It simply comes down to money: the Russians, the meetings that mysteriously slipped everyone's minds when they were testifying before Congress or filling out disclosure forms, the vanishing tax returns, the emoluments mess, the bizarre attraction to wealthy overseas authoritarians, the unshakable presence of Michael Flynn. All of it, simple American greed magnified by a culture of celebrity and, through a fluke presidential election, dropped like a dead squirrel in a chimney into the world's greatest democracy—and, as a result, stinking up the entire joint.

The latest story involves Jared Kushner, his father-in-law's Secretary of Everything and, as one clever Twitterperson put it, Slumlord Millionaire. On Thursday night, right on schedule during Happy Hour, both NBC and The Washington Post dropped the news that Kushner was the person inside the White House in whom the FBI had taken an interest, as was reported in last Friday's Happy Hour news dump. From the NBC story:

Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and one of his senior advisers, has come under FBI scrutiny in the Russia investigation, multiple U.S. officials told NBC News. Investigators believe Kushner has significant information relevant to their inquiry, officials said. That does not mean they suspect him of a crime or intend to charge him. The FBI's scrutiny of Kushner places the bureau's sprawling counterintelligence and criminal investigation not only on the doorstep of the White House, but the Trump family circle. The Washington Post first reported last week that a senior White House official close to Trump was a "person of interest," but did not name the person. The term "person of interest" has no legal meaning. The officials said Kushner is in a different category from former Trump aides Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn, who are formally considered subjects of the investigation. According to the Justice Department's U.S. Attorneys' Manual, "A 'subject' of an investigation is a person whose conduct is within the scope of the grand jury's investigation."

So they're going to be rummaging around in the way this family has done its business in the ethical wasteland of New York real estate and its satellite enterprises. That makes sense. If there is money from Russia, that's probably where the spin cycle is located. If Flynn needed money, that's very likely where he got a great deal of it. If the entire White House apparatus is caught up in covering things up in every direction, it probably is covering up how much money it is and where it goes. That was the deal that the country made last fall.

In their infinite wisdom, enough of the American people got together and decided to put a manifestly unqualified and manifestly unfit New York real estate sub-tycoon in charge of the executive branch of the national government. He has proceeded to do business there in the same shadowy fashion in which he's done business everywhere else. He's kept everything within the family, even if the family members are no more qualified to do the work than he is. Either he never knew that you can't run a democratic republic that way, or he didn't care. Either everything is a surprise to this crowd, or they think that the institutions of government are just another great, fertile field of grift to be plundered.

In any case, at the end of the day, it's all going to be about money. Jared Kushner is just the most recent clue in a completely bogus treasure map.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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