http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/10/muellers-quiet-but-suspicious-russia-clues-keep-popping-up.html?gtm=bottom&fbclid=IwAR1hEW6TiVd25j84iLcIE5VofwwVpcSiDfF-Gf-TVeSiHUhRdww-M47NUSk
"The final and perhaps most intriguing development is last week’s explosive New York Times account of Donald Trump’s fraudulent tax schemes. What makes this report so extraordinary is that it breaks new ground on a figure who has been in the public eye for four decades, on matters at the very center of the source of his fame. It has not been known that Trump received hundreds of millions of dollars in payments from his father, nor that his methods included (according to the Times) outright criminality. What does this have to do with the Russia investigation? Quite a bit, actually. It shows that Trump is willing not merely to skirt the law but to blatantly violate it. It reveals that he has been able to harbor enormous secrets even in the face of constant media coverage. And, most directly, it raises unanswered questions about his mysterious financial methods. Trump is and always has been a bad businessman who relies on regular, large cash infusions from his father to stay afloat. Washington Post reporters David A. Fahrenthold and Jonathan O’Connell, piggybacking on the Times revelations, have raised another curiosity: it was about the time that Fred Trump’s payment stream dried up that Trump’s way of financing his operations took a sharp and sudden turn. Whereas before he financed his purchases with debt — he had called himself the “king of debt” — he began buying properties with cash. It is unusual for real estate developers to make cash purchases, given the incentives they normally have to finance with borrowing. It’s especially unusual that Trump started doing this right after he lost his father’s continuous cash spigot. This was also the time in his career he started working closely with Michael Cohen and Felix Sater, both of whom had links to the Russian underworld. It might feel like the Russia scandal is slowing down, as the stream of indictments halts before the midterm elections. In reality, the conclusion might not be anywhere close."
