Cohen, in his book, talks about how Trump's shady business ethics led Russians to purchase Trump property through shell companies to hide their identities.
Money laundering simply means hiding the origins of properties.
Reportedly, what Trump did when he sold real estate to Russian oligarchs was fail to inquire into the orgins of the money.
This (if true) would be known to the people who handled the sales transaction.
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Cohen wasn't part of those transactions. His job was basically to bully people. It's unlikely that Cohen would have seen the bank records that would establish money laundering.
What Cohen says happened is consistent with what we know about Trump taking dirty Russian money.
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It would be a terrible idea for Cohen to go on national television and say Trump committed a particular crime (money laundering) when he has no evidence of that.
No need. Cohen witnessed (and helped with) plenty of other Trump felonies, which he listened in his book.
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Mistake earlier. I wrote hiding the "origins of the properties."
Apologies. I meant "hide the origins of the money."
There's enough salacious stuff without inventing a plot line that Cohen is afraid of Russian poison when he appears to have told everything he actually saw.
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I don't doubt that Trump took Russian money in those transactions without inquiring into the origins, while knowing full well the money was stolen from the Russian people.
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Take Semion Mogilevich, for example. Mogilevich got his start as a young man in the Soviet Union (SU) scamming his fellow countrymen who wanted to emigrate. He offered to sell their assets & send them the money, but instead, he pocketed their money.
8/ His victims had left the country so they couldn’t do anything. By the mid 1980s, he had millions and needed to launder it.
Money laundering means putting illegally obtained money through a few complicated transactions to hide the origins of the money (better explanation!)
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Mogilevich knew it made no sense for a young man in the Soviet Union to have millions—so in 1986, he sent his operative to buy 6 luxury condos in Trump Tower. justsecurity.org/60528/understa…
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Foreigners, by this time, discovered that money could easily be laundered through US luxury real estate.
Trump sold Mogilevich 5 luxury condos for $6 million cash.
Come on. No way did a guy from the Soviet Union on those years have $6 obtained legally.
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For years I was perplexed by what I was seeing on left-leaning Twitter, political blogs, and partisan reporting.
I had the feeling that, in its way, what I was seeing was comparable to Fox: Lots of bad information and even unhinged conspiracy theories.
2terikanefield.com/invented-narra…
Of course, if I suggested that, I was blasted for "both-sidesing."
Then I discovered an area of scholarship: Communications and the overlap between communications and political science.
Another contradiction: when people demanded indictments RIGHT NOW (in 2021 and early 2022) the reason was, "Everyone knows he's guilty! Look at all the evidence!"
We saw the J6 committee findings.
Trump isn't saying "I didn't do it." He's saying, "I had the right to do it."
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We all know what he did. The question is, "Do people want a president who acts like Trump?"
A lot of people do.
People show me polls that a guilty finding would change minds.
I say rubbish. Use common sense. He lost in 2020 and he lost the popular vote in 2016. . .
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. . . because it is designed to keep people hooked. People need to stay glued to the screen for hour after hour.
But to hook people, you need to scare them. The Facebook whistleblower testified that content that produces strong emotions like anger gets more engagement.
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Fox does the same thing. There is a few minutes of news, but the facts get lost as commentators and TV personalities speculate and scare their audiences.
Before you yell at me for comparing MSNBC to FOX, read all of this:
If I write another blog post addressing the outrage cycle here on Twitter and in the MSNBC ecosystem, it will be to explore why so many people who believe they are liberal or progressive actually want a police state.
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Today alone, a handful of people who consider themselves liberal or progressive told me that the "traitors need to be arrested and prosecuted."
In 2019, back when I wore myself out tamping down misinformation, I explained the legal meaning of treason.
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Back then, I now realize, people asked politely: "Can Trump be prosecuted for treason (over the Russia election stuff).
I explained that wouldn't happen.
Now it's different. It's more like fascist chants.
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