Third divorce in Donald Trump’s Russia scandal
If once is eyebrow raising, and twice is happenstance, does three times constitute a pattern? That’s the question when it comes to the sudden rash of Trump-Russia scandal figures getting divorced. Three different people, all of them with close ties to Donald Trump, are seeing their marriages end as the scandal erupts and the investigation closes in. So what’s really going on here?
First came the news last month that Vanessa Trump had filed for divorce from Donald Trump Jr. There were a whole lot of potential reasons floated in the media, but there was no escaping the fact that she filed for divorce just as Special Counsel Robert Mueller was subpoenaing the financial records of the Trump Organization, which is led by Trump Jr. Was she trying to get out because she concluded her husband is headed to prison? Was she trying to get her money out before Mueller seized Junior’s assets? Or was this just a garden variety divorce? Then the other shoes began to drop.
Then we learned that Donald Trump’s White House Social Media Director Dan Scavino was also getting divorced from his wife. Scavino is not known to be a subject or target in the Trump-Russia scandal, casting doubt on whether this divorce might have any connection to the scandal, though we did point out in December that various members of the Trump administration did seem to be trying to scapegoat Scavino in the scandal. This left us waiting to see if there were more Trump-Russia divorces on the horizon which might constitute a more clearly defined pattern.
Now Rudy Giuliani’s wife of fifteen years has filed for divorce as well. Is Judith Giuliani suddenly bailing for the same reason Vanessa Trump bailed? Does she think Rudy is about to be arrested in Trump-Russia, or that his assets are about to be seized? That remains to be seen – but this is starting to feel like a pattern.
