Corporate Autocracy: Trump’s Latest Corruption Scandal Exposes New Nature of Organized Crime

It is illegal to accept direct or indirect financial support from foreign nationals or governments for a political campaign in the United States. In early 2017, CIA officials told Justice Department officials that a confidential informant had told them about such an exchange of money.

Those officials referred the case to Robert Mueller, the special counsel already investigating ties between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russian operatives. FBI agents noted that on September 16, Trump met with Sisi while the Egyptian leader was at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

After the meeting, Trump broke with American politics to praise Sisi, calling him a “fantastic guy.” Trump’s campaign was short of funds and his advisers had begged him to invest some of his own money. He refused until October 28, when he lent the campaign $10 million.

It took years for the FBI to get the information, but Davis and Leonnig reported that in 2019, the FBI became aware of a large cash withdrawal from an Egyptian bank. In January 2017, five days before Trump took office, an organization linked to Egyptian intelligence asked a manager at a branch of the National Bank of Egypt to “kindly withdraw” $9,998,000 in U.S. currency. The bundles of $100 bills filled two bags and weighed more than 200 pounds.

Once in power, Trump embraced Sisi and, in a U-turn on U.S. policy, invited him to be one of his first guests at the White House. “I just want everyone to know, in case there was any doubt, that we fully support President al-Sisi,” Trump said.

Mueller had come this far in his pursuit of the Trump-Sisi connection as he wrapped up his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. He handed over the Egypt probe to the US attorney’s office in Washington DC, where then-Attorney General William Barr appears to have abandoned it.

CNBC’s Brian Schwartz also reported that Elon Musk and other tech executives are pouring their money into a social media ad campaign for Trump and Vance, creating targeted ads in key states by collecting voter information under false pretenses. According to Schwartz, their political action committee, America PAC, claims it is helping viewers register to vote. And, indeed, the ads direct potential voters in non-key states to voter registration sites.

But people who respond to the ad in key states aren’t directed to registration sites. Instead, they’re presented with “a very detailed personal information form (and) asked to provide their address, cell phone number, and age,” handing over “invaluable personal data to a political operation” that can then create ads targeted to that person’s demographic and personally target them in door-to-door campaigns. After getting the information, the site simply says, “Thank you,” without directing the visitor to a registration site. Forbes estimates Musk’s net worth at more than $235 billion.

In June, the Trump Organization announced a $500 million deal with Saudi real estate developer Dar Global to build a Trump International Hotel in Oman. In January 2011, while FBI Director, Robert Mueller gave a speech to the Citizens Crime Commission in New York. He explained that globalization and modern technology had changed the nature of organized crime.

Instead of being regional networks with a clear structure, organized crime has become international, fluid and sophisticated, with billions of dollars at stake, he explained. Its operators blend with other countries, religions and political affiliations, sharing only their greed. They don’t care about ideology, they care about money. They will do anything for a price.

These criminals “may be former members of nation-state governments, security services or the military,” he said. “They are capitalists and entrepreneurs. But they are also master criminals who move easily between the licit and illicit worlds. And in some cases, these organizations are as forward-thinking as Fortune 500 companies.”

To corner international markets, Mueller explains, these criminal enterprises “can infiltrate our businesses. They can provide logistical support to hostile foreign powers. They can try to manipulate the highest levels of government. Indeed, these so-called ‘iron triangles’ of organized criminals, corrupt officials, and business leaders pose a significant threat to national security.”

In a new book, “Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World,” journalist Anne Applebaum continues that story to the present, examining how today’s autocrats are working together to undermine democracy. She argues that “the language of the democratic world—rights, laws, rule of law, justice, accountability, and transparency—is harmful to them,” especially since those are the words used by their internal opposition. “So they have to undermine those who use it and, if they can, discredit it.”

These people, Applebaum says, “believe they’re entitled to power, that they deserve it.” When they lose elections, they “come back for a second term and say, well, this time I’m not going to make the same mistake, and … so they change their electoral system, or … change the constitution, change the judicial system, to make sure they never lose.”

Almost exactly one year ago, on August 1, 2023, a grand jury in Washington, D.C. indicted former President Donald J. Trump on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to disenfranchise voters, and conspiracy and attempted obstruction of an official proceeding. The charges stem from Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election. A grand jury is comprised of 23 ordinary citizens who weigh evidence of criminal activity and issue an indictment if 12 or more of them vote in favor.

The grand jury indicted Trump for “conspiracy to defraud the United States by using dishonesty, fraud, and deception to impair, obstruct, and defeat the lawful function of the Federal Government by which the results of the presidential election are collected, counted, and certified by the Government”; “conspiracy to corruptly obstruct and impede the January 6 Congressional proceedings in which the collected results of the presidential election are counted and certified”; and “conspiracy against the right to vote and have one’s vote counted.”

“Each of these conspiracies,” the indictment states, “targeted a fundamental function of the United States federal government: the process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election.” “This function of the federal government … is fundamental to the democratic process of the United States and, until 2021, had operated peacefully and orderly for more than 130 years.”

The case of United States v. Donald J. Trump was randomly assigned to Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, nominated by President Obama in 2014 and confirmed by a 95-0 vote in the Senate. Trump pleaded not guilty on August 3.

His lawyers then repeatedly delayed their pretrial motions until, on December 7, Trump asked the Washington, D.C., appeals court to decide whether he was immune from prosecution. Chutkan had to postpone his original trial date of March 4, 2024, and said she would not reschedule her trial until the court ruled on Trump’s immunity.

In February, the appeals court ruled that he did not have immunity. Trump appealed to the Supreme Court, which waited until July 1, 2024, to rule that Trump enjoys broad immunity from prosecution for crimes committed in the course of his official duties. On August 3, the appeals court in Washington, D.C., sent the case back to Chutkan, almost exactly a year after he first filed it.