A trove of more than 13 million leaked documents was published by news organizations around the world on Sunday, the contents of which implicate top officials and associates of President Donald Trump, as well as foreign politicians, in shady business relationships tied to offshore financial accounts.
In at least two cases, the documents highlight previously undisclosed connections to Russia and Kremlin-linked interests.
The documents, referred to as the “Paradise Papers,” were leaked to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung—the same publication that obtained the so-called Panama Papers—and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The ICIJ led a global effort of 96 media organizations aimed at poring through the documents and reporting on their contents.
The documents show that the wealthy individuals Trump brought into his administration have worked to legally store their money in offshore havens where they would be free from taxation in the United States. Trump has promised repeatedly to “drain the swamp,” referring to the idea that well-connected individuals in Washington, D.C. preserve their own interests at the expense of the rest of the country.
Among those implicated in the leaks is Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who according to the documents concealed his ties to a Russian energy company that is partly owned by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s son-in-law. Through offshore investments, Ross held a stake in Navigator Holdings, which had a close relationship with the Russian firm. Ross did not disclose that connection during his confirmation process on Capitol Hill.
Top White House adviser Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, is also implicated. The documents reveal that Kremlin-connected interests invested in social media giants Facebook and Twitter through one of Kushner’s business associates. Russian tech leader Yuri Milner, who funneled the money to Facebook and Twitter, has a stake in a company partly owned by Kushner.
Kushner said in July that he told the Senate Intelligence Committee in a closed-door meeting that he never “relied on Russian funds to finance my business activities in the private sector.” Representatives for Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Mark Warner (D-VA), the chairman and vice chairman of the committee, did not immediately return requests for comment.
The top adviser is already ensnared in the Russia investigations due to his meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016 with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer. Kushner attended the meeting alongside Donald Trump Jr. and Paul Manafort, who was indicted by the special counsel last week as part of his lobbying work for pro-Russian interests in Ukraine.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and top economic adviser Gary Cohn are all mentioned in the documents. But lower-level appointees might have the more egregious connections. But some lower-level appointees have the most egregious connections to offshore interests.
Randal Quarles, who was confirmed just last month to be vice chairman for supervision at the Federal Reserve, has connections to a bank based in Bermuda that is being probed by U.S. officials under suspicion of tax evasion.
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