[{"sender": "jeffrey E. [jeevacation@gmail.com]", "recipients": ["Leon Bick"], "timestamp": "6/7/2017 12:03:23 PM", "subject": null, "body": "\"Blackstone anticipates that the program will have $40 billion in total equity commitments in a permanent\ncapital vehicle, including $20 billion to be raised from other investors,\" Blackstone said in a statement\nannouncing the planned launch of the investment fund. \"The MOU is non-binding and the parties will continue\n\ntheir negotiation to agree definitive documentation.\"\n\nBrookings Institution Senior Fellow Bruce Riedel was even less charitable. \"There is no deal. It's fake news,\" he\nwrote in a scathing piece on the Brookings website. \"I've spoken to contacts in the defense business and on the\nHill, and all of them say the same thing: there are a bunch of letters of interest or intent, but not contracts. Many\n\nare offers that the defense industry thinks the Saudis will be interested in someday.\"\n\nIt could be years before anyone knows for sure whether the preliminary agreements announced in Saudi Arabia\nhave become real deals worth hundreds of billions, or whether the announcements were the kind of hyperbole\n\nTrump perfected during his time in the business world."}]