Document hints at Trump’s alleged attempts to shield personal finances from Mueller and suggests undisclosed financial crimes

12 MICHAEL WOLFF He remained irritated by efforts to persuade him to play the game in the usual Washington way—mounting a disciplined legal defense, negoti- ating, trying to cut his losses—rather than his way. This was disconcerting to many of the people closest to him, but it alarmed them more to see that as Trump's indignation and sense of personal insult rose, so did his belief in his own innocence. OF By the end of February, in addition to the Mueller grand jury indictments of a group of Russian nationals for illegal activities involved with efforts by the Russian government to influence the US. election, Mueller had reached several levels into the Trump circle. Among those who were indicted or who had pled guilty to felonies were his former campaign man- ager Paul Manafort, his former national security advisor Michael Flynn, the eager-beaver junior adviser George Papadopoulos, and Manafort's business partner and campaign official Rick Gates. This series of legal moves could be classically read as a methodical, step-by-step approach to the president's door. Or, from the Trump camp's point of view, it could be seen as a roundup of the sorts of opportunists and hangers-on who had always trailed Trump. The doubts about the usefulness of Trump’s hangers-on was an implicit part of their usefulness: they could be shrugged off and disavowed at any time, which is what promptly happened at the least sign of trouble. The Trumpers swept up by Mueller were all declared wannabe and marginal players. The president had never met them, could not remember them, or had a limited acquaintance with them. “I know Mr. Manafort—I haven't spoken to him in a long time, but I know him,” declared a dismissive Trump, pulling a line from the “who dat?” page of his playbook. The difficulty in proving a conspiracy is proving intent. Many of the president's inner circle believed that Trump, and the Trump Organiza- tion, and by extension the Trump campaign, operated in such a diffuse, haphazard, gang-that-couldn’t-shoot-straight manner that intent would be very difficult to establish. What's more, the Trump hangers-on were so demonstrably subpar players that stupidity could well be a reasonable defense against intent. SIEGE - 12 Many in the Trump circle agreed with their boss: they believed tha whatever idiotic moves had been made by idiotic Trump hands, the Rus: sia investigation was too abstruse and nickel-and-dime to ultimately stick At the same time, many, and perhaps all, were privately convinced tha a deep dive—or, for that matter, even a cursory inspection—of Trump financial past would yield a trove of overt offenses, and likely a pattern o career corruption. It was hardly surprising, then, that ever since the beginning of th special counsel's investigation, Trump had tried to draw a line in the san: between Mueller and Trump family finances, openly threatening Muelle if he went there. Trumps operating assumption remained that the speciz counsel was afraid of him, conscious of where and how his toleranc might’end. Trump was confident that the Mueller team could be made t understand its limits, by either wink-wink or unsubtle threat. “They know they can't get me,’ he told one member of his circ] of after-dinner callers, “because I was never involved. I’m not a targe There's nothing. I’m not a target. They’ve told me, I’m not a target. An they know what would happen if they made me a target. Everybod understands everybody.’ OF Books and newspaper stories about Trump’s forty-five years in busine: were full of his shady dealings, and his arrival in the White House on. helped to highlight them and surface even juicier ones. Real estate wi the world’s favorite money-laundering currency, and Trump's B-level re estate business—relentlessly marketed by Trump as triple A—was qui explicitly designed to appeal to money launderers. What's more, Trumy own financial woes, and desperate efforts to maintain his billionaire lif style, cachet, and market viability, forced him into constant and unsubt schemes. In the high irony department, Jared Kushner, when he was : law school, and before he met Ivanka, identified, in a paper he wrot possible claims of fraud against the Trump Organization in a particul real estate deal he was studying—a subject now of quite some amuseme among his acquaintances at the time. Practically speaking, Trump hid plain sight, as the prosecutors appeared to be finding. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_021130