House Intel and Judiciary Chairs just demanded FBI probe into Trump and “massage” madam

On Monday, House Democrats put in a formal request for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to open an investigation into the activities of Cindy Yang, the “massage parlor” owner at the center of an embarrassing prostitution scandal involving major Trump donor Robert Kraft that quickly exploded and ended up engulfing the President himself.

It didn’t take long before journalists discovered that Cindy Yang was a prominent member of Trump’s club at Mar-a-Lago and was featured in images with all the big players in Trump’s orbit — his sons Don Jr. and Eric Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Florida Senator Rick Scott, and a slew of others.

A little more digging by Mother Jones’ reporters made it clear that Cindy Yang had bought her way into the Trump circle with her family’s contributions — over $42,000 to the Trump Victory Fund — but also that she was flipping her influence and selling access to Trump to shadowy Chinese executives.

That led to the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees’ chairmen submitting their request to the Department of Justice on Friday, demanding that they begin a “criminal and counterintelligence investigations into credible allegations of potential human trafficking, as well as unlawful foreign lobbying, campaign finance, and other activities by Ms. Yang.”

On top of that, they demanded that the DOJ investigate an assessment of counterintelligence risks “associated with any interactions between President Donald Trump and Ms. Yang” — which we now know is likely insurance to make sure that Trump’s cronies at the DOJ can’t bury the results of this investigation and have to share the results with the intelligence community as well.

 “China has frequently used non-traditional intelligence collectors and businesspersons to compromise targets.” 

“Although Ms. Yang’s activities may only be those of an unscrupulous actor allegedly selling access to politicians for profit, her activities could permit adversary governments or their agents access to these same politicians to acquire potential material for blackmail or other even more nefarious purposes,” reads the letter.

The Justice Department certainly has its work cut out for it with all the myriad investigations they have to send after Trump and his cronies — but if it’ll help unravel the web of corruption and criminality that runs through the entire Republican Party all the way from Florida to the White House, it’ll be well worth it.

Original reporting by Dan Friedman and Russ Choma.

Colin Taylor

Managing Editor

Colin Taylor is the managing editor of the Washington Press. He graduated from Bennington College with a Bachelor's degree in history and political science. He now focuses on advancing the cause of social justice, equality, and universal health care in America.