The never-ending drama surrounding President-elect Donald Trump has continued and has only expanded in recent days. Just days after the CIA revealed that Russia likely interfered with the 2016 election in favor of Trump, a new story now claims that the president-elect is being blackmailed by a foreign country.
Trump blackmailed
Donald Trump is a billionaire real estate mogul. Due to Trump's business deals around the world, the new president-elect brings with him the potential of a conflict of interest. While Trump denies that his business practices will cause any issue with him being the next president, reports suggest others wise.
As seen first on "The Rachel Maddow Show" on MSNBC Monday night, Newsweek released a bombshell article on December 13 that exposes trouble for Trump in the Middle East.
How Donald Trump's business ties are already jeopardizing U.S. interests https://t.co/vvFitWQW6s
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) December 13, 2016
Earlier this month, Barbaros Muratoglu, a top executive for the company "Dogan Holding," was detained and arrested in Turkey. Muratoglu is a close ally to Trump, as "Dogan Holding" was responsible for building two separate Trump Towers in Istanbul. The Newsweek report notes the company paid Trump as much as $10 million to license his name on the buildings.
The conflict of interest comes as Turkey is planning to use Muratoglu as leverage in an attempt to blackmail Donald Trump.
President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has an end goal in mind and that is to use Muratoglu's arrest to force Trump's hand to extradite Iman Fethullah Gulen out of the United States. Turkey believes that Gulen is the man responsible for the failed coup against the Turkish government earlier in the year. Newsweek argues that "Erdogan has leverage with Trump, who will soon have the power to get Gulen extradited." "Dogan Holding" commented on the issue, but denied any connection to any illegal activity.
Moving forward
Donald Trump was scheduled to hold a press conference on Monday where he would elaborate on the future of his businesses, though it was canceled without much explanation. Trump did take to his offical Twitter account later that night, and noted that his children would be running the business and that no new activity would take place while he was President of the United States. The former host of "The Apprentice" is set to be sworn in on January 20.