In the early stages of Robert Mueller’s investigation, Donald Trump drew a red line, telling The New York Times that if Mueller were to dig into his family’s finances, he would consider it a “violation” of his privacy. “Look, this is about Russia,” he said, calling his finances “extremely good” and his dealings with Russia “very trivial.” Months later, when Mueller began to subpoena Trump’s financial lenders, specifically targeting Deutsche Bank, the president resisted firing the special counsel. Congressional Republicans, however, continue to turn a blind eye to the president’s finances, even as the Mueller probe accelerates. “I don't see the link at this stage,” Rep. Mike Conaway, the Republican heading the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation, told CNN on Monday. “Deutsche Bank is a German bank—I don't see the nexus.”
Deutsche, of course, recently agreed to pay $670 million in fines to settle allegations it used mirror trades to launder $10 billion out of Russia. But six Republican committee chairs involved in Congress’s various Russia investigations told CNN that they see no need to subpoena Trump’s tax records, bank records, or any sort of testimony into the president’s financials or those of his family. They’ve brushed off the concerns of their Democratic colleagues, who cite Trump’s overseas transactions and real-estate deals as crucial data points:
Sen. Ron Wyden, ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee and senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has for months been frustrated with the lack of access to Treasury FinCEN documents. The Oregon Democrat recently fired off a letter for more Treasury documents, this time to obtain records about a lucrative 2008 real-estate deal between Trump and a Russian billionaire that raised questions among Democrats about potential money laundering and suspect business dealings.
But Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has declined to join Wyden in these efforts. And he has rejected Wyden's requested to review Trump's tax returns in a private session.
”We're not going to do that,” Hatch said in the Capitol. “He doesn't want to give up his tax returns, and I believe he's right.”
Asked about Trump’s ties to Russia, Rep. Trey Gowdy, who spent nearly two years and millions of dollars leading one of five congressional investigations into the 2012 Benghazi attack, which also remains under investigation by the F.B.I., told CNN, “Isn’t that what Bob Mueller is doing?”
Trump’s history of shady business dealings is well known—the president’s real-estate transactions with Russian billionaires and numerous bankruptcies raised red flags long before he was voted into office. But Republicans’ “see no evil, hear no evil” policy is by now a familiar theme: Back in 2016, the president’s affinity for Russia was so obvious that House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy reportedly joked behind closed doors that Trump was being secretly paid by Vladimir Putin. (McCarthy’s jest hewed a little too close to the truth for comfort: House Speaker Paul Ryan immediately cut the conversation off and swore the room to secrecy.) Shortly after Trump took office, former Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz released an agenda that did not include plans to investigate any of Trump’s potential conflicts of interest. When pressed, Chaffetz said he would “deal with the situations with Donald Trump one at a time,” and that he would “not . . . personally target the president.” More recently, Republican lawmakers have rallied around an error-riddled memo published by Rep. Devin Nunes’s office that claims the F.B.I. wrongfully surveilled members of the Trump campaign.
The G.O.P.’s partisan blind spot to Trump’s behavior extends beyond the Russia probe, as well. “Every morning, I wake up in my office and scroll Twitter to see which tweets I will have to pretend that I didn't see later,” Ryan joked during a gala in New York, seeming to acknowledge how he and other Republicans ignore the president’s outbursts. They have sidestepped lingering ethics questions about his Washington, D.C., hotel and other business properties that serve lobbyists, foreign diplomats, and other influence peddlers across the world. All of which makes sense, given the massive rubber stamp in Trump’s hand. Whether or not Trump colluded with Russians, wittingly or unwittingly, to win the 2016 election is of little consequence to the party that benefited—especially when Trump, a political neophyte with few concrete ideas of his own, is willing to sign almost any legislation that Congress puts on his desk. Earlier this year, amid a flurry of debate over immigration reform, the president instructed Republicans to send him a bill—any bill—and he would get it done. “You guys are going to have to come up with a solution [for DACA], and I'm going to sign that solution,” Trump said during a bipartisan meeting, as the details of the policies being discussed seemed to go over his head. For a Republican Party enjoying majority control of Congress for the first time in ten years, that kind of power is more important than asking questions about things they don’t care to know.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/02/republicans-dont-want-to-know-if-trump-colluded-with-russia
Deutsche, of course, recently agreed to pay $670 million in fines to settle allegations it used mirror trades to launder $10 billion out of Russia. But six Republican committee chairs involved in Congress’s various Russia investigations told CNN that they see no need to subpoena Trump’s tax records, bank records, or any sort of testimony into the president’s financials or those of his family. They’ve brushed off the concerns of their Democratic colleagues, who cite Trump’s overseas transactions and real-estate deals as crucial data points:
Sen. Ron Wyden, ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee and senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has for months been frustrated with the lack of access to Treasury FinCEN documents. The Oregon Democrat recently fired off a letter for more Treasury documents, this time to obtain records about a lucrative 2008 real-estate deal between Trump and a Russian billionaire that raised questions among Democrats about potential money laundering and suspect business dealings.
But Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has declined to join Wyden in these efforts. And he has rejected Wyden's requested to review Trump's tax returns in a private session.
”We're not going to do that,” Hatch said in the Capitol. “He doesn't want to give up his tax returns, and I believe he's right.”
Asked about Trump’s ties to Russia, Rep. Trey Gowdy, who spent nearly two years and millions of dollars leading one of five congressional investigations into the 2012 Benghazi attack, which also remains under investigation by the F.B.I., told CNN, “Isn’t that what Bob Mueller is doing?”
Trump’s history of shady business dealings is well known—the president’s real-estate transactions with Russian billionaires and numerous bankruptcies raised red flags long before he was voted into office. But Republicans’ “see no evil, hear no evil” policy is by now a familiar theme: Back in 2016, the president’s affinity for Russia was so obvious that House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy reportedly joked behind closed doors that Trump was being secretly paid by Vladimir Putin. (McCarthy’s jest hewed a little too close to the truth for comfort: House Speaker Paul Ryan immediately cut the conversation off and swore the room to secrecy.) Shortly after Trump took office, former Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz released an agenda that did not include plans to investigate any of Trump’s potential conflicts of interest. When pressed, Chaffetz said he would “deal with the situations with Donald Trump one at a time,” and that he would “not . . . personally target the president.” More recently, Republican lawmakers have rallied around an error-riddled memo published by Rep. Devin Nunes’s office that claims the F.B.I. wrongfully surveilled members of the Trump campaign.
The G.O.P.’s partisan blind spot to Trump’s behavior extends beyond the Russia probe, as well. “Every morning, I wake up in my office and scroll Twitter to see which tweets I will have to pretend that I didn't see later,” Ryan joked during a gala in New York, seeming to acknowledge how he and other Republicans ignore the president’s outbursts. They have sidestepped lingering ethics questions about his Washington, D.C., hotel and other business properties that serve lobbyists, foreign diplomats, and other influence peddlers across the world. All of which makes sense, given the massive rubber stamp in Trump’s hand. Whether or not Trump colluded with Russians, wittingly or unwittingly, to win the 2016 election is of little consequence to the party that benefited—especially when Trump, a political neophyte with few concrete ideas of his own, is willing to sign almost any legislation that Congress puts on his desk. Earlier this year, amid a flurry of debate over immigration reform, the president instructed Republicans to send him a bill—any bill—and he would get it done. “You guys are going to have to come up with a solution [for DACA], and I'm going to sign that solution,” Trump said during a bipartisan meeting, as the details of the policies being discussed seemed to go over his head. For a Republican Party enjoying majority control of Congress for the first time in ten years, that kind of power is more important than asking questions about things they don’t care to know.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/02/republicans-dont-want-to-know-if-trump-colluded-with-russia
