It comes as no surprise this morning to find out there’s yet another lie Team Trump has gotten behind, top to bottom: From the beginning, Trump swore that he had no business dealings in Russia, both during the campaign and in the days before his inauguration into well after he was sworn in.
“I have no dealings with Russia, I have no deals in Russia, I have no deals that could happen in Russia because we stayed away.”
Trump in Jan. 2017. pic.twitter.com/7ZjbxW4SkO
— Erick Fernandez (@ErickFernandez) November 29, 2018
A few weeks ago we found out as a result of Michael Cohen’s guilty plea that Trump had been working on a deal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow the entire time. We’d already known about the deal, but Cohen’s previous lies had led everyone to believe that Trump and his associates had given up on it before the campaign was in full swing.
Once we knew that part was a lie, Trump went all in on minimizing the importance — or even relevance — of his real estate deals, as though we didn’t all remember him saying endlessly nice things about Vladimir Putin the whole time he campaigned. Now we know that was an effort to butter up the Russian dictator. Trump even went so far as to pretend he barely remembered the Moscow Tower deal, saying that perhaps Cohen had signed some letter of intent.
Then came Rudy Giuliani, confirming just days ago that there was a letter of intent but that it was never signed.
Last night, CNN’s Chris Cuomo showed us that letter, signed by Donald Trump, live on the air.
The signed letter means a lot of things, but mostly underscores other bad things — it’s not illegal for Trump to have signed the letter, but it does mean that:
- Trump had every intention of building a massive skyscraper in Russia using money from a bank that was at the time and is still subject to US and global sanctions
- He’s been lying about yet another thing related to Russia for more than two years, and this time we don’t have to wait for an indictment from Mueller to find out about it
- There’s one more aspect of this that could be a major crime
That last bit is important, and US Rep Ted Lieu pointed out what it was this morning. When we found out through the Cohen pleas about the truth behind the Trump Tower deal, we also discovered that Trump had supposedly offered Putin the penthouse in the soon-to-be constructed tower as both a gift and a way to entice other oligarchs to come purchase units in the new building — since it is a mark of high honor to live in the same place as the leader of your country. Ted pointed out an angle that we’re positive Mueller has already processed entirely:
Appears @RudyGiuliani lied, again.
Also, if the attempted penthouse gift to Putin at Trump Tower Moscow is true, then @realDonaldTrump or his company may have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a felony. FCPA prevents bribery or attempted bribery of foreign officials. https://t.co/iHK7F6EMwk
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) December 19, 2018
That part there is important because it’s a crime that you don’t have to be the President to commit. YOU, dear reader, could commit that crime, and that means it’s a crime that Trump, the private citizen, would have committed before running for office, that was not disclosed.
One way or the other, Trump’s days are coming to an end as the President of the United States. There’s plenty of conjecture about resignations or impeachment — we’re kind of hoping to see him led away in handcuffs.
Watch the Cuomo segment here:
Featured image via screen capture
