Brief, new Josh Marshall - "In Deep"

[NRaleighLiberal]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/in-deep

By JOSH MARSHALL Published MARCH 31, 2017, 11:58 AM EDT

Just a thought. But as I survey the whole horizon, it has occurred to me more than once that the geopolitical dimension of the Trump/Russia scandal, questions of collusion, coordination, potential blackmail ... these may end up being dwarfed by the related story of President Trump's vast and overlapping ties to the post-Soviet criminal underworld.

Obviously, these two stories are far from distinct.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Of course. As with all such mysteries and scandals, Follow The Money.

[elfin]

2. Oh yes. In deep and up to his flyaway hair with the mob

Russian mobs have been very active in the US and especially on the east coast ever since the USSR collapsed. Their contact with the mega-oligarchs blooming after Yeltsin yielded even greater wealth when they landed a needy Trump, teetering on bankruptcy and unable to get more credit from US banks.

I think they got him in deeper and deeper with huge laundering deals, which didn't bother him a bit, given his amoral, massive ego and history of never being punished for past behaviors.

Problem - the current investigations no are supposedly limited to the Russian/Election issues - not Trump's personal financial trespasses, even tho they could have been the reason he bulldozed into politics in the first place.

Will we have to wait until he is once again a private citizen to have those mob-related tackled in a bigly way?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. The issues are all tied together.

Clinton Watts said at yesterday's hearing that they should follow the money.