By Robert Laurie ——Bio and Archives--May 25, 2017
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In the brutal 2016 cage-match between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, tax returns emerged as something of a broken bottle tossed into the ring. If Hillary could grab it, she'd be able to pull herself off the ropes and lash out with a deadly weapon.
Democrats were sure the returns would show that Trump A: wasn't rich, B: had been colluding with secret ex-Soviet forces, and C: had been dodging his federal responsibilities for something close to 20 years. The hunt was on.
Right down to the electoral wire, Dems were searching frantically for the object of their obsession.Less than two weeks before Election Day, federal agents descended on a hotel lobby to meet a Louisiana private investigator they believed had illegally tried to obtain Donald Trump's tax returns. At the time, the agents didn't know if Jordan Hamlett had been successful — and they feared a public release of Trump's tax returns could influence the U.S. presidential election, according to a transcript of testimony obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press. The agents worried Hamlett could be armed and orchestrated an elaborate operation at the hotel on Oct. 27, with plainclothes officers blending in with guests at the Embassy Suites in Baton Rouge. Other officers took up positions outside.
Authorities now say Hamlett was not able to get Trump's tax returns. He has been charged with misrepresenting his Social Security number, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty.We never heard about this matter because the charges were sealed. Now that we know of them, the questions are obvious. Was Hamlett working alone, or did he have a client paying him to find Trump's returns by any means necessary. So far, the police are mum.
Authorities have not said what Hamlett's motive for getting the federal tax returns was, and they wondered in the documents whether he was working with anyone or planned to sell them or release them.It's a little bit like a terrorist attack, isn't it? Whatever could the motive be? I think it's safe to say that the motive - at least Hamlett's - was most likely money. Either he was trying to get the returns to sell to a third party, or a third party hired him to retrieve the information. If it's the latter, one has to wonder who the employer was.
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As a matter of the public record, there is a catalogue of private investigators employed by her, and some of their exploits are even recorded. In fact, if elected, she will be the first presidential candidate ever to have hired private investigators to serve her ends en route to the White House. In the past weeks, both The New York Times and The Washington Post reported that she employed the services of a San Francisco private investigator, Jack Palladino, to harass and vilify Gennifer Flowers when she appeared on the scene in the early 1990s. But there were others.Oh. Honestly, no one knows if Hillary, the DNC, or even a GOP political opponent was behind this. I can imagine quite a few low-energy Republicans who, like Mrs. Clinton, would love to have seen Trump dismantled at the last second. As I said above, it is possible that he acted alone, and there's a good chance that's going to be the official story. If he had an employer, he'll never admit it. If he enjoys breathing, Hamlett will probably clam up, say he was working for his own interests, and take his lumps. But, when one person in a brutal two-way battle has a long history of exactly this M.O., it certainly makes you wonder...
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