Money Launderer in Chief - Part 2

I recommend you read the entire article referred to in the previous post. It's an eye opener if you haven't read about Trump's Russian mob ties before. And here's something I hadn't come across (or forgot) before:

Earlier this year, one week before National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was fired for failing to report meetings with Russian officials, Trump’s personal attorney reportedly hand-delivered to Flynn’s office a “back-channel plan” for lifting sanctions on Russia. The co-author of the plan, according to the Times: Felix Sater.

  New Republic

This puts a different light on the ongoing maybe-maybe not situation with Russian sanctions. No wonder Trump isn't able to simply remove them outright.

Who's Sater? He's a Russian mobster and convicted criminal. Trump has said he hardly knows the man and wouldn't be able to identify him if he saw him.

Here's a little help:

[E]ven after The New York Times revealed Sater’s criminal record in 2007, he continued to use office space provided by the Trump Organization. In 2010, he was even given an official Trump Organization business card that read: FELIX H. SATER, SENIOR ADVISOR TO DONALD TRUMP.

[...]

Without the Russian mafia, it is fair to say, Donald Trump would not be president of the United States.

Read the article.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Money Launderer in Chief

I used to think this was the only angle that was going to bust Trump. And that was fine with me. But now, I think the Russian collusion angle is also going to at least bust some of the Trump cabal.

Taken together, the flow of money from Russia provided Trump with a crucial infusion of financing that helped rescue his empire from ruin, burnish his image, and launch his career in television and politics. “They saved his bacon,” says Kenneth McCallion, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Reagan administration who investigated ties between organized crime and Trump’s developments in the 1980s.

It’s entirely possible that Trump was never more than a convenient patsy for Russian oligarchs and mobsters, with his casinos and condos providing easy pass-throughs for their illicit riches. At the very least, with his constant need for new infusions of cash and his well-documented troubles with creditors, Trump made an easy “mark” for anyone looking to launder money. But whatever his knowledge about the source of his wealth, the public record makes clear that Trump built his business empire in no small part with a lot of dirty money from a lot of dirty Russians—including the dirtiest and most feared of them all.

  New Republic

Continue reading.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.