'Most of the GOP leadership has been compromised' by Russian money: Trump biographer

A biographer who detailed the relationship between Donald Trump and the Russian mob explained that Russia's financial links to the United States extend far beyond the president.

Craig Unger, author of House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia, wrote in a Reddit AMA that one of the biggest surprise in his book is how Trump has been compromised "for decades."

"Trump was first compromised by the Russians in the Eighties back in the days of the Soviet Union and the Cold War," Unger wrote. "In 1984, my book shows, the Russian Mafia first began to use Trump real estate to launder money and it continued for decades and may have accounted for billions of dollars flowing to Trump."

In 1998, he added, Trump took out full-page ads in the New York Times and the Washington Post after his first trip to Russia that touted "a foreign policy that was very anti-NATO."

In the 90's, Unger wrote, Russians began sending money to Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX), a longtime congressman who later became House Majority Leader. He also suggested that the mafia was sending money to other Republicans as well.

"I believe most of the GOP leadership has been compromised by" Russian money, the author added. "The Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee run by Mitch McConnell got millions from [Soviet-born businessman] Leonard Blavatnik."

"As for the endgame," Unger concluded, "I think it is already [beginning] to unravel."

Read Unger's entire AMA via Reddit.