Donald Trump’s inauguration scandal takes particularly ugly turn
For quite some time it’s been clear that Donald Trump’s poorly-attended inauguration was little more than a front for stuffing dirty foreign money into Trump’s pocket. Now we’re getting into the criminal consequences of that fiasco, and at least some of the people involved are definitely going to prison.
One of Donald Trump’s donors, Imaad Shah Zuberi, just agreed to plead guilty to additional criminal charges in relation to his illegal donations, after having already pleaded guilty to an initial round of charges. This is a big deal for two reasons. First, it proves that the SDNY investigation into the Trump inaugural scandal is still going on, which suggests that more people are going to end up going down.
Second, this would appear to increase the odds that Zuberi will end cooperating with federal prosecutors. In general, more felonies means a longer prison sentence, which in turn means the higher likelihood that the person will try to find a way to reduce that sentence.
Based on the numerous media reports that have surfaced over the past three years, it appears the dirty foreign trail in the Trump inaugural scandal runs all the way to the Trump Organization. If Trump loses the 2020 election, we’ll see if the SDNY brings criminal charges against him and/or his family in this scandal. This is separate from the New York grand jury that’s targeting Trump on state level criminal charges.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report