Why Trump's inauguration money is a major part of Mueller's Russia investigation

[Uncle Joe]

(snip)

So a week after the election, Trump named a murderers’ row of uber-rich Republicans as “finance vice chairs” for the event. They included casino billionaires Sheldon Adelson and Steve Wynn (the latter of whom was later accused of sexually abusing employees), defense contractor Elliott Broidy (later involved in hush money payments to a Playboy model), and Anthony Scaramucci (later White House communications director for 10 days before resigning over an obscene interview with the New Yorker).

The man in charge of it all, as chair of the inaugural committee, was Tom Barrack. A billionaire real estate investor who’s been a close friend of Trump for decades, Barrack’s business interests have recently been concentrated in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. (The Washington Post’s Michael Kranish and the New York Times’s David Kirkpatrick have both written excellent profiles of him.) His goal, he said, was for the inauguration to have “soft sensuality” and a “poetic cadence.”

To help with the planning and fundraising, Barrack turned to a Trump campaign aide: Rick Gates, the longtime right-hand man to Paul Manafort. (Barrack had known Manafort since the 1970s and helped convince Trump to bring him on to the campaign.)

Even at the time, the choice raised eyebrows, since Manafort had been ousted from the campaign after scandal-laden stories about his work for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine. But, according to a November 2016 report by Michael Isikoff of Yahoo News, Gates became instrumental in fundraising and planning. Isikoff quoted a source calling Gates the “shadow” chair of the inauguration and Barrack’s “chief deputy.”

(snip)

https://www.vox.com/2018/7/5/17505728/trump-inauguration-mueller-russians-rick-gates

This is an excellent, in-depth, follow the money analysis

[dem4decades]

1. I love when a complex conspiracy has a cooperating witness.

hello Rick Gates.

[Uncle Joe]

2. I hear you dem4decades