Even though it got the most attention, the investigation conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller was never the one that strikes the most fear into Donald Trump, if only because he knew he’d be able to deny he’d had any meetings or discussed any incriminating information with the people who wound up being indicted or pleading guilty in the Mueller probe.
But there’s still a proverbial sword of Damocles hanging over Trump’s entire presidency, and it’s the one that even those who support Trump freely admit could wind up leading to him being indicted, impeached, and placed in prison for a very long time.
The investigation in question is being conducted by prosecutors working for the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York (SDNY), and it involves the Trump Organization, which is owned and controlled by the president and his three eldest children, Don Jr., Ivanka, and Eric.
Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, is in federal prison, but he’s been cooperating with the SDNY for months now and has plenty of documents, tapes, and other evidence that are invaluable in any criminal probe.
Also, the crimes being looked at by SDNY are of a financial nature, and money transactions leave trails, no matter how diligently you try to hide them. So if Trump or his company ever laundered money for members of the Russian mafia or Russian oligarchs, there will be records of that. As author Craig Unger recently explained in an interview he gave in connection with his eye-opening book House of Trump, House of Putin:
“I think all of this began as a money-laundering operation with the Russian mafia. It’s well known that Trump likes doing business with gangsters, in part because they pay top dollar and loan money when traditional banks won’t, so it was a win-win for both sides.
Trump was working with the Russian mafia for more than 30 years. He was profiting from them. They rescued him. They bailed him out. They took him from being $4 billion in debt to becoming a multibillionaire again, and they fueled his political ambitions, starting more than 30 years ago. This means Trump was in bed with the Kremlin as well, whether he knew it or not.”
That’s the Russia connection: MONEY! And Trump is all about money. He may well be the greediest man on the face of the planet, and if he could only save his business by taking dirty money from Russian gangsters, he would have done so in a heartbeat.
Yes, we do indeed still deserve to see the entire Mueller report and hear testimony from Robert Mueller. But it’s the SDNY that’s got Trump’s full attention, and he knows they have the goods on him.
Tick tock, Donnie Traitor. Tick tock