A lot of otherwise right-thinking people seem to think that the Trump controversies involving Russia on the one hand and porn stars on the other are distractions from the real damage being done by Republicans. I’ll put this as simply as I can: They are wrong.
This was demonstrated late yesterday by porn star Stormy Daniels’ lawyer, Michael Avenatti, who released a document detailing financial transactions between both Russian and American businesses and Essential Consultants, the Delaware shell company Michael Cohen set up for the $130,000 payment to Daniels for her silence.
That might be the headline for most people, but it shouldn’t be. Because payments were also made to Essential Consultants, which has no employees, consulting or otherwise, by some big American companies in what appear to be bribes paid for access to Trump. Josh Marshall has details and analysis, but the facts on their face are damning enough: Both AT&T, which is engineering a merger that needs federal approval, and Novartis, for reasons unknown, paid six-figure sums to this company for “consulting” work.
In short, it appears Trump is running the presidency as a shakedown operation, soliciting bribes for access.
Here’s what nobody is saying, though: Donald Trump has never had an original idea in his life, meaning chances are pretty good that he copied this method from somebody else in politics, he just did it poorly and sloppily. We have all seen the corruption, practiced by Republicans and Democrats alike, by which relatives of politicians get cushy do-nothing “consultancies” that amount to little more than bribes for access. If such arrangements didn’t exist, and companies didn’t participate eagerly, Hunter Biden would be living in a refrigerator box under the train tracks.
It’s been said before but bears repeating: Trump is not the disease. Everything Trump does is a devolved version of what politicians have been doing for generations. Indeed, this is why many Trump voters don’t care — they don’t see the distinction between the Clintons peddling influence through their foundation and Trump nakedly soliciting bribes. There is a distinction — the Clintons have the benefit of legal training so they stay inside the law — but it’s not hard to see why many consider it a distinction without a difference.
At any rate, this, I believe, helps explain why the more mainstream members of the GOP have not objected: Trump is not the only one with shit-stained hands. I believe top members of the party, including Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, are and have been well aware that foreign money was being funneled into party accounts, both through the NRA and other middlemen.