A Russian émigré with a checkered past helped develop what was known as Trump SoHo until last December.CreditTodd Heisler/The New York Times
Peter Fritsch and Glenn R. Simpson, New York Times: The Business Deals That Could Imperil Trump
Mr. Fritsch and Mr. Simpson are the founders of the research firm Fusion GPS.
Put aside Russian collusion for a moment. Press pause on possible presidential obstruction of justice. Forget Stormy Daniels. The most significant recent development involving the president may be that the special counsel, Robert Mueller, has subpoenaed Trump Organization business records as part of his inquiry into Russian interference in the presidential election.
Those documents — and records recently seized by the F.B.I. from the president’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen — might answer a question raised by the president’s critics: Have certain real estate investors used Trump-branded properties to launder the proceeds of criminal activity around the world?
We pored over Donald Trump’s business records for well over a year, at least those records you can get without a badge or a subpoena. We also hired a former British intelligence official, Christopher Steele, to look into Mr. Trump’s possible ties to Russia. In that 2015-2016 investigation, sponsored first by a Republican client and then by Democrats, we found strong indications that companies affiliated with Mr. Trump, then a presidential candidate, might have been entangled in foreign corruption.
Read more ....
Update: Fusion GPS Founders Lay Out Where Mueller’s Case Against Trump Might be Going (And It’s Not Stormy) (Rachel Stockman, La & Crime).
WNU Editor: So after a year and a half talking about Russian collusion .... we are now told by the founders of GPS that the focus should be on President Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen (a person that no one knew only a month ago), and possible business dealings between President Trump with Russia. But when I finished reading their commentary .... not surprising .... they provide no evidence to prove their point.
Update #2: Another important news item that was disclosed this weekend was from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes who noticed during his review of the communications behind Russia-Gate there was no official intel used to start the FBI probe into Trump campaign-Russia collusion .... No official intel used to start FBI probe into Trump campaign-Russia collusion: Rep. Nunes (FOX News). No official intel used!!!!! Cannot make this up.
Update #3: Pressure builds on the DNC to drop their lawsuit against the Trump campaign, Russia, and Wikileaks .... DNC chairman defends lawsuit against Russia, Trump campaign, WikiLeaks (Washington Post). I think they are worried about this (and what may be discovered) .... DNC told to preserve servers after lawsuit against Trump campaign, Russia and WikiLeaks (Washington Times).
