Trump Was Violating Russian Sanctions While Campaigning

(This caricature of Donald Trump is by DonkeyHotey.)

Although Trump has denied it, we know that his organization has received loans from Russia. This has been verified by both of his sons. And he may even be involved in money laundering for Russian oligarchs. Now we learn he may have violated U.S. sanctions on Russia.

For a long time, Trump has wanted to build a hotel in Moscow. To do that, he needed two things -- money and Putin's permission. Now we learn that since American banks wouldn't loan him the money, Trump's organization was negotiating a huge loan from a Russian bank. That bank was VTB Bank, and Felix Later (an associate of both Trump and Putin) says a line of credit had been arranged for Trump through that bank.

Those negotiations were going on in 2016, while Trump was engaged in a campaign to become president. Normally, negotiating with a foreign bank for business purposes wouldn't be a problem, but VTB Bank is different. It's different because that bank is one of the Russian businesses sanctioned by the United States government. It would be a violation of U.S. law to do business with VTB Bank.

That hotel was not built. Was it not built because Trump realized he was being thoroughly vetted by American reporters and he didn't want them to find out he was attempting to violate the sanctions on Russia? Or did Putin fail to give approval for the hotel because he didn't want a scandal to hurt his favorite candidate's chances to become president? We don't know.

But we do know now that Trump's organization (which he still has ties with) was trying to violate the U.S. sanctions against Russia -- and was doing that for his own greedy purposes. He was willing to violate U.S. law to make himself richer.

Republicans will probably claim that no law was broken since the hotel was not built (and therefore no money changed hands between Trump and VTB Bank). I don't buy that. Failure doesn't excuse him from attempting to violate the law -- and just negotiating with that bank while it was under sanctions may well be a violation. Either way, Trump has shown he has no respect for U.S. law.

This fool needs to be impeached -- NOW!