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Casey Michel

@cjcmichel.bsky.social

5.4K followers 390 following 610 posts

Dictators are a cowardly and superstitious lot. | Head of Combating Kleptocracy Program at Human Rights Foundation | Author of AMERICAN KLEPTOCRACY and FOREIGN AGENTS | Posts in personal capacity

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Casey Michel @cjcmichel.bsky.social · Mar 13

📘 📣 📘 Some fantastic news to share here: I'm writing a third book! Can't wait to work with the wonderful team at @stmartinspress.bsky.social again, on a topic that couldn't be timelier.

Welcome, one and all, to the United States of Oligarchy.

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Reposted by Casey Michel

Wendy Siegelman @wendysiegelman.bsky.social · 17h

Trump Opens the White House Doors to Foreign Regimes and Their Dirty Money

Lobbyists for foreign countries have long helped other governments influence US policy but nothing compares to the brazen corruption of the 2nd Trump administration @cjcmichel.bsky.social
www.thenation.com/article/poli...

Trump Opens the White House Doors to Foreign Regimes and Their Dirty Money

Lobbyists for foreign countries have long helped other governments influence US policy, but nothing compares to the brazen corruption of the second administration of Trump.

www.thenation.com

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Casey Michel @cjcmichel.bsky.social · 1d

Decades ago, a man named Ivy Lee jump-started the foreign lobbying industry, whitewashing the Nazis, Soviets, and Mussolini.

Nearly a century later, the industry is unlike anything we've ever seen—all of it thanks to the White House.

My latest at @thenation.com:

www.thenation.com/article/poli...

Trump Opens the White House Doors to Foreign Regimes and Their Dirty Money

Lobbyists for foreign countries have long helped other governments influence US policy, but nothing compares to the brazen corruption of the second administration of Trump.

www.thenation.com

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Casey Michel @cjcmichel.bsky.social · 5d

Every week brings a new international corruption scandal that would have defined any other presidency, but which is totally normalized under Trump.

And foreign dictatorships just keep taking advantage.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/b...

Where Mideast Envoy Pitched Peace, His Son Pitched Investors

www.nytimes.com

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Casey Michel @cjcmichel.bsky.social · 6d

Insane to me that so many of these already-wealthy American comedians would willingly take even more money from Saudi Arabian tyrants.

Talk about something that's going to haunt them the rest of their careers.

hrf.org/latest/hrf-s...

HRF statement on Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Comedy Festival

hrf.org

Casey Michel @cjcmichel.bsky.social · 8d

Kushner "sees only what Israel is creating with American weapons: a flattened ruin on a prime piece of coastland – a beachfront parking lot ready for redevelopment." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The Kushner-Blair Gaza plan is a moral atrocity – and a policy catastrophe | Josh Paul

Jared Kushner and Tony Blair’s neocolonial venture would be an incompatible transplant that would be rejected by the body

www.theguardian.com

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Casey Michel @cjcmichel.bsky.social · 8d

Putin has somehow managed to even begin killing off Russia's oil industry. “It’s essentially a long, slow goodbye for Russian oil.”

Just one strategic nightmare after another for Russia—all thanks to Putin.

www.wsj.com/world/russia...

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Casey Michel @cjcmichel.bsky.social · 8d

"At the rate they have been going in 2025, it would theoretically take the Russians around 100 years and tens of millions of casualties to conquer the rest of Ukraine. In fact, in August 2025, Russia controlled *less* of Ukraine’s territory than it did in August 2022."

www.ft.com/content/2a4d...

Why Ukraine is winning the war

Russia has failed to achieve its core aim — the destruction of the Ukrainian nation

www.ft.com

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Casey Michel @cjcmichel.bsky.social · 8d

Incredible that in 3.5 years, with hundreds of thousands of Russians dead, Putin *still* hasn't managed to conquer even the Donbas.

Just a spectacular, historic failure.

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Casey Michel @cjcmichel.bsky.social · 9d

This is phenomenal news not only for New York, but for Americans worried about foreign regimes sinking their teeth into American politics.

www.ft.com/content/50bd...

New York mayor Eric Adams abandons re-election bid

Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo will now face off in city’s November poll

www.ft.com

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Casey Michel @cjcmichel.bsky.social · 11d

Really in shocking just how little work Western scholars have done on Sakha. Massive landmass, clearly non-Russian, obvious history as a separate nation, substantial natural resource wealth—and renewed agitation for autonomy.

Wild how little scholarly work has been done on it.

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Reposted by Casey Michel

Dan Friedman @dfriedman.bsky.social · 13d

Israeli settlers have an influential lobbyist working in Washington to push the Trump administration to okay annexation of the West Bank. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

The settlers' man in Washington

How Yossi Dagan is pushing US lawmakers to support Israeli annexation of the West Bank.

www.motherjones.com

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Casey Michel @cjcmichel.bsky.social · 13d

Still can't believe this is real.

Completely gutting all the momentum toward clamping down on these citizenship-for-sale schemes.

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Casey Michel @cjcmichel.bsky.social · 13d

This new Trump visa scheme has multiple tiers: "Trump Gold Card," "Trump Platinum Card," etc.

For anyone with at least $1 million, American residency can be now officially be bought.

trumpcard.gov

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Casey Michel @cjcmichel.bsky.social · 13d

There's now an official U.S. governmental website hawking the "Trump gold card" visa scheme—selling American residency to any kleptocrat, cartel head, or oligarch who can afford it.

trumpcard.gov

Trump Gold Card

Available now.

trumpcard.gov

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Casey Michel @cjcmichel.bsky.social · 15d

"The way out isn't about left versus right; it's about clean versus corrupt, reform versus a rigged system, the people versus oligarchs." data4democracy.substack.com/p/the-democr...

The Democrats' Path Forward: Become the Anti-Corruption Party

But to reform the system they first need to reform the Democratic Party.

data4democracy.substack.com

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Casey Michel @cjcmichel.bsky.social · 15d

Democrats should build their future policy platform against one clear idea: anti-corruption.

And this should go not just for domestic policy, but for foreign policy as well.

Writing on the topic with Trevor Sutton and Matt Duss for @foreignaffairs.com:

www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

The Anticorruption Angle

Democrats should build a foreign policy around fighting graft.

www.foreignaffairs.com

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Reposted by Casey Michel

Noah Shachtman @noahshachtman.bsky.social · 17d

If you want to understand this Trump administration's rampant corruption ... you have to go back to Eric Adams, and how they made the case against him disappear.

I got a bunch of new details on this deep dive for @nytimes.com ...

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/o...

Opinion | Eric Adams, Donald Trump and the Case That Broke American Justice

www.nytimes.com

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Casey Michel @cjcmichel.bsky.social · 17d

Yes! www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

The Anticorruption Angle

Democrats should build a foreign policy around fighting graft.

www.foreignaffairs.com

Casey Michel @cjcmichel.bsky.social · 19d

It was an honor to speak at @foxrothschild.bsky.social's annual White-Collar Symposium this week, focused on everything from foreign lobbying and offshore networks to modern kleptocracy and democratic decline. A conference that couldn't be timelier.

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Reposted by Casey Michel

Evan @evan7257.bsky.social · 21d

Trump sells out to the UAE, and the USA pays the price | Opinion www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outl...

From crypto billions to computer chips, Trump is selling out U.S. security

Casey Michel writes that a UAE crypto and chip deal shows Trump using the presidency for profit and putting America in danger.

www.houstonchronicle.com

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