New documents show the government negotiated the controversial $80m Watergate deal directly with the Cayman Islands company founded by Energy Minister Angus Taylor. The Department failed to notify the Senate. Jommy Tee investigates the email trail between the Department, then overseen by Barnaby Joyce, and secretive Switzerland director and Taylor associate Connor Maloney.
Dumb but legal clears Taylor but blames Joyce (ODT)
The most controversial buybacks were in 2017, in the so-called “watergate” deals worth $80 million with Eastern Australia Agriculture, in Queensland’s Condamine Balonne Catchment.
The buybacks were executed under then-water minister Barnaby Joyce, who faced criticism because the parent company Eastern Australia Irrigation was domiciled in the Cayman Islands, a known tax haven, and recorded a $52 million profit from the sale.
The watergate scandal featured during last year’s federal election campaign, with speculation over Energy Minister Angus Taylor’s role in the deal with Eastern Australia, where he was co-director until 2013 when he was elected to Parliament.
via Auditor-General ‘watergate’ report finds buyback scheme didn’t ensure value
Fox News Rewriting History (ODT)
via Fox And Friends Guest Says Watergate Was Partisan Witchhunt | Crooks and Liars
“You’ve heard President Trump talk. That’s President Trump,” said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis. Richard Nixon, who resigned in the midst of the Watergate impeachment inquiry because his party began to abandon him.
“The big difference between this and Watergate is “It was a bipartisan effort and you certainly don’t have that here.”
Trump’s hold on the Republican Party makes it nearly impossible to foresee a scenario in which the GOP-controlled Senate convicts Trump if he were impeached by the Democratic-run House.
The president is acutely well aware that it’s his party alone that can protect him. In the midst of the past week’s firestorm, he tweeted to Republicans: “Stick together, play their game and fight hard Republicans.”
He later deleted the tweet.
For Trump, A High-Velocity Threat Like None He’s Ever Faced | HuffPost
olddogthoughts 