Would it surprise you to know that one of the main links between Russia and the Trump campaign runs directly through the Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos?

A report from Dexter Filkins of The New Yorker lays out an intricate tale of how a Russian bank controlled by a close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin had computer contact with a company that has close links to the DeVos family. That same bank also had contact with the Trump Organization in the summer of 2016, just months before the election.



Without getting overly technical and in the weeds, investigators have been looking at the Domain Name System (D.N.S.) associated with Republican candidates. D.N.S is basically:

“A worldwide network that acts as a sort of phone book for the Internet, translating easy-to-remember domain names into I.P. addresses, the strings of numbers that computers use to identify one another. Whenever someone goes online—to send an e-mail, to visit a Web site—her device contacts the Domain Name System to locate the computer that it is trying to connect with.”



Computers belonging to Alfa Bank — which is owned by a Russian oligarch with deep ties to Putin — “pinged” those of the Trump Organization over 2.000 times between May and September 2016. And there are also computer links between Alfa Bank and a company by the name of Spectrum Health:

“Spectrum Health is closely linked to the DeVos family; Richard DeVos, Jr., is the chairman of the board, and one of its hospitals is named after his mother. His wife, Betsy DeVos, was appointed Secretary of Education by Donald Trump. Her brother, Erik Prince, is a Trump associate who has attracted the scrutiny of Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Trump’s ties to Russia.”



Cybersecurity experts now believe the “pings” between Alfa, Trump Org. and Spectrum Health were actually a covert “back channel” communications system. But what would a Russian bank, the Trump Organization, and Spectrum Health be discussing in private? Perhaps how the Russian government could send money for the Trump campaign effort, along with information on where to buy targeted ads in battleground states such as Michigan and Ohio.

As we’ve repeatedly seen with the Trump administration, nearly everyone working in this White House has a connection to Russia and Putin. That alone suggests the Trump team is owned and controlled by the Russians.