Guess Who's Being Investigated For Russian Money Laundering?

Prosecutors are looking into possible money laundering charges for a certain ex-President.

by Bob Cesca

WASHINGTON, DC – So many crimes, so little time. You’ve probably heard Donald Trump’s childishly stupid ditty about the investigations into his alleged criminal links to Russia. He likes to blurt a variation of Jan Brady’s famous line from The Brady Bunch: “Russia! Russia! Russia!” But according to revelations published by The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell, Trump might have to add a fourth “Russia!” to that thing he says.

It turns out, prosecutors are looking into possible money laundering charges involving Trump’s “Truth Social” app:

Federal prosecutors in New York involved in the criminal investigation into Donald Trump’s social media company last year started examining whether it violated money laundering statutes in connection with the acceptance of $8m with suspected Russian ties, according to sources familiar with the matter.

This is the first time this particular grand jury investigation has been publicly reported so, yes, we’re talking about a brand new criminal investigation into Trump and Trump-related crimes. And the jurisdiction is the southern district of New York, which means it’s a federal probe – Department of Justice. Quoting Joe Biden: a big effing deal. 

The $8 million was allegedly wired to Trump Media from two off-shore banks, ES Family Trust and Paxum Bank. And the loans appeared to have arrived in two separate tranches: one for $2 million and another for $6 million.

The Russian connection, as being examined by prosecutors in the US attorney’s office for the southern district of New York, centers on a part-owner of Paxum Bank – an individual named Anton Postolnikov, who appears to be a relation of Putin ally Aleksandr Smirnov.

Smirnov is a former Russian government official – serving as the deputy minister of justice and in the executive office of the president, among other jobs. So yeah, it’s not very difficult to make the connection to Putin.

And it looks as though Donald Trump Jr. personally approved the first $2 million tranche.

There appears to have been some awareness at Trump Media that the first $2m was to come through because Trump’s eldest son Don Jr, who joined the board with Trump ally Kash Patel and former Republican turned Trump Media chief executive Devin Nunes, had confirmed to the company’s lawyers to proceed with the transaction.

The details of any money laundering scheme are unknown, but as Lowell points out, it’s not good optics for Trump Media as the Securities and Exchange Commission decides whether to approve a lucrative merger between the Trump company and DWAC in order to take the whole thing public. Additionally, as of this writing, Lowell’s reporting hasn’t been duplicated by major papers of record. 

But let’s do the list of criminal (not civil) investigations. 

• There’s a county level grand jury in Georgia investigating Donald Trump’s election fraud and fake electors. 

• There are two federal grand juries investigating Trump in DC, one for the insurrection and another for the Mar-a-lago documents. 

• There’s another grand jury that’s investigating Trump’s hush money payment to Stormy Daniels. 

• And now, the U.S. attorney’s investigation of possible Russia money laundering through Trump’s social media app.

It seems inevitable that Trump will be indicted on at least one of these matters. But what else is lurking around the corner, waiting to nab Trump for something else? As much as we desperately need Trump to be held accountable, it’s its own reward to watch the legal system piling onto this giant baby. As I’ve been saying on my podcast, getting there is half the fun. It’s in the journey, as they say. Like the Dominion lawsuit and the revelations it’s produced before any verdict or settlement is made, there’s much to be learned in the process, and there are all kinds of horribly stressful things Trump will have to deal with in the course of these would-be prosecutions. And I’m so there for it all. 

Now, who will be the first to indict? Place your bets. And break out the popcorn.

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