Robert Mueller issues subpoena for Donald Trump's bank records. And so it begins.

Courtesy of Bloomberg News:  

Special prosecutor Robert Mueller zeroed in on President Donald Trump’s business dealings with Deutsche Bank AG as his investigation into alleged Russian meddling in U.S. elections widens. 

Mueller issued a subpoena to Germany’s largest lender several weeks ago, forcing the bank to submit documents on its relationship with Trump and his family, according to a person briefed on the matter, who asked not to be identified because the action has not been announced. 

“Deutsche Bank always cooperates with investigating authorities in all countries,” the lender said in a statement to Bloomberg Tuesday, declining to provide additional information. 

Deutsche Bank for months has rebuffed calls by Democratic lawmakers to provide more transparency over the roughly $300 million Trump owed to the bank for his real estate dealings prior to becoming president. Representative Maxine Waters of California and other Democrats have asked whether the bank’s loans to Trump, made years before he ran for president, were in any way connected to Russia. The bank previously rejected those demands, saying sharing client data would be illegal unless it received a formal request to do so. Trump has denied any wrongdoing.

You may remember that Donald Trump suggested that going after his fiances represented a "red line" that Mueller should never cross. 

However clearly Mueller does not give two shits about any red lines that Trump does not want him to cross.

In fact since Trump's own son bragged about all of the money they were getting from Russia, and since Deutshe Bank is perhaps the last financial institution willing to still lend Trump money, AND since they were recently busted for laundering Russian money, of COURSE Mueller had to subpoena those records.

Damn, I bet Trump is literally rending his clothes and smashing furniture in the White House right now.

I also bet he is asking his legal team if there is any way he can fire Robert Mueller and not have it only exacerbate his problems.

The answer to that is no, no he can't.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington are pissed at getting the runaround from Trump.

Here's more courtesy of Bloomberg: 

A government transparency group vowed on Friday to continue a court battle to open up visitor logs at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, after the administration provided only the names of Japanese staff who attended a February visit from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. 

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, one of three government transparency groups that sued the Department of Homeland Security for the information, obtained and released the records on Friday. 

The Justice Department said in a letter to CREW that the records were responsive to the group’s request under the Freedom of Information Act. “The government seriously misrepresented their intentions to both us and the court,” CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said in a statement. “This was spitting in the eye of transparency. We will be fighting this in court.” 

CREW and other ethics specialists have criticized Trump for not divesting from his business holdings -- including Mar-a-Lago and other properties he visits -- saying they provide an avenue for those seeking influence to curry the president’s favor.

This kind of arrogance on the part of Trump and his businesses will ultimately only bring more heat in their direction.

And that last part is becoming a real issue now that we are learning just how much Trump himself is benefiting financially from using Mar-a-Lago as his "winter White House."

Courtesy of WaPo: 

On a weekend in early March, during one of seven trips by Trump and his White House entourage to the posh Palm Beach property since the inauguration, the government paid the Trump-owned club to reserve at least one bedroom for two nights. 

The charge, according to a newly disclosed receipt reviewed by The Washington Post, was $1,092. 

The amount was based on a per-night price of $546, which, according to the bill, was Mar-a-Lago’s “rack rate,” the hotel industry term for a standard, non-discounted price. 

The receipt, which was obtained in recent days by the transparency advocacy group Property of the People and verified by The Post, offers one of the first concrete signs that Trump’s use of Mar-a-Lago as the “Winter White House” has resulted in taxpayer funds flowing directly into the coffers of his private business.

I am very hopeful that these groups really turn the screws on Trump and bring transparency to what is now perhaps the most secretive administration since Richard Nixon's.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller applies increasing pressure on Paul Manafort.

Courtesy of the Miami Herald:  

Paul Manafort’s place in the crosshairs of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into the Kremlin’s attempts to sway the 2016 presidential election seems to be growing more uncomfortable. 

Two sources familiar with the inquiry tell McClatchy that investigators are working to confirm information indicating that Manafort and the consulting firms he led earned between $80 million and $100 million over a decade from pro-Moscow Ukrainian and Russian clients. 

Mueller’s expanded focus on Manafort’s complicated financial picture is zeroing in on whether he may have evaded taxes or engaged in any money laundering schemes, the sources say, and the hunt for his financial records through a labyrinth of offshore bank and business accounts has become an important prong of the investigation. 

Given his pro-Kremlin connections and his closeness to the campaign, Manafort was uniquely positioned to play a role in any collusion between the campaign and operatives working on behalf of the Russian government to help elect Trump. 

Whether Manafort can be squeezed depends in part on whether he failed to report foreign income and overseas bank accounts annually to the Internal Revenue Service as required by law. The volume of money said to be involved and the time elapsed could put him at significant risk.

The IRS is involved? Well Manafort is screwed now.

There is some evidence that Manafort is already cooperating with the investigators, but whether he has flipped or not the existence of this increasingly bad information now being leaked to the press means that he may have little choice but to cooperate or face a rather lengthy prison term. 

All in all this should have Trump shitting bricks.

Despite threats from The Donald, Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating the Trump family finances. Update!

Let's see, what else does Donald Trump not want me to investigate?

Courtesy of Bloomberg:

The U.S. special counsel investigating possible ties between the Donald Trump campaign and Russia in last year’s election is examining a broad range of transactions involving Trump’s businesses as well as those of his associates, according to a person familiar with the probe. 

FBI investigators and others are looking at Russian purchases of apartments in Trump buildings, Trump’s involvement in a controversial SoHo development in New York with Russian associates, the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow and Trump’s sale of a Florida mansion to a Russian oligarch in 2008, the person said. 

The investigation also has absorbed a money-laundering probe begun by federal prosecutors in New York into Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

John Dowd, one of Trump’s lawyers, said on Thursday that he was unaware of the inquiry into Trump’s businesses by the two-months-old investigation and considered it beyond the scope of what Special Counsel Robert Mueller should be examining. 

“Those transactions are in my view well beyond the mandate of the Special counsel; are unrelated to the election of 2016 or any alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia and most importantly, are well beyond any Statute of Limitation imposed by the United States Code,” he wrote in an email.

The MINUTE I read that New York Times article, where Trump essentially threatened the Special Counselor, I HOPED that Mueller was going to aggressively go after the Trump family finances, and lo and behold he is.

I am sort of torn between hoping that Trump DOES NOT fire Mueller so that he can continue to do his investigations without interruption, and hoping that he DOES find a way to get rid of Mueller so that we can witness the devastating fallout that it will surely trigger.

All I know for certain is that Donald Trump's problems are really only just beginning.

Update: This just broke from the Washington Post:   

With the Russia investigation continuing to widen, Trump’s lawyers are working to corral the probe and question the propriety of the special counsel’s work. They are actively compiling a list of Mueller’s alleged potential conflicts of interest, which they say could serve as a way to stymie his work, according to several of Trump’s legal advisers. 

A conflict of interest is one of the possible grounds that can be cited by an attorney general to remove a special counsel from office under Justice Department regulations that set rules for the job.

The president is also irritated by the notion that Mueller’s probe could reach into his and his family’s finances, advisers said. Trump has been fuming about the probe in recent weeks as he has been informed about the legal questions that he and his family could face. 

His primary frustration centers on why allegations that his campaign coordinated with Russia should spread into scrutinizing many years of Trump dealmaking. He has told aides he was especially disturbed after learning Mueller would be able to access several years of his tax returns.

Yeah, not hard to see that this was coming.

So yes, Trump is looking for a way to fire Robert Mueller.

But wait, there's more.

The article goes on to reveal that Trump is also exploring with his legal team his ability to grant pardons.

Including the possibility of pardoning himself.

And I think that would be what we might call Trump's plan B.

Update 2: Spokesman for Trump's legal team resigns. 

As suspected Donald Trump is using the presidency to gain more wealth.

Yesterday Trump's 2017 financial disclosure was released.

I started to read through it in order to write an in depth analysis, before realizing that I don't know shit about finances and going to the movies instead.

However there are others who did not sleep through their economics classes, and THEY have made some discoveries.

For instance The Atlantic discovered that Trump is using his office to make his properties more profitable:   

President Trump says he’s received tens of millions of dollars in income from the golf courses and resorts whose profile he boosted during frequent visits since taking office, according to filings released Friday by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. 

The 98 pages of financial disclosures offer a partial snapshot of Trump’s income and assets from January 2016 to April this year, as well as indications he’s reaped at least a partial windfall since his most recent filing with the Federal Election Commission last year. The filings offer less detailed information about his precise financial situation than would be obtained from his tax returns. Trump broke with modern precedents by refusing to release those returns on the campaign trail or during his presidency.

Properties that Trump frequently visited as president saw the largest boost in income. Trump claimed more than $37 million in income from Mar-a-Lago, the Palm Beach County resort in Florida he described as his “Winter White House,” as well as $20 million in income from the nearby golf club he owns in Jupiter, Florida. His claimed Mar-a-Lago income rose rapidly since his last two financial disclosures with the FEC: Trump reported more than $15 million in income from the resort in the 2015 report, followed by $29 million in the 2016 version.

So apparently while we were all criticizing Trump for constantly visiting golf clubs and resorts instead of working, he was in fact using his office to draw attention to them and make them more profitable.

Which, in my opinion, is actually much worse.

Here is a president who may be slow to respond to national disasters because he is too busy doing free advertising for one of his many commercial properties.

However the report is not all good news for Trump's finances, because we also learned that he owes hundreds of millions of dollars and may not be nearly as wealthy as he claims.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

President Donald Trump had personal liabilities of at least $315.6 million to German, U.S. and other lenders as of mid-2017, according to a federal financial disclosure form released late on Friday by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. 

Trump reported income of at least $594 million for 2016 and early 2017 and assets worth at least $1.4 billion. 

Only 1.4 billion in assets huh?

Now I'm sure that Trump would dispute this and claim that it only shows a portion of his "vast wealth," but until we see his tax returns this is really all we have to go on.

And having over 300 million in liabilities certainly does not speak well of his money management skills either.

Using the White House to make money, while lying about his wealth, and owing creditors over 300 millions dollars.

THAT is who the Russians, and of course deplorables, thought should run this country.

Yeah, that impeachment thing really cannot happen soon enough in my opinion.

Donald Trump has stated that he does not intend to go after Hillary Clinton because of her e-mail server, but that does not mean he is done punishing her yet.

Courtesy of the New York Post:  

Foreign governments will be encouraged to investigate the Clinton Foundation’s finances, as many are already turning off money spigots to the scandal-scarred group, The Post has learned. 

A source close to President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team told The Post that the new administration plans to pressure the US ambassadors it will name to bring up the foundation with foreign governments — and suggest they probe its ­financial dealings. 

Trump said last week that he would not order an investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server or her role in the foundation. 

But Trump’s statement didn’t preclude the backroom moves to investigate the group. 

“Haiti and Colombia will be key diplomatic posts for this ­because of all the money ­involved,” said the source.

So I guess when Donald Trump said, “I don’t want to hurt them. They’re good people,” that was just one more lie to add to the pile?

I think just like the Benghazi investigation and the e-mail kerfuffle this will turn out to be a great big nothing burger.

But once again it adds stress to the lives of the Clinton family, and very likely endangers the survival of the Clinton Foundation.

Wasn't it Omarosa who said that Trump was keeping a list of his enemies?

Why yes it was.

The New York Times reveals Donald Trump's 1995 tax returns, and let's just say he lost "bigly."

Hey, who hasn't lost 916 million in one year? Right?

Courtesy of the New York Times:

Donald J. Trump declared a $916 million loss on his 1995 income tax returns, a tax deduction so substantial it could have allowed him to legally avoid paying any federal income taxes for up to 18 years, records obtained by The New York Times show. 

The 1995 tax records, never before disclosed, reveal the extraordinary tax benefits that Mr. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, derived from the financial wreckage he left behind in the early 1990s through mismanagement of three Atlantic City casinos, his ill-fated foray into the airline business and his ill-timed purchase of the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan. 

Tax experts hired by The Times to analyze Mr. Trump’s 1995 records said that tax rules especially advantageous to wealthy filers would have allowed Mr. Trump to use his $916 million loss to cancel out an equivalent amount of taxable income over an 18-year period.

Somebody will have to explain to me how anybody would think that a guy who lost 916 million in one year is supposed to know how to "fix" the American economy?

Or how a guy who may not have paid taxes for eighteen years (And let's not play games here, if Trump did not HAVE to pay those taxes we know he did NOT pay those taxes.) understands anything about raising or lowering taxes in this country?

Actually Trump himself answered that, while making no attempt to defend himself against the accusations in the New York Times article.

I know our complex tax laws better than anyone who has ever run for president and am the only one who can fix them. #failing@nytimes

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2016

Yeah if anybody actually believes that Donald Trump does his own taxes or understands the complexities of the tax code, well you are probably dumb enough to be a Trump supporter.

Remember during the debate that when Hillary suggested the reason Trump refused to reveal his tax returns might be because he has not paid any taxes, he replied with "That makes me smart."

Well how does one make the case that losing 916 million dollars in one year and then having their accountants take advantage of a tax break for rich people makes them smart?

And let's not forget that Trump needed several banks to bail him out only five years earlier:

Developer Donald Trump`s four leading bank lenders tentatively agreed Tuesday to lend him $65 million and defer interest and principal payments on about $850 million of his nearly $2 billion of debt for five years, said people involved in the talks. 

The leading bank lenders-Citibank, Bankers Trust, Chase Manhattan Bank and Manufacturers Hanover-now must persuade other loan syndicates to approve the new loan package. 

That loan package was approved, not because Trump is such a good businessman, but because if his  business had failed it would have caused a financial crisis for his lenders.

These banks also put Trump on an allowance to keep him from making any more disastrous financial decisions. Apparently that was only a temporary fix as five years later he seems to have lost almost a billion dollars.

This guy has no idea what it is like for regular tax paying Americans working hard to put food on their table and care for their families in this country.

He is a giant overfed child playing a game of Monopoly with real buildings and real money, and with a get out of jail free card grasped firmly in his tiny sweaty hands. 

Sarah Palin finally sells her Arizona house.

Courtesy of the LA Times: 

Onetime Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has sold her gated estate in Scottsdale, Ariz., for $2.275 million. 

Built in 2001, the approximately 8,000-square-foot house came to market last December for $2.499 million and was more recently listed at $2.375 million, records show. Palin bought the house in 2011 for $1.695 million.

So she had to face reality and drop the price $224,000, but at least she finally sold the place.

Though I still think that the buyer is a sucker for paying that much.

What special features does it even have anyway?

Designed for outdoor entertaining, the property includes such backyard features as fireplaces off the covered patio and veranda, a built-in grill station and a swimming pool and spa. A water-saving synthetic lawn, a lighted sports court and a putting green are also within nearly five acres of grounds. 

Inside, living areas have a contemporary vibe with subdued hues, vaulted ceilings and wrought ironwork throughout. Formal living and dining rooms, a media/room theater, an oversized kitchen and a wine cellar are among the common areas.

A white trash road kill grill, never used basketball court, fake grass, and a home theater that you just know showed more porn than regular movies.

If it were me I would have the whole place fumigated and disinfected, especially that bacteria incubating pool, before I ever set foot in the place.

And thus ends Palin's desperate attempt to run away from Alaska and start a brand new life. Now she is stuck here, and trust me that is the LAST thing that she wanted. 

Of course the other takeaway from this is the knowledge that Palin now has some disposable cash on hand.

Even if Palin has barely made a dent in her mortgage she still stands to clear well over half a million dollars.

So the question is what will she do with that money? Something intelligent, like invest it? And can it really do much to return her to the lifestyle to which she has grown accustomed?

Probably not.

In fact she probably still needs to pay off that high priced lawyer she hired to keep Track out of jail. Not to mention all of those ongoing payments of hush money which must be getting harder and harder to maintain.

Jane Sanders refusing to release tax forms unless Hillary Clinton first releases speech transcripts.

Courtesy of CNN:  

Bernie and Jane Sanders won't release their back tax returns until Democratic rival Hillary Clinton releases the transcripts of her Wall Street speeches, Jane Sanders said Tuesday afternoon. 

Bernie Sanders has repeatedly called on the Clinton campaign to release her speeches in an effort to show she's aligned with powerful Wall Street interests. 

But he has been slow to answer Clinton's demand to release his tax returns, saying in a CNN debate earlier this month that his wife handles their financial affairs and has been too busy campaigning. The Sanders made public their 2014 return the next evening, showing they earned nearly $206,000 and paid about $28,000 in federal taxes that year. 

Asked Tuesday when the campaign plans to issue prior years' returns, Jane Sanders told CNN's Wolf Blitzer they will wait to see whether Clinton will disclose her transcripts.

Okay two things.

First the Sanders' campaign promised that they would release these tax returns to the media, so they lied.

And second ALL serious presidential candidates release their tax information, while NONE of them have ever been asked to provide transcripts for paid speeches.

This transcript thing seems like a new hurdle specifically invented for Hillary Clinton, and both the Sanders' campaign and Right Wing media outlets are mythologizing them like Donald Trump once mythologized President Obama's birth certificate.

In the opinion of Hillary's enemies once these transcripts are revealed to the public it will destroy her campaign. Just like they are convinced that the FBI is only seconds away from indicting her and the Benghazi committee is on the verge of revealing that she shot those four Americans herself.

On a similar note the Sander's campaign is now asking for an extension on Bernie's personal financial disclosure until after the California primaries.

The @BernieSanders campaign asks for 45-day extension in filing Sanders' latest personal financial disclosure pic.twitter.com/QgttdYhuKS

— Dave Levinthal (@davelevinthal) April 28, 2016

Okay you know the one thing about Bernie that I have always defended is his integrity.

But there is something going on here that is fairly bothersome.

After all there is no doubt that after California we will all know for an absolute fact that Bernie Sanders is dead in the water, so essentially he is putting this off until a time when nobody will be asking to see it anymore.

One year ago George Zimmerman thought he got of scott free for murder, today he is jobless, millions in debt, and essentially destitute.

Somehow I doubt he is laughing now.

Courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel:  

George Zimmerman has no job, no home, no income but spends $100 a month on vacations and $200 a month on psychological counseling, according to a financial affidavit he recently filed in his divorce case. 

According to it, he spends $3,304 a month, despite having no income. 

He listed his total assets at $14,000 – most of that is his 2008 Honda pickup. His debts total $2.5 million, most of that is money he owes criminal defense attorneys Mark O'Mara and Don West. 

According to his paperwork, Zimmerman has no job, pays nothing for rent or a mortgage and has no health insurance. 

He spends $350 a month for medical care plus $200 a month for psychological, psychiatric or mental health counseling. 

He also spends $100 a month on vacations, he wrote. 

Zimmerman's legal defense fund, which raised more than $400,000, now has a balance of $300, according to the affidavit. 

It is not clear what happened to any money he earned from the sale of a painting on eBay in December. The winning bid was $100,000. There is no mention of it in his affidavit. 

His banking account has $650, he reported. 

In an interview last month, Zimmerman's brother, Robert Zimmerman Jr., said the former Neighborhood Watch volunteer is homeless and moves from place to place, sleeping in the homes of friends and supporters.

Gee I guess it really does not pay to kill an innocent teenager. Even if you DO initially get away with it.

By the way is this guy sharing the same accountant as SarahPAC? Nothing seems to add up as to how he supports himself.