#Smurfs. Is this how the @RealDonaldTrump campaign was funded by the Russian SVR? @AP

Donald Trump’s return to Scotland caused me to take another look at the Trump Campaign’s financial activity in the period of May to August 2016.  Trump suddenly went to Scotland June 23, 2016.  I Tweeted at the time he was meeting his Russian handlers.

As I laid out in yesterday’s Twitter thread of my 2016 posts, Trump was desperate for money. Then suddenly he got a load of cash. What I didn’t know was that the money that Trump got wasn’t from a few large donors but was originally reported to be from a large number of small donors.  It was compared to how Bernie was operating.  Here is the August NY Times story on it.

Fueled by Small Donations, Donald Trump Makes Up Major Financial Ground

When I found the NY Times article yesterday it made me think of Smurfs.  It’s one of the ways the drug cartels move money. Lots of small cash aggregators to move lots of money. Billions.

Then today, Rachel Maddow serendipitously showed a photo from today’s Congressional embarrassment of the Peter Strzok hearing, and said “oh there he is” or something to that effect pointing out the obscure photo of Richard Penedo who pled out quietly in February.

I looked at the Penedo charges and the statement of offense at the time and sort did a “huh?” I didn’t dig into it.  The way it was written, though I’m litigator, with lots of forensics experience, I had hard time comprehending the crime.  Here is the Statement of the Offense. The Information was even more cryptic.

Pinedo had created an entity that trafficked in bulk fake identities to be used to set up fraudulent on-line bank accounts.  A Smurf factory.  I think the key is that he was not charged with “a” crime. It was “hundreds” of crimes.  Smurfs.  In court speak could tens of thousands also be termed “hundreds?”  Did Mueller bury Daddy Smurf?

I checked the Docket and just last week Mueller teed Penedo up to  be sentenced October 1, 2018.  So he’s not going to be needed for anyone’s trial? Is it because they only wanted to get the guys who were filling all the accounts up with Kremlin money? To be donated by fake users to the Trump Campaign and GOP at $2,700 at a time?  #Smurfs?