which comes from mobsters, oligarchs, and Putin allies (and let’s be clear of how much those three terms overlap)??
I have been reading a thread on the Thread Reader App that puts together a 100+ tweet thread from NotMyPresident (@ironstowe) that traces the decades long connection between Trump and his businesses on one hand, and money from elements originating in Russia and operating here in the US largely through people of Russian and other former Soviet nationalities that can quite legitimately be classified as mobsters.
The connections are overwhelming.
The thread provides massive documentation, including from various media outlet stories, some of which include things like released FBI reports and judgments against entities associated with Trump.
In a sense, anyone paying attention should not be surprised. After all, David Cay Johnston, who won a Pulitzer for financial reporting, has followed/covered Trump for years, and has made clear several things
- Trump was never worth$10 billion, in fact his net worth may never have exceeded $1 billion
- at times Trump has had a negative net worth
- Trump has been very beholden to Russian money.
I knew/had read about more than half of the material provided in the thread: I am originally from New York (which I left for good in 1971, although I continued to read its media), I am a few weeks older than The Donald, and I have been paying at least some attention to him for more than 4 decades, when he started making regular appearances in various New York media outlets.
While there is no doubt the statute of limitations has long since expired on many of Trump’s financial shenanigans, if Mueller’s mandate to explore Russian interference in our election allows him to follow where the money leads, as was somewhat argued in Federal Court in Alexandria yesterday by Michael Dreeben, a top assistant to Mueller, then it is legitimate to consider all of this information.
The only possible quibble with the title of this piece is that those who have paid close attention to Trump over the decades might contest that Trump is wholly owned by Russians, given how closely what actual building he did, both at Trump Tower and in Atlantic City, was in conjunction with entities controlled by various elements of the Cosa Nostra.
That said, whether or not the so-called “pee tape” exists (and I am inclined to believe that it does), that is not the real Kompromat on Trump. Putin and his allies are likely to have thorough documentation of how much their money has propped up Trump at least since Yeltsin began privatizing industries of the old USSR.
I strongly recommend carefully reading the thread I have linked, and keeping it handy for reference.
Make of this what you will.