Michael Flynn will reportedly plead the Fifth Amendment and refuse to cooperate with the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation into cooperation between Russia and the Trump campaign. This is hardly a surprise. Flynn’s lawyers need to negotiate with prosecutors, not blowhard politicians.
In other news, reporters Kevin Hall and Nicholas Nehamas of McClatchy have a piece today on the likelihood that the investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller will look extensively at business activities and real estate holdings of The Trump Organization. As a casual observer, I think this is actually one of the president’s greatest vulnerabilities, and not necessarily because it will prove collusion or cooperation between his campaign and the Russian government.
Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold recently won a Pulitzer Prize for his exhaustive exposure of Trump’s fraudulent philanthropic endeavors. Had Trump not become the president, he would have likely been in court quite often trying to defend his actions on that front. As it is, he had to pay a settlement on his fraudulent Trump University scheme. His business empire offers a rich menu for any prosecutor, and his best protection may be that Mueller is somewhat constricted in what he can pursue. Order No. 3915-2017 authorizes Mueller to investigate “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated” with the Trump campaign and “any matter that arose or may arise directly from the investigation.” That might prevent Mueller from going too far off the reservation, but it might not. If he discovers felonious behavior in the routine analysis of Trump’s business operation, that would arguably still be a matter that arose directly from the investigation.
As for Trump’s more straightforward yet less certain vulnerabilities, the article lists some obvious inquiries:
Any look at Trump’s business dealings with Russians would likely include his trophy properties in South Florida, which include the Trump National Doral golf club.
Mueller’s investigators may ask whether either Mar-a-Lago, the historic getaway for the wealthy in Palm Beach, or Trump National, an 800-acre resort roughly 12 miles west of downtown Miami, was used to host meetings between Trump associates and Russian operatives.
McClatchy reported last month that foreign leaders have used Mar-a-Lago to conduct under-the-radar meetings with Trump since his election. In April, two former Colombian presidents secretly met Trump there to discuss the peace process in their home country. The meeting was not on the president’s schedule or disclosed to reporters.
Wealthy Russians could have sought access to Trump by seeking membership at Mar-a-Lago. The exclusive club doubled its membership fee to $200,000 after Trump’s election.
A look into Russian dealings could include Trump’s sale of his Palm Beach mansion to Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev in July 2008 for $95 million. That price was viewed by real estate experts as wildly inflated, leading to speculation that perhaps it was a backdoor investment in other Trump businesses, something the president has vehemently denied.
Before the financial crisis, Trump also licensed his name to six condo towers north of Miami Beach that attracted substantial Russian investment. The area of Sunny Isles has come to be known sarcastically as Moscow on the Beach because of so many Russian buyers.
A Reuters review of property records in March found Russians had invested nearly $100 million in Trump-branded Florida properties.
“Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets,” Donald Trump Jr. famously said at a real estate conference in 2008, according to multiple news outlets.
Over the weekend, I wrote about the news that Michael Caputo has been called to testify before the House Intelligence Committee. He’s an interesting character and you should keep your eye on this less celebrated part of the puzzle.
Also, for those of you who can’t enough of this stuff, Lawyers for Good Government has put together a 33-year-long timeline of Trump’s connections to Russia. You’ll have time to peruse it because James Comey isn’t testifying until after Memorial Day.
A large proportion, and perhaps the majority, of Trump’s shady business deals in the past decade involve Russian and Russian shell companies. Mueller’s not going to have any problems at all finding targets.
Tim Hogan’s constitutional crisis proposal, pretty interesting imo
Congress doesn’t have the power of the pardon, and I’m pretty sure they can’t grant individual exceptions to laws under the 5th and 14th Amendments.
I’m also fairly certain Congress can’t grant immunity to state prosecution for actions that aren’t directly related to the enforcement of Congressional Acts and Laws. That is to say Federal Agents while on duty and acting appropriately are immune to State action only because if they were not immune States could effectively override Federal Law by just arresting the enforcers of Federal Law.
I could very well be wrong about all of this. This is all based on memory and an incomplete understanding of prosecutorial immunity via acts of Congress.
If someone know more about this area of law, please point out the areas I’m wrong. I’d be interested in learning more on this not common to me subject matter.
myself do not know but Hogan writes [tweets] often that there is no immunity from state prosecution on the financial misdeeds, and on treason and his hope that they all get theirs, as it were. as far as the pardons go, myself, do not know, but Hogan’s scenario is proposal to solve our current large scale constitutional crisis for which special cases are required. from reading him over the months, he goes at the treason question and the financial question separately. if I see coverage in more detail I will link
Also too, Tim Hogan had some tweets about Melania, that reliable news sources have said they signed divorce papers with settlement agreement before the election but not filed them, planning to divorce on the assumption T would lose. notes that if things break soon Melania may get some $ out of it.
clarification: what Tim Hogan means is that Melania might get left with some $ before the gov and/ or state actions vs. T leave him penniless.
how angry he must be – sure she’s hastening his downward spiral
No one would lend him money other than Russian mobsters because only they were that desperate to find someplace to stash their money. It’s a question of how much not whether.
This is so Monty Python
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act was written for cons like Trump’s; embedding money-laundering, influence-peddling and corruption within vast, shady business dealings.
Also, not often mentioned, the Steele dossier accuses Trump and his campaign of conducting surveillance on Russian émigrés, presumably including naturalized citizens, on behalf of a foreign power. That’s legal kryptonite for even the least concerned.
I hope that you are right.
And then?
And then I hope that the powers-that-be manage to get their shit together enough to do he right thing.
AG
Personally, I believe we will be profoundly shocked when the full extent of Russian money sloshing around Western media is revealed; never mind the treasonous aspirations of Trump and the GOP. We’ll see.