Tom Maertens worked on Soviet and then Russian affairs for a dozen years, inside the State Department, at the U.S. Consulate General in Leningrad, and as Minister-Counselor for Science, Environment and Technology at U.S. Embassy Moscow.
Donald Trump is running scared: He is telling 32 lies (1) per day, according to the Washington Post, much higher than the 8.3 daily lies earlier in his term.
What’s got him rattled is five investigations, a separate lawsuit by two state attorneys general, multiple civil lawsuits with potentially damaging discovery proceedings and several associates who have flipped.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating whether Trump conspired with Russia to alter the 2016 election, and whether he obstructed justice — as he virtually admitted to Lester Holt on NBC.
Trump has attacked Mueller’s investigation in increasingly deranged tweets, but Mueller has brought 187 criminal charges against 34 people and three organizations. He has obtained eight convictions/guilty pleas, including Trump's campaign chairman (Paul Manafort), his deputy campaign chairman (Rick Gates); his former attorney (Michael Cohen); former National Security Advisor (Michael Flynn) and advisor (George Papadopolous).
Ominously for Trump, all have agreed to cooperate with the prosecution, including Manafort, who participated in the June 2016 Treason Summit in Trump Tower where collusion with Russia was discussed.
Mueller has also indicted 12 Russian intelligence (GRU) officers, 13 Russian government hackers, a Russian "swallow" (Butina), "businessmen" Alex van der Zwaan, Richard Penedo, Konstantin Kliminik, Sam Patten and three Russian organizations.
His lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to crimes "in co-ordination with, and at the direction of" Donald Trump, which would make Trump a co-conspirator in a federal crime.
Separately, the New York attorney general has filed charges against the Trump Foundation, the Trump Campaign and Michael Cohen for fraud and violating campaign finance laws.
Simultaneously, Trump is being sued by the Maryland and D.C. attorneys general for violation of the Constitution’s emoluments clause.
Additionally, the publisher of The National Enquirer, David Pecker, has been given immunity to testify about possibly illegal campaign contributions he made by paying to suppress stories unfavorable to Trump.
Adding to Trump’s nightmare, his long-time accountant (Allen Weisselberg) has been given immunity to testify.
Investigative journalist Craig Unger (House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia) reports that Trump dealt with the Russian Mafia, an extension of the Russian government, for three decades, and that its American headquarters were in Trump Tower.
During that time, anonymous Russians bought 1300 Trump condos, paid for in cash, according to Buzzfeed, a sign of probable money laundering.
Unger concludes that “it is fair to say that without the Russian Mafia’s move into New York, Donald Trump would not have become president.”
Unger lists 59 people who served as intermediaries between Trump and Russia. The Moscow Project, in turn, has compiled a list of 87 contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia. (2)
Astonishingly, Trump campaign officials issued at least 51 categorical denials that there were ANY contacts with Russia. (3)
Trump’s servility toward Putin has been on display for all to see, especially at the Helsinki Summit. The press even asked Trump if Putin had compromising information on him, to which he answered that Putin would have already released it if he did. No, that’s the opposite of how blackmail works.
Ex-KGB Gen. Oleg Kalugin, former head of counterintelligence, told Unger that Trump was probably compromised during his 1987 trip to Russia, and possibly again in 1994. Kalugin said the KGB regularly supplied young women to visitors in order to entrap them. Former GRU agent Viktor Suvorov confirmed that such activities were under 24-hour surveillance.
Trump’s vulnerabilities would have been obvious to the KGB; he has repeatedly bragged about his sexual exploits.
In a 1998 interview with Howard Stern, Trump compared his sex life to serving in Vietnam and asserted that he should have gotten the Congressional Medal of Honor.
More damning, former columnist A.J. Benza told GQ that Trump “used to call me when I was a columnist and say, ‘I was just in Russia, the girls have no morals, you gotta get out there.’”
In 2017, Trump told a press conference, “Be very careful, because in your hotel rooms and no matter where you go, you’re gonna probably have cameras. I’m not referring just to Russia, but I would certainly put them in that category.”
Those comments are a giveaway. As a long-time Russia hand, I consider it virtually certain that the KGB surveilled his hotel room; the comments show that Trump knows that embarrassing tapes exist.
This would explain his obsequiousness toward Putin and his frantic lying about his Russia ties.
Footnotes:
1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/09/13/president-trump-has-made-more-than-false-or-misleading-claims/
2. https://themoscowproject.org/explainers/trumps-russia-cover-up-by-the-numbers-70-contacts-with-russia-linked-operatives/
3. https://www.facebook.com/thetrumpsterfirebyhuffpost/videos/179188472709494/UzpfSTEwMDAwNjU3ODIyOTAwMjoyMjIzMjU0MTMxMjM3MTcz/
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