Maybe grifting is in the Trump DNA, because Donald Jr. and Eric seem to manifest that quality as their prime attribute and so does their sister, Ivanka. Ivanka has tried to be more subtle than her brothers, but in point of fact when it comes to consorting with unsavory types and making money from the exploitation of others, Ivanka has Uday and Qusay beat dead in the water. Money laundering, stock fraud, and shoddy real estate practices are things that Ivanka knows about up close and personal; the most recent example being the Trump International Hotel in Vancouver, which just Thursday was reported as being on the radar of FBI counterintelligence. But there’s plenty more. Los Angeles Times:
In 2006, when she was 25, she toured Moscow with Felix Sater, who in 1998 pleaded guilty to a $40-million stock fraud scheme run by the Russian mafia. She also collaborated with the Soviet-born businessman Tamir Sapir, whose top aide in 2004 pleaded guilty to a racketeering conspiracy with the Gambino crime family.
It's impossible to keep track of all the gangsters Ivanka has palled around with. But what's truly damning are the shady real-estate projects she has made rise and go forth.
In 2006, she oversaw the development of the Trump Ocean Club International Hotel and Tower in Panama City. The project was connected to a Brazilian money launderer later arrested for fraud and forgery as well as a Russian investor who'd previously been jailed in Israel for kidnapping. On Wednesday, a dispute between Trump's company and the building's owner turned violent. The journalist Marcy Wheeler has suggested the fight concerns records that may show Ivanka knew the property was laundering money. Police in riot gear stormed the hotel that Ivanka once hyped as "exemplary of the grandeur in which we like to enter a market."
Ivanka was also a ranking official on the Trump SoHo, which has since shed the name Trump. In 2010, as ProPublica and WNYC have reported, the Manhattan District Attorney's office began building a criminal case against Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. for using inflated sales figures to defraud prospective buyers. After receiving a visit from Trump family lawyer and campaign donor Marc Kasowitz, then-DA Cyrus Vance Jr. backed off.
Ivanka’s Top Secret clearance didn’t go through for who knows exactly what reason, but reading between the lines one can guess that there were plenty of reasons. The Wall Street Journal editorial board did a piece a few days ago saying that Jared and Ivanka should take a page from Hope Hick’s book and have the grace to walk away from the White House. Trump biographer Michael D’Antonio also echoed the same sentiments. The tide has turned against those two and they’re not doing themselves any good by staying on at the White House and with indictments and bankruptcy looming over Jared it’s a cinch they’re not doing Trump any good either.