July 30, 2020--Follow the Sex

When prosecutors or investigative reporters are closing in on a subject, it is often said, "Follow the Money." Al Capone comes to mind.

This is certainly true about Donald Trump. District attorneys in New York, among other things, are looking into the finances of the Trump Foundation while others were given the go ahead recently by the Supreme Court to have access to eight years of his tax returns.

Also, while seeking explanations for Tump's cozy relationship with Vladimir Putin, it is speculated that it's all about money, Trump's obsession with building a Trump Tower in Red Square in Moscow.

While all of this and more are likely true, there may also be other powerful forces at work. Sex, for example.

Remember Stormy Daniels? She's the porn star with whom Trump had an affair and attempted to hush up by slipping her $130,000. Trump's fixer lawyer, Michael Cohen, wound up in jail for serving as the intermediary for this transaction. 

Then there is the notorious BuzzFeed Dossier, which, if it exists, may include evidence that Trump, when in Moscow in 2013 for the Miss Universe pageant cavorted with Russian prostitutes. If true, it is not hard to imagine that former KGB agent Putin has a dossier of his own that includes incriminating evidence of a sexual nature. Enough to buy Trump's silence about Russia's meddling in the 2016 election that swept him into the White House.

And, recently, we are hearing more about Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, who for years in Palm Beach provided the famous and rich with access to teenage girls.

Epstein's girlfriend and procurer, Ghislaine Maxwell, was recently indicted and jailed in New York without bail on a range of sexual trafficking charges. Prosecutors can't wait to get their hands on her little black book. At least two presidents--one retired, one current--are likely to be found therein. 

Thus, at a covid briefing last week, when Trump, to everyone's surprise, was asked about her, seemingly totally rehearsed, matter of factly, he indicated he knew her and, three times, said he hoped she was "doing well." Code to her--if she gets rid of the address book and doesn't implicate him she'll get the Roger Stone treatment--a commutation or pardon.

And finally, the reporter who asked Trump about Maxwell, as if out of the blue, was Steven Nelson, from, of all places, Rupert Murdoch's NY Post, which hardly qualifies as a newspaper.

Conspiracy theories welcome.

Hint--follow the sex, not the money.