Breaking: Lordy, there are tapes...

Breaking news tonight from Yahoo News Senior Reporter Michael Isakoff that Spanish authorities recently turned over copies of tapes from wiretap surveillance of Russia’s Alexander Torshin, a deputy governor of Russia’s Central Bank who became close to Donald Trump Jr. in May 2016 during the NRA’s National Convention. The tapes, according to Isakoff’s reporting, reveal numerous detailed conversations that, according to Spanish officials involved in providing them to U.S. investigators, likely implicate Donald Trump Jr. in more extensive coordination with Torshin than previously acknowledged.

According to Spanish authorities with knowledge of what was turned over to the FBI, “Donald Trump’s son should be extremely worried...”

The recordings included conversations between Torshin and a convicted Russian money launderer named Alexander Romanov, who was linked to the Russian crime syndicate called Taganskaya before being sentenced to prison for a four year term in 2016.

The existence of the tapes appears to confirm reporting done by McClatchy in January of 2018 that referenced possible interest by US authorities, including potentially Special Counsel Robert Mueller, in Torshin’s financial ties to the NRA and alleged efforts to broker a meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

According to the Spanish authorities, no known request for the tapes has been made by Robert Mueller or his team, but Jose Grinda, a top Spanish prosecutor dealing with financial crimes did confirm that the tapes were handed over to the FBI “a couple of months ago”.

It’s not unreasonable to expect Spain, and their investigative authorities, to land on Donald Trump’s “Tweet List” if what is being reported by Isakoff proves true. Of course, it’s an inconvenient truth for the Trump lie machine that the surveillance originated from another country, a U.S. ally, and not Trump’s favorite punching bag — U.S. intelligence.