THREAD: DID YOU KNOW: Donald Trump tried mercilessly to shield a Turkish bank from facing punishment for HELPING fund Iran? While president, he FIRED to prosecutors investigating it. He asked cabinet officials to OBSTRUCT JUSTICE by pressuring DoJ to drop the probe. 1/
The crime, perpetrated by Halkbank in Turkey, is the BIGGEST EFFORT TO EVADE SANCTIONS AGAINST IRAN in history. Trump personally pressured AGs Matthew Whitaker and Bill Barr to drop the case, and fired Preet Bharara who was the lead prosecutor. 2/
Rex Tillerson even refused an order from Trump to pressure the DoJ to back off. And when Trump met with Erdogan at the G-20, he told him he would "take care of it." Two weeks later on the phone, Trump told Erdogan he had assigned Barr and Mnuchin to "handle" the issue. 3/
That same month, Kushner and Mnuchin met with Turkish officials in the Oval Office, and Mnuchin met with them SIX MORE TIMES. All to allow money to continue to flow to Iran. Trump then fired Bharara's successor, Geoffrey Berman, who refused to drop the case. 4/
Halkbank was eventually indicted, but SCOTUS has remanded the case back to the 2nd circuit saying that they need to consider whether Turkey has IMMUNITY. That's where the case sits now. 5/
Trump has a long history of trying to get money into Iran by skirting US sanctions. He ripped up the nuclear treaty. His tower in Azerbaijan was a laundromat for funding the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Keep all that in mind as the election approaches. END/
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.