What an unbelievable week. Trump resistors have patiently waited for almost two years for the investigation to reveal the things, of which, we already know to be true. And it has been agonizing. At times the pace seemed inexplicably slow. Of course, Trump hit “reset” by firing Comey, necessitating the initiation of an entirely new investigation, starting over. Additionally, a man like Mueller is far better at maintaining the patience and discipline required for the job – a job where he’ll get one chance, and one chance only, at bringing justice to the subject – far better than me or most anyone else. We had no choice but to deal with that pace.
Then Stormy Daniels erupted from headlines, and Michael Avenatti – not constrained by FBI protocol, as Mueller is, and not charged with bringing an actual case against Trump – charged in like a hungry Great Dane in a china shop with hot dogs set out in and around the goods.
It resulted in a week like last week, where the ultimate Russian man, Manafort, was convicted and now faces life in prison, and a president whose aides are counseling Trump to not grant Manafort a pardon. One would think that Manafort would be singing to prosecutors right now, and he still might, but there’s word on the street that Manafort fears Russian poison more than prison. Whatever Manafort knows, and it may be a lot, but we cannot be sure, it will not be coming out any time soon. That would discourage many of us seeking justice, seeking the truth in all this, something to annul the entire presidency as illegitimate.
We would like to think we could get a great deal out of Michael Cohen, but it’s becoming increasingly apparent that Trump didn’t trust Cohen with any of the really important stuff, the Russian stuff. So, it seems like it won’t be coming from Cohen, either.
But, we may have it, and in detail, we could only have dreamed of previously.
Among the dizzying news that came out in the last week, was the fact that the CFO of the Trump Organization, the man who knows the numbers – and most importantly, from whence they originated and all the strings attached – has been granted full immunity to testify. I posit that his testimony will easily prove more devastating than any testimony Manafort might provide, or any of the other campaign hangers-on:
Federal prosecuters reportedly have granted immunity to Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg for providing information about the president’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty this week to violating campaign finance laws at Trump’s direction, to pay off two women who say they had affairs with Trump.
Following previous reports that Weisselberg had testified before a grand jury earlier this year, the Wall Street Journalbroke the immunity revelation on Friday. Describing Weisselberg as “Trump’s longtime financial gatekeeper,” the Journal noted that he has been an executive at the Trump Organization for decades, and “after Mr. Trump was elected, he handed control of his financial assets and business interests to his two adult sons and Mr. Weisselberg.”
Weisselberg knows things going back decades that will irrefutably establish the predicate for how the Russians can so easily control Trump. No “Deep State!” reflexive retort will work when a man is talking about illegal deals and control by the Russians going back to the 90s, or even the 80s. The State may be deep, it ain’t that deep, and even Trump supporters know it.
Trump began his entanglement with the Russian mob as far back as 1984 when a Russian intelligence asset bought five apartments for $6 Million in cash – there are almost no legal restrictions on real estate. The deals were set up by legendary mob lawyer Roy Cohn, who was the first to entangle Trump with Russian crime.
As writer Craig Unger told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, the connection between Trump and the Russian mob was forged by the president’s old lawyer, the late Roy Cohn.
“[Cohn] was also a lawyer for the Italian mafia, for the Gambino and Genovese families, and in the 80’s they began partnering with the Russians,” Unger said.
With the fall of the Soviet Union, Russians began making so much money that “they needed to launder it,” the writer continued. In 1984, David Bogatin, a Russian national with ties to the mob, paid Trump $6 million in cash for five condos — the equivalent of about $15 million by modern standards. “According to the state attorney general of New York,” Unger noted, “that was money laundering.”
Weissenberg can and will tell the whole story; he will have the paperwork. The reason his testimony will be more powerful than even Manafort, is that the entire Trump defense is premised upon a conspiracy theory involving FISA, the Steele Dossier, the FBI being against him, all relatively recent activity, confined to the last two to the three years. Trump’s defense cannot withstand a man who can talk about Trump’s deals with Russian criminal elements (synonymous with Russian intelligence since the Russian state itself is a criminal enterprise) going so far back. Even Trump’s most fervent supporters will not believe that the FBI “was out to get Trump to keep him from attacking the Deep State in the 90s.”
Trump’s entire defense crumbles when even his most fervent supporters hear that Russians were really moving huge money into financing Trump property back in the mid 2000s, when the “King of Debt” suddenly, and without any real explanation or source of income, became the king of paying cash, in real estate, in the worst economy since the Great Depression, when NO ONE else was using cash for anything. The only people with cash to plunk down on high-end real estate at the time were the criminals, the ones who couldn’t bank like regular people and thus had to “bank” money in ridiculously priced properties, like the ocean-side property in Florida, for which a Russian Oligarch paid Trump $95 Million, double its estimated value – that’s money laundering, too.
Do you doubt that Trump doesn’t know that this is the key? That Weisselberg will be the star witness that annuls the Trump presidency? (Annulment being the topic for another day, how a country deals with an entirely unconstitutional presidency) Doubt it? Here’s Trump’s latest panicked into atwitter:
Big story out that the FBI ignored tens of thousands of Crooked Hillary Emails, many of which are REALLY BAD. Also gave false election info. I feel sure that we will soon be getting to the bottom of all of this corruption. At some point I may have to get involved!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2018
And
Jeff Sessions said he wouldn’t allow politics to influence him only because he doesn’t understand what is happening underneath his command position. Highly conflicted Bob Mueller and his gang of 17 Angry Dems are having a field day as real corruption goes untouched. No Collusion!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2018
The desire to “take control of everything” is obvious recognition that only he can be as loyal to himself as he expects everyone else to be. He is the only one he can be sure won’t “flip.”
And we see that State TV is doing its absolute best to distract from the real issue, back to the dead horse that is beaten beyond hamburger by now, more like that “stuff” that is in the tacos at the local …never mind. And, what is the point of looking at Hillary Clinton emails now? Hillary Clinton is not president, she doesn’t have a role in American government. He is going after her because she is an enemy, and that’s what he does when cornered, another hallmark of dictators.
“The FBI only looked at 3000 of 675,000 Crooked Hillary Clinton Emails.” They purposely didn’t look at the disasters. This news is just out. @FoxNews
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2018
Tell me Trump doesn’t know he’s in real trouble now.
Because all of this, all of it, is utterly meaningless when a man is prepared to come in and talk about Trump being involved with Russian crime figures since the 90s, how does “crooked Hillary” and the gang of “17 angry Democrats” fit into that picture? There’s no squaring it. Once his own people demonstrate that Trump had to follow Russian orders as far back as the 90s, and especially in the 2000s, he has no defense. Indeed, the moment those facts get established, I believe the country will quite suddenly feel vulnerable, extremely vulnerable, to a security threat with his hand on the nuclear button and no ability to say “no” to Russia.
And that is why he’s terrified. It’s also why we’re far closer to the end than we think, as I wrote last night. Trump simply cannot withstand the truth emerging into the light of day. He couldn’t withstand having his taxes made public – now his financial operator, the only man who really knows where the money came from, what it was used for, and to whom the favors are owed, is ready to tell all. Imagine the fear shooting through a man who was too afraid to release simple tax returns.
WEEKEND TWITTER!!!! We always loosen up on the weekends and have more fun. We’ll be looking for good entertaining stuff, and we have a puppy update, “Sky” will likely be getting out of the hospital on Monday. He has made steady improvements. The vet people have fallen in love with “the happy big guy” and the kids that they hire to walk them fight over who takes Sky, because they all want a shoulder hug. Sky is big enough he puts his paws on their shoulder and then hug him.
How nice to see an intelligent take on what’s going on. I was wondering how long it would take for someone to connect the dots.