Color Me Unsurprised

ABC News:

The lawyers who wrote a letter saying President Trump had no significant business ties to Russia work for a law firm that has extensive ties to Russia and received a “Russia Law Firm of the Year” award in 2016.

Sheri Dillon and William Nelson, tax partners at the law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, which has served as tax counsel to Trump and the Trump Organization since 2005, wrote a letter in March released by the White House on Friday stating that a review of the last 10 years of Trump’s tax returns “do not reflect” ties to Russia “with a few exceptions.”

In 2016, however, Chambers & Partners, a London-based legal research publication, named the firm “Russia Law Firm of the Year” at its annual awards dinner. The firm celebrated the “prestigious honor” in a press release on its website, noting that the award is “the latest honor for the high-profile work performed by the lawyers in Morgan Lewis’ Moscow office.”

According to the firm’s website, its Moscow office includes more than 40 lawyers and staff who are “well known in the Russian market, and have a deep familiarity with the local legislation, practices, and key players.” The firm boasts of being “particularly adept” at advising clients on “sanction matters."

Following the release of the letter, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn) noted the firm’s connection to Russia, calling it “unreal."

The deafening silence coming from Republicans in Congress reinforces my conviction that it's not a matter of them not seeing the problem with this accelerating slide into the Daddy State, but that they're denying it because that's how they want it.

I could be indulging myself in Argument From Ignorance, but I'll need some pretty heavy convincing to get me off of this point. Every time we get another bit of confirmation about 45*'s corruption - followed closely by GOP denial &/or deflection &/or rationalization - it gets clearer: If Cult45 isn't really doing the shitty things they appear to be doing, then we should all apologize to OJ and help him find the real killer.

This is all kinds of fucked up.