SARs Removal Stokes Fears About Mnuchin Conflict Of Interest

[deminks]

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/democrats-crew-ask-mnuchin-recusal-cohen-sara

For months, good-government groups and some Democratic lawmakers have been calling on Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to recuse himself from matters related to the federal investigation into Russian election meddling. Mnuchin’s role as finance chair of Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign means he can’t impartially oversee a probe that delves into Trump associates’ financial affairs, they have argued.

Those calls took on a new urgency this week when The New Yorker revealed that Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) filed on long-time Trump fixer Michael Cohen were removed from a database kept by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) division.

Their removal, which is highly unusual, so alarmed a longtime law enforcement official that he or she leaked some of the documents to the press out of concern that information was being intentionally withheld from law enforcement.

In multiple letters sent since late 2017, Democratic lawmakers have asked Mnuchin to recuse himself from the Russia probe, and to detail any information Treasury has received about potential illegal activities by Trump and his associates.

“Have you ever directed, or has any other Trump administration official, Trump campaign official, or Trump family member called on you to direct U.S. Treasury officials or staff members to obscure, destroy, or withhold information implicating the president, Trump campaign officials, Trump family members, or his associates?” the Democrats wrote in January.

I just knew Munchkin was involved. IMHO.

[SunSeeker]

1. K & R for exposure.

[calimary]

2. Mnuchin has never struck me as dealing openly or honestly.

Neither he nor his wife, Marie Antoinette.

[librechik]

4. good one. Mnuchin and trophy are from Central Casting for snotty corporate criminals

the third act comeuppance is always most satisfying as they try to dig themselves ou tof the manure in the Lamborghini.

[malaise]

3. +1,000

Expect him to be out in 3...2...1

[BigmanPigman]

5. Maxine Waters told Chris Hayes yesterday

that she has been calling for the Treasury Dept to release the moron's financial info to better understand the situation and Mnuchin has never responded. Maxine implied that he may be protecting the pres and perhaps is nefarious enough to scrub the info about Cohen.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/5/17/1765078/-The-pendulum-swings-both-ways-Things-to-watch-for

The problem for Mnuchin is the old adage, "Forewarned is forearmed'. Last night, Chris Hayes was as stunned as everybody else when CA Congresswoman Maxine Waters stated that all the way back in January, the Democratic minority on the banking services committee had written to Mnuchin, asking for confirmation that no member of the Trump family, administration, or campaign, had contacted the Treasury department and asked for the altering, masking, or removal of any financial documents. Munchy didn't even bother to acknowledge receipt of the letter, much less respond to it. But, with critical, bank generated information suddenly missing from the FinCEN database, you can bet that he's going to have some very sticky questions to officially answer to, real quick like. Keep an eye on this down the road.

[erronis]

8. As others have pointed out, this information submitted to FinCEN/SARs is not easily scrubbed.

When a bank or other organization submits these reports the submitters keep copies and backups and CYA documents.

To say nothing about our SupraNational Archival Conglomerates - the NSA and other conduits and processors.

This said, it could well have been the Office of the Special Counsel who has requested that these reports be sequestered until the OSC has been able to act fully on the contents.

[BigmanPigman]

9. Ronan Farrow and Rachel discussed that it could have been

erased by Mueller or the FBI as a precautionary measure but they said it wasn't likely but can't be ruled out.

[rurallib]

12. Thanks for that info - this is a question that has been bugging me

since the removal was first revealed.

Sure would seem like the bank or financial institution would want to cover their ass by keeping several copies in several places.

[radhika]

14. Agreed - there must be backups....

I am curious, however, if the Treasury version of the SAR was also expunged from previous back-ups. That would mean someone deliberately wanted it to disappear totally.

[erronis]

15. Let's hope that the information can be made available. One of the purposes of a "central repository"

is to make it easily searchable rather than having to go out to individual data sources.

One of the dangers of relying on a "central repository" is to make it susceptible to manipulation by interests.

Banks and other financial institutions tend to be very conservative with their data use agreements - sharing. And rightfully so. Getting them on-board to FinCEN or SWIFT and other mandated reporting has been arduous. And some are obviously still not being honest.

However, I think almost all financial institutions respond very well to US federal and state subpoenas - perhaps because these subpoenas may actually hold the officers and directors of the institutions liable. IANAL and would love some corrections.

[flibbitygiblets]

6. Let me guess: When the Mnooch goes down for this, Trump will be all "I had no IDEA!"

...and then he'll pardon him. Pardons are going to be passed out like Halloween candy. Except for Cohen. Thank GAWD that man is such a dumbf**k.

There's always a chance that Mueller pulled/restricted the SAR though. But the question is "why?"

[Bob Loblaw]

16. I hardly know him

He's a good man, witch hunt, no collusion believe me....

[GusBob]

7. He is in trouble either way

If he removed the documents, it's conspiracy and cover up

If he didn't, Trump is gonna be pissed and he is fired

[BadGimp]

10. SOMEONE was involved for sure and they had to be connected to our Dotard POTUS

[33taw]

11. It seems highly unprobable that there are not back-ups to these documents.

Government entities often make multiple back-ups and they are stored a multiple sites. I fully believe the data is available, but the right questions and research needs to be done. Personally, I would question the IT person(s) responsible for storing the docs or data from which these documents are stored or compiled.

[shanny]

13. Good.

Although that f@cker should have been in jail long before tRump appointed him.