President Trump has repeatedly maintained that he has no business interests or financial ties to Russia in an attempt to give the appearance there’s no way he could be manipulated into helping Russia in order to financially benefit himself.

But just this week we learned that Trump was pursuing a deal which would have resulted in the building of a new Trump Tower in Moscow. The deal later fell through, but it directly contradicts what Trump has been saying for months about his ties to Russia.

Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA), told host Dana Bash that the latest revelations about Trump attempting to arrange a real estate deal in Russia are part of a larger picture in which the president and his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, are now implicated, commenting:

“I think it’s very significant. We had requested documents from Mr. Cohen, and not being satisfied, we subpoenaed Mr. Cohen for whatever records were relevant to our investigation. It means, among other things, the President was dishonest when he said during the campaign that he had no business in Russia, was pursuing no business in Russia, so yet another misleading statement by the Administration about their relationship with Russia.

“It’s also significant because if they were pursuing business in Russia during the campaign, that might have influenced the positions the candidate took in a more pro-Russia direction. After all, if they were going to be criticizing Putin, criticizing Russia, that would diminish the chances that this deal would go through. We obviously want to get to the bottom of it, and we expect at some point, we’ll have Mr. Cohen come in and testify.”

Donald Trump has never criticized Russian president and mass murderer Vladimir Putin. Not once. When he met with Putin at the G-20 summit, he gushed over him and acted like a lovestruck high school girl. Why might that be? Two possible reasons:

• Trump is financially beholden to Russian individuals and/or companies.
• Putin and Russian intelligence have compromising information on Trump.

Trump is terrified that Special Counsel Robert Mueller will gain access to his tax returns because they likely show just how deeply enmeshed in Russian businesses–both legal and illegal–the president is and has been for years.

This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org