It sounds like something from a James Bond film, but it actually took place in Québec.
According to Radio Canada:
Provincial police have arrested a man in connection with the shooting in the parking lot of a hotel complex in Estérel, Que. on Friday, about 100 kilometres north of Montreal in the Laurentians.
The man, 53, is expected to appear by video conference at the St-Jérôme courthouse Sunday or Monday.Valeriy Tarasenko was injured during the shooting, according to Estérel Mayor Frank Pappas and Radio-Canada’s police sources. He is being treated in hospital for serious, but non-life-threatening injuries, police say.
Pretty routine so far, until you find out that Valeriy Tarasenko had ties to a woman who pretended to be an heiress to the Rothschild fortune so she could gain access to Mar-a-Lago, the Palm Beach resort owned by failed, one-term, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump.
Mar-a-Lago, of course, has been the focus of attention from the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice since a search warrant was served there on August 8, unearthing hundreds of classified and top secret documents that the ex-president illegally removed from the White House.
And then there’s the woman who pretended to be someone else. Her name is Inna Yashchyshyn, and she thought it would be cool to take on a new identity so she could mingle with the rich and famous (or in some cases infamous) at Mar-a-Lago.
It was initially reported that Yashchyshyn was Russian, setting off alarm bells and suggestions that she might be working as a spy for the Kremlin. But she denies denies any such motive, telling The New York Post in September:
“What boils my blood most is people even thinking I’m Russian or a Russian agent,” she said in a phone interview, refusing to disclose her current location for fear of reprisals. “Russian people don’t exist to me since they invaded my country and killed my family and took homes.”
Not strange enough? Well, there’s another twist, and it’s a doozy:
In the months before the shooting, Mr. Tarasenko met with the FBI and turned over a host of documents and photos tied to an investigation into Ms. Yashchyshyn, her trips to the former president’s estate, and businesses she formed – two with Mr. Tarasenko – over the past seven years, records and interviews show.
Tarasenko was an FBI source. Was he one of the people who suspected Trump had classified information at Mar-a-Lago and reported it? If so, does that mean that either Trump or those close to him tried to have Tarasenko killed? Or was that done by Russian assassins?
Just when we thought the secret document scandal had reached the apex of bizarre, it takes a new turn that suggests more is yet to come.
