President Donald Trump just pulled off what one political expert described as a "mafia state" type of move that revealed the rotten core of a deal he allegedly struck with a foreign country over its oil reserves.
Trump recently announced that the U.S. and North American Blue Energy Partners, a private company led by Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt, entered into a partnership to tap Venezuela's 65 billion barrel oil reserves, a deal that is estimated to be worth tens of billions of dollars. Betancourt was previously under investigation on corruption charges until Trump's former attorney, Rudy Giuliani, persuaded the first Trump Department of Justice to drop its probe.
David Rothkopf, global affairs columnist at The Daily Beast and a former international trade official in the Clinton administration, argued during a new episode of "The Daily Beast Podcast," that the "deal" Trump announced is not a deal at all.
"The United States is getting this all because we attacked Venezuela and at gunpoint are saying, 'Hand over the oil!' That's illegal under international law," Rothkopf said. "It's also ... illegal under Venezuelan law, which has a constitution that says you can't hand over reserves to a foreign government. It's probably illegal under U.S. law because it involves cash flowing into the U.S. government ... which requires congressional approval."
Rothkopf drew a comparison between the Trump administration's move to seize Venezuela's oil and the way Russia's government operates, arguing that the Trump administration will break laws and customs without regard.
"It's a crime," Rothkopf said. "It's not a deal."