Time to be honest about a certain sketchy president's dealings

With the start of the 2024 primaries less than a year away, it really is time to be honest, and to come to terms with the former president’s record.

Certainly it was an unhappy event to read this in a report from one of the many investigations: Evidence indicates he “personally participated in and benefited from these financial ventures, leaving him open to influence, blackmail, or extortion by malign or foreign entities” including, most concerningly, an open adversary of the United States.

The evidence includes a “suspicious activity report,” or SAR, filed by JP Morgan Chase. According

to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, “SARs are generated by American banks and submitted to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) within Treasury when customers engage in a range of activities outside the normal course of business, including large, suspicious transactions that may indicate criminal activity.”

This report is honestly devastating. The SAR details 93 wire transfers over a period of several years totaling $2,461,962.60 between businesses and associates linked to his family and to an investment fund linked to a foreign-owned bank. The SAR filed by JP Morgan Chase identifies his son as a “politically exposed person.” Banks use the acronym “PEP.”

I wasn’t pleased to see that the Treasury Department stonewalled investigators, obstructing their investigation by refusing to turn over 150 SARs related to the family businesses. I certainly was not happy to read that his “personal participation in his family’s global business ventures — committed through and by a complex network of relatives and associates” had not only enriched the family, but had “exposed the United States to national security risks that could be leveraged by our enemies to undermine the Office of the President.”