Marcia, Marcia, Marcia! Russia, Russia, Russia…

Robert Mueller’s Just Following the Rubles Err…Dollars: US President Trump, speaking to New York Times reporters on Wednesday, sent a pithy warning to Special Counsel Robert Mueller: Don’t go looking into my business dealings. You know, like a murder suspect might tell a policeman: Don’t go digging up that newly-mounded earth in my backyard.

Too late. According to a person familiar with the special counsel’s probe into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, Mueller is already following the money by examining a broad range of transactions involving Trump’s businesses as well as those of his associates, including Russian purchases of apartments in Trump buildings, Trump’s involvement with Russian associates in a controversial SoHo development in New York, the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow (Trump received a $7 million ‘licensing fee’ from the Russian host), and Trump’s 2008 sale of a Florida mansion to a Russian oligarch (for a $55 million profit during a down real estate market).

One of Trump’s lawyers said he considered the inquiry into Trump’s businesses beyond the scope of what Mueller should be investigating. But the Justice Department’s May 17 order to Mueller, instructing him to investigate “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign” as well as “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation,” suggests a pretty broad mandate.

It’s been widely reported that the Trump Organization received substantial financing from Russia when the business was struggling in the mid-1990s and again during the Great Recession, since major US banks refused to loan money to Trump. More recently, in 2008, Eric Trump reportedly bragged about access to $100 million in Russian money, saying “We don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.” And Don Jr. famously said that same year that “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”  

Dear Mr. Manafort, Have You Checked Under the Mattress?: Before becoming Donald Trump’s campaign manager in 2016, Paul Manafort worked in Ukraine as a consultant for the pro-Russia Party of Regions. Financial records obtained by The New York Times show he received millions of dollars in bank loans from 2012 to 2015, but was $17 million in debt when he came on board the Trump train in March 2016. The financial records were filed in the tax haven of Cyprus, where Manafort allegedly kept bank accounts while he worked in Ukraine and invested with a Russian oligarch. A Cyprus accounting firm certified the records.

Manafort is slated to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee this coming Wednesday about a June 2016 meeting that he, Donald Trump Jr., and Jared Kushner had with several prominent Russians. Don Jr. released emails last week showing he arranged the meeting and invited Manafort and Kushner along, after being told he would receive information from the Russians damaging to Hillary Clinton, as a part of the Kremlin’s support for then-candidate Trump. Hopefully someone on the Judiciary Committee will ask Manafort why he agreed to work as Trump’s campaign manager for no salary, despite being millions of dollars in debt. Inquiring minds want to know.

Exxon Can Pony This Up From Petty Cash: Exxon Mobil got a slap on the wrist on Thursday from the Treasury Department. The oil giant was fined a piddling $2 million for violating sanctions the US imposed in 2014 against Russia for the latter’s military actions against Ukraine and for their annexation of Crimea.

And as most of you just might know, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was Exxon’s chief executive at the time. He opposed the sanctions, and even as the crisis in Ukraine deepened, Exxon continued to press for deeper involvement in Russia’s oil industry. Tillerson was awarded the Russian government’s Order of Friendship in 2013 after he signed deals related to oil and gas projects in Russia, which specifically violated US sanctions.

Even though the fine is but a blip on Exxon’s behemoth balance sheet, it took courage for  Treasury to impose it considering the current administration’s infatuation with all things Putin. A former official in the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said the fine showed that the department’s staff members would not be cowed. “It gives the message that they’re going to do what they have to even though Rex Tillerson is secretary of state,” he said.

• A 6.7 magnitude earthquake rocked the Greek Island of Kos in the early hours of Friday (CNN)
• US allies in eastern Europe and Ukraine are worried that Russia’s planned war games in September could be a “Trojan horse” aimed at leaving behind military equipment brought into Belarus (Reuters)
• The US is to ban its citizens from travelling to North Korea, according to two agencies that operate tours there (BBC)
• China’s navy expands reach: Ships in Baltic for drills with Russia (CNN)
• Israeli Aid Gives an Unexpected ‘Glimmer of Hope’ for Syrians (NYT)
• The US Federal Trade Commission is looking into allegations that Amazon misleads customers about its pricing discounts (Reuters)

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