So it turns out Trump Tower was under surveillance by the FBI. But this wasn’t ordered by President Obama. It wasn’t a wiretap of Trump’s suite. And it ended in 2013. But, hey …
For two years ending in 2013, the FBI had a court-approved warrant to eavesdrop on a sophisticated Russian organized crime money-laundering network that operated out of unit 63A in Trump Tower in New York.
The FBI investigation led to a federal grand jury indictment of more than 30 people, including one of the world’s most notorious Russian mafia bosses, Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov. Known as the “Little Taiwanese,†he was the only target to slip away, and he remains a fugitive from American justice.
But that doesn’t mean Trump was involved. Oh, wait …
Seven months after the April 2013 indictment and after Interpol issued a red notice for Tokhtakhounov, he appeared near Donald Trump in the VIP section of the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. Trump had sold the Russian rights for Miss Universe to a billionaire Russian shopping mall developer.
That could be a coincidence …
ABC News conducted a review of hundreds of pages of property records and reported in September that Trump-branded developments catered to large numbers of Russian buyers, including several who had brushes with the law. Russian buyers were particularly drawn to Trump licensed condo towers in Hollywood, Florida, and Sunny Isles. Local real estate agents credited the Russian migration for turning the coastal Miami-area community into what they called Little Moscow.
Well, okay, that’s a whole lot of coincidence.
When you start piecing together the Trump story, basically everywhere you look, whether it’s residents in his Trump-branded buildings, or his business associates or investors in his projects, Trump is – there’s simply no other way to put it – tied up with it not just Russians but in many cases Russians tied to the criminal underworld and money laundering.
People still remember when Trump joked that he could shoot a guy dead on 5th Avenue and still keep his supporters on Team Trump. Well, one of his tenants, Eduard Nektalov, a diamond dealer from Uzbekistan, actually was shot to death in broad daylight on 6th Avenue in a gangland assassination. He was reported cooperating at the time with the Feds. …
…As I told someone yesterday, sometimes it’s helpful to clear away any suggestion of geopolitical or intelligence shenanigans from the Trump story and see what’s left. What’s left is a guy who almost lost everything and then clawed his way back with a lot of pretty unsavory money. Look at Trump, any of his business partnerships and really anything else and you keep finding Russians with tons of money and frequent attention from the FBI. The idea that Trump associates may have connived with a Russian intelligence operation against the US electoral process is such a shocking and singular possibility that it tends to obscure this pretty shocking set of facts that are pretty much in plain view.
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Where there’s Trump, there’s Russian mobsters.
Yeah, but it’s getting tougher to do business when the CIA & FBI are watching Russians in the US and Trump can’t prevent monitoring of all overseas communications. So today Sec of State Tillerson was recalled to Russia by his boss, Putin, to receive instructions for Donald because the only secure comm link left was carrier pigeon and they won’t fly as far as DC.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/21/politics/tillerson-to-skip-nato-visit-russia/index.html
HOKEY-SMOKES, Boris and Natasha!l
I’m a first generation Russian/Ukrainian born in th US, and I think t-RUMPLE- Thin-Skin knows more Russians here than I do!
Of course, it should go without saying, that none of the ones I knew/know, were/are part of the Russki Mob.
Too bad.
If I knew a Vor or two, I might be rich!
Of course, more likely, I’d be dead…
Them Vor’s are some nasty and evil SOB’S!!!
t-RUMPLE-Thin-Skin might be worried.
If he’s found out to be a Russian “assett,” he might be terrified of what “Fearless Leader” Putin might have done to him for being “de-assetted.”
If he gets the boot out of office, he’d better first negotiate lifetime Secret Service coverage for himself, Ivanka and Mr. Ivanka,,and his sons, Dumb and Dumber.
Me?
I’d let him do without.
Nobody asked him to get involved with the Russki Mob – or to run for POTUS, for that matter…
He better be careful..He could end up being fed one of Putin’s famous polonium sandwiches. And it would play hell on his coif.
Perhaps that’s why “the king of fertilizer ” (I can’t spell his name) and his plane keeps turning up at the same place trump does. Are a lot of russian billionaires flying to the same small airport in North Carolina as it just happen trump is visiting for example? Either money is changing hands or directives /or both? If journalists caught thsee repeated coincidental instances let’s hope our intelligence has to and will eventually shine a light on it.
Remember the old Batman tv show, when Batman and the Penguin ran for public office against each other? And the Penguin’s tactic was to point out that while he was often to be found in the company of the police, Batman was always around criminals? Yeah, well this isn’t like that. Trump doesn’t even rise to the honesty and competency level of a cartoonish Batman villain.
It’s interesting watching what Trump does in various situations. How he tries to get himself out of all these fine messes he gets himself into. I’d bet these general behaviors are similar to what all self-proclaimed ubermensch tend to do under these circumstances.
What exactly is the degree of difference between Russian Intelligence and the Russian Mob these days?
pluky,
My guess would be the Russky Mob guys have more money.
Off Topic – Holy SHIP! No vote on Obamacare replace. NO VOTE! As near as I can tell, when the Freedom Caucus was offered what they wanted to get on board, the “Tuesday Group” who was also meeting in the WH on Thursday objected to the draconian changes. So one way or the other, the GOP was loosing more votes than they could afford (and still pass the bill).
The Freedom Caucus reportedly gave Trump a standing ovation when he joined their meeting in the WH on Thursday – so they are claiming Trump as one of theirs. The moderates are furious that the 30 or so members of the Freedom Caucus can exert more power than 180 members who don’t agree.
The question asked of Spicer today is if Trump will take the blame if the bill fails. Looks like we will find out.
Who knows how many bodies are buried in Trumps buildings with Nicky Scarfo pouring the concrete.