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Last night in the comments to Doug!’s post about the breaking news regarding the Trump Organization’s lawyer, an opposition Ukrainian member of Parliament, and a Russian-American with significant ties to organized crime, as well as US law enforcement, a number of people asked where they could find information on all of the financial connections.

There are two very good resources on this.

The first is James S. Henry’s (very) long form article at The American Interest. Henry goes into a great deal of detail regarding all the various financial connections of the alleged ties between the President and Russian business and other interests. David Cay Johnston, who has written a biography of the President, wrote the foreword.

The second is the twitter feed of Adam Khan. Khan has painstakingly combed through news reports, financial disclosures, and a whole host of other documents and documented all of the alleged connections with explanatory annotations. His research includes not just the alleged ties between the President’s businesses, campaign, transition, and/or Administration and various Russian interests, but that of folks within his orbit such as Carter Page. He’s also branched out into focusing on Vladimir Putin and the people within his orbit.

I want to state clearly that these are allegations. However, there is a substantial amount of circumstantial evidence that simply cannot be hand waved away. As I’ve repeatedly stated when doing the maskirovka posts, as a national security professional, if there is indeed a straightforward explanation, then the President and his Administration should provide it for the good of the Nation.

Reader Interactions

106Comments

  1. 1.

    SiubhanDuinne

    if there is indeed a straightforward explanation, then the President and his Administration should provide it for the good of the Nation.

    Haven’t yet followed any of your links, although I shall, but could not more enthusiastically agree with this.

  2. 2.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    There are two very good resources on this.

    This sort of language makes me feel like you’re looking for something/s that can’t be easily discounted and dismissed as irrelevant…

    Good! By now, I shouldn’t have to say I approve!

    One mystery I’d love to see resolved is ‘What’s in Trump’s tax returns?

  3. 3.

    oldster

    It all adds up to the most devastatingly effective decapitation strike in history.

    Russia neutralized the entire Executive branch of the US government with a tiny investment in hacking money, some low-paid comment-trolls, a compliant US media, and Russia’s willing allies throughout the American right wing.

    I hope the US survives this.

  5. 5.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @oldster: Right… no matter what the outcome the only real winner here is apparently Putin, who’s gotta be laughing his Cheney off right now…

  6. 6.

    Bill Arnold

    That Adam Khan feed is relentless. Love the doggedness.
    Since this is an open thread, via Adam Khan, saw this
    “Trump’s immature grammar, vocabulary, syntax suggests a possible disorder/deterioration of language skills. Very troubling.”

    This following link is kinda interesting. It mainly rehashes stuff many of us have seen (but with links) but the collection of David Letterman interviews with Donald Trump (and other interview links) towards the end is helpful. Sample 1988, 1997 and a recent interview.
    Using Discourse Analysis to Assess Cognitive Decline
    Anyone who is Trump’s approximate age care to comment?
    (I see more difference in mental reaction time than seems normal.)

  8. 8.

    nominus

    I’ve been following Khan for quite a while now. At this point, I am not sure there can be a reasonable and legitimate explanation the president could give. The public and/or investigators need the tax returns to confirm most of the speculation, but the web Khan has mapped so far shows that the odds of so many legitimate coincidences overlapping for so long are just impossible.

  9. 9.

    Another Scott

    That Khan Twitter feed is dizzying.

    Twitter is a horrible medium for clear communications.

    Are they ever going to roll out that 10,000 character/tweet limit they were trial-ballooning a while ago? I gather it got too much blowback from people who can understand modem line-noise. But it might actually be useful to normal human beings, then…

    :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.
    (Who agrees that Trump needs to come clean, but the fact that he (most likely) never will should be enough proof that there’s too much fire behind too many of these accusations.)

  11. 11.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Thru the Looking Glass…: I think there are other good resources as well, but these two are very good, straightforward, plenty of documentation. Again, everything is still all circumstantial, but these are very good.

  13. 13.

    Bill Arnold

    @oldster:

    Russia neutralized the entire Executive branch of the US government with a tiny investment in hacking money, some low-paid comment-trolls, a compliant US media, and Russia’s willing allies throughout the American right wing.

    Better yet, “The Dossier” [1] suggests that the Trump team paid for part of it, notably some of the hacking. Unverified [2], I hasten to add. But amusing, if one is easily amused.
    Dunno if the USA survives. Hopefully the world survives if the USA doesn’t.
    [1] ignore the golden showers section. It distracts from the rest.
    [2] and “discredited” instantly as a 4-chan hoax, weak discrediting IMO but canon amongst the right.

  16. 16.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @Adam L Silverman: Yeah… I’ve spent a fair amount of time recently trying to follow this… I did find the now infamous 35 pg dossier compiled by Steele online and read it… can’t begin to recount all the different articles I’ve read at the NY Times, WaPo, Guardian, etc, in addition to clicking on the embedded hyperlinks and following them as far as I could…

    There is a LOT of circumstantial evidence at this point.. the criss-crossing strands, amazing coincidences, shockingly blatant lies, et al, are really starting to add up…

    This much smoke? There’s almost assuredly a hot fire burning somewhere…

  17. 17.

    oldster

    @amk:

    Yeah, the Legislative branch is also MIA, but I don’t know if you can attribute that directly to the Russians.

    It was more like a copy-cat suicide, inspired by watching a murder.

    Of course, I could be wrong: it could be that the material Russia got from the RNC is keeping Mitch and St. Paul doing the bidding of Putin, too.

    Doesn’t really matter–whatever their reasons may be, the Republicans in Congress are actively abetting the Russian take-over of the Executive Branch.

  21. 21.

    Lizzy L

    The Henry article is fascinating and exhausting. I don’t have the stamina for the Twitter material.

    Like many people, I believe that providing a stable of forensic accountants with Trump’s tax returns would expose a great deal — which is of course why he will do his utmost to keep them from ever being seen by anyone.

  24. 24.

    HeleninEire

    @Baud: LMAO. OK so no shit. This bill is $60 with a 15% gratuity and tax. For 4 drinks. I gotta make you pay.

    Oh hey, Thanks.LUVU2

  25. 25.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Thru the Looking Glass…: I don’t disagree, but regardless of my personal political views, the President and those seemingly implicated deserve the same presumption of innocence that Secretary Clinton did with her emails, but was all to often denied by her partisan opponents. I’d rather set a good example regardless of what I really think is actually going on.

  26. 26.

    Another Scott

    Speaking of dementia, David Cassidy announces he has dementia:

    Former Partridge Family singer and actor David Cassidy has said he is suffering from dementia.

    The revelation comes after performances in California in which he forgot his words and appeared physically unstable.

    The 66-year-old star, a teen idol in the 1970s with hits like How Can I Be Sure?, has told People magazine that he will stop touring as a musician to focus on his health.

    “I was in denial, but a part of me always knew this was coming,” he said.

    His mother also suffered from the disease.

    “I want to focus on what I am, who I am and how I’ve been, without any distractions… I want to love. I want to enjoy life,” he told the magazine.

    Videos on social media of performances by the singer over the weekend at Agoura, west of Los Angeles, raised concerns about his health.

    :-(

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  28. 28.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Another Scott:

    Oh hell. I was too old to be a fangrrl, but I do remember that he was quite the icon. That’s sad news, and I’m sorry to see it, and wish him well. Whatever that means in such a circumstance.

  29. 29.

    scav

    And, while we’re on the subject of vocabulary, I do love the British MPs on a good rant. Accusing Trump of a “ceaseless incontinence of free speech”. Mad as pants and useless as they can be, at least many can turn a phrase.

  30. 30.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @Adam L Silverman: In total agreement… I want to see this done fairly and in a thoroughly transparent and scrupulous manner… if the truth comes out and Trump is innocent, so be it… I just want the truth to come out…

    If there’s nothing incriminating in Trump’s tax returns, he could always release them and clear up the matter…

    Isn’t some of the material we’re now seeing coming from European govts, Baltic and Western, that are nervous about what’s going on and make a routine effort at eavesdropping on Russia?

  31. 31.

    Another Scott

    @scav: I saw a few minutes of that on C-SPAN. The British Labor guy who gave those remarks looked the part, too. Disheveled silver hair, big beard, etc. He made a lot of good points, but that “incontinence of free speech” was quite an expression!

    :-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  33. 33.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Thru the Looking Glass…: My understanding from the reporting is that our European allies and partners are working their own counterintelligence investigations on this. I do not know if they are the source of some of this material.

  34. 34.

    ? Martin

    @Adam L Silverman:

    My understanding from the reporting is that our European allies and partners are working their own counterintelligence investigations on this

    I would imagine it’s pretty much a top priority for every other intelligence agency out there.

  36. 36.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @Adam L Silverman: My point in part was that ‘leaks’ from European govts about Russia that just happen to feature the Donald and end up in the American media are not illegal the way Trump was trying to label them…

  39. 39.

    danielx

    …if there is indeed a straightforward explanation, then the President and his Administration should provide it for the good of the Nation.

    Indeed yes, but at this point – what could possibly explain at least the appearance of selling the country down the river?

    ETA: I keep wondering why some ill-wisher of whatever persuasion hasn’t already taken advantage of our semi-decapitated command structure. Succession issues/crises are one of war-planners’ faves, or so I understand.

  40. 40.

    dm

    Thanks for mentioning the Henry link. As Lizzy L says, it’s exhausting.

    I read it a while back (probably the last time you mentioned it) and forgotten where I came across it. I was reminded of it this weekend as I was reading one of Josh Marshall’s recent deep dives into Felix Sater’s once-again-topical connections to Trump and the Russian underworld. I’m probably going to get in trouble for this comparison, but it reminds me of the fever-swamps of Kennedy assassination conspiracy mongering.

    @hilts: It’s about time Vox started paying attention to this.

  41. 41.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @Adam L Silverman: And… Trump can’t stop them by having the US intelligence agency screwed down tight… nor can he threaten American reporters for looking into them… too bad, that…

  45. 45.

    Lyrebird

    I have trouble trying to follow Louise Mensch’s tweets well enough to understand how much credibility to place in them, but she seems to be assembling a disturbing (and iiuc thus far circumstantial) pattern in plane manifests… She’s also a right-wing UK person, she’s not hesitant to cast the death of the UN envoy in a dark light (bad metaphor use!), and she’s also been encouraging Russian intel folks to defect!

    Head spins.

    Anyhow, the now-former NSC spox has retired from the CIA and has shared a lovely video and story with the WaPo about why this new Republican administration disheartened him more than earlier R and D admins…

  46. 46.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @danielx:

    I keep wondering why some ill-wisher of whatever persuasion hasn’t already taken advantage of our semi-decapitated command structure.

    Uh… because as a country, we’re armed to the teeth? And vindictive to boot?

  49. 49.

    patroclus

    I’m highly suspicious of the circumstances surrounding the sudden death of the Russian ambassador to the UN.

  50. 50.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Gretchen: Yes, but. Louise Mensch seems to have very, very good sources and is punching above what most folks thought was her weight class when she was a Tory MP backbencher. She broke the FISA warrant story back before the election that I included in a maskirovka post. I think some of her dot connecting around Director Comey is a bit fan girlish, but it is an interesting narrative that she’s put together. Time will tell how accurate it is.

  52. 52.

    frosty

    @HeleninEire: After a recent stay someone asked me how much breakfast was “in hotel dollars”. Sounds like that’s the same exchange rate you just got for your $15.00 drinks.

  53. 53.

    Mike J

    @? Martin:

    Alex Jones “is apparently taking on a new role as occasional information source and validator for the president”

    Will Trump stop spraying chemtrails? Will he open the Area 51 records? What about sasquatch?

    WHAT
    ABOUT
    SASQUATCH?

  54. 54.

    Ruckus

    @Bill Arnold:
    I’m just 3 yrs younger than the Republican president and know lots of people my age and above. Once had an acquaintance who I met when he was 95, although he looked, acted and sounded to be maybe a very good 70. He lived to be 104 and was good up till the last 1 1/2-2 yrs at which time the decline became dramatic. Also know of several people who had Alzheimer’s or just plain dementia. And I spend a lot of time at the VA, where most of the vets are my age or older.
    Now of course IANAD but he sure seems to me to be aging well ahead of schedule and not in a good way. This is not the job for someone without faculties, there just isn’t a way for them to fake it legally. And it’s worse for those trying to shore him up, I’d bet there is some law(s) about this. At the very least the 25th.

  60. 60.

    efgoldman

    @Ruckus:

    I’d bet there is some law(s) about this. At the very least the 25th.

    Both impeachment and the 25th amendment are quasi-legal, but political procedures. The 2/3 threshold for the 25th a. is such that, under current circumstances, it would take something like a major disabling stroke that left him a vegetable to get it thru.

  62. 62.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @oldster: I think the Right was working its self up for this for decades. If you watched the Creationists and there attempt to kill science in the ’00s, the Trump admin is just the same thing with trying to replace reality with fantasy. The Russians may have speed it up, but the Right was going there by themselves.

    Also, finally say Trump’s press conference. It really looked like he was drunk or stoned during it.

  71. 71.

    Lyrebird

    @Adam L Silverman: One of the dots I didn’t find there (while learning a new term, “catfishing”…) was that an earlier Anthony Weiner oversharing scandal involved someone with a pro-Trump social media presence — I hope they look into that, too.

  72. 72.

    sanjeevx

    Giuliani has been awfully quiet.
    He was supposed to get a major role in the new administration but announced he wouldn’t be in the running on December 9th.
    Which happened to be the same day as Obama announced the intelligence review.
    Giuliani’s stated reason was conflict of interest. Because the Trump administration is really strict on that.

    Also what was up with Christie’s visit to the Whitehouse to not get a job. Was it something that couldn’t be said electronically?

  74. 74.

    efgoldman

    @Adam L Silverman:

    The only relatives I have in Florida that are not immediate family are on Mom’s side, so non-Sasquatch-Jewish-Americans.

    Who’s to say Sasquatch isn’t Jewish?

  75. 75.

    Bill Arnold

    @Ruckus:
    OK. I’m looking for a non-paywalled (and legal) paper on aging and reaction time; haven’t found one yet. Not sure if this one is legal; figure 1 in the PDF is helpful:
    Age and sex differences in reaction time in adulthood: Results from the United Kingdom Health and Lifestyle Survey
    Basically, simple reaction time doesn’t slow down until 50s, and choice reaction time slows down over lifespan. (Note: some aspects of age-related slowdown can be trained away to some extent. The literature is spotty and inconsistent on this but there are a few interesting studies notably a Chinese study on working memory speed training.)

  77. 77.

    Mike in DC

    There is a simple explanation for all this Russia stuff. They’re fucking traitors. However, even alleged traitors are entitled to proper investigation and due process. I will try to muster the patience to endure the many more months it will take to get control of our own country back.

  78. 78.

    Lyrebird

    @Bill Arnold: This may not answer your interests directly, but I recommend the Levy & Langer article (top hit if you put “aging chinese deaf americans” into scholar.google.com and available as a PDF) about aging in different communities. Can see who’s cited them, too, if you want more recent research.

    Note also that a bunch of researchers will put PDFs on their department’s webpage if they can…

  81. 81.

    Mike in DC

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    Well, true, but the dictionary definition is broader than the legal one and could incorporate a variety of offenses (Espionage Act, Foreign Agent Registration Active, Logan Active, various cybersecurity statutes, general conspiracy, money laundering in furtherance of said conspiracy, etc).

  88. 88.

    Another Scott

    @Adam L Silverman: Yeahbut, why not simply call him home where he can have a “skiing accident” or something similar?

    Heart attacks aren’t usually Putin’s style, are they?

    Reuters:

    A U.S. government official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the case, said that Churkin had died of an apparent heart attack.

    A federal law enforcement official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said that there appeared to be nothing unusual about the ambassador’s death.

    The New York Post quoted unnamed sources as saying Churkin had been rushed to a Manhattan hospital from the Russian embassy after falling ill with a cardiac condition.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  89. 89.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Adam L Silverman: WTF? It’s not we can arrest a Russian Ambassador? Or is did someone in the Kremlin decided this Trump game is a little to hot for their liking?

  90. 90.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @Adam L Silverman: I’m about 2/3rds of the way thru the Harvey article from The American Interest and I’m gonna have a hard time sleeping tonight… the Russians at the center of that story are like a gang of super villains from a Marvel comic book… they come across like a existential threat to the entire planet… weaponized EVIL…

    And it does appear Trump was in it up to his elbows w/ them… he might not have done anything illegal but it sure doesn’t look ethical and I am SHOCKED that Republicans had so few qualms about letting him become their candidate and then riding his coattails into the WH… they could have NOT known some of this…

    I have no idea where this slow motion train wreck is going to end up…

    And we’re gonna need a bigger boat…

  91. 91.

    dm

    @Adam L Silverman: I saw that tweet (referenced by EBT above) and was curious about it, so I googled a bit.

    Erovinkin — former FSB agent, Rosneft official. Found dead in the back of his car (in Moscow, I think?), said to be of a heart attack.

    Krivov (blunt force trauma to head, or maybe a heart attack?) found in the Russian consulate in New York on Election Day — this seems to be a pretty bizarre story: https://www.buzzfeed.com/alimwatkins/the-strange-case-of-the-russian-diplomat-who-got-his-head-sm

    Karlov is the Russian ambassador to Turkey, shot by a Turkish
    policeman at a reception a couple of months ago.

    Melanin: found dead in his residence in the Russian embassy in Athens in early January.

    Yves Chandelon, NATO Auditor General, possibly a suicide, but Chandelon had mentioned to his colleagues that he thought he had been followed; despite owning three registered guns, the gun that killed him was unregistered. It’s not clear to me why people think this case is associated to “the dossier”. He was in charge of counterterrorism funding.

    Polshikov was shot dead at his Moscow home (hours before
    Karlov was assassinated).

    Churkin (UN ambassador, died 20 Feb).

  92. 92.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @dm:

    Krivov (blunt force trauma to head, or maybe a heart attack?

    Uh… heart attack OR blunt force trauma?

  93. 93.

    Ruckus

    @Bill Arnold:
    I still have pretty reasonable reaction time and spatial awareness for my age. And among the people I know that metric varies quite a bit. So I’m not so sure that physical reaction times is a valid way of expressing aging. OTOH spelling and dyslexia is going backwards from about 20 yrs ago for me and I think this is a pretty decent indicator of aging. That and recognizing that looking backwards is inevitable as we get older. The road ahead isn’t generally as nice as the one traveled, especially if one has new medical issues. But the road backwards is one that can not be traveled and there is no use trying but many do nothing else anyway. They want to relive their glory days, however little actual glory there may have been.

  95. 95.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @dm: I’ve put some serious time the last few days reading about all of this and the more I know, the worse it looks… I’ll take the time to read the Telegraph article…

    I did find the dossier on line a couple of days ago and have read it… I wonder where Steele is and what’s happening around him…

    This is hideous… it really does look more and more like the Russians have managed to take over the country thru Trump… I sure hope we a) beat this back and b) it breaks the GOP for at least quarter of a century…

  96. 96.

    dm

    The dossier was revealed to the public on 11 January.

    Erovinkin died on 26 December
    Krivov on 8 November
    Karlov and Polshikov 19 December
    Melanin 9 January
    Churkin 20 February

    Chandelon 24 December

  97. 97.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @dm: Does that list include the dude that got taken out of a meeting in Russia w/ a bag over his head?

    Looking at the dates of the deaths and then when the dossier got released, I wonder if someone looked at everyone else associated w/ it dying and decided to drop a bomb and run for it while s/he was still alive?

  98. 98.

    dm

    @Thru the Looking Glass…: I expect there will be as much public ink spilled on this topic over the years as was written about the Kennedy assassination conspiracies.

    There will probably be a fair amount of classified ink, as well. I don’t know if there is an equivalent to the Army War College or Naval Posgraduate School for intelligence officers, but, even if our worst fears aren’t borne out in this case (Adam’s hope for “a straightforward explanation”), this case must be studied for its implications for asymmetric warfare.

    I think the dates actually call into question any link to “the dossier”, though of course we know that US journalists had the document and were sniffing around trying to corroborate it. If there were links, one might wonder why Steele waited until the dossier became public before going into hiding.

  99. 99.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @dm: Well… it’s certainly looking more and more like a ‘Come to Jesus’ moment for the country… I don’t recall ever being this upset about something going on in this country as I am right now… this is farkin’ hideous…

  101. 101.

    dm

    @Thru the Looking Glass…:

    Does that list include the dude that got taken out of a meeting in Russia w/ a bag over his head?

    That would be Sergei Mikhailov. No, he’s not in this list. He’s been “straightforwardly” arrested (as was one of Kaspersky’s security engineers, and one of Mikhailov’s deputies).

    Earlier, I wrote:

    If there were links, one might wonder why Steele waited until the dossier became public before going into hiding.

    …. because he’d no doubt notice that his informants were dying mysteriously.

  102. 102.

    MarkK

    The Ruskie at the UN probably had a digitalis hamburger. If you don’t specifically look for it during the autopsy
    ….50$ he’s cremated quickly ?

  105. 105.

    Fermion T. Clown

    Apologies if this has already been mentioned; I scanned comments but didn’t see it:

    DailyKos: Scott Horton on Trump financials in the FT

    Human rights lawyer Scott Horton, whose work in the region goes back to defending Andrei Sakharov and other Soviet dissidents, has gone through a series of studies by the Financial Times to show how funds from Russian crime lords bailed Trump out after yet anther bankruptcy. The conclusions are stark.

    I can’t find Horton’s analysis online (except for the image Sumner at dailyKos links to), and the FT articles are behind a paywall.

    This made a splash for a day or two but I’ve seen nothing since … not many recent hits.

    Anyone know more about this?

  106. 106.

    Another Scott

    You can often find ways around paywalls at the FT and elsewhere by doing a Google search on a sentence (in quotes) from the article.

    This DailyBeast piece is apparently similar to one of the FT stories.

    HTH a bit.

    Cheers,
    Scott.
    (Who doesn’t know anything more about these various connections between Trump and Russia.)

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