Seven days in january

Seven days in january

Seven Days in January invites listeners behind the curtain of power, offering a front-row seat to the shadowy deals and whispered arrangements at the heart of President Donald J. Trump’s inauguration. Deals of global consequence brokered by some of the world’s most powerful that have remained largely unreported and unheard — until now.

Featuring selections from more than a dozen hours of exclusive audio intended for a reality TV series that never aired, this investigative series follows a week of elaborate events planned around Trump’s 2017 inauguration — and the players who made it happen. In its wake, the 58th Presidential Inaugural Committee brought forth a riptide of criminal indictments and at least three ongoing investigations into those closest to Trump.

As January 20th approached, protestors from around the country swarmed Washington, D.C., gathering around the nation’s most sacred monuments. Within these halls of power, however, a far more troubling and secretive pilgrimage was taking place.

The inner-sanctum of some of the world’s most powerful figures in business, entertainment, and politics, where Seven Days in January transports listeners, like a fly on the wall. 

We’re there for each clink of a champagne glass and tuxedoed whisper as they echo across the domed ceilings of ornate ballrooms, filled to the brim with the world’s elite saying things the public was never supposed to hear. 

Yet here they are: a motley crew of ambassadors, despots, powerbrokers, royalty, private equity, lobbyists, operatives, casino magnates, and beyond. All looking to please or influence President-elect Trump, while those closest to him undermine the United States of America by pimping out the office of the presidency to the highest bidder.

Listen:

Prologue: A Man and a Microphone

Amazon Studios was on the cusp of green-lighting a reality TV series centered around Donald J. Trump’s inauguration; audio engineer Eric Rosas was hired for the production but was stiffed on payment — his signature forged on an NDA he never saw. Eric Rosas shares this historic audio with Rocco Castoro, Emily Molli, and Rob Waldeck of investigative journalism outlet The Knows, recounting what he witnessed during the fateful week of Donald J. Trump’s inauguration. A week that’s still being dissected five years later in the form of at least three ongoing federal investigations and countless scandals that continue to haunt many featured on the recordings.

> Trump Inauguration Reality Series: TOO HOT for TV

Associates of Mark Burnett and Elizabeth Koch feverishly worked all sides of a deal for Amazon Studios to produce a reality series about Donald J. Trump’s 2017 inauguration — one that evaporated as quickly as it appeared.

Chapter One: Chairman of the Ball

Before billionaire real estate magnate and chairman of Colony Capital Tom Barrack posted a $250 million bail and was fitted with an ankle GPS tracker after being indicted for allegedly violating foreign influence laws, Donald Trump put him in charge of the contribution-funded but publicly accountable 58th Presidential Inaugural Committee.

The PIC's dealings are at the center of multiple investigations, with much of its funding under scrutiny as potential instruments of improper foreign influence over elements of the Trump administration and other potentially illicit instances of unjust enrichment by Trump’s children.

We also delve into Barrack’s shadowy history working for Saudi princes, and how it all dovetails with his decades’ long relationship with Trump and his disgraced former campaign manager Paul Manafort.

> Queuing up for tom barrack's “Long Lines”

Connect the dots between UAE and Russian foreign influence with our analysis of the “long-lines” relationships of Trump confidant and indicted billionaire Tom Barrack.

> Nuclear Bromance: Tom Barrack and the Head of Saudi Intelligence

Facing charges of acting as an undisclosed agent of the United Arab Emirates while advising his longtime friend and then-President Donald Trump, Tom Barrack's deep ties to the former head of Saudi intelligence and oil profiteering have remained in the shadows until now.

"Daddy, Tom Says We Should Get Paul"

How Tom Barrack leveraged his 'Long Lines' of influence to win the 2016 Election

Chapter Two: Tiny Trojan Horse

Tens of millions flowed through WIS Media Partners, the company formed between Tiny Horse principals and the woman tasked by Donald and Melania Trump to oversee some of the most high-profile inaugural events: Stephanie Winston Wolkoff.

Diving behind the scenes of the events and expenses in question in real-time, we unravel the frame-up job erected around Wolkoff and WIS, exacerbated by the erroneous reporting by the New York Times in 2018.

For the first time, we reveal forensic details of the money in question and their transaction through companies established by associates close to Mark Burnett, presaging the karmic justice ahead for bad actors who threw Wolkoff under a bus she was never aboard.

EXCLUSIVE: 
Last Call with Lev Parnas

Days before reporting to Otisville Federal Correctional Institution to face his sentence for wire fraud, illegal campaign contributions, and false statements, Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas chatted with The Knows about the 2017 inauguration as well as the Ukraine-related dealings he was tasked with alongside others like Kash Patel and John Solomon.

COMING SOON:
"I Think They're Listening"

Elliott Broidy, then finance co-chair for the Republican National Committee, has a candid chat with billionaire businessman Larry Mizel.

After discussing Ron Dermer, another attendee, who Trump would soon appoint Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., Mizel realizes the audio engineer is recording, threatening: “If I ever hear or see this, you’ll never be at another event, ever.”

It’s a key moment that goes a long way to explain why, in his final days as President, Trump pardoned Broidy, who the Department of Justice had convicted for failing to register as a foreign agent before attempting to influence the U.S. government on behalf of a foreign nation through quid-pro-quo arrangements.

More TK