It worked for Ed Snowden..

Viper1j

Diamond Member
Jul 31, 2018
4,139
3,589
136
But Eddie didn't have hotels and golf courses that could be seized.

All his bank accounts need to be frozen.


How Trump could use his relationship with Putin and Russia to skirt prosecution back in the USA

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Imagine this scenario: Former President Donald Trump boards his private plane and leaves the US to resume his international business dealings in Russia. The day after Trump lands in Moscow on a bright September afternoon, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. announces a grand jury has formally indicted the former president on several criminal counts. Vance wants Trump to immediately return.

But the US and Russia have no extradition treaty or formal process through which a wanted person is arrested. Since Trump would be on Russian soil in this scenario, he would be under no legal obligation to cooperate with the US government. Trump then could petition Russian President Vladimir Putin for political asylum. Russian officials could agree to entertain Trump's application, which would trigger an international standoff between two countries with an already fraught relationship.

Such a scenario is so extreme that it seemingly borders on the absurd.

But does it?

Legal scholars said that was something that would indeed be primed to be a problem if Trump were to leave the country amid investigations into him. It's also a scenario that could quickly unravel into an international diplomatic and political crisis that puts the Biden administration into a pickle that isn't even of its own doing.

"That would be quite a science-fiction-like scenario," Shanlon Wu, a former federal prosecutor in Washington, DC, said. "But the bottom line is the US has never had to deal with that kind of situation before."

Elizabeth Shackelford, a former State Department official who resigned from the Trump administration in December 2017, told Insider it would be a "poisonous move" for President Joe Biden if he sought Trump's extradition.

"It would be politically very hard for the administration to say we're going to ask for extradition for the former president to come back and stand charges," she said. "They've become so cautious on things that do not seem bipartisan."

Trump faces civil and criminal legal peril at the local, state, and federal levels involving his businesses, taxes, political campaign, and actions surrounding the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

He has defined his career in business and politics by breaking norms. He's the only president to be criminally investigated for inciting an insurrection. He's the only president to be impeached twice. He also previously suggested he'd leave the country if Biden won the White House.

"Could you imagine if I lose? My whole life — what am I going to do? I'm going to say I lost to the worst candidate in the history of politics," Trump said at a campaign rally last year as he sought a second term. "I'm not going to feel so good. Maybe I'll have to leave the country, I don't know."

As Trump mulls whether to run for president again in 2024, his legal jeopardy is likely to get worse before it gets better. That means the image of him fleeing to an authoritarian state like Russia or North Korea to avoid prosecution could hurt his unique political brand and alienate him from his support base.

Where would Trump go?
Trump hasn't formally announced plans to travel abroad this year and isn't known to have left the US since his term ended on January 20.

Nevertheless, Trump, like any other American citizen, is free to leave the US since he hasn't been charged with a crime. That would change if he were indicted or arrested, and a magistrate judge would then have the authority to put the former president under severe travel restrictions and request his passport be confiscated.

The possibilities of where Trump could hide to avoid prosecution are plenty. There were more than 70 countries that did not have an extradition agreement with the US as of 2020. These countries included China, Belarus, Russia, Saudi Arabia — and Indonesia, where Trump's company is in the process of constructing new hotels and golf courses.

Read more: Inside Trump's hot vax New Jersey summer, where he's playing golf and plotting rallies while legal storms form

And Trump has business interests in various other countries, according to a personal-financial disclosure he filed in January with the US Office of Government Ethics. They include the United Arab Emirates, which has no extradition treaty with the US, as well as India, Ireland, and the UK, which do.

While Trump as president may have distanced himself from some US allies, he fostered new relationships with authoritarian leaders, including those in Russia and North Korea.

Some legal experts have speculated that Trump, if he were facing arrest in the US, could find safe harbor in Russia. Since winning the presidency in 2016, Trump has staunchly defended Russia and insisted that the country did not meddle in that election despite contradicting conclusions from US national security officials.

In the past, Russia has granted political asylum and permanent residency to American citizens who fled the US, such as the whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The Russian Embassy did not respond to Insider's request for comment on if it would grant similar protections to Trump. The US State Department declined to comment on what it would do if that situation were to occur.

The former president could also attempt to flee to North Korea, despite its un-Trumpy lack of luxury — it's one of the poorest nations — and US restrictions on travel there.

Trump has personally met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. They share a love for military parades. The former president has also praised Kim, calling him a "real leader" with a "great and beautiful" vision for the country, despite tensions between the US and North Korea.

Even if Trump sought refuge in a country with established extradition rules — say, the UK, where Trump owns a Scottish golf course — the process of bringing Trump back to the US could cause tremendous strain between the two countries and put Biden in a challenging position.

It would almost also certainly involve the federal government, as local or state officials pursuing a wanted person must typically request assistance from the Justice Department's Office of International Affairs.

Read more: The top Trump fundraiser who helped plan his January 6 rally is out of Trumpworld

"It would be a very dicey situation for the US to be seeking extradition of a former president of the United States," Wu said. "They'd be out in completely uncharted territories."

The US has pressured countries with no extradition treaties to return people to it for prosecution even if they are not US citizens. The Council on Foreign Relations estimated that the US Marshals Service, one of the federal agencies responsible for carrying out international extraditions, has annually conducted between 350 and 600 extraditions to the US over the past few years.

In 2012, Ecuador granted political asylum for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, an Australian who temporarily resided at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. The incident significantly strained the relationship between the US and Ecuador as the US aggressively tried to bring Assange to the US to face federal criminal charges of conspiring to obtain and publish troves of classified material.

Some worry that it could be too soon for foreign countries to begin preparing for an extradition plan if Trump decides to visit their country at this time. If international countries were to begin to make these plans, it could look like a "political stunt," Karen Alter, a political-science professor at Northwestern University, said.

Alter told Insider that would largely depend on the international laws of that country.

Trump's legal troubles ahead
Trump is under investigation in Washington, DC, New York City, New York state, and Fulton County, Georgia.

Investigators in New York are looking into Trump's finances and his business dealings. In Georgia, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is investigating Trump's January 2 phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. During the call, Trump pressured him to "find" votes to overturn the election results in the state that Biden won in the November presidential election.

In Washington, prosecutors are also looking at the role Trump played in the January 6 riot at the US Capitol.

The offices for these prosecutors did not respond to Insiders inquiries on what they would do if Trump were abroad while formally charged.

Read more: Here's how Trump could theoretically run for president and govern the US from prison, according to 9 legal scholars

But it doesn't stop there for Trump. He will also have to deal with several lawsuits filed against him by civil-rights organizations and Democratic lawmakers for his role in the January 6 riot and other business dealings.

While the likelihood of the former president fleeing the US country to avoid prosecution may seem unlikely, some legal experts are not completely ruling it out and said they would see it as a sign that Trump recognized that he did something unlawful.

"A sure-enough way to show consciousness of guilt is to run and to hide," Laurie Levenson, a Loyola University law professor and former federal prosecutor, told Insider.

If US authorities arrested Trump and won a criminal conviction against him, the former president's political career wouldn't necessarily stop there.

Legal experts told Insider that the most implausible scenario of all — Trump running for and winning the presidency from behind bars — was possible.
 

cytg111

Lifer
Mar 17, 2008
22,381
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136
My only surprise is that he has not taken off yet… Intuition tells me that The Vlad has declined Donny’s application thus far.
 
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Viper1j

Diamond Member
Jul 31, 2018
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Business Insider is behind ATPN. We've been saying for years myself included this is a plausible scenario.

So how will the seizure pie be divided?

Each state gets to keep whatever is located there? (Between Trump tower and the apartments, that's one big payday for New York.) Or will the properties and accounts be all pooled, and the monies divided evenly?
 
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sandorski

No Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
69,988
5,506
126
The consequences of such a thing could change the trajectory of History. Many Trumpers would embrace Putin/Russia more openly and I suspect they would even willingly work with Russians. Who knows how far they'd go with that.
 

Viper1j

Diamond Member
Jul 31, 2018
4,139
3,589
136
The consequences of such a thing could change the trajectory of History. Many Trumpers would embrace Putin/Russia more openly and I suspect they would even willingly work with Russians. Who knows how far they'd go with that.

But then MAGA would change to...

MRGA?
 

Moonbeam

Elite Member
Nov 24, 1999
71,837
5,856
126
Such hand wringing. The US got Bin Laden who did far far far less damage to the US than Trump did.
 
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MtnMan

Diamond Member
Jul 27, 2004
8,596
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My only surprise is that he has not taken off yet… Intuition tells me that The Vlad has declined Donny’s application thus far.
My Pillow guy has convinced him to stay, so he doesn't miss his second inauguration on August 15th.
 
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HomerJS

Lifer
Feb 6, 2002
34,992
26,009
136
Such hand wringing. The US got Bin Laden who did far far far less damage to the US than Trump did.
I'm sure Trump's COVID inaction cost far more lives then the estimated 3,000 lost on 9/11. Problem is you'd have too many people volunteering for that Seal team
 
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cytg111

Lifer
Mar 17, 2008
22,381
12,105
136
The consequences of such a thing could change the trajectory of History. Many Trumpers would embrace Putin/Russia more openly and I suspect they would even willingly work with Russians. Who knows how far they'd go with that.
I bet that is already happening on the alt right fringes - oath keepers proud morons whatnot
 

ch33zw1z

Lifer
Nov 4, 2004
37,382
17,582
146
Such hand wringing. The US got Bin Laden who did far far far less damage to the US than Trump did.

Dunno about that. Bin Laden changed the way we live. Trump exposed millions of conservative loons for what they are, but they were already that way....just gave them the confidence and voice to openly accept it.