The role of Semion Mogilevich. I think this is important.

[peggysue2]

8. The Russian Mob Connection . . .

is absolutely important. And one need't go to a single source because the subject and its terrifying relevance has been researched and discussed at a number of venues.

H2O man had a thought provoking post up earlier. In it, he talked abut the prosecutorial method of finding the weak spots, the keys as a legal investigation evolves into indictments and charges

This is not unlike how mobsters go about finding front men--professionals, businessmen, politicians--as a cover for their criminal enterprises. They look for people with weaknesses/vulnerabilities, they apply leverage (seduce/threaten), and then they squeeze and squeeze and squeeze some more. If this is how Mueller and his team are progressing (and I've read this elsewhere) then they're turning the tables on the perpetrators, using that same method to zero in on the most vulnerable to exert leverage, turn state evidence. It's a fight fire with fire approach. And it's how I understand legal teams traditionally go after Mob Families.

It's been known for well over a decade+ that the Russian mob had moved beyond Russian borders, that they saw the US as a rich, tempting feeding ground. Manafort was under surveillance by the FBI long before he joined the Trump campaign. His weakness from the mob's perspective was probably his ability to rack up debt and who knows what unseemly appetites a Paul Manafort might have? And gee, who else has a debt/bankruptcy problem? None other than Donald J. Trump who has managed to work with Russian-linked 'entrepreneurs'--think Felix Sater, one of many--building casinos and hotels, and then standing back as the businesses go belly-up. But not before Trump has siphoned millions of the business assets for himself and perhaps his conspiring friends who need their dirty money washed. And remember Trump has flatly said he's NEVER been involved with the Russians.

I sense that when this ugliness fully breaks open, we're going to be shocked by the true nature of what the Trump/Russia link really means, that it goes way beyond the election of 2016 (as bad as that was) into something far more sinister and dark. There are lots of links out there. Before anyone dismisses the subject as mere conspiracy theory, you should read up, look at the Mob/Trump Dynasty's history. It's been a long, continuous relationship. And frankly, it's horrifying because the tendrils are everywhere. Something like a cancer. Imagine that!