Grab Trump / Russia: A Definitive History Scripted By Seth Hettena Edition

relationship between Donald Trump and dirty money from Russia is a longstanding one, and when the Mueller investigation concludes, youre going to need some kind of Whos Who of Russian oligarchs and crime bosses, and a map of the what, where and when of their association with the moneylaundering Trump family realestate and casino business, as well as their significant inroads into international banking.
And this book provides exactly that in a clear and concise way,

The definitive history of the collusion between the Trump empire and Russian crime has not yet been written, this book helped me to understand the arrival of the Russian mafyia in America, and symbiotic relationship between Trump real estate and organized crimejust the cast of characters buying condos at Trump Tower is a Who's Who of crime.


The book also traces the collusion of wellknown banksboth American and internationalin laundering the billions of dollars taken out of the Russian economy following the collapse of the Soviet Union.


If you follow Bill Browder and his attempts to warn nations to secure themselves against the incursion of this crime money coming out of the former Soviet Union with “Magnitsky Laws”, youll understand just the sheer volume of cash thats being discussed.
Trump/Russia not only follows the money, but follows the accommodations made for that money, It follows the distortion of world politics that that money has already brought about, It puts names and faces, places and dates to the story, giving us a scorecard of some kind to follow the action.


Robert Mueller shows up in the story beginning as far ago aswhen he was FBI Director, as a task force was investigating Russian mafyia involvement in an international fraud case.
But the main story is the unfolding of the natural affinity between a certain real estate/casino tycoon without much of a sense of ethics and the mafyia Vors godfathers stuffed with cash looking for a wellplaced partners to help them launder it.


I read most of this book well before the Manafort and Cohen arrestsand Im so glad I did, because it gave me a much better idea of just who Manafort is, the PR genius who rehabilitates the reputations of dictators, and 'spun' proRussian Ukranian Yanukovych to the leadership of that country, and Cohen, the Brighton Beach fixer, and why the flipping of both these men is so intensely of interest.


The book also gave me a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between Vladimir Putin and the Russian mafyianot as seamless a relationship as Id imagined.


Wellresearched and absolutely riveting, Really interesting.
First, Trump has been associating with some really bad dudes for decades, Many of his pals have ended up indicted, imprisoned, extradited, and/or dead, He has been on the FBIs radar since Mueller and Comey were wee young prosecutors,
Second, gaming commissions are really serious about organized crime because a casino is a perfect place to launder money, The fact that no one will let Trump own a casino anymore is telling,
Third, he is way too involved with the Russian Mafiya,
Finally, for Gods sake, do not EVER click a link in an email to change your password or update financial info.
I thought this was common sense but apparently not, A definitive look at what the US is now faced with in this summer before theelections, If I were President, I'd encourage the military to enlist hackers into the service to attack the Russians and other cyber armies and do an all out internet battle.
Why take it into outer space when there are battles to win here on the planet, Russia is NOT our friend, This goes from the start of Trump Tower etc, on to the then current Mueller investigation, The early days ties Russian mobsters clever at broadening crime outside their community to interactions with Trump and bases at Trump properties.
This includes a brief cameo of the floating poker game covered in sitelinkMolly's Game: From Hollywood's

Elite to Wall Street's Billionaire Boys Club, My HighStakes Adventure in the World of Underground Poker.
There is a lot about the early involvement of sitelinkMichael Cohen and suggests stronger ties to ExSoviet Union criminal enterprise than the disavowal in sitelinkDisloyal: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J.
Trump. Trump/Russia: A Definitive History by Seth Hettena is a thoroughly capable overview, but I have the suspicion it is one of those books that will be regarded as a flashinthepan works that will rather quickly be subsumed by other works.
The Trump Presidency has sparked a cottage industry of texts, so it is useful to have one that seeks to place others in context.
The book is relatively fair, but its clear Hettena is taking a combative view, I enjoy the combat, but I imagine it will be enough to alienate those who most need to hear what he is saying.
I didn't find a lot of information here to be all that new on the Trump side, but some of the stuff on the Russia side was very engaging.
The book is short enough not to overstay its welcome too, though I believe we'll be in need for a sequel soon.
Not that finding one will be difficult among the ocean of Trump literature,

/Like a long anticipated prequel, Trump/Russia provides the backstory a sordid tale of organized crime, shapeshifting oligarchs and money laundering that led to our current predicament.
One of Trumps biggest lies, it turns out, is his protest about having nothing to do with Russia, Its the opposite. Russia has been his piggy bank and object of desire for decades, And his election was a perfect storm, fueled by the combined force of his narcissism and greed and Putins thirst for respect and revenge.
Trump/Russia: A Definitive Story by Seth Hettena

“Trump/Russia” is a very interesting and wellsourced account on the TrumpRussia scandal.
Journalist and former correspondent for the Associated Press, Seth Hettena chronicles the history of Trump and his ties to Russian money, This insightfulpage book includes twelve chapters and is broken out into the following three parts: I, Early Affiliations, II. The Comeback Kid, and III, The Red House.

Positives:
. A wellwritten and researched chronicle,
. A fascinating and important topic, the TrumpRussia scandal, “What this book represents, then, is a primer that accounts for all the essential information anyone curious about this subject would need to know about the TrumpRussia scandal, as well as many of the sidestories that have formed along its periphery.
”
. The book reads with good rhythm, Hettena weaves an interesting tapestry based on the known facts,
. An excellent introduction that sets the tone for the rest of the book, “It is the Russian Mafiyas connections to both the Kremlin and now the White House that are at the heart of the TrumpRussia collusion scandal.
”
. Discloses early on Trumps ties to Russian money, “Bogatin needed a place to launder all his newfound wealth, He eventually hit upon the idea of investing in expensive Manhattan real estate, And the property that attracted him most was the newly built Trump Tower, ”
. Memorable quotes, consider this quote from Vladimir Putin, “There are three ways of influencing a person: blackmail, vodka, or the threat of murder, ”
. Trumps failed Taj Majal casino, “Trumps massive casino was burdened with so much debt that it was doomed into a financial recession even before it opened its doors.
In July of, onlymonths after the Trump Taj Mahal opened, Trump filed for Chapterbankruptcy protection in an effort to soften the casinos debt requirements.
”
. Russian organized crime. “The Taj Mahal not only failed to restrain criminal activity, it almost seemed to cater to it, While Trump railed to Congress about “rampant” organized crime in Indian casinos, his own gambling palace was becoming the favorite East Coast destination for Russian mobsters.
”
. Trumps desire to do business in Moscow, “Trump promised to build not one but two Trump towers in Moscow, “Moscow is really a city with a great future, great potential,” Trump said, “Were looking at building a superluxury residential tower,” he said, “which I think Moscow desperately wants and needs, ””
. Russias ties to crime. “Russia couldnt get rid of organized crime, It needed it to survive, ”
. Putins rise. “When a formal election was held, Putin swept up the votes to victory, At the top of his agenda was making Russia great again, ”
. Describes Trumps comeback rise. “The Apprentice clinched that recovery by recasting Trump as Americas CEO, “My name is Donald Trump,” he says in The Apprentices opening monologue, “and Im the largest real estate developer in New York.
I own buildings all over the place, model agencies, the Miss Universe Pageant, jetliners, golf courses, casinos, and private resorts like MaraLago, one of the most spectacular estates anywhere in the world.
”” “Meanwhile, Trump Towers Sunny Isles Beach was paying off, Trumps oldest son, Don Jr, would later note, “We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia, ” There is no question Trump owed his comeback in large part to wealthy Russian expatriates, ”
. Many Russian characters drive this book, “Of all the characters in this story, Felix Sater is one of the most fascinating and enigmatic, and there is some strong competition for that honor.
Sater has managed to live several lives in the space of one, Born in the Soviet Union inwith the word Jew stamped in his passport, he immigrated with his family to Brighton Beach at age seven.
As a young stockbroker, he climbed up the Wall Street ladder until a vicious bar fight sent him to prison in, Upon his release, he joined up with a Mafialinked “pumpanddump” stock fraud that swindled investors out ofmillion, To avoid prison a second time, he became a government informant, putting himself at tremendous risk by traveling to the Middle East to hunt terrorists.
While he was doing that, he started developing Trump SoHo and other projects in Fort Lauderdale, Phoenix, and Moscow for Donald Trump”
.
The truth comes out. “When Trump accused Obama of wiretapping him at Trump Tower, he was halfright, Trump Tower had been wiretapped, not to eavesdrop on his dealings, but to investigate one of the worlds biggest illegal highstakes gambling rings, operating just below his own penthouse.
”
. Miss Universe comes to Russia, “Trump was reportedly in great spirits as he sat in the front row right next to the man who had paidmillion to bring this extravagance to Russian soil, the Azerbaijani real estate mogul Aras Agalarov.
”
. Russians infiltration. “The message that the Kremlin got back was twofold, First, the Trump campaign would play ball, Rather than call the FBI immediately, the presidents son and two top campaign officials accepted the meeting, If it wasnt criminal, it was quite possibly “felony stupid,” as one DC attorney put it to me, Secondly, the message the Kremlin got back from the Trump meeting was that the dirt on the Ziff brothers wasnt good enough.
Dont you have something better And, as if by magic, three days later WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange revealed to ITV that his organization had obtained hacked emails stolen from the Clinton campaign.
”
. The inner circle. “Special Counsel Robert Mueller would later follow this money trail to return an indictment charging Manafort in a conspiracy to launder money and evade taxes.
”
. A fascinating look at the dossier, Many angles looked at.
. Cyber warfare against America. “On September,, the Internet Research Agency showed how much it had learned and how dangerously effective it was at manipulating Americans, ” ““Russia is doing everything it can today to embarrass the U, S. ,” Tretyakov said in abook, Comrade J, ” ““Russias goals were to undermine public faith in the U, S. democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency,” the heads of the FBI, CIA, and NSA concluded in a joint report on Russias intentions.
”
. The Mueller investigation. “Rosenstein told the Senate during his confirmation hearing in Marchthat two conditions had to be met for him to name a special counsel.
First, he would have to determine that a crime had been committed, and, second, that the investigation of that crime would pose a conflict of interest for the Justice Department.
On May, three days after Comeys dismissal, CNN reported that Rosenstein thought nothing had changed and he saw no need to appoint a special counsel.
Five days later, a little more than a week after Trump dismissed his FBI director, Rosenstein changed his mind and Robert Mueller was named special counsel.
”

Negatives:
. No supplementary material. A book of this ilk was screaming for at least a timeline,
. Lack of photos and bios,
. Very little of this book is what I would consider a revelation its a much better organized and chronicled book of much of the facts that we do know.

. The book does not have a definitive ending because Muellers investigation isnt complete,

In summary, this is a wellconstructed chronicle that captures the essence of the TrumpRussia scandal, Hettena does a wonderful job of describing what we do know about the scandal and connecting the dots to a compelling argument.
Trump / Russia is a professionally written book that does the topic justice, I recommend it!

Further suggestions: “Collusion” by Luke Harding, “A Higher Loyalty” by James Comey, “Russian Roulette” by Michael Isikoff, “Trumpocracy” by David Frum, “The Assault on Intelligence” by Michael V.
Hayden, “What Happened “ by Hillary Rodham Clinton, “Can It Happen Here: Authoritarianism in America” by Cass R, Sunstein, “Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire” by Kurt Andersen, “Its Even Worse Than You Think” by David Cay Johnston, “How Democracies Die” by Steven Levitsky, and “Facts and Fear” by James R.
Clapper. .