hour like a website with “coming soon” on the front page.
mr_gravity
@The Dangerman: Almost enough to get you through the convention.
J R in WV
@Adam L Silverman:
I’ve never had a problem with using the link /link buttons, except for during the upgrade when things were changing rapidly. You do need to hit the unlink button (the link a second time) to wrap up the end of the link properly, after you include the raw text to become the linky part.
cintibud
@Adam L Silverman:
Have you been down the Ocoee Adam?
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
Waiting to hear where John Miller and John Barron fit in.
Adam L Silverman
@J R in WV: I just copy and paste the link in and hit return. Regardless, Alain is on it.
BruceFromOhio
I’ve seen multiple references to this entire campaign seeming like an episode of Leverage.
Basic rule: It’s not a con if no one gets the cash. Grifters gotta grift!
Adam L Silverman
@cintibud: Yes, long, long time ago. I did my undergrad at Emory and went on one trip down part of it my freshman or sophomore year. But I’ve driven through that area several times when not white water rafting.
The last white water rafting I did was back in 2005. I was up at Colorado State for a week or so and several of us did the Poudre River. I got pitched from the raft at one point, got the woman who also got pitched and was a bit twitchy about the whole thing to the raft, just as the current picked us back up, put my feet down river, and did the rapids on my back! It was a hell of a non-water park slide!
Edward Marshall
Why would a man with small hands be funneling money to the doctors behind America’s first penis transplant? I have no opinion, but there’s something going on. Either Trump doesn’t get it or he gets it better than anybody understands. It’s one or the other. It’s strange. I’m not saying Trump is getting a penis transplant and if he is, that’s his business. I’ve heard other people are saying it. I don’t know. We know something’s go on. We know Trump has small hands. The American public can figure it out if the mainstream press is going to ignore the 800 pound penis in the room.
Edward Marshall
Someone please get my comment out of moderation? I amused myself with it anyway!
quakerinabasement
Grantham Cafe? Apparently fans of Downton Abbey as well as Mad Men.
cintibud
@Adam L Silverman: NIce!
Marc in AZ
@nonynony: Dont forget the one about hanging sex toys on the White House Christmas tree. (R)’s ran through all their original material years ago, so they’ll just have to slap a new coat of paint on it and hope nobody remembers the 90’s. Oh wait, that would be our national press corpse which would have no recollection of three days ago, let alone the 90’s…