How Charles Dickens Out-Poed Edgar Allan

 (Cont. from daily kos)

I know what you're thinking. 

"Good God, man, how dare you say that Charles Dickens out-poed Edgar Allan Poe! You must have lost the plot. This is proper rubbish. You are proper rubbish. I’m gobsmacked at your cock up!" 

Easy, my friend, remember that, in the first ten sentences of a very short book about Christmas, Charles Dickens used the words "undertaker," "mourners," "burial," "coffin," "deadest" and "unhallowed."

​

It doesn't end there. In those same ten sentences—which were short sentences for Dickens—he managed to squeeze in the word "dead" four times! Who gets away with that in a Christmas tale? 

It's like a children's story about ducks and ponies and murder.

Let's look at the evidence together, and when we’re done, we can argue about it in the comments, if you dare. At the end of this piece, I'll copy and paste The Madman's Manuscript so that you can read it. First, though, let's look at the connection between Charles Dickens and Edgar Allan Poe. 

THE CONNECTION BETWEEN DICKENS AND POE

Poe was struggling to make a living as a writer in 1836 when Charles Dickens’ first achieved international fame with the publication of his debut novel called The Pickwick Papers. On the whole, it was a delightful comedic romp through the English countryside full of one amusing misadventure after another. 

But there were some chilling stories in its pages.  

Dickens inserted a very short bit called A Madman’s Manuscript into the book. Edgar Allan Poe wrote a rave review for The Pickwick Papers, but his highest praise was reserved for that one part of one chapter given over to A Madman’s Manuscript. 

In fact, in that November 1836 issue of Southern Literary Messenger, Poe copied three-quarters of A Madman’s Manuscript. Most of his review consisted of it. Judge for yourself as Poe's review appeared in the Southern Literary Messenger:

     Note that in Poe's review above, he started quoting Dicken's A Madman's Manuscript at the arrow and continued quoting it until the end of his article. Poe loved that story! 

FURTHER CONNECTIONS BETWEEN POE AND DICKENS

     There are a number of additional connections between Charles Dickens and Edgar Allan Poe. For one thing, they met in Philadelphia during Dickens' 1842 tour of the United States. During the meeting, it is believed that Poe sought Dickens' assistance in finding a publisher for his works in England. 

     We don't have all of them, but we have some of the letters sent back and forth between the two writers. Charles Dickens was forced to admit that he could not find a publisher in England for Poe's work. There were a couple of other letters about business. 

     THE RAVENS

     Another connection between the two authors was the raven. In his book, Barnaby Rudge, Dickens used a character called "Grip" to great effect. It is my favorite character in the book, as it was a perfect comedic actor. 

     It was a raven that could talk and seemingly act as a guide for the title character, who was mentally challenged. Edgar Allan Poe also loved that raven, complaining only that it did not get enough space in the book. 

     Dickens had a pet raven named Grip that he cherished. The bird in the image above is Grip. After his death, the author had him stuffed and mounted. You can find him in the Free Library of Philadelphia. 

     The bird was so personable and knew so many words that Dickens felt he could make him a character in a book. He wrote to a friend: "I have been studying my bird, and think I could make a very queer character of him.” In the book Barnaby Rudge, bird's antics were entertaining. For example, this is how we are introduced to him:

‘I make HIM come?’ cried Barnaby, pointing to the bird. ‘Him, who never goes to sleep, or so much as winks!—Why, any time of night, you may see his eyes in my dark room, shining like two sparks. And every night, and all night too, he’s broad awake, talking to himself, thinking what he shall do to-morrow, where we shall go, and what he shall steal, and hide, and bury. I make HIM come! Ha ha ha!’

      Later, in talking about the raven Grip,

‘Ah! He’s a knowing blade!’ said Varden, shaking his head. ‘I should be sorry to talk secrets before him. Oh! He’s a deep customer. I’ve no doubt he can read, and write, and cast accounts if he chooses. What was that? Him tapping at the door?’

‘No,’ returned the widow. ‘It was in the street, I think. Hark! Yes. There again! ‘Tis some one knocking softly at the shutter. Who can it be!’

     They keep ravens at the Tower of London, and there's always one named Grip. 

OTHER ASSOCIATIONS

     The Poe short story The Tell-Tale Heart was published in 1843. In 1840, Charles Dickens published a short story entitled  “A Confession Found in a Prison in the Time of Charles the Second.” In this story, a man murders a young boy, and then buries the body in his yard. When friends come over to visit, he seats them all above the macabre burial plot. A couple of local bloodhounds come sniffing around, and the murderer becomes anxious, giving up the game. 

     Poe reviewed this story in 1841, and called it one of Dickens' best of that particular collection. In his turn, Dickens borrowed the detective story from Poe. It is generally believed that Edgar Allan Poe was the father of detective stories. Of course, Dickens had to put a ghost in his rendition. 

A Madman's Manuscript

"Yes! -- a madman's! How that word would have struck to my heart, many years ago! How it would have roused the terror that used to come upon me sometimes; sending the blood hissing and tingling through my veins, till the cold dew of fear stood in large drops upon my skin, and my knees knocked together with fright! I like it now though. It's a fine name. Shew me the monarch whose angry frown was ever feared like the glare of a madman's eye -- whose cord and axe were ever half so sure as a madman's grip. Ho! ho! It's a grand thing to be mad! to be peeped at like a wild lion through the iron bars -- to gnash one's teeth and howl, through the long still night, to the merry ring of a heavy chain -- and to roll and twine among the straw, transported with such brave music. Hurrah for the madhouse! Oh, it's a rare place!

"I remember days when I was afraid of being mad; when I used to start from my sleep, and fall upon my knees, and pray to be spared from the curse of my race; when I rushed from the sight of merriment or happiness, to hide myself in some lonely place, and spend the weary hours in watching the progress of the fever that was to consume my brain. I knew that madness was mixed up with my very blood, and the marrow of my bones; that one generation had passed away without the pestilence appearing among them, and that I was the first in whom it would revive. I knew it must be so: that so it always had been, and so it ever would be: and when I cowered in some obscure corner of a crowded room, and saw men whisper, and point, and turn their eyes towards me, I knew they were telling each other of the doomed madman; and I slunk away again to mope in solitude.

"I did this for years; long, long years they were. The nights here are long sometimes -- very long; but they are nothing to the restless nights, and dreadful dreams I had at that time. It makes me cold to remember them. Large dusky forms with sly and jeering faces crouched in the corners of the room, and bent over my bed at night, tempting me to madness. They told me in low whispers, that the floor of the old house in which my father's father died, was stained with his own blood, shed by his own hand in raging madness. I drove my fingers into my ears, but they screamed into my head till the room rang with it, that in one generation before him the madness slumbered, but that his grandfather had lived for years with his hands fettered to the ground, to prevent his tearing himself to pieces. I knew they told the truth -- I knew it well. I had found it out years before, though they had tried to keep it from me. Ha! ha! I was too cunning for them, madman as they thought me.

"At last it came upon me, and I wondered how I could ever have feared it. I could go into the world now, and laugh and shout with the best among them. I knew I was mad, but they did not even suspect it. How I used to hug myself with delight, when I thought of the fine trick I was playing them after their old pointing and leering, when I was not mad, but only dreading that I might one day become so! And how I used to laugh for joy, when I was alone, and thought how well I kept my secret, and how quickly my kind friends would have fallen from me, if they had known the truth. I could have screamed with ecstasy when I dined alone with some fine roaring fellow, to think how pale he would have turned, and how fast he would have run, if he had known that the dear friend who sat close to him, sharpening a bright glittering knife, was a madman with all the power, and half the will, to plunge it in his heart. Oh, it was a merry life!

"Riches became mine, wealth poured in upon me, and I rioted in pleasures enhanced a thousandfold to me by the consciousness of my well-kept secret. I inherited an estate. The law -- the eagle-eyed law itself -- had been deceived, and had handed over disputed thousands to a madman's hands. Where was the wit of the sharp-sighted men of sound mind? Where the dexterity of the lawyers, eager to discover a flaw? The madman's cunning had over-reached them all.

"I had money. How I was courted! I spent it profusely. How I was praised! How those three proud overbearing brothers humbled themselves before me! The old white-headed father, too -- such deference -- such respect -- such devoted friendship -- he worshipped me! The old man had a daughter, and the young men a sister; and all the five were poor. I was rich; and when I married the girl, I saw a smile of triumph play upon the faces of her needy relatives, as they thought of their well-planned scheme, and their fine prize. It was for me to smile. To smile! To laugh outright, and tear my hair, and roll upon the ground with shrieks of merriment. They little thought they had married her to a madman.

"Stay. If they had known it, would they have saved her? A sister's happiness against her husband's gold. The lightest feather I blow into the air, against the gay chain that ornaments my body!

"In one thing I was deceived with all my cunning. If I had not been mad -- for though we madmen are sharp-witted enough, we get bewildered sometimes -- I should have known that the girl would rather have been placed, stiff and cold in a dull leaden coffin, than borne an envied bride to my rich, glittering house. I should have known that her heart was with the dark-eyed boy whose name I once heard her breathe in her troubled sleep; and that she had been sacrificed to me, to relieve the poverty of the old white-headed man, and the haughty brothers.

"I don't remember forms or faces now, but I know the girl was beautiful. I know she was; for in the bright moonlight nights, when I start from my sleep, and all is quiet about me, I see, standing still and motionless in one corner of this cell, a slight and wasted figure with long black hair, which streaming down her back, stirs with no earthly wind, and eyes that fix their gaze on me, and never wink or close. Hush! the blood chills at my heart as I write it down -- that form is her's; the face is very pale, and the eyes are glassy bright; but I know them well. That figure never moves; it never frowns and mouths as others do, that fill this place sometimes; but it is much more dreadful to me, even than the spirits that tempted me many years ago -- it comes fresh from the grave; and is so very death-like.

"For nearly a year I saw that face grow paler; for nearly a year I saw the tears steal down the mournful cheeks, and never knew the cause. I found it out at last though. They could not keep it from me long. She had never liked me; I had never thought she did: she despised my wealth, and hated the splendour in which she lived; -- I had not expected that. She loved another. This I had never thought of. Strange feelings came over me, and thoughts, forced upon me by some secret power, whirled round and round my brain. I did not hate her, though I hated the boy she still wept for. I pitied -- yes, I pitied -- the wretched life to which her cold and selfish relations had doomed her. I knew that she could not live long, but the thought that before her death she might give birth to some ill-fated being, destined to hand down madness to its offspring, determined me. I resolved to kill her.

"For many weeks I thought of poison, and then of drowning, and then of fire. A fine sight the grand house in flames, and the madman's wife smouldering away to cinders. Think of the jest of a large reward, too, and of some sane man swinging in the wind for a deed he never did, and all through a madman's cunning! I thought often of this, but I gave it up at last. Oh! the pleasure of stropping the razor day after day, feeling the sharp edge, and thinking of the gash one stroke of its thin bright edge would make!

At last the old spirits who had been with me so often before whispered in my ear that the time was come, and thrust the open razor into my hand. I grasped it firmly, rose softly from the bed, and leaned over my sleeping wife. Her face was buried in her hands. I withdrew them softly and they fell listlessly on her bosom. She had been weeping; for the traces of the tears were still wet upon her cheek. Her face was calm and placid; and even as I looked upon it, a tranquil smile lighted up her pale features. I laid my hand softly on her shoulder. She started -- it was only a passing dream. I leant forward again. She screamed, and woke.

"One motion of my hand, and she would never again have uttered cry or sound. But I was startled, and drew back. Her eyes were fixed on mine. I know not how it was, but they cowed and frightened me; and I quailed beneath them. She rose from the bed, still gazing fixedly and steadily on me. I trembled; the razor was in my hand, but I could not move. She made towards the door. As she neared it, she turned, and withdrew her eyes from my face. The spell was broken. I bounded forward, and clutched her by the arm. Uttering shriek upon shriek, she sunk upon the ground.

"Now I could have killed her without a struggle; but the house was alarmed. I heard the tread of footsteps on the stairs. I replaced the razor in its usual drawer, unfastened the door, and called loudly for assistance.

"They came, and raised her, and placed her on the bed. She lay bereft of animation for hours; and when life, look, and speech returned, her senses had deserted her, and she raved wildly and furiously.

"Doctors were called in -- great men who rolled up to my door in easy carriages, with fine horses and gaudy servants. They were at her bed-side for weeks. They had a great meeting, and consulted together in low and solemn voices in another room. One, the cleverest and most celebrated among them, took me aside, and bidding me prepare for the worst, told me -- me, the madman! -- that my wife was mad. He stood close beside me at an open window, his eyes looking in my face, and his hand laid upon my arm. With one effort, I could have hurled him into the street beneath. It would have been rare sport to have done it; but my secret was at stake, and I let him go. A few days after, they told me I must place her under some restraint: I must provide a keeper for her. I! I went into the open fields where none could hear me, and laughed till the air resounded with my shouts!

"She died next day. The white-headed old man followed her to the grave, and the proud brothers dropped a tear over the insensible corpse of her whose sufferings they had regarded in her lifetime with muscles of iron. All this was food for my secret mirth, and I laughed behind the white handkerchief which I held up to my face, as we rode home, 'till the tears came into my eyes.

"But though I had carried my object and killed her, I was restless and disturbed, and I felt that before long my secret must be known. I could not hide the wild mirth and joy which boiled within me, and made me when I was alone, at home, jump and beat my hands together, and dance round and round, and roar aloud. When I went out, and saw the busy crowds hurrying about the streets; or to the theatre, and heard the sound of music, and beheld the people dancing, I felt such glee, that I could have rushed among them, and torn them to pieces limb from limb, and howled in transport. But I ground my teeth, and struck my feet upon the floor, and drove my sharp nails into my hands. I kept it down; and no one knew I was a madman yet.

"I remember -- though it's one of the last things I can remember: for now I mix up realities with my dreams, and having so much to do, and being always hurried here, have no time to separate the two, from some strange confusion in which they get involved -- I remember how I let it out at last. Ha! ha! I think I see their frightened looks now, and feel the ease with which I flung them from me, and dashed my clenched fist into their white faces, and then flew like the wind, and left them screaming and shouting far behind. The strength of a giant comes upon me when I think of it. There -- see how this iron bar bends beneath my furious wrench. I could snap it like a twig, only there are long galleries here with many doors -- I don't think I could find my way along them; and even if I could, I know there are iron gates below which they keep locked and barred. They know what a clever madman I have been, and they are proud to have me here, to show.

"Let me see; -- yes, I had been out. It was late at night when I reached home, and found the proudest of the three proud brothers waiting to see me -- urgent business he said: I recollect it well. I hated that man with all a madman's hate. Many and many a time had my fingers longed to tear him. They told me he was there. I ran swiftly up-stairs. He had a word to say to me. I dismissed the servants. It was late, and we were alone together -- for the first time.

"I kept my eyes carefully from him at first, for I knew what he little thought -- and I gloried in the knowledge -- that the light of madness gleamed from them like fire. We sat in silence for a few minutes. He spoke at last. My recent dissipation, and strange remarks, made so soon after his sister's death, were an insult to her memory. Coupling together many circumstances which had at first escaped his observation, he thought I had not treated her well. He wished to know whether he was right in inferring that I meant to cast a reproach upon her memory, and a disrespect upon her family. It was due to the uniform he wore, to demand this explanation.

"This man had a commission in the army -- a commission, purchased with my money, and his sister's misery! This was the man who had been the foremost in the plot to ensnare me, and grasp my wealth. This was the man who had been the main instrument in forcing his sister to wed me; well knowing that her heart was given to that puling boy. Due to his uniform! The livery of his degradation! I turned my eyes upon him -- I could not help it -- but I spoke not a word.

"I saw the sudden change that came upon him beneath my gaze. He was a bold man, but the colour faded from his face, and he drew back his chair. I dragged mine nearer to him; and as I laughed -- I was very merry then -- I saw him shudder. I felt the madness rising within me. He was afraid of me.

"'You were very fond of your sister when she was alive' -- I said -- 'Very.'

"He looked uneasily round him, and I saw his hand grasp the back of his chair: but he said nothing.

"'You villain,' said I, 'I found you out; I discovered your hellish plots against me; I know her heart was fixed on some one else before you compelled her to marry me. I know it -- I know it.'

"He jumped suddenly from his chair, brandished it aloft, and bid me stand back -- for I took care to be getting closer to him all the time I spoke.

"I screamed rather than talked, for I felt tumultuous passions eddying through my veins, and the old spirits whispering and taunting me to tear his heart out.

"'Damn you,' said I, starting up, and rushing upon him; 'I killed her. I am a madman. Down with you. Blood, blood! I will have it!' "I turned aside with one blow the chair he hurled at me in his terror, and closed with him; and with a heavy crash we rolled upon the floor together.

"It was a fine struggle that; for he was a tall strong man, fighting for his life; and I, a powerful madman, thirsting to destroy him. I knew no strength could equal mine, and I was right. Right again, though a madman! His struggles grew fainter. I knelt upon his chest, and clasped his brawny throat firmly with both hands. His face grew purple; his eyes were starting from his head, and with protruded tongue, he seemed to mock me. I squeezed the tighter.

"The door was suddenly burst open with a loud noise, and a crowd of people rushed forward, crying aloud to each other to secure the madman.

"My secret was out; and my only struggle now was for liberty and freedom. I gained my feet before a hand was on me, threw myself among my assailants, and cleared my way with my strong arm, as if I bore a hatchet in my hand, and hewed them down before me. I gained the door, dropped over the banisters, and in an instant was in the street.

"Straight and swift I ran, and no one dared to stop me. I heard the noise of feet behind, and redoubled my speed. It grew fainter and fainter in the distance, and at length died away altogether: but on I bounded, through marsh and rivulet, over fence and wall, with a wild shout which was taken up by the strange beings that flocked around me on every side, and swelled the sound, till it pierced the air. I was borne upon the arms of demons who swept along upon the wind, and bore down bank and hedge before them, and spun me round and round with a rustle and a speed that made my head swim, until at last they threw me from them with a violent shock, and I fell heavily to the earth. When I woke I found myself here -- here in this gray cell where the sunlight seldom comes, and the moon steals in, in rays which only serve to show the dark shadows about me, and that silent figure in its old corner. When I lie awake, I can sometimes hear strange shrieks and cries from distant parts of this large place. What they are, I know not; but they neither come from that pale form, nor does it regard them. For from the first shades of dusk 'till the earliest light of morning, it still stands motionless in the same place, listening to the music of my iron chain, and watching my gambols on my straw bed."

Saturn Devouring His Son as a Metaphor for Trump

     Saturn Devouring His Son is a painting created by Spanish painter Francisco Goya between 1819 and 1823. He painted it directly onto a wall of his dining room. 

     "Everyone ready for dinner? Let's dig in!" 

     I see it as an analogy to Trump because of the myth behind Saturn as depicted in the painting. Saturn was a Titan. He had overthrown his father and ruled the world. But a prophecy foretold the day when one of his children would overthrow him. 

     So, he ate them.

     One by one, as they were born. His wife became concerned about this behavior, so she wrapped a large stone in swaddling, and Saturn pitched it down the hatch. She hid the child, Jupiter (called Zeus by the Greeks), on an island until one day he overthrew Saturn as the prophecy foretold. 

     Trump was worried about naming his son "Junior" because he might turn into, as Trump termed it, "a loser." Trump remembered his older brother, Fred, Jr., who was also called a weak loser. Don, Jr.  spent a year after his parents' divorce not speaking to his father, on a metaphorical island. He later became inextricably intertwined in the Trump criminal empire (Trump eating him and using him as a shield to protect himself). But, as the prophecy foretold, Junior would be a loser and would one day help to overthrow his father. 

FEC Violation: Personal Use of Campaign Contributions

     The Forbes article also noted that there was an unspecified and unexplained $90,000.00 payment the Trump campaign made to the Trump corporation for legal expenses. Did that money go to pay for legal expenses or did it end up in Trump's pocket. This is something Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg will be able to testify about, and he has an immunity agreement.

     The title of this section includes "FEC Violation," but in reality, what we are dealing with are federal crimes because of the amount of money involved and the intent of the perp:

The FEC has exclusive civil enforcement jurisdiction over federal campaign finance law and is thus the primary agency dedicated to enforcing such laws. At the same time, however, the DOJ has concurrent criminal jurisdiction over more egregious campaign finance law violations. This may sound a bit confusing, but it’s really not. So, what’s the distinction?



In simple terms, it’s the difference between a mistake or negligence and a scheme or conspiracy. Both violations may result in similar outcomes but the road traveled to get there is what’s of the utmost importance. The legal standard employed to suss out the two forms of campaign finance law violations is that of willfulness.

Money Laundering

     Before getting to my speculation about the most likely Money Laundering case for the Special Prosecutor, I wanted to note a few things about Trump's history of Money Laundering in general, and the transaction with Russian Dimitry Rybolovlev in particular.

     Trump has a huge history of Money Laundering. Big. Really fabulous. According to CNN, "[t]he Trump Taj Mahal Casino broke anti-money laundering rules 106 times in the first year and a half of operation in the early 1990s." We know this is fact because there was a settlement agreement with the IRS. CNN reported:

The casino repeatedly failed to properly report gamblers who cashed out $10,000 or more in a single day, the government said. 

     At the time of that 1998 settlement between Trump and the government, the Associated Press called it the largest ever fine for violations of the Bank Secrecy Act. Then, the Trump Castle failed to report Trump's dad sending a lawyer into the casino with a $3,350,000.00 certified check and exchanged them for casino chips. The Trump Castle paid a fine for that as well.

     This proves that Trump didn't care much for Federal rules used to alert on Money Laundering, but these wouldn't prove, by themselves, that Trump was involved in Money Laundering.

     As for our friend Dimitry Rybolovlev, neither he nor his company show up in the Office of Foreign Assets Control website as a sanctioned individual or entity. It is claimed that Rybolovlev was going through the divorce at the time and may have wanted to hide assets from his spouse. That might be a crime, but did Trump know about it? That's a big assumption.

     Still, the sale is very suspicious, especially given that Rybolovlev didn't inspect the property, didn't have it appraised, paid twice market value, and has never lived in it. It could have been a Putin operation, but we don't know.

     On the other hand, we do know of somebody quite famously criminal who purchased a property from Trump using Ukrainian (nee Russian) money. That would be Paul Manafort. We also know that both Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, have spent a lot of time being interviewed by FBI agents and testifying before grand juries.

     To prove the specialized intent of Trump to take in illegal money or evade taxes, prosecutors will likely need an informant who was there. Putin and Rybolovlev are unlikely to provide that evidence. Manafort and Gates are much likely to have done so.

     The Special Counsel's office has already proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Manafort was involved in bank fraud. Did he engage in similar fraudulent actions when purchasing his Trump Tower suite? I think that's a pretty good assumption. 

      Another potential trove of evidence can be found in Germany. Deutsche Bank paid New York a fine of $425,000,000.00 for a Money Laundering scheme that resettled $10,000,000,000.00 of Russian money. This occurred last year. Other countries have also fined the bank for similar problems in the last few years.

     Just recently, the offices of Deutsche Bank were raided.

     Finally, it has to be noted that Donald Trump, Jr. has been quoted as saying that "Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets." Eric Trump explained that "We have all the funding we need out of Russia."

     We know that the Trump Organization was happy to work with (or at least closely associate with) the sanctioned Russian VEB bank. They supposedly had financing through it for the Trump Tower Moscow project. The VEB bank also provided financing for the Trump hotel in Toronto. This is important because that bank is on the sanctions list, and it is a known Money Laundering conduit for Putin and other Russian oligarchs.

   

Violations of the Emoluments Clause

     Norm Eisen of the Brookings Institute came up with a list of Trump violations of the Emoluments Clause even before Trump assumed office (but after he won the Electoral College victory):

Trump’s business partners in India are themselves connected to Indian politicians, resulting in an array of potential conflicts relating to development policy and permitting.

[S]ince his election, Mr. Trump has met in his office with developers and other business partners from the Philippines.

On a recent call with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President of Turkey, Mr. Trump went out of his way to mention that he and his daughter (who also participated in the call) both admire Mehmet Ali Yalcindag, Mr. Trump’s business associate in the Trump Towers in Istanbul.

It has been reported that Mr. Trump opposes wind farms because he has decided that they ruin the view from his golf course in Aberdeen, Scotland. Recently, Mr. Trump openly lobbied Nigel Farage—a British political ally of his—to oppose wind farms in the United Kingdom, an issue that does not otherwise appear to be of relevance to American foreign policy.

Even as Mr. Trump has delegated greater authority to his three children (Ivanka, Eric, and Donald Junior) in running the Trump Organization, he has continued to involve them in exceptionally important federal business.

Most troubling, Ivanka has participated in several meetings between Mr. Trump and foreign heads of state, including those from Turkey, Argentina, and Japan. Ivanka’s presence at Mr. Trump’s meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan is especially striking, since Ivanka is currently in talks with Sanei International (whose largest shareholder is wholly owned by the Japanese government) to close a major and highly lucrative licensing deal.

Donald Junior, who plays a major role in overseeing new project acquisition and development for the Trump Organization, had a role in interviewing candidates for the position of Secretary of the Department of the Interior, whose policies can have significant consequences for foreign companies.

     It seems fantastic, but it is true that all of these violations of the Emoluments Clause occurred before Trump assumed the presidency. As President-elect, he still held an "Office of Trust" within the Government (and within the scope of the Emoluments Clause). But there are yet more:

Mere weeks before Mr. Trump spoke by phone with the President of Taiwan, dramatically altering American foreign policy, a businesswoman claiming to be associated with Mr. Trump’s conglomerate arrived in Taiwan and made inquiries about major new investments in luxury hotels.

Shortly before the election, President Duterte of the Philippines named Jose E.B. Antonio, a business partner of Mr. Trump and founder of a company behind Trump Tower Manila, as a special envoy to the United States.

After Mr. Trump spoke of banning Muslim immigrants, President Erdoğan of Turkey demanded that Mr. Trump’s name be removed from Trump Towers in Istanbul; but that demand abruptly ceased after Mr. Trump defended President Erdoğan’s brutal crackdown on Turkish dissidents.

     And there are still more. Remember, we haven't gotten to his actual tenure in office yet:

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China—owned by the People’s Republic of China—is the single largest tenant in Trump Tower. Its valuable lease will expire, and thus come up for re-negotiation, during Mr. Trump’s presidency.

Even as debates rage over American/Russian relations and Russian cyberattacks on U.S. interests and even on the recent presidential election, it has been reported that Russian financiers play a significant (albeit concealed) role in Mr. Trump’s organization.

Mr. Trump’s businesses owe hundreds of millions to Deutsche Bank, which is currently negotiating a multi-billion-dollar settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, a settlement that will now be overseen by an Attorney General and many other appointees selected by and serving at the pleasure of Mr. Trump.

Federal prosecutors in Brazil are in the middle of a sensitive (and now politically-freighted) criminal investigation into whether two pension funds that invested in the Trump Hotel in Rio de Janeiro were bribed to do so.

In Ireland, Mr. Trump wants to build a wall that would protect a coastline near his Trump International Golf Links course. Environmentalists, however, worry about an endangered species: the vertigo angustior snail. This fight will go to a national planning board, which may now find itself enmeshed in treacherous international politics relating to Mr. Trump.

     Before you get to the dusty boring end of this material, we have a surprise in store for you There's a second Emoluments clause. And guess what Trump is doing? If you guessed that he is likely violating it, you win. This is also in the Constitution:

The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.

     This is from Slate:

Public pension funds in at least seven U.S. states have invested millions of dollars in an investment fund that owns a New York hotel and pays one of President Donald Trump’s companies to run it, according to a Reuters review of public records. …

The Trump SoHo Hotel and Condominium in Manhattan is an upscale 46-story property owned by a Los Angeles investment group, the CIM Group, through one of its real estate funds. The possible problem for Trump lies in the fact that state- and city-run pension funds have invested in the CIM fund and pay it a few million dollars in quarterly fees to manage their investments in its portfolio, which includes the Trump SoHo, according to state investment records.

Tax Evasion

     One issue that will have to be dealt with is the statute of limitations. For example, Trump declared a loss of $916,000,000.00 in 1995. Is that actionable in a criminal prosecution? Perhaps not because of the statute of limitations. 

     The general rule is that the IRS will not audit a tax return after three years. However, they can go up to six years if the fraud is significant. That would still do us no good, as the effective statute of limitations would have expired in 2001. 

     Yet, there is hope.

     Is there any chance that that 1995 loss amount was not inflated to allow Trump to take continuing deductions over the years thereafter? That would be a continuing crime. In 2005, he supposedly made $150,000,000.00 but likely paid nothing in taxes … because of the earlier crime. Thus, if Trump was still deducting in 2012 for losses in 1995--and I suspect he was--then he can be prosecuted for the tax fraud that occurred originally in 1995. 

     On a related note, the New York Attorney General has referred potential charges to the IRS regarding taxation of the money misused by the Trump Foundation charity. 

     Finally, even if there are no crimes a prosecutor can bring related to Tax Evasion or Tax Fraud, the IRS can still institute a civil recovery of evaded taxes. 

VIOLATIONS OF U.S. SANCTIONS

     With regard to Alexander Torshin, it is known that he provided funds to the NRA, the NRA provided an unprecedented amount of funds to the Trump campaign, and that Torshin and Donald Trump, Jr. met at the 2016 NRA national conference. We assume this wasn't one big coincidence.

     Moreover, it is undisputed that the NRA and the Trump Campaign used the same buyer, placing advertisements on television and social media. It is assumed by that that they coordinated their campaigns to elect Trump.

     VTB is a large Russian bank closely allied to Putin that agreed to finance Trump Tower Moscow. VTB bank was and still is a U.S. sanctioned entity. Although bank officials have recently tried to deny the seriousness of the endeavor, after Michael Cohen and Felix Sater had obtained a licensing agreement to build the property, this happened:

Two days later, Sater told Cohen that their invitations and visas were being arranged by VTB Bank, and that Kostin, the bank’s powerful president and chairman, would meet Cohen in Moscow. Key to getting VTB on board was the former GRU spy; Sater told congressional and special counsel investigators that the former spy said he had a source at VTB Bank who would support the deal.

      When you go through the simple search mechanism at the Office of Foreign Asset Control's website and search for the name "VTB," you get many responses, all of them sanctioned. Here is a screengrab:

     A search of the same OFAC website for the name "Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps" turns up another large list of sanctioned entities. That's important because the people the Trump Organization dealt with in building a hotel in Baku, Azerbaijan were associated with that group. 
    
     The assumption in all of these crimes is that Trump or somebody in the Trump Organization did the most simple due diligence to determine if they were doing business with sanctioned individuals or entities. For the hotel in Baku, there is the assumption that Trump or somebody in the Trump Organization knew where the money was coming from to complete this giant building: