How was it Trump was able to commit crime after crime, year after year

[ProfessorPlum]

Where was law enforcement? (specifically the FBI). The guy has clearly been a Russian asset for decades, and laundering money for them. Is money laundering for the Russian mob legal now?

WTF. If I ever did something illegal I'd probably be busted in 10 minutes. How is this clueless schmuck still on the streets? And how many more people (with a lot more intelligence and savvy) are money laundering for the Russians right now, and still free to roam the streets/campaign for leader of the free world?

How did this happen? It seems to me like an intelligence failure as huge as 9/11.

[fleur-de-lisa]

1. I have heard rumors that Shitler has been, on occasion, an informant for the FBI.

He apparently ratted out other mob figures involved in NY real estate.

I wonder how he stayed alive. If I live in Louisiana and I heard about Trump being a stool pigeon, certainly mobsters in NY have heard about it.

How did he not end up in the East River wearing a pair of cement shoes?

[ProfessorGAC]

2. Bribery?

Launder some money and they might be more forgiving. After all, the mob is really(!) focused on cash.

[ProfessorPlum]

3. Right?

I've heard that his habit of eating fast food was born from him not wanting to be poisoned - by the Russians, by rival mobsters - so he uses an unpredictable food source.


Somebody was asleep at the wheel when it came to keeping this moron away from the levers of power.

[Bear Creek]

19. That is a hugh problem

That is problem in all communities. Ploice let the informants get a free ride on the crimes they committed. If not profitting from it directly.

[marylandblue]

4. He is an expert con artist, his one true talent

His methods are:
- Do whatever.you want.
- Hide your theft using standard white collar shell games.
-If caught deny, blame, obfuscate, lather, rinse, repeat.
-Hire shady lawyers to bluster and cut "deals" to make things go away.
-Become an FBI informant.
-Make yourself such a pain in the ass that's a lot more productive for the cops to arrest lesser criminals.
-The Trump special sauce: pretend to be a famous civic-minded businessman.

[ProfessorPlum]

8. you are no doubt 100% correct

he's slippery.

but when people start announcing runs for the US president, shouldn't law enforcement take a quick pass at their records/activity and quickly get the word out/begin prosecution on people who are as dirty as this guy?

My kindest guess is that law enforcement never expected him to win (like everybody else) and thought "what's the harm in letting this traitorous halfwit finish out the election?"

[marylandblue]

13. Law enforcement isn't supposed to make those political judgements

And there is a reason guys like him stay out of politics. I think it was his biggest mistake. But what do I know? It may be the most successful con in history.

[WinstonSmith4740]

39. Totally agree.

I think you and Professor Plum hit it. He flew under the radar for years. Paying off officials at that level is not that big of a deal, as long as they all got a taste. But as I told my shell-shocked friend right after the "election", he's going to butt heads with our Constitution. It'll take time, but he'll go down.

[Retrograde]

22. Two other tactics

- Pick on people who can't hit back: Trump had (has?) a habit of stiffing contractors and suppliers who can't afford the legal costs when he tells them "Sue me" when they demand payment
- Use the courts to intimidate people: if someone says something negative, or says something you don't like, file a lawsuit in a civil court and bankrupt them of they don't agree to deal.

In the very few cases where the other party didn't back down and the lawsuits continued Trump lost.

[ProfessorPlum]

30. Right, that's how he intimidated other people who weren't cops/the feds

but what is the feds excuse?

[brush]

42. He only ran for office one time. Cops/feds are 99.5% repugs and the partisan hackishness...

that infests their brains blinded them and overcame their good judgment (see Comey).

[ProfessorPlum]

46. Comey's role in all of this goes back to the poisonous Whitewater investigation

which he was involved in.

Talk about a witch hunt. All of those investigators learned to have it out for Hillary Clinton, and it paid off for the GOP in October 2016.

I firmly believe that his actions were guided by his feelings that he developed during Whitewater.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

48. Nonsense. Utter nonsense. Tarring a whole group with a 99.5% brush is prejudice & bigotry.

Prejudice means "pre-judging".

You mean that 99.5% of Mueller's Federal team (prosecutors and FBI) is Republican?

Nonsense!

That is a RW talking point in reverse: they say Mueller's team and the FBI are 99.5% Democratic. Neither they nor you have a shred of evidence for statistics like that.

Please stop. Just stop. Now, if not sooner.

[ProfessorPlum]

49. the RW doesn't say that 99.5% of the FBI are democrats

at least I've never heard that.

I think it is true (based on reporting) that the NY based FBI was heavily biased against Clinton.

which may have had the same effect

[Bernardo de La Paz]

53. "Heavily biased" is very different fr 99.5% AND that's just 1 office. He tarred them NATIONWIDE. nt

[ProfessorPlum]

60. You need to perhaps recognize the literary device

Known as hyperbole. And practice letting it go when something isn't meant completely literally.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

63. Yeah, but he wrote as if he really believes it. Is tRump hyperbolic swinging opinion against FBI?

The public's positive view of the FBI has dropped noticeably since tRump started talking about how 'corrupt' they supposedly are or similar language.

I don't think we should talk the same way even with a different polarity. To be more precise: I don't think we should undermine confidence in the FBI the same as tRump does.

[ProfessorPlum]

70. you might, for example, read "99.5%" as an alternative way to say "a very large majority"

[brush]

50. Wake up buddy. Cops and FBI agents are mostly repugs. Why don't you know that?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

54. Wake up buddy. Binary thinking is not clear thinking. Why don't you know that? . . . . nt

[brush]

56. You're actually serious. You don't know that most LEOs are repugs.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

58. I am well aware. But "most" is nowhere near 99.5%. It's a plurality, but not 99.5%.

Yes, a plurality of LEO are Republicans. Nothing, NOTHING, I have written denies that. So please don't try that rotten debating trick of impugning my knowledge by willful reading in what is not there. It weakens your argument; does not strengthen it.

There are assuredly FBI offices where most agents are Democrats. Your fact is wrong and your binary thinking is wrong.

In 2015, about 40% of Feds were Republican or Republican leaning:
https://e.infogram.com/party_affiliation_of_feds?src=embed
There Are More Democrats in Federal Government Than You Might Think
August 2015.

99.5%? You think that 99.5% of FBI agents are not professional and can't do their jobs professionally? You think the Democratic FBI agents are magically professional when their colleagues are not? You think that Mueller's LE team is somehow automatically professional because many donated some money to Democrats? Is that what it has come to, that you think that everybody is all about Party over country? Except Democrats, maybe, because they are as pure as the driven snow? 99.5%?

Nonsense. Your 99.5% is a symptom of binary thinking. Binary thinking is one name for a large class of closely related fallacious thinking.

What national leader is tarring the FBI with a broad brush too?
What national leader is saying the FBI is politically biased?
What national leader is undermining public confidence in the FBI?
Why are you writing as if (nb: AS IF) you want to make common cause with his Orangeness?
Why even use the same kind of tactic?

Republicons don't do nuance. Be a Democrat who does.

Please do not prejudge FBI and law enforcement officers. We depend on many of them. Not just Mueller's direct team, but thousands of agents and support personnel nationwide.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

51. dt has been trying to run for pres for a few cycles i think.

hes just so ridiculous.

[marylandblue]

44. Just obfuscate and delay and litigate and lie some more

I've seen people drag government cases out for years. You can use all kinds of delaying tactics in white color crime cases and tax cases. He owns 500 companies. He has properties all over the place. He launders money through real estate. How's the taxman going to know that property X of company #245 was worth $1 million but sold for $5 million? And if he does figure that one out, make him pay dearly for doing a good job - fight it, bury him in paper, complain to his boss, pound on the table, then say oh okay, maybe we made a mistake, let's settle this one. For ONE property for ONE person. And most feds have multiple cases. So they learn it's not really worth it. There are easier ponds to fish in.

And it doesn't hurt if you are friends with the US Attorney for New York (Giuliani).

The Mueller investigation is different. Instead of one investigator with 20 cases, he's now up against 17 attorneys and 40 FBI agents with only 1 case. And not just them. He's made it worth the time and effort for the CIA, the NSA, European intelligence agencies, the NY Attorney General and US Attorney for NY to look at him too.

[Baitball Blogger]

5. " It seems to me like an intelligence failure as huge as 9/11."

That's how history should write it down.

[C_U_L8R]

32. Unfortunately

the intelligence failure occurred in the ballot box.

With some Russian help.

[tavernier]

6. $$$

[budkin]

7. Easy, he's rich.

Sad fact.

[ProfessorPlum]

10. I don't really think so

He has a lot of assets, but my belief is that his debts are staggeringly enormous.

which is how Putin controls him.

[NewJeffCT]

12. I agree that he has a lot of debt

but, Trump's image is that he is rich and most of the crimes he has committed in the past were cheating contractors and the like. For those little guys he cheated, he basically bullied and threatened the small and medium sized businesses to take less money.

[ProfessorPlum]

23. I hate him for what he did to smaller businesses. An evil fuck

"most of the crimes he has committed in the past were cheating contractors and the like"

assumes facts not in evidence. This is what we assume, but he may have been committing much more serious crimes for a long time.

[Cosmocat]

15. many "rich" people are paper rich - the other factor is

celebrity ...

Another thing - no doubt Russia has dirt on him and all, but he is so sick and depraved the biggest influence that Putin has over him is that 45 wants to be like him. He isn't an unwilling person who feels obligated to do what he does, he does what he does because he looks up to Putin and wants to be an autocrat like he is.

[TeamPooka]

9. Rich justice is the American way. You get the justice you can afford in this country.

[colorado_ufo]

20. After all

we have the best politicians money can buy!

[TeamPooka]

41. and some judges and cops too.

[BSdetect]

11. And how come they could not stop the election hacking?

[The Liberal Lion]

29. That is the 1 million dollar question my friend

[LittleGirl]

37. It was rigged from the get go

and that's all I'm going to offer because it's my opinion and my opinion only.

But I have a history of IT network administration work for worldwide corporate networks.
There are traces of communications, bank transactions, everything.
They only go after the ones that they can. And win.

That is their only goal. To win.

by Hook, Crook or (I can't remember the rest...)

[brush]

43. Yep, it's not who votes. It's who counts votes on those vote servers manufactured by...

repug-run corporations.

[LittleGirl]

57. Bingo!

[malaise]

14. Precisely

I've been asking that for years

[PaulX2]

16. Jails Are For The Powerless Always Have Been

Where have you been?

[pecosbob]

17. What ever gave you the impression that DJT is an anomaly?

DJT is American capitalism in a nutshell. Virtually all of the economic top ten percent in this country could be thrown in jail if their books were vigorously examined.

When all those corporations lined up to pay Michael Cohen bribes to get DJT's ear, who do you suppose authorized those bribes? It wasn't the guy in the mailroom. Someone on the board of directors authorized it.

[PaulX2]

18. It's The FBI's Job To Make Sure The Movers And Shakers Are Never Prosecuted

They protect the powerful filthy rich.

When the filthy rich got caught with their hidden bank accounts in Switzerland they all got amnesty.

https://www.whistleblowers.org/resources/press-room/in-the-news/1120-telling-swiss-secrets-a-bankers-betrayal

If it was us working stiffs we would be prosecuted for tax fraud.

The Game Is Rigged.

[ProfessorPlum]

26. they do it very well, apparently

I guess I have to constantly be concerned that our elite are selling us out to the Russian mafia.

Come to think of it, I am.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

64. When D's think FBI over-protects rich guy & R's think it's too little, they must be doing it right.

Or at least some Democrats. It is a bit bizarre how they are attacking the whole organization, including the hundreds of agents doing piece of work for Mueller. tRump hasn't done enough to undermine the FBI?

Ghouliani's agents in the NYC FBI office are the exception.

You confuse the FBI with the IRS.

[TryLogic]

21. And continually getting away with crimes leads one to believe he is too good to get caught.

Like, a guy who thinks he could shoot someone in Central Park, and get away with it.

[Retrograde]

24. I've been wondering about this myself lately

Why did New York, New Jersey, and Florida let him get away with his shady practices for so long? Didn't anyone notice, or is the construction/real estate business so corrupt there that he didn't stand out? We know that in at least one case - involving the Florida AG and Trump University - a large campaign contribution made a problem go away.

[The Liberal Lion]

31. In America one is innocent until proven they can't buy justice

[zentrum]

38. NJ and NY Real Estate

....is notoriously powerful with local pols and very protected by them.

That's one reason why established neighborhoods and communities are being destroyed: Real Estate. Fueled tremendously by foreign cash. NYC's new glass buildings are referred to as "cash registers in the sky" for Chinese, Russian and Arab Oligarchs.

Only the freshest of "laundry" is used.

[iscooterliberally]

25. It is a white collar crime and those tend not to get prosecuted here.

If he were importing drugs that probably would have brought him down, but money laundering? Many large banks do it all the time and they just pay a fine when they get caught. It's too bad our elected officials don't go after white collar crime.

[ProfessorPlum]

28. You are right

But I would think being a tool of the oligarchs in Russia would bring its own brand of scrutiny to someone, even above and beyond the usual construction corruption and money laundering.

Apparently, the higher ups thought that was A OK.

[The Liberal Lion]

27. I ask the same question

People are slaughtered in the streets, unarmed, for far lesser crimes (Eric Garner) or without actually committing a crime (John Crawford, Tamir Rice) than what that orange idiot has done even before that traitor began his illegal occupation of the white house.

[Johonny]

33. Ask Armand Hammer...

[moondust]

34. Hello Rudy? You there, Rudy?

1983-1989 - U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York

1994-2001 - "Crime-fighting" mayor of "Trumptown"


Must have been a lot of people in NYC who knew "casino owner" Drumpf was up to no good.

[Wwcd]

35. Ghouliani was head of NY FBI

Who's Trump's biggest mouthpiece today?
Yup.

[duforsure]

36. Bribery, blackmail ,

And probably intimidation , and threats from him and people he used.

[bucolic_frolic]

40. Keeping the crooks and law enforcers separate and diametrically opposed

in NY is not, I would suspect, historically very easy. You'd have to do a thorough history from the early 1900s onward to trace the overlap. And sometimes overlap is a means of keeping tabs on wayward elements. But intermingling happens because of the nature of the opposing sides and the nature of people.

[dlk]

45. There Has Always Been a Double Standard for the Rich

With enough money & a good lawyer, a rich person can pretty much get away with anything.

[pansypoo53219]

47. the moron is a bully w/ money. he has his "name". he is MALE. enabled. thanks NBC.

[EffieBlack]

52. I think despite his personal self-image, law enforcement saw him as a nothing - a broke conman

He wasn't worth their time and effort.

[doc03]

55. I read one time that there is more money stollen every day on Wall Street than at

gun point in an entire year. Then if someone does get convicted with a white collar crime they go to a country club prison.

[TwistOneUp]

59. If they have intelligence...

> And how many more people (with a lot more intelligence and savvy) are money laundering for the Russians right now

If they are truly intelligent, they won't deal with the russians.

[ProfessorPlum]

61. I agree

But the danger doesn't seem to come from US law enforcement.

[smirkymonkey]

62. This kind of reminds me of a quote from the movie "Office Space"...

Michael: "You know what I can’t figure out? How is it that all these stupid neanderthal mafia guys can be so good at crime, and smart guys like us can suck so badly at it."

Go figure.

[ProfessorPlum]

65. LOL

[Older Than I Look]

66. Rudy Giuliani

107th Mayor of New York City
January 1, 1994 – December 31, 2001

United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York
June 3, 1983 – January 1, 1989

United States Associate Attorney General
January 1981 – June 1983

[ProfessorPlum]

67. I hope they both go down in flames

assholes

[kentuck]

68. White collar crime is at an all-time low for convictions.

I heard that mentioned on CNN this a.m.

[dembotoz]

69. He is rich and well connected. Need I say more