Quote of the Day: Congress not Interested in Trump’s Financial Deals
2018-02-26
Senator Ron Wyden: “Counterintelligence 101 is following the money, because following money is how you compromise people.”
Republicans, who are controlling the Congressional committees that could be investigating the allegations of collusion between Russians and Trump’s presidential campaign, are not interested in following the money trail that connects the Russians to Trump himself.
The CNN article about Republican’s disinterest in Trump’s financial dealings has this to say:
Sen. Ron Wyden, ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee and senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has for months been frustrated with the lack of access to Treasury FinCEN documents. The Oregon Democrat recently fired off a letter for more Treasury documents, this time to obtain records about a lucrative 2008 real estate deal between Trump and a Russian billionaire that raised questions among Democrats about potential money laundering and suspect business dealings.
But Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has declined to join Wyden in these efforts. And he has rejected Wyden’s requested to review Trump’s tax returns in a private session.
“We’re not going to do that,” Hatch said in the Capitol. “He doesn’t want to give up his tax returns, and I believe he’s right.”
‘A policy dispute’
In an interview, Wyden said the Senate Intelligence Committee, under the chairmanship of Sen. Richard Burr, has shown little willingness to pursue these lines of inquiry as well.
“This is a policy dispute,” said Wyden, who also sits on the Intelligence Committee. “The chairman does not believe that this is really the focus of the committee’s work. I, on the other hand, say counterintelligence is right at the heart of our obligations. Counterintelligence 101 is following the money, because following money is how you compromise people.”
Clearly, the elected Republicans who control Congress have no interest in learning how Donald J. Trump was compromised by his financial dealings with Russian oligarchs. This is the heart of the issue: corruption by money. Trump was co-opted by the Russians, who gave him large amounts of money disguised as purchases of luxury properties– money-laundering, in short.
(photo courtesy of pixabay.com and sajinka2)
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Conrad Theodore Seitz 