All IN THE FAMILY

On December 5, I posted:

“The latest revelations ... strongly suggest that ... i) our president is a criminal, ii) his son is a criminal, iii) his son-in-law may be a criminal, and iv) his former campaign manager, a convicted criminal who has lied about his connections to Russian operatives, is facing a very long prison sentence.”

And,

“This leads ineluctably to the conclusion that members of the TCF will be pardoned before the termination of Trump's presidency in January 2021.”

And,

“Donald is going to have to issue a satchel-full of pardons to his crime family. And who knows, maybe to himself!"

.......

Last week, Donald Trump pardoned 49 criminals. They included child murderers (the Blackwater killers of Iraqi bystanders,) perjurers, fraudsters, and assorted political pond scum. 

Given Trump's announced intention to run again for president in 2024, one assumes that he believes that the hard core of his base will either i) forget these pardons, or ii) conclude that the pardoned felons were really not such bad people after all, or iii) believe the criminals were acting in the national interest, or iv) the convicts had been treated unfairly by Obama socialists at the DOJ, or v) whatever. 

Trump may prove to be correct about 48 of those pardons. But I suggest his base will never be persuaded he was being loyal to populist causes, or to right-wing politicos, or to his feigned conservative beliefs, or to his Evangelical followers, when he pardoned his machetunim. (This yiddish word is a vital addition to the English language because we lack any other word that means, "the parents of your child's spouse.")

Charlie Kushner was a neither a soldier of fortune hired by the United States to support our foreign policy aims, nor a stalwart Republican who did his best to protect Trump from the Mueller investigators, nor a Trump supporter in Congress, nor a former Trump campaign manager. In fact, Charlie Kushner was a died-in-wool Democrat, a billionaire who gave millions to Democratic politicians and was probably the most powerful Democratic donor in the state of New Jersey.

Growing up in a middle-class non-observant Jewish family in Brooklyn, I often heard my parents and other grown-ups comment upon news of the arrest of a prominent person charged with a shameful criminal offense. The first remark was always: "Thank God he's not Jewish."

Well, Charlie Kushner is Jewish, a son of concentration camp survivors who emigrated to the United States in 1949 and went on to raise an observant Jewish family in New Jersey. Charlie's father, immigrant Joseph Kushner, actually had some things in common with son-of-immigrant Fred Trump: they both started out as builders, eventually became real estate moguls, passed on their wealth to sons (Charlie and Donald,) who, in turn, both became tax cheats.

But while Donald has so far avoided being caught, Charlie was done in by a white-hot family feud. Charlie's siblings were pissed off when he made political contributions from family enterprises, using his siblings' names (and money) without their consent, in derogation of federal election laws.

The feud led to intra-family lawsuits, that, in turn, led to a federal criminal investigation. Republican U.S. Attorney Chris Christie feasted on the details. ("This was one of the most loathsome and disgusting crimes I ever prosecuted when I was U.S. Attorney. And I was U.S. Attorney in New Jersey!

There are no redeeming qualities for Charlie Kushner in this tale. In the end he pleaded guilty to 18 counts of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering. He was sentenced to two years in federal prison.

The tax evasion charges arise out of his reporting campaign contributions as deductible office expenses. He cheated the IRS out of some $250,000.

It is the witness tampering charge that is the most salacious. When the federal investigation into illegal campaign contributions started, Charlie's sister and her husband secretly cooperated with the government. When Charlie found out, he hatched a plan that justifies Chris Christie's afore-described adjectival splurge: Charlie hired a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, secretly taped the liaison, and sent the tape to his sister!

Who does a thing like that? A shande offen dem goyim. (Rough translation, "A shame in front of the gentiles.")

After he got out of prison, and his son went to work for the president, Charlie experienced a political conversion, made a whopping donation to a pro-Trump PAC, and the pardon followed.

So, as I see it, there ain't nobody in Trumpland outside the immediate family who will try to justify, explain, excuse, or forgive that pardon. In Mario Puzo's The Godfather, the protagonist was not the President of the United States, but if he were, the Charlie Kushner story would have been a chapter in the book.

And we ain't finished yet. In the next three weeks, Trump is gonna pardon Clown Rudy, everybody in the TCF down to the grandchild level, and maybe himself.

When you are recovered from your bout of retching, focus on the good news: Trump can forget 2024. Not happenin'.

And that's true whether NY State convicts him or not. One thing for sure, whatever the verdict, the trial will not be pretty for The Donald.

A bientot.

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