General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsEmptywheel spoke on Pod Save America this week about the leverage Putin's leverage over Trump
To sum it up, there probably is no pee tape but there is likely collusion. Her sources pointed to the Trump Tower meeting and a quid pro quo that involved sanctions, help with the 2016 election and a Trump Tower which Agent Orange desperately wants in Moscow. Not as salacious as five hookers on a bad but much worse when you think of it.
leftieNanner
(15,082 posts)Trump wouldn't care if there was a tape of him with hookers.
I would add to this that he is also in deep debt to Russians and they are making noises about collecting on that debt. Maybe he is paying them off with "services rendered".
Tatiana
(14,167 posts)"I think its likely, yeah," Merkley said. "It's a standard strategy of Russia when people visit there who are important to try to get compromising information on them, to set them up with hookers, to tape everything that goes on in their room."
"Just to put this in terms that the Twitter world can relate to, you think the pee tape is real?" Smith asked.
"Something close to that, something close to that," Merkley said.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/nidhiprakash/merkley-trump-pee-tape?utm_term=.lhx2VLEprk#.rkkPej1KVn
hlthe2b
(102,225 posts)or has him so fearful.
The other issues, she speaks to are pretty much what Seth Abramson has been saying for some time and i'd agree with that. I think he (Trump) has been heavy into Russian-->NY real estate money laundering for decades.
renegade000
(2,301 posts)Just the threat of possible prosecution for a bunch of white collar crime or even conspiracy doesn't really strike me as instilling enough of the visceral fear and subservience toward Putin that we see.
You're right though that a simple "pee tape" is more silly than compromising. It would have to be more like True Detective S1 level depravity.
NewJeffCT
(56,828 posts)as far as I know
Phoenix61
(17,002 posts)Money he took from sources he shouldn't have taken it from like drugs and/or other criminal activity. If there's a record of that his entire empire would come tumbling down and that would be enough to scare the ever living shit out of him.
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)the Trump Crime syndicate using Real Estate as a conduit.