May 14, 2018
Seth Hettena can’t stop, won’t stop explaining Trump’s decades-deep connections to Russian money
by Melville House
Welcome, friends, to the working week. Here’s hoping you’ve gotten some rest. The coming days are going to be live.
For us, the past few days have definitely been live, thanks in no small part to last week’s release of Trump / Russia: A Definitive History, in which award-winning AP reporter Seth Hettena offers the first—and, to date, only—complete narrative of Donald Trump’s ties to Russian money, beginning in the 1980s.
For one thing, we’ve been awfully busy sending out free e-book bundles to folks who bought the print edition, and we’d really like to send one out to you, too. Keep those proof-of-purchases comin’, folks. Proofs-of-purchase? Prooves? Whatever. Email us your Trump / Russia receipt, and we’ll send you free e-books. Through tomorrow. Yes.
And then, there’s been Seth’s media schedule to keep pace with. Here’s just a few of the hits:
- “Trump is a man who will take money from pretty much anyone.” That was Seth on Tuesday morning, talking with the razor-beaked lovebirds of MSNBC’s Morning Joe. He appeared alongside Vanity Fair’s Emily Jane Fox. It’s nice to think the president may have been watching this, and you can, too — right over here.
- Then on Wedensday, Seth interviewed Michael Avenatti—yes, that Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniels’s lawyer—for Rolling Stone. One of the many highlights: “Seth: What’s your strategy from here with this information? Michael: Well, no good lawyer would ever divulge his strategy in advance of carrying it out. I mean Michael Cohen might do something like that.” As the French say: la kaboome. The whole interview is eminently worth your attention. You can read it right here.
- Where do marijuana investments and sophisticated gas tax scams meet? Also on Wednesday, Seth set out to answer this question—and a great many nuanced others—on the Josh Marshall Podcast, hosted by Talking Points Memo. You can listen in on that right here.
- “There’s a quote from Ian Fleming: ‘Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.’ We’re in the dozens, at this point.” That’s what Seth said Thursday morning to New York City radio legend Brian Lehrer. They talked about all kinds of things: the role of Victor Vekselberg, the real meaning of the Stormy Daniels affair, the Trumpian impulse to lie first and think things through later, and much more. Pour it in your ear right here.
- “What I show in my book is that Trump’s ties to Russia are so deep and so complex that you have people, and you don’t know who they are and who they represent, whether they represent Russian mafia, Russian government, or both.” That was Seth winding down a hectic week in high style — with an appearance on MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes. Seth appeared alongside Robert Maguire of the Center for Responsive Politics to talk about a number of things, with a special focus on emerging information about Trump’s inauguration. This is all unraveling fast. Anyhow, it was wildly compelling. You can watch it riiiight over here.
Some week, right?! And those are just a few of the highlights. Seth was also on CNN with Don Lemon, back on MSNBC Saturday with Alex Witt, and a whole lot more. Where there’s pavement to be pounded and rubles to be traced, Seth Hettena will be there, laying it out with elegant clarity.
And we’ll be there too, hanging on his every damn word.