Thread by @grantstern

*** THREAD ***

Did you watch the #Maddow Show hosted by @JoyAnnReid tonight?

You might've noticed a video clip of Donald Trump Jr. in Latvia discussing golf and Russia.

I broke the video story before #Election2016 after @funder @TheDemCoalition tipped me.

It's still growing.

Neither @funder or I understood the totality of the information in Don Jr.'s interview but what we saw was shocking!

I wrote until very late on a Friday night not unlike tonight to break the scoop. It became our first major #TrumpRussia #TrumpLeaks story occupydemocrats.com/2016/10/15/new…

Don Jr. told his Latvian interviewers that he an. The Trump Org were seeking to do a Russian golf course development.

That raised our eyebrows because Donald Trump was rigorously denying all business contact with the country and Putin ties on the campaign trail.

#TrumpRussia

That Friday night changed EVERYTHING

I went went on to write 65 additional reports about #TrumpRussia in the next 5 months

Scott @funder wrote two editions of the #DworkinReport

Don Jr.'s interview in Riga, Latvia was Exhibit 6

We launched #TrumpLeaks m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_58…

Which led to a second #DworkinReport

m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_58…

And @funder kept digging while the #TrumpRussia story kept growing out of our original #TrumpLeaks and #DworkinReport material during the transition period.

twitter.com/i/moments/8097…

Then, @funder found corporate registrations in Cyprus with the Trump name. Not only is it a notorious Russian money laundering haven, #TrumpLeaks find Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross was a major stakeholder in the Bank of Cyprus with Putin's associates.

twitter.com/i/moments/8116…

But it wasn't until early 2017 that @funder discovered and I reported extensively, a Don Jr. keynote speech at a Russian real estate conference. Our biggest #TrumpLeaks story yet arrived the week before Steele's dossier lit the #TrumpRussia story on fire

twitter.com/i/moments/8177…

It would be a few months before the lager ramifications of Don Jr.'s #TrumpRussia appealing gig came into focus.

Trump sold the most expensive house in America 38 days later to Rybovlev, the Russian fertilizer king.

But we would soon revisit Latvia....

twitter.com/i/moments/8544…

Ironically, we'd never have continued investigating Latvia if it not for a major tip from an entirely unexpected source

@funder wrote a #TrumpRussia quote tweet about Don Jr.'s speech in Riga to Baltic International Bank, fined 10/3/16

Both Don Jr. and Eric Trump tipped us off!

If not for Don Jr. and Eric Trump both blocking @funder, we might never have dug deeper

What we found was shocking. Baltic International Bank had merely created a Russian money laundering manual, and got caught, and fined DURING the campaign #TrumpRussia thesternfacts.com/democratic-coa…

Then, Don Jr. blocked ME! I never tagged him or bothered him. @funder and I knew then we had to dig even further!

Baltic International had published new pictures of Don Jr.'s speech, depicting a private meeting with its founder. #TrumpRussia

thesternfacts.com/trump-jr-now-t…

The #TrumpRussia story about Latvia went epic viral last June, leading Baltic International Bank to CONFIRM just about everything written in a weakly written denial.

My reports on the bank's money laundering are sourced from government records, @OCCRP and court decisions...

The bank's denial compelled me to examine their relationship with El Chapo, a Mexican Cartel kingpin won engaged in a public war of words with Trump in 2015 on (where else) Twitter.

@AUSTRAC had linked Baltic International Bank to El Chapo.

thesternfacts.com/trump-jr-now-t…

It turns out that Don Jr. gave a paid speech to a bank involved in a major scam caught by American authorities too.

The Latvian bank also took in funds from the fraud against @Billbrowder that led to the Magnitsky Act: reportingproject.net/proxy/en/the-m…

#TrumpRussia

Whew! That's a lot of #TrumpRussia and #TrumpLeaks reporting, but wait! There's more...

So. @JoyAnnReid brought up the Trump Russian funded golf empire because Don Jr. spilled the beans on 2012, as I reported 10/15/2016, and she noted, a reporter asked Eric about their funding.

Eric Trump spilled the beans to a good reporter at the family's #TrumpRussia source of funds.

What's most notable about Trump's major move into the golf business is that it coincided with the disappearance of known markets for golf course loans....

thesternfacts.com/eric-trump-bra…