Trump Released This Letter to Prove He Has No Russian Ties. We Annotated It.

The document raises more questions than it answers.


The White House on Friday released a one-page letter from Trump’s private tax attorney, Sheri Dillon, that was intended to debunk the notion that President Trump has any Russian business dealings or sources of income. Dillon is the same lawyer who vowed at a January 11 press conference that Trump would meaningfully separate himself from the Trump Organization—something that never happened. No surprise: Dillon’s new letter is hardly worth the paper it’s printed on, raising as many questions about Trump’s business activities as it answers.

So, we marked up the letter with some questions and observations of our own.

Click here for a larger version.

Annotations by Andy Kroll.

 

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We were built for times like these

Russian bots are impersonating us. Trump and his allies want to silence us. AI wants to (and does!) steal our content. The list goes on. But with 50 years of experience, we know we were built for this moment: We’re ready to keep diving deep and uncovering the truth, then getting that to you right here, completely accessible and never behind a paywall.

While our work is free to read, watch, and listen to online, it’s incredibly costly to make. Court documents, travel, research: It all adds up. Because we’re a nonprofit newsroom, we rely on reader support to fund our investigations. Will you stand with us in these extraordinary times, as headlines clamour for our attention and disinformation is rampant? We can’t get the truth out without you.

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