While Donald Trump has received an abundance of bad news during his presidency, perhaps the most ominous commentary came from former White House assistant Steve Bannon. Quoted in the recently published expose “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” Bannon declared that the Russian collusion investigation is “all about money laundering.”
“Their path to Trump goes right through Paul Manafort,” Bannon continued. “It goes through Deutsche Bank and all the Kushner stuff.”
Trump has persistently refused to reveal his income tax returns or to discuss in detail the sources of his money. But what is known is malodorous. The following are the basics:
Despite his claim to be a “genius,” Trump in truth had a very checkered and controversial business career. On four different occasions did companies controlled by Trump declare bankruptcy, mostly due to over building in declines in the real estate market.
The Donald claims that as these bankruptcies were “corporate,” rather than “personal,” they are inconsequential. This is ridiculous.
In fact, Trump’s credit rating plummeted to such abysmal depths that American financial institutions simply would not deal with him. Truly, the man who is now president of the United States was persona non grata to American banks.
So from whom did Trump borrow money? The only apparent lender was Deutsche bank, a huge multinational concern headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, that has loaned Trump some $3.5 billion since 1998. DB also has been a major lender to Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.
But in January 2017, DB was hit with total fines of $1.259 billion for laundering some $10 billion in Russian Money. In the Russian kleptocratic dictatorship, banks are managed by cronies of Vladimir Putin.
Does this necessarily mean that Trump is personally implicated in money laundering? No, but consider the following:
In 2008, Trump sold a mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, to Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev for $95 million. This was more than twice the $41 million that Trump had paid for the property in 2004, and was vastly in excess of its objective value. Either Rybolovlev was an idiot, which is possible, or his money was being soaped, rinsed and spin-dried, which is probable.
Again, Trump adamantly refuses to reveal his tax returns or to discuss in detail his finances. He will not criticize Putin under any circumstance, and arrogantly declines to impose economic sanctions on Russia despite a nearly unanimous congressional mandate to do so.
Certainly, there are abundant grounds here for the most colossal suspicion of illegality and treachery. Does anyone really believe that if Trump is in hock to the Russian dictatorship, Russia does not control him?
The future of this nation as a lawful democracy is blowing in the wind. The investigation of Donald Trump must proceed without hindrance, and with all deliberate pace.
Joseph Tipler
Centralia
