Congressional Republicans’ refusal to dig into Trump’s finances as part of their so-called Russia investigation amounts to obstruction of justice on the part of the GOP.
Former criminal investigator and criminal defense attorney, Seth Abramson, weighed in on a CNN report discussing the fact that Republicans are drawing “a red line at Trump’s finances.”
As CNN reported:
Top Republicans on Capitol Hill have made a concerted decision in their Russia inquiries: They are staying away from digging into the finances of President Donald Trump and his family.
Six Republican leaders of key committees told CNN they see little reason to pursue those lines of inquiry or made no commitments to do so — even as Democrats say determining whether there was a financial link between Trump, his family, his business and Russians is essential to understanding whether there was any collusion in the 2016 elections.
Abramson, who has been publishing extensive Twitter threads and mega-threads regarding the ongoing investigation into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, posted a 12-part thread stating that there is – in fact – no Russia investigation by Congress in the absence of a review of Trump’s finances.
This is why I tweeted earlier about the clear direction of the Mueller probe being Trump-Russia coordination via money laundering: so that when you read the story below, you see that GOP obstruction on Trump's finances is legalized Obstruction of Justice. https://t.co/WRD8qnI6kX
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) February 26, 2018
Abramson began by noting that the direction of the Mueller probe concerns “Trump-Russia coordination via money laundering,” so when you see stories like the one by CNN, “you see that GOP obstruction on Trump’s finances is legalized Obstruction of Justice.”
Continuing, Abramson reports that despite the fact that “Trump will be caught as soon as his finances are pored over and Russian money laundering is detected… for no valid investigative reason whatsoever – they foreclose that theory of the case, and every lead they get, to protect Trump.”
He goes on to state that in the absence of any such review, there really isn’t an ongoing criminal investigation being conducted by Congress.
“To say Republicans in Congress are “drawing the line at Trump’s finances” in a case that is, finally, *all about Trump’s finances* is simply to say that there *is* no Congressional Trump-Russia investigation. And that’s what we should be saying: this is a sham investigation,” he wrote, adding that:
This is what the GOP is saying, by way of analogy: “The allegation here is homicide—but we’re not interested in any evidence the defendant killed anybody.” *All* extant Trump-Russia evidence points to illicit payments—thus, money laundering—in exchange for sanctions relief.
Here’s the insidious part: illicit business deals and money laundering in exchange for sanctions relief, as presumptively discoverable in Trump’s finances, *is* the “theory of the case” —and it has been from Day 1. There is no *other* theory. So what’s the GOP investigating?
Abramson went on to give “Kudos to Trey Gowdy for *nakedly* acknowledging there’s no Congressional probe: (a) he told reporters *Mueller* was investigating the money laundering angle, thereby acknowledging it *is* critical to the theory of the case, and said (b) Congress thus didn’t need to look at it.”
Abramson concludes his 12-part analysis, writing that:
Congress has not taken a *single step* an investigator would take to determine whether there’s blackmail on Donald Trump—which would include consideration of other blackmails, thus interviews with Cohen, Daniels, MacDougal, others and so the claim by Rep. Schiff—perhaps made merely in the interests of optimism—that there’s *anything* being investigated by Congress about Trump-Russia ties besides the Trump-Russia investigation’s exceedingly narrow “Clinton dirt” angle, is really bunk from the get-go.
And he finished off with the following post script warning about mixing issues:
And the Clinton-dirt angle is incoherent unless you know the Agalarovs’ history with Trump—and Ike Kaveladze’s—which returns you to the 2013 Miss Universe pageant, a defining moment in the investigation into whether Putin is blackmailing Trump. You can’t bifurcate the issues.
For those interested in reading more of Abramson’s expansive work on the Russia investigation, a reader (@chicken_afraido) has created a document linking to every Trump-Russia thread published by Abramson going back to autumn of 2016. The document begins with his updated bio from 8 December 2017, but then hops to his latest thread and works in reverse chronological order starting with Abramson’s most recent threads. He also has a web page linking to Abramson’s threads using category listings for those interested in a breakdown by topic.
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