I think it is safe to say that
PUTIN WANTED TRUMP TO WIN! Follow the money! Note the very last sentence. There has never been an accounting of TRUMP'S MASSIVE inauguration fund. They've refused. Hey RACHEL (Maddow), WHERE ARE YOU?? She's been mentioning this periodically for months.
Either way, their story suggests that one way Russia might have injected money into the
American political system for the 2016 election and beyond was not via traceable and accountable electronic transfers, but
the old-fashioned delivery of cold, hard cash.
Flying around stacks of cash is a time-honored way to get money into circulation in a distant place with no one in between learning about it — most of the time.
If Russian officials were shipping cash to the United States in 2016 for deposit in American bank accounts, which were then the apparently legitimate points of origination
for payments to political campaigns or political action committees, it could have been a powerful and deniable source of influence.
The Russia Investigations: On The Hunt For Duffel Bags Full Of Cash
April 7, 20187:00 AM ET
PHILIP EWING
Investigations: Mueller sends the feds to meet some international arrivees; new sanctions on some powerful, wealthy Russians; and Mr. Zuckerberg goes to Washington. A gleaming new Gulfstream 650 — or maybe it's a Sukhoi business jet — sweeps in for a landing at Teterboro Airport, the suburban New Jersey entrepôt for elite fliers on their way to nearby Manhattan. The sleek aircraft turns smartly off the runway and heads for the "executive passenger terminal," where a row of black vehicles is parked and waiting as usual. But when the hatch folds down to permit passengers to deplane and make their short drive into New York, someone is standing in the way:
That, at least, was the scene painted in an exclusive report by CNN's Kara Scannell and Shimon Prokupecz. Mueller himself might not be standing on the tarmac, but FBI investigators from his office have interdicted at least two wealthy Russians recently on their way into the United States, they report.
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The special counsel's office is apparently trying to establish whether powerful Russians who owe fealty to President Vladimir Putin — the oft-referenced "oligarchs" —may have funneled cash donations to President Trump's campaign or his inauguration fund.
The Russia Sanctions Saga: Weapons Dealers, Mobsters And Suitcases Full Of Cash
On Friday, the Treasury Department targeted some of those same oligarchs for a new round of sanctions, along with a number of other Russian government officials and entities — including the state weapons exporter. And here was the description Treasury gave of the conduct of one targeted Russian, gold baron Suleiman Kerimov:
"He is alleged to have brought hundreds of millions of euros into France – transporting as much as 20 million Euros at a time in suitcases, in addition to conducting more conventional funds transfers – without reporting the money to French tax authorities.
More money, more problems
That pattern of conduct, and the nature of the interdictions described by Scannell and Prokupecz, raise questions about how long this smuggling of cash might have gone on. The CNN story suggests investigators want to know whether it might have gone into Trump's inauguration accounts — or whether it continues to this day....
https://www.npr.org/2018/04/07/6002...ions-on-the-hunt-for-duffel-bags-full-of-cash
PS 20,000,000 Euros = $24,597,000.00 (US Dollars). That's a whole lot of suitcases and duffel bags!
