David Enrich’s book “Dark Towers” was released yesterday, telling the story of Deutsche Bank and Donald Trump with a precision and professionalism one might expect from an author who is also the New York Times financial editor.

Of particular interest is the story of one Tammy McFadden, who worked for Deutsche as an anti-money laundering compliance officer out of Deutsche’s Jacksonville Florida office. In the summer of 2016, McFadden had some suspicious Kushner companies’ transactions line up in her box for inspection. Duetsche’s computers automatically scan thousands of transactions per day looking for hints of impropriety, and based on certain criteria, flag those transactions for review. McFadden is one of the experts whose job it was to review the transaction for signs of money laundering.

McFadden knew “right off the bat” why the transactions tripped the software.

Kushner’s real estate company was moving money to a number of Russian individuals. That didn’t mean there was anything improper – it certainly wasn’t proof of money laundering – bit it was unusual. McFadden did some researching, looking into the recipients of the money and into the Kushner Companies’ history of moving fund overseas an concluded that the appropriate response was for Deutsche to file a “suspicious activity report” with the FinCEN, the arm of the Treasury Department responsible for policing financial crimes. Banks file thousands of such reports every year, and this didn’t strike McFadden as an especially close call. She typed up a report and sent it to her superiors.

McFadden got word that her report got “killed” by managers in another section of the bank, she was near certain it was due to these managers attempting to preserve their relationship with the Kushners, and therefore the Trumps.

McFadden had found something important, the Kushners [] were moving money to Russians at the same time that Russia was interfering in the American presidential election, trying to tilt it in favor of Jared Kunsher’s father in law. It was hard not to be a little suspicious.

What exactly were the purposes of the transactions that McFadden had spotted? What did they show about the interests of the Trumps, Kushners or his presidential campaign in Russia? With McFadden gone, and her suspicious activity report deleted, the answers to those questions vanished inside Deutsche Banks computer systems.

It is impossible to not be “suspicious.”

If only there was some type of government department, some kind of police force, or investigative body that could look into such activities, we might be able to get to the bottom of why Kushner was moving all that money to Russia right at the same time that Russia was working to get Donald Trump elected.

Have no doubt, this is precisely why Donald Trump started out his presidency casting aspertions toward the FBI and the intelligence community, he knew he was susceptible to investigations. It is also why to this day that Trump instills the fear of retaliation into anyone who dares to investigate anything about him or his finances. It is why you STILL hear about “FISA,” because Trump wants everyone terrified of getting a warrant to investigate him. It is – of course – also why Trump is still fighting to keep his financial records secret – going all the way to the Supreme Court.

Trump cannot withstand a close look into his business or his relationships. The facts cries out, suspicious activity everywhere, with stakes that couldn’t be higher, and yet here we sit, doing nothing,, letting him continue to get away without showing us anything.

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Peace, y’all

Jason

[email protected] and on Twitter @MiciakZoom