Follow the Money, Starting With Michael Flynn
- Submitted by: Love Knowledge
- Category: Politics
The post Follow the Money, Starting With Michael Flynn appeared first on WhoWhatWhy.
Editor’s note: Martin. J. Sheil is a retired branch chief of the IRS Criminal Investigation division.
“Follow the money!” This is not only a phrase made famous by the Watergate scandal and the subsequent investigation; it’s also good advice for anyone trying to dig out the truth that someone else wants to keep hidden.
An IRS probe requested by the Watergate Special Prosecutor in 1973 led to a slew of indictments. Now, with the Trump administration facing a similar investigation, could the IRS once again play a key role in helping to bring the truth to light and key players to justice?
Even before President Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace in 1974, Vice President Spiro Agnew was forced from office by an IRS criminal investigation that discovered tax violations committed when Agnew was governor of Maryland.
When President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton were involved in the Whitewater investigation of financial misdeeds surrounding a real estate deal in Arkansas, it was the IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) division that provided financial-investigative expertise to the FBI in a probe that led to a number of convictions of business associates of the Clintons.
What if IRS CI investigators were brought about to supplement the FBI’s Russia-Trump inquiries?
It has recently been reported that the Russia investigation is no longer purely a counterintelligence investigation but now also includes a criminal probe. There are also reports that financial documents related to the Russia investigations have been requested/subpoenaed at the US Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, June 17, 2010. Photo credit: FBI
Now that the FBI investigation seems to be morphing into a “follow the money” probe, will Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller bolster the team of investigators that James Comey assembled with specialists from the unit that Eliot Ness made famous in the Prohibition era investigation and successful prosecution for tax evasion of Al Capone?
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