File 026652

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From: Kathy Ruemmler
Sent: 1/24/2017 4:21:55 PM
To: jeffrey E. [jeeyacation@gmail.com]
Subject: Fwd: Press: Heatstreat- 'Shady' Israeli Mogul Hires Ex-White House Counsel To Represent Employee Arrested in
Inauguration Day Riot, Raising Questions
Attachments: image001.jpg; image005.jpg; image004.jpg; image003.jpg; image007.jpg; image008.jpg; image002.jpg; image006.jpg
Importance: High
Look at this craziness.
Begin forwarded message:
From: <____________________________
Date: January 24, 2017 at 10:54:59 AM EST
To: <
Subject: FW: Press: Heatstreat- 'Shady' Israeli Mogul Hires Ex-White House Counsel To Represent
Employee Arrested in Inauguration Day Riot, Raising Questions
From: Zuieback, Jamie (DC) <
Date: Tuesday, Jan 24, 2017, 10:37 AM
To: Ruemmler, Kathy (DC) < >>
Subject: RE: Press: Heatstreat- 'Shady' Israeli Mogul Hires Ex-White House Counsel To Represent Employee
Arrested in Inauguration Day Riot, Raising Questions
I'm dying to hear about your weekend. I can't take credit, but I heard someone say that you handling this was
like asking your buddies if they had anyone who could fill in for a pick-up game, and somebody sends over
LeBron.
From: Ruemmler, Kathy (DC)
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2017 10:24 AM
To: Glick, Jamie (DC); Kurlander, Stuart (DC)
Cc: Zuieback, Jamie (DC); Alexander, Kimberly (DC)
Subject: RE: Press: Heatstreat- 'Shady' Israeli Mogul Hires Ex-White House Counsel To Represent Employee
Arrested in Inauguration Day Riot, Raising Questions
Gotta love the conspiracy theorists
From: Glick, Jamie (DC) <____________
Date: Tuesday, Jan 24, 2017, 10:04 AM
To: Ruemmler, Kathy (DC) < >, Kurlander,
Stuart (DC) <
Cc: Zuieback, Jamie (DC) < >, Alexander,
Kimberly (DC) <>>
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Subject: Press: Heatstreat- 'Shady' Israeli Mogul Hires Ex-White House Counsel To Represent Employee
Arrested in Inauguration Day Riot, Raising Questions
Hi Kathy and Stuart,
You may have already seen this article, but sharing it just in case you haven't. Please let us know if we can be
of any help coordinating with the client's PR firm, which Stuart mentioned that you were doing yesterday.
According to Wikipedia, "Heat Street is a libertarian conservative news, opinion and commentary website.
Launched in February 2016, the website is headed by U.S. based British writer and former politician Louise
Mensch. It is owned by News Corp under Dow Jones & Company."
Thanks,
Jamie
'Shady' Israeli Mogul Hires Ex-White House Counsel To Represent Employee Arrested in Inauguration Day
Riot, Raising Questions<http://heatst.com/politics/shady-israeli-mogul-hires-ex-white-house-counsel-to-
represent-employee-arrested-in-inauguration-day-riot-raising-questions/>
By Heat Street Staffl 6:36 pm, January 23, 2017
The mystery surrounding a would-be media magnate — who owns surveillance and security firms working for
repressive regimes — is growing.
The questions about Matania (Mati) Kochavi were sparked again this weekend when Kathryn Ruemmler, who
until recently was President Obama's White House Counsel, showed up on Saturday morning in local
Washington DC court to represent one of the 217 people arrested for rioting on Inauguration Day.
[http://heatst.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/ruemmler-obamajpg?w=300]Kathryn Ruemmler and client.
Ms. Ruemmler said she was there to represent a journalist, on assignment for the media company
Vocativ<http://www.vocativ.com/>, who'd gotten swept up with the protesters in the arrests.
Vocativ is owned by Kochavi. Reporters at the courthouse asked why a big gun like Ruemmler, who has long
been a specialist in corporate crime, would show up for what would seem to be a misunderstanding involving a
journalist doing his job.
Ms. Ruemmler told Buzzfeed that Vocativ is a client of her
firm,<http s ://www.buzz feed. co m/zo etillman/pro s ecutors-pursue-rioting- charges- over-inauguration- day-
pro?utm term=.gtPej4zonti.cgyzaBvG2> Latham & Watkins. The firm is one of the most prestigious law shops
in New York and Washington with partners such as Ruemmler<https://www.lw.com/people/kathrynruemmler>
charging thousands of dollars an hour.
She did look somewhat out of place among the lawyers there to defend anarchists and other alleged
troublemakers who are charged with rioting, burning a limo and smashing up stores on the streets of the capital.
"The individuals charged were generally brought in front of the judge in groups of 10 and were represented by a
cadre of public defenders and other court-appointed lawyers," according to Buzzfeed. That was not the case
when it came to Vocativ.
Based in New York and Tel Aviv, Vocativ publishes mostly reprints of health studies, aggregated videos for
Facebook, and female focused feature pieces. The company which employs a large team of US journalists and
ex-Israeli intelligence operatives, claims to use technology from the intelligence world to source its stories.
Indeed its founder, Kochavi, has a background in Israeli intelligence, having made his fortune providing
security and military grade public safety solutions to the superrich Emirate of Abu Dhabi through an entity
called AGT.
[http ://heatst. com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/abu-dhabi-mosque.jp g?w=300] The Grand Mosque of Abu
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Dhabi
AGT was responsible for installing a "unique civil surveillance network in Abu Dhabi that means 'every person
is monitored from the moment they leave their doorstep to the moment they return to it,' according to the noted
security publication MiddleEastEye.<http ://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uae-israel-surveillance-2104952769>
The invasive system is dubbed "Falcon Eye".
Kochavi also owns Israeli security and private intelligence firms 3iMind and Logic Industries. Like Vocativ,
3iMind claims to use "the deep web" to mine information, though in 3iMind's case it provides spy services, not
journalistic ones. 3iMind even advertises online that it will spy on "the planning and execution of violent civil
unrest" for clients.<https://www.3i-mind.com/use cases/political-social-unrest/>
The website for Kochavi's mother company<https://www.agtinternational.com/about/>, AGT, claims its current
business is using "Internet of Things" technology for entertainment and "fashion" applications in partnership
with the giant talent agency WME-IMG ... though it's unclear what any of these applications really
are<http://www.euroleague.net/final-four/berlin-2016/news/i/6vokoibj5fsgqg4q/heed-the-event-platform-based-
joint-venture-between-wme-img-and-agt-international-makes-first-official-foray-into-sports>, and certainly
what value they provide for entertainment. Security experts say Internet of Things type sensors could be tied
together to monitor crowds for security purposes.
According to Israeli and U.S. Jewish publications, the lines within Kochavi's companies can blur, with Vocativ
employees doing work for 3iMind and Logic, and vice versa. So who was this "journalist" arrested amid the
unrest on Inauguration Day? Was he actually doing journalism? Or, as some journalists around town have been
asking, could he also have been doing surveillance of anti-Trump demonstrators on behalf of an Arab or Israeli
client, possibly a foreign government?
[http ://heatst. com/wp-
content/up lo ads/2017/01/aaeaaqaaaaaaaaq5 aaaaj dq3mjuxmgu2ltg5nj mtndilmclhzmrhltllyj kynz e5 zj lj mg. j p g?w
=300]Kochavi employee Evan Engel (LinkedIn)
A call to Ruemmler was returned by someone identifying himself as a Vocativ spokesperson. He told Heat
Street that the arrested employee, Evan Engel, was doing purely journalistic work at the time he was detained.
"The arrest, detainment and rioting charge against journalist Evan Engel who was covering the protests for
Vocativ are an affront to the First Amendment and journalistic freedom," the spokesperson said. "Vocativ will
vigorously contest this unfounded and outrageous charge."
Kochavi has taken pains to put a different face, unrelated to spying and surveillance, on his American activities.
Vocativ acts like a news organization, though it's made little splash (and gets remarkably little web
traffic<http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/vocativ.com>) for an operation so large and expensive.
Kochavi has also shown little hesitation to pay top dollar for access to the most powerful figures in America to
provide legitimacy for his American activities. Last fall's Wikipedia data dump revealed that he and his
longtime business partner, New York rainmaking lawyer Mary Edelman, offered Bill Clinton millions of dollars
to serve as honorary chairman of the company that would become Vocativ. <http://heatst.com/biz/wikileaks-
bill-clinton-turned-down-8-million-to-be-honorary-chairman-of-news-site-vocativ/> Clinton turned them down,
perhaps nervous about Kochavi who's been described as "a mysterious even somewhat shady character" and the
Israeli "version of the old-fashioned arms dealer with a suit and an MBA" by the progressive Jewish blog
Tikkun Olam.<https://www.richardsilverstein.com/2014/12/04/israeli-cyber-security-merchant-peddles-wares-
secretly-in-united-arab-emirates/>
[http://heatst.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/akochavivivian.jpg?w=260]Matania Kochavi (C) shown with
Vivian Schiller (L) chair of Vocativ's executive committee and Danna Rabin (R) AGT's chief operations
officer.
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And now Kochavi has purchased the services of President Obama's former White House counsel, Ruemmler,
whose name was once on the shortlist<http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-ruemmler-attorney-general-nixed-
20141024-story.html> for US attorney general. It's a fair question to ask: why was Ruemmler really down in
local DC court on a Saturday morning? Why was getting this Vocativ employee off the hook such a high
priority? And what, if any, other services has Ruemmler, the corporate crime expert, been providing to Kochavi
and his various intelligence operations around the world?
Ruemmler herself has not returned requests for comment.
From: Glick, Jamie (DC)
Sent: Monday, January 23, 2017 6:03 PM
To: Ruemmler, Kathy (DC)
Subject: Press: Buzzfeed and NY Post- Prosecutors Charge Protesters With Rioting Over Inauguration Day
Protests
Hi Kathy,
In case you haven't seen, below are a couple of articles and tweets which mention your representation of a
journalist employed by Vocativ.
Thanks,
Jamie
Jamie C. Glick
Public Relations Specialist
LATHAM & WATKINS LLP
555 Eleventh Street, NW
Suite 1000
Washington, D.C. 20004-1304
Direct Dial: +
Fax:
Email:
Prosecutors Charge Protesters With Rioting Over Inauguration Day
Protests<http s ://www.buzz feed. com/zo etillman/pro s ecutors-pursue-rioting-charges-over- inauguration-day-
pro?utm term=.mxL7rr54B2#.ygykppRw0v>
More than 200 people are being charged with felony rioting — a charge that carries a maximum sentence of 10
years in jail — after they were arrested during anti-Trump demonstrations on Inauguration Day in DC.
posted on Jan. 21, 2017, at 8:33 p.m.
[Zoe Tillman]<https://www.buzzfeed.com/zoetillman?language=en>
Zoe Tillman<https://www.buzzfeed.com/zoetillman?language=en>
BuzzFeed News Reporter
[https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2017-01/21/10/asset/buzzfeed-prod-web-09/sub-buzz-24787-
1485014343-1.jpg?resize=990:806]
A man arrested during protests in DC on Jan. 20 waits to board a police van. Zoe Tillman / BuzzFeed News
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WASHINGTON — As hundreds of thousands of demonstrators
gathered<https://www.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeednews/womens-
march?utm term=.wra9MGEmBAgtOrQXPW34> on the National Mall to protest President Trump on
Saturday, people arrested<https://www.buzzfeed.com/zoetillman/rioters-and-police-are-clash-during-trumps-
inauguration> the day before during anti-Trump protests in downtown Washington, DC, made their first
appearance in court.
Prosecutors are pursuing charges against all of the 230 people arrested on Friday for rioting, according to the
US attorney's office in DC. Although anti-Trump demonstrations on inauguration day were largely peaceful,
some turned violent, with participants breaking storefront windows, throwing bricks at police, and running
through streets and parks downtown as they were chased by police.
The arraignment hearing at DC Superior Court began on Saturday around 1 p.m. and was still going six hours
later. As of 7 p.m., 80 people arrested and charged with felony rioting had come before a judge. The court was
expected to continue the hearing through the night until everyone arrested on Friday came through.
The defendants processed so far were released until their next court dates, with the condition that they not be
arrested again in DC in the meantime.
Felony rioting is a crime under DC law that carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail and a fine of up to
$25,000. According to police, six officers were injured in confrontations with demonstrators on Jan. 20, and
three of those officers sustained minor head injuries after objects were thrown at them. The DC law defines
felony rioting as a group of at least five people who, "by tumultuous and violent conduct and the threat thereof,"
cause "serious bodily harm" or property damage valued at more than $5,000.
A 21-year-old Texas man was also charged with pointing a laser at at US Park Police helicopter during the
protests on Friday. He was arraigned in Superior Court but the case is being moved to federal court.
The individuals charged with rioting were generally brought in front of the judge in groups of 10 and were
represented by a cadre of public defenders and other court-appointed lawyers. One exception came early in the
hearing, when former White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler entered an appearance for one of the
defendants. Ruemmler said her client was a journalist on assignment filming the demonstrations who was swept
up in the arrests.
Ruemmler served as President Obama's White House counsel for three years before going to the law firm
Latham & Watkins. Ruemmler told reporters outside of the courtroom that her firm represents Vocativ, the
media company that employed her client, which is how she got involved.
Dozens of people came to the courthouse on Saturday to support the arrestees. They cheered as defendants left
the courtroom; some of the defendants were walking slowly to keep their shoes on because they had to remove
their shoelaces after being arrested. The defendants were held by police overnight.
[https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2017-01/21/20/asset/buzzfeed-prod-web-15/sub-buzz-1449-
1485047203-1.jpg?resize=990:743]
Zoe Tillman / BuzzFeed News
By Saturday night, a crowd had gathered outside the courthouse to greet the arrestees, cheering and applauding
as they came out. A line of police formed in between the group and the courthouse entrance, and police were
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screening people trying to go inside.
Several lawyers offered a preview of their defense strategy during the hearing, arguing that the rioting charge
should be dismissed because prosecutors hadn't shown that each defendant was specifically involved in the
rioting described in charging documents. Although the defendants were brought out in groups before the judge,
they're individually charged.
One lawyer argued that the US attorney's office should recuse from prosecuting the cases because the
defendants were charged with participating in anti-Trump riots and Trump was now in charge of the US
Department of Justice.
"I appreciate all the creative arguments," Magistrate Judge Rainey Brandt said in response, but she said that at
this early stage of the case she only had to find that the government had shown probable cause to move the
cases forward.
The defendants are due back in court on various dates in February and March.
1. [https://pbs.twimg.com/profile images/1849163545/Zoe Tillman_photol bigger.jpg] Zoe Tillman
@ZoeTillman <https://twitter.com/ZoeTillman> Jan
21<https://twitter.com/ZoeTillman/status/822908408475095049> Ruemmler told reporters that her law firm
Latham & Watkins has done work for the news outlet, Vocativ, which is how she got involved 1 reply 5
retweets 3 likes
2.
3. [https://pbs.twimg.com/profile images/1849163545/Zoe Tillman_photol bigger.jp g] Zoe Tillman
@ZoeTillman <https://twitter.com/ZoeTillman> Jan
21<https://twitter.com/ZoeTillman/status/822908213557415938> One journalist arraigned, lawyer says he was
arrested while filming. He's represented by former White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler 0 replies 19
retweets 36 likes
Inauguration Day protesters may face felony rioting charges<http://nypost.com/2017/01/22/inauguration-day-
protesters-may-face-felony-rioting-charges/>
By Sophia Rosenbaum<http://nypost.com/author/sophia-rosenbaum/>
New York Post
January 22, 2017112:55pm
Officials in the nation's capital are throwing the book at anti-Trump protesters —threatening the people who
were arrested <http ://nyp o st. com/2017/01/20/dozens-arrested-as-anti-trump-protesters-clash-with-p o lice> with
massive fines and up to 10 years in jail.
The U.S. attorney's office will seek to charge all 230 of the protesters who took to the streets on Inauguration
Day — some damaging storefronts and clashing with police — with felony rioting.
As of Saturday evening, 80 people had already been slapped with the heavy charges, which include fines of up
to $25,000 and up to 10 years in jail, according to
Buzzfeed.<http s ://www.buzzfeed. com/z o etillman/pro secutors-pursue-rioting-charges-over-inaugurati on-day-
pro?utm term=. dw6wmW1b#. ahOrzlyD>
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Felony rioting is defined in D.C. law by at least five people who use "tumultuous and violent conduct of the
threat thereof' to cause "serious bodily harm" and instigate more than $5,000 in property damage.
Six local officers were injured by protesters during Trump's big day. The glass windows of several businesses
were shattered in downtown D.C. including Bank of America, McDonald's and Starbucks.
All of the people who have already been charged were released on their own recognizance and given their next
court appearance dates.
At least one of those arrested was a Vocativ journalist covering the protests, and he was defended by heavy-
hitter and former White House attorney Kathryn Ruemmler, Buzzfeed reported.
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