U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller has widened his investigation into possible collusion between Russia and Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Mueller is looking into Trump's financial dealings with with unsavory Russian businessman, including mobsters and corrupt Kremlin officials.
Mueller has his work cut out for him — the August/September issue of The New Republic has an in-depth article about Trump's
"decades-long ties to Russian mafia." Only someone brainwashed by ideology could read this article and not think Trump has been up to no good for a very long time.
From The New Republic's press release:
In "Trump's Russian Laundromat," veteran journalist Craig Unger details how the Russian mafia has used the president's properties—including Trump Tower and the Trump Taj Majal—as a way to launder money and hide assets. "Whether Trump knew it or not," writes Unger, "Russian mobsters and corrupt oligarchs used his properties not only to launder vast sums of money from extortion, drugs, gambling, and racketeering, but even as a base of operations for their criminal activities. In the process, they propped up Trump's business and enabled him to reinvent his image. Without the Russian mafia, it is fair to say, Donald Trump would not be president of the United States."
Based entirely on the extensive public record, the piece offers the most comprehensive overview of the deep debt that the president owes the Russian mafia. "The extent of Trump's ties to the Russian mafia—and the degree to which he relied on them for his entire business model—is striking," says Eric Bates, editor of the New Republic. "After reading this story, it should come as no surprise to anyone that the president continues to exhibit a deep loyalty to the world of shady Russian operatives who have invested vast sums in his properties."
Trump's lawyer says the new direction Mueller is moving leads to a forbidden zone. From Bloomberg:
John Dowd, one of Trump's lawyers, said on Thursday that he was unaware of the inquiry into Trump's businesses by the two-months-old investigation and considered it beyond the scope of what Special Counsel Robert Mueller should be examining.
"Those transactions are in my view well beyond the mandate of the Special counsel; are unrelated to the election of 2016 or any alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia and most importantly, are well beyond any Statute of Limitation imposed by the United States Code," he wrote in an email.
