Looks John McCain likes to associate with con-men!
And as for calling Barack Obama just a “celebrity”, it seems McCain is a fan of socializing with those few celebs that actually like him as well.
So how is McCain connected to a con-man?
Well, turns out that he hung out with Anne Hathaway and her lying ex, Vatican Chief Financial Officer Raffaello Follieri.
Two years ago, in late August, McCain celebrated his 70th birthday on the Celine Ashley yacht.
The yacht was rented at the time by con-man Follieri. There’s even a photograph taken in August of ’06 that shows McCain boarding the yacht heading towards Follieri and Hathaway.
Also onboard and socializing with Follieri was Rick Daivs, who’s McCain’s top aide and co-manager of his campaign.
And, just a few months after that night, Follieri got closer ties to McCain by retaining Davis Manafort, which is Davis’ very well-connected lobbying firm in Washington. He also offered “Davis both an investment deal and help in securing the Catholic vote for McCain’s presidential bid.”
Follieri’s ties to the Clintons and their friend Ron Burkle have been well documented, but his connection with McCain has been overlooked until now.
So, now the questions are: why had Follieri rented that yacht for the month and docked it at Montenegro. why would McCain have chosen to spend his birthday with Follieri and some politicians aboard that ship.
According to journalists in Montenegro, reports were that McCain was in Montenegro to meet with “friends from Florida” on the yacht.
Aides for McCain later confirmed the meeting with Follieri, but claim it was “entirely social and nothing came of it,” and described Follieri as a “passing acquaintance.”
According to an Italian reporter Claudio Gatti, who investigated Follieri for eighteen months, “Follieri’s proposal to Davis had two dimensions to it–first, as an investment opportunity for Davis’s fund; but secondly, there was the political dimension, in which Follieri offered to help deliver Catholic votes to McCain.”
Shady, shady.
[Image via WENN.]