31 October 2020

The Turkish Scandal

On Thursday, the New York Times broke the story (link here) about how Donald Trump pressured the Justice Department to drop an investigation into and criminal charges against a Turkish bank with close ties to that country's strongman president.

The bank, which also has operations in the United States, allegedly violated US law by secretly funneling billions to the government of Iran.

Trump also happens to have investment property in Turkey which earns him millions personally every year.

Equally troubling are details about how the current attorney general and a former acting attorney general had no problem carrying out Trump's orders and even went so far as forcing the retirement of a key federal prosecutor who pursued the bank.

The episode shows how Trump has no qualms about putting his personal business against his own government's policies that he put in place. He was the one who pushed for stiffer sanctions against Iran, but is perfectly willing to curry favors from a bank that violates those same sanctions.

This is exactly what corruption looks like — working from inside the government, using government resources, to put personal financial interests ahead of national interests.

This corruption must be ended by soundly defeating Trump in next Tuesday's election.

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