'Trump's Son Should Be Concerned' by Wiretap Request

Bureau officials reach out to the Spanish government
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted May 27, 2018 11:40 AM CDT
'Trump's Son Should Be Concerned' by Wiretap Request
In this file photo, Donald Trump Jr. walks from the elevator at Trump Tower, in New York.   (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

"Mr. Trump's son should be concerned." That's the word from Spanish investigator José Grinda, who says the FBI recently obtained wiretaps involving two Russians—oligarch Alexander Torshin and convicted money launderer Alexander Romanov—from Spanish police, Yahoo News reports. Seems the wiretaps led to a brief meeting between Torshin and Donald Trump Jr. at an NRA convention in Louisville, Kentucky, two years ago. Torshin, a top official at Russia's Central Bank with close ties to the NRA and US lawmakers, was blacklisted by the Treasury Department last month, CNN reported at the time.

The FBI is looking into whether Torshin funneled money to the NRA to help it pay for get-out-the-vote efforts and political ads in the 2016 election. Why the FBI wants these wiretaps is unclear: "I don't have to ask them why they want this information," says Grinda, who has led probes into Russian organized crime. But for Robert Mueller to use the wiretaps in court, he would have to issue a formal request to Spain's government. In a wide-ranging case spearheaded by Grinda five years ago, Spanish police nearly arrested Torshin at a birthday party for Romanov on the island of Mallorca, but Torshin never showed up. (Read more about Torshin here.)

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