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from the Wall Street Journal

The FBI’s Political Meddling Mueller is the wrong sleuth when his ex-agency is so tangled up with Russia.

By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. Oct. 24, 2017 6:17 p.m. ET

Let’s give plausible accounts of the known facts, then explain why demands that Robert Mueller recuse himself from the Russia investigation may not be the fanciful partisan grandstanding you imagine.

Here’s a story consistent with what has been reported in the press—how reliably reported is uncertain. Democratic political opponents of Donald Trump financed a British former spook who spread money among contacts in Russia, who in turn over drinks solicited stories from their supposedly “connected” sources in Moscow. If these people were really connected in any meaningful sense, then they made sure the stories they spun were consistent with the interests of the regime, if not actually scripted by the regime.

The resulting Trump dossier then became a factor in Obama administration decisions to launch an FBI counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign, and after the election to trumpet suspicions of Trump collusion with Russia.

We know of a second, possibly even more consequential way the FBI was effectively a vehicle for Russian meddling in U.S. politics. Authoritative news reports say FBI chief James Comey’s intervention in the Hillary Clinton email matter was prompted by a Russian intelligence document that his colleagues suspected was a Russian plant.

OK, Mr. Mueller was a former close colleague and leader but no longer part of the FBI when these events occurred. This may or may not make him a questionable person to lead a Russia-meddling investigation in which the FBI’s own actions are necessarily a concern.

But now we come to the Rosatom disclosures last week in The Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress.

Here’s another story as plausible as we can make it based on credible reporting. After the Cold War, in its own interest, the U.S. wanted to build bridges to the Russian nuclear establishment. The Putin government, for national or commercial purposes, agreed and sought to expand its nuclear business in the U.S.

The purchase and consolidation of certain assets were facilitated by Canadian entrepreneurs who gave large sums to the Clinton Foundation, and perhaps arranged a Bill Clinton speech in Moscow for $500,000. A key transaction had to be approved by Hillary Clinton’s State Department.

Now we learn that, before and during these transactions, the FBI had uncovered a bribery and kickback scheme involving Russia’s U.S. nuclear business, and also received reports of Russian officials seeking to curry favor through donations to the Clinton Foundation.

This criminal activity was apparently not disclosed to agencies vetting the 2010 transfer of U.S. commercial nuclear assets to Russia. The FBI made no move to break up the scheme until long after the transaction closed. Only five years later, the Justice Department, in 2015, disclosed a plea deal with the Russian perpetrator so quietly that its significance was missed until The Hill reported on the FBI investigation last week.

For anyone who cares to look, the real problem here is that the FBI itself is so thoroughly implicated in the Russia meddling story.

The agency, when Mr. Mueller headed it, soft-pedaled an investigation highly embarrassing to Mrs. Clinton as well as the Obama Russia reset policy. More recently, if just one of two things is true—Russia sponsored the Trump Dossier, or Russian fake intelligence prompted Mr. Comey’s email intervention—then Russian operations, via their impact on the FBI, influenced and continue to influence our politics in a way far more consequential than any Facebook ad, the preoccupation of John McCain, who apparently cannot behold a mountain if there’s a molehill anywhere nearby.

Which means that Mr. Mueller has the means, motive and opportunity to obfuscate and distract from matters embarrassing to the FBI, while pleasing a large part of the political spectrum. He need only confine his focus to the flimsy, disingenuous but popular (with the media) accusation that the shambolic Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin.

Mr. Mueller’s tenure may not have bridged the two investigations, but James Comey’s, Rod Rosenstein’s , Andrew Weissmann’s , and Andrew McCabe’s did. Mr. Rosenstein appointed Mr. Mueller as special counsel. Mr. Weissmann now serves on Mr. Mueller’s team. Mr. McCabe remains deputy FBI director. All were involved in the nuclear racketeering matter and the Russia meddling matter.

Let’s stop here. All this needs to be sorted out, but not in a spirit of panic and hysteria. We are a prosperous, successful country, in pretty good shape right now by historical standards, even if our officials behave in the frequently dubious, self-interested way they always have.

But still: By any normal evidentiary, probative or journalistic measure, the big story here is the FBI—its politicized handling of Russian matters, and not competently so.

To put it bluntly, whatever its hip-pocket rationales along the way, the FBI would not have so much to cover up now if it had not helped give us Mrs. Clinton as Democratic nominee and then, in all likelihood, inadvertently helped Mr. Trump to the presidency.

Robert Mueller has a serious conflict of interest that should disqualify him from serving as special counsel.

He has had a long and close relationship with someone who will surely become a pivotal witness –James Comey.

No one doubts Mueller’s sterling credentials. That is not the issue. He is eminently qualified. The problem arises in his duty to fairly and objectively evaluate the evidence he gathers.

How can Americans have confidence in the results if they know the special counsel may harbor a conspicuous bias? They cannot. The conflict inevitably discredits whatever conclusion is reached. It renders the entire investigatory exercise suspect, and it only elevates the controversy surrounding it.

For this reason, Mueller should not serve as special counsel.

Conflict Defined

The law governing the special counsel (28 CFR 600.7) specifically prohibits him from serving if he has a conflict of interest in the case. The rule has been interpreted to mean that even the appearance of a conflict is sufficient for disqualification.

A conflict of interest is a situation in which an individual has competing interests or loyalties. The conflict itself creates a clash between that individual’s self-interest or bias and his professional or public interest. It calls into question whether he can discharge his responsibilities in a fair, objective and impartial manner.

Identical rules govern prosecutors who, for example, must recuse themselves from handling a case against a person with whom they have worked or had a personal relationship. The same would be true if a prosecutor had a close relationship with a witness in the case. The prior association raises the real or perceived possibility of prejudice or favoritism which is contrary to the fair administration of justice.

So what exactly is Mueller’s conflict? He and Comey are good friends and former colleagues who worked hand-in-hand at the FBI and Department of Justice. Agents will tell you they were joined at the hip. They stood together in solidarity, both threatening to resign over the warrantless wiretapping fiasco involving then-Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2004.

Comey regards his predecessor as a mentor, while Mueller considers Comey his protégé. When Comey was appointed to succeed Mueller as FBI Director, both men appeared together and were effusive in their praise of one another. Their relationship is not merely a casual one. It is precisely the kind of association which ethical rules are designed to guard against.

The Investigation

Pursuant to his appointment, Mueller has been directed to investigate “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump.” But that’s not all. He is empowered to investigate “any related matters”. Those last three words are important because they allow the special counsel unfettered discretion to expand his probe in almost limitless directions.

Mueller’s investigation of alleged campaign collusion with the Russians will inexorably involve President Trump’s former National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, who was fired after his controversial meeting with the Russian Ambassador to the U.S. The FBI interviewed Flynn about his meeting and there have been questions raised about Flynn’s other Russian contacts.

This is likely what prompted President Trump’s private meeting in February with then-FBI Director James Comey in which the president is alleged to have asked Comey to end the Flynn investigation. The words reportedly used by Mr. Trump hardly constitute an attempt to obstruction of justice, but that has not stopped Democrats and the media from declaring it a crime.

So it is clear where all of this is headed. Mueller’s probe will morph into an investigation of the Trump-Comey meeting to determine whether the president tried to obstruct justice. It will become a case of “he said…he said”. Which man will the special counsel believe? His good friend or the man who fired his good friend? How can Mueller fairly and impartially assess Comey’s credibility versus Trump’s?

There is also the fairness of the broader investigation to consider. It is reasonable to assume Mueller was not pleased to see Comey canned. Any animosity which the special counsel may bear could influence the course of his overall investigation into potential wrongdoing by President Trump and his associates. He may be tempted to conjure criminality where none really exists.

Even if Mueller takes pains to avoid partiality, how can anyone be assured he will succeed? Even impeccably honest people can be subject to influence in ways they don’t even recognize themselves. It is the human condition. Which is precisely why there are legal and ethical rules which demand recusal based on prior relationships.

If Robert Mueller truly embraces a fidelity to the law and all its attendant principles of ethics, then he should disqualify himself from serving as Special Counsel.

Anything less threatens to subvert the rule of law and the trust Americans must have in their system of justice.

Dirty and corrupt Democrats never recuse themselves from obvious conflicts of interest when required by law. Robert Mueller is another example. He should recuse himself from the fraudulent special investigation he is overseeing and then he should be disbarred, prosecuted and punished.

According to Gregg Jarrett with FOX News, “Robert Mueller has a serious conflict of interest that should disqualify him from serving as special counsel. He has had a long and close relationship with someone who will surely become a pivotal witness –James Comey.”

Jarrett defines that statute regarding conflicts of interest with special counsels –

The law governing the special counsel (28 CFR 600.7) specifically prohibits him from serving if he has a conflict of interest in the case. The rule has been interpreted to mean that even the appearance of a conflict is sufficient for disqualification.

A conflict of interest is a situation in which an individual has competing interests or loyalties. The conflict itself creates a clash between that individual’s self-interest or bias and his professional or public interest. It calls into question whether he can discharge his responsibilities in a fair, objective and impartial manner.

Jarrett is not the first to come to this obvious conclusion. Even liberal publications like the USA Today reported in June that Mueller should step down as special prosecutor because of his conflicts of interest with the investigation he is overseeing –

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has a problem: He has a disqualifying conflict of interest regarding a large part of his work. It involves a choice between investigating or relying on former FBI director James Comey, a longtime close friend of Mueller’s.

Ideally, he’ll recognize that and resign. But if he doesn’t resign, Attorney General Jeff Sessions should appoint another special counsel to take over the obstruction-of-justice part of the investigation, where Mueller is disqualified.

Instead of recusing himself Mueller has brought in a small army of former Hillary and Obama attorneys to assist him in the phony Russia scandal that never should have been implemented in the first place.

This past week information was reported that prior to the Obama administration approving the very controversial deal in 2010 giving Russia 20% of America’s Uranium through the approved sale of Uranium One, the FBI had evidence that Russian nuclear industry officials were involved in bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering in order to benefit Vladimir Putin, says a report by The Hill. Mueller was the head of the FBI at this time!

We found out that the investigation was supervised by then-U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein, who is now President Trump’s Deputy Attorney General, and then-Assistant FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who is now the deputy FBI director under Trump.

Sara Carter of Circa News interviewed Victoria Toensing, a lawyer for an FBI informant who said her client “is not only afraid of the Russian people, but he is afraid of the US government because of the threats the Obama administration made against him.” The individual in question faces criminal charges put in place by Obama’s Justice Department if he talks about the FBI investigation.

By not stepping down Mueller further shows that he is indeed a bad cop. A person of integrity would easily see his conflicts of interest and would recuse himself.

Many professions have rules and guidelines that encourage or mandate that an individual step down or aside when they have clear conflicts of interest or even the appearance of a conflict of interest. The legal system is more strict in definitions and actions to be taken.

It is really too late for Mueller now to recuse himself. He has already proven that he is a dirty cop. He should now recuse himself, and then be disbarred, prosecuted on numerous crimes and punished. His scandalous investigation never had and certainly currently has no merit. “Lock Him Up!”

I will state out the outset I can be wrong. So far, on almost all the big calls, I haven’t been but there’s always a first time.

That said, I think Robert Mueller is doing exactly what Donald Trump (yes, Donald Trump!) hired him to do. Oh, did you forget? Trump hired Mueller. Well, Rod Rosenstein hired him . . . the day after Trump “interviewed” Mueller for the FBI position.

Right.

Trumpers, who are most critical of Mueller’s investigation, normally (correctly, I’d say) see Trump as brilliant, playing 3D chess while his opponents play “Catch Phrase” (to which every correct answer is “racism” . . . but I digress). Yet in this one area, they seem to think, Trump was a dolt, that he didn’t realize what he was doing.

They go on to indict (no pun intended) Attorney General Jeff Sessions for “doing nothing,” for recusing himself (which, I was told by none other than former Trump chief strategist, he “had to do”), and for failing to “lock her up” (referring to Hillary).

It’s a strange dichotomy, to say the least.

Except it’s not strange, because Trump did know exactly what he was doing.

To get the story in the right perspective, it’s important to understand that Trump has been pursuing the presidency for at least 20 years, perhaps longer. He has always had a network of informants in business, and over time it’s not unlikely that he was soliciting information on potential political opponents. Trump had dirt on virtually everyone, because he was outside of politics and could be trusted with gossip. In those years, Trump learned a great deal about the Swamp.

A very great deal.

Fast forward to the investigation. Mueller hires, supposedly, a bunch of biased lawyers (some of whom, it turns out, specialize in financial transactions—which was never, ever mentioned in the original “charges” against Trump). So in addition to the fact that Trump was told on multiple occasions he was not a target, it also appears that the types of lawyers Mueller hired were looking at something entirely different than “Russian collusion.”

Some good models here would be the John Gotti investigations, ABSCAM, and the Robert Hanssen sting. These were all long investigations, totally secret, that nailed high-value targets.

So what do we know so far?

1. According to sources on all sides, Mueller’s team doesn’t leak. Neither does Sessions. So no one knows for sure what he’s investigating.

2. With that in mind, realize that when leaks appear as “news stories,” some target put them there out a desire to pre-empt or mitigate what is coming.

3. Trump, Sessions, and Mueller all knew that for the investigation to succeed in getting Loretta Lynch, James Comey, the Podestas, or anyone one else on the left, it had to operate in secret and totally below the radar. In other words, it had to look like it was pursuing Trump, even though he was told on multiple occasions he was not a target, and even though he has dismissed most—if not all—of his criminal defense team.

4. Further, it had to look like Sessions was incompetent. Trump provided “Cheese in the maze” early with Tweets about “Why Sessions wasn’t doing anything” and the like. The giveaway was the following day, Sessions had a presser for another sting and was smiling as if he knew exactly what was going on. People in Alabama tell me he had a sterling record and never brought cases that couldn’t be won.

5. It was important that Sessions recuse himself, because otherwise, the whole inquiry would have been about him.

6. Unfortunately, it was essential that at first Mueller/Sessions “look” at Trump people, hence some of the Trump associates had to hire lawyers—which Trump has graciously offered to pay for. I do not think the associates were at all in on the game.

7. At some point, after Manafort’s “investigation” most likely, the investigation would shift to the Democrats. Note today NBC has reported that Mueller is investigating Tony Podesta. This is the tip of the iceberg.

8. No, Mueller is not a part of Uranium 1. He intercepted bomb-grade material destined for al-Qaeda to start a bomb project and returned it to Russia. He doesn’t need a pardon or immunity.

To recap: from the outset Trump hired Mueller via Rosenstein to carry out the investigation of the Dems, most notably Podesta, but likely ending with the Clinton Crime Family Foundation, as Rush Limbaugh calls it. No one would get Hillary Clinton on the e-mails–but you might get her on something else, the Foundation. Further, this is being carried out in utter secrecy on Mueller/Sessions’ part. Finally, word is starting to leak out from targets that the investigation has shifted. Oh, and none other than Jimmy Carter just came out praising Trump, and says the election wasn’t rigged. What’s that all about?

I’ll tell you: Carter got word from a target of the investigation’s real objectives, and JC (“Jesus Carter,” as I call him) wants no part of this.

My best guess is that we’ll know the excrement is really about to hit the fan when you start to see stories in liberal-friendly outlets—such as The Hill this weekend!—that Mueller is “overreaching” and that he needs to be “reined in.” Ignore who is writing these articles and focus instead on who is putting them out. The Hill is one of the liberals’ most famous sources to get leaks out. I suspect we have about three more months, taking us into 2018 election season, before Mueller begins to drop indictments.

As you’ve seen in my voter registration articles, the Democrats are in huge trouble already with the electorate. This would likely bury them deader than the Know-Nothings.

RUSH: I’m gonna get to Mueller. Yes, yes, yes. I have a whole theory about what the Mueller investigation really is. If you’ll just be patient, I’ll get to it. When you look at the people involved, I think it’s a good chance… I can’t say this with ontological certitude, but I think the real purpose — or one of the, “one of the,” because there’s more than one. But one of the aims, one of the objectives of the Mueller investigation is to protect anybody and everybody that had anything to do with this Clinton-Obama-Russian uranium deal.

I really think that’s one of the things going on. In addition to their wanton desire to get rid of Trump, I think that they’re taking advantage of the opportunity to shield and prevent any investigation or knowledge of what really went on, because that uranium thing… We’ve all, up ’til now, considered it a Hillary and Bill Clinton and Russian deal where the Clintons personally profited from brokering the sale of a percentage of our uranium supply to Russia, and we learned that none of this could have happen. It did happen. None of it could have happened without the involvement of Obama, and so you couple that with the inescapable conclusion that the collusion story has moved off of Trump colluding with Russia. Now the collusion story — in terms of these investigations, now the investigation — is more narrowly focused on Russian collusion to, quote-unquote, “influence elections.” They don’t… After all these months, they still don’t have a shred of evidence on Trump, and this thing is slowly changing its focus if we are to believe the reporting on this.

And the reporting on this, I think, is somewhat indicative of fact because even the Drive-Bys have a vested interest in the outcome of this, since it’s their buddies — Obama, Mueller, the Clintons — involved in this.

RUSH: Even before I saw that headline today, I have had instinctive reactions or thoughts to this whole Mueller investigation and its purpose. Now, I have originally stated, like many others, that I believe the purpose — and it still is, partially — was to find anything impeachable on Trump. When I learned that they were looking 10 to 15 years back into Trump’s business history, things that have nothing to do with him as a candidate for anything or as president — and knowing that these are all swamp dwellers, they’re all establishment types, and he’s got 16 Clintonistas and Obamaistas on his staff — it was paramountly obvious. It was manifest that this guy was doing the work of the establishment to get rid of Trump or to try to.

Because there’s no evidence on this Russia collusion thing. There isn’t any, after all of this. And believe me, if there were, it have been leaked the day they found it. There isn’t any, and yet they’re still out there looking. You know, and that predawn raid into Manafort’s house out in Virginia? I have since learned that that is a technique of one of the investigators on Mueller’s staff who is a dyed-in-the-wool Obamaista, I think, and a prosecutor.

And it’s one of his favored intimidation techniques, is to storm a subject’s house while everybody is asleep with the equivalent of a SWAT team, which is how they went into Manafort’s house, Trump’s first campaign manager. And then this headline. “Mueller Adds Podesta Group to the Russia Probe. Now, you might be asking (stammering), “W-w-w-w-what Podesta group?” Well, Podesta had an energy company called… It was a green company, and it closed after and because Hillary lost the election.

The name of this company is Joule Unlimited, J-O-U-L-E. So it might be Joule. It might be Joule. I don’t care how it’s pronounced and I don’t care. It was owned by Podesta. It was a secretive green energy company that appears to have placed a big bet hiring Podesta to its board, and it appears to have been doomed when Hillary lost the 2016 election, and now Mueller is adding that. Podesta… Well, there’s a lobbying firm with Tony Podesta, John Podesta’s brother that they’re looking into.

In fact, Tony Podesta I heard of before I heard of John Podesta. Tony Podesta was a regular guest on Crossfire back in the seventies and eighties — you know, back when Buchanan hosted it with [Thomas] Braden, and Tony Podesta was a big-time Democrat operative. I never heard of John Podesta, and I thought, “John Podesta? That guy’s anorexic!” I thought, “What’s wrong with him?” It turned out he was the super-partisan political operative of these two guys.

So the Podesta Group is Tony’s Podesta’s group is being looked into as it relates to the Russia problem, and John Podesta was a board member of an energy company that was set up to benefit profoundly if Hillary were elected. Now let me just share with you some other headlines. “New York Times: “Hopes Dim for Congressional Russia Inquiries as Parties Clash.” Well, that’s a little bit of a misleading headline.

They’re trying to tell us that the Russia investigation in Congress is in trouble because the parties are clashing. That’s not why it’s in trouble. It’s in trouble because there is dwindling hope of finding any evidence of collusion, because there isn’t any of collusion between Trump and Russia. I think they’re finding something else, or I think they’ve known about something else before they even started this. I’m beginning to think that one of the reasons that this whole special counsel was named…

Because Rosenstein’s involved in it and Mueller’s involved in it and Comey. There’s some other people involved in this whole Clinton-Obama-Russia uranium thing. That’s the real collusion. The idea that 20% of America’s uranium ends up in Russian hands going through middlemen associated with the Clinton Foundation, donors, this clown in Canada? And there had been collusion — and during the Obama administration — for this to have happened.

I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if one of the things being done is to cover all of that up with this investigation. Now, stick with me on this, and I’ll see if I can connect the dots. But this whole Russia-Trump narrative and the naming of Mueller as the special counsel was a ruse to get Mueller and Rosenstein — who is involved in this long before he was named deputy attorney general.

And there’s a name Weisman. Weisman is one of Mueller’s investigators. He’s the guy, in fact, who has the intimidating technique of sending the equivalent of a SWAT team to a target’s house before dawn to scare the hell out of everybody in the family. And all three of these people may have fingerprints on this entire uranium mess. So this investigation could be… You know, they had a convenient reason to be impaneled. I mean, Rosenstein gave the special counsel.

Democrats on Capitol Hill are clamoring for a special counsel all because Sessions is recused himself, and Rosenstein gave him one! Rosenstein, Rod Rosenstein gave them a special counsel — and in violation of the rules and regulations. There’s no crime. Special counsel rules and regs require that a special counsel be named and his charge include a specific crime to investigate. There isn’t a crime here. This is a fishing expedition, and there are no limits on Mueller. There are no financial limits.

There’s no limit on the number of investigators he can hire, and there’s no time limit on the guy. And all of this courtesy of Rod Rosenstein, Donald Trump’s deputy attorney general, running the place in place of Sessions who has recused himself. So it starts out as an investigation into Trump-Russia collusion because everybody needed to find a political reason why Hillary lost. Remember, she was gonna win in a landslide. Everybody thought so, even at 8 o’clock on election night.

And then that didn’t happen, so they had to come up with a way to explain all that. And the collusion between Trump and Russia was… You know, that was hatched in Hillary’s camp. That book about the Hillary campaign made it clear, and so once Trump wins, and now Trump has the DOJ. Trump runs the Department of Justice. This uranium thing… I really do think that the real collusion out there happened long before Trump came along.

And it has to do with this whole uranium deal brokered with the Clinton Foundation in the middle. Bill Clinton getting some money out of the deal, the Russians pending with 20% of Americans’ uranium supply, and a lot of people involved the investigation have fingerprints on it. So let’s go some of these other headlines. “Hopes Dim for Congressional Russia Inquiries as Parties Clash.” Now, the collusion investigation hasn’t slowed down.

The Trump collusion investigation is not showing any fruit, and so the New York Times here is saying that, well, the parties are clashing, they’re not cooperating. Hopes are dimming for any results. Are you telling me that Pencil Neck Schiff, Adam Schiff, is gonna not get to the bottom of this just because the Republicans aren’t going along with it? What a crock. The reason why hopes are dimming is because there isn’t any evidence.

Headline number two: “Senate Probe…” i.e., Senate investigation. When you say “probe,” people think of a, you know, long pointy thing that you might check the prostate with or some such thing, or a probe into deep space to analyze moon dust, something like that. But this is an investigation. The word “probe” can confuse depending on who you are. You hear the word “probe,” and some people it might actually scare.

So “Senate [Investigation] Asks Whether Robert Mueller Alerted Obama Administration to Russian Bribery Scheme.” This is in Breitbart. “The Senate Judiciary Committee is looking into the 2010 sale of U.S. uranium to Russia under then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and whether then-FBI Director Robert Mueller alerted the Obama administration about its investigation into Russians involved in the deal, according to Newsweek.” This is in Newsweek! A left-wing rag if there ever was one.

“The FBI in 2009 had begun an investigation into corruption and extortion by senior officials of Tenex, a subsidiary of Russian nuclear company Rosatom, The Hill revealed last week. … Court filings showed that Rosatom was aware of the bribery scheme by Tenex head Vadim Mikerin, who pled guilty in 2014 to orchestrating more than $2 million in bribe payments, through accounts in Cyprus, Latvia, and Switzerland. “Despite the existence of the FBI investigation into Tenex, a Rosatom subsidiary, the Obama administration [nevertheless] allowed the sale of Uranium One, a Canadian-based company with U.S. uranium assets, to Rosatom. [Hillary] Clinton and then-Attorney General Eric Holder presided over the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS) that approved the deal,” and we are supposed to believe that neither the attorney general who was in charge of the probe nor Hillary, who was in charge of the State Department green lighting it would have been told about it?

They had to know about it This is collusion. Twenty percent of U.S. uranium. Now, what this opening paragraph that I read doesn’t mention is that the Clinton Foundation and Bill Clinton are involved in this, reaping financial rewards as a result of the movement of this uranium. Here is another headline: “FBI Watched, Then Acted as Russian Spy Moved Closer to Hillary Clinton.” This is John Solomon at TheHill.com, and this story is from yesterday.

“As Hillary Clinton was beginning her job as [secretary of state], federal agents observed as multiple arms of Vladimir Putin’s machine unleashed an influence campaign designed to win access to the [Hillary], her husband Bill Clinton and members of their inner circle, according to interviews and once-sealed FBI records. A female Russian spy posing as an American accountant, for instance, used a false identity to burrow her way into the employ of a major Democratic donor in hopes of gaining intelligence on Hillary Clinton’s [State] department, records show.

“The spy was arrested and deported as she moved closer to getting inside State, agents said. Other activities were perfectly legal and sitting in plain view, such as when a subsidiary of Russia’s state-controlled nuclear energy company hired a Washington firm to lobby the Obama administration.” Now, look, this story is long, and Solomon is a very detailed reporter, and I’m not gonna go through the whole thing because it’d be in the weeds.

But it involved news aspects to Russia and the Clintons. What’s happening is there are people who are uncovering things on the Clintons and Obama and Putin every day. While everybody’s waiting with bated breath for the smoking gun that Trump and Putin and the Russians colluded, what’s happening is that news is being uncovered on the Clintons and Obama and this transfer of uranium and other acts of collusion.

When I read this, I had a question. I don’t know why Russia went to all this trouble to infiltrate the Hillary State Department because she made all of her emails easy to access on her server. So why bother with the spies unless they thought they couldn’t trust what they were seeing in her emails. Andy McCarthy had the definitive piece on this that ran Saturday. “The Obama Administration’s Uranium One Scandal.” I’m telling you, as I go through all of this, I can’t help but ask — and I don’t really know. I can’t help but ask — because Podesta and Weisman (who’s one of Mueller’s investigators) and Rosenstein have all got fingerprints on this to one degree or another — if one of the things, if part of this Mueller information isn’t to try and cover up some of this stuff. They were never worried about any of this. If Hillary had been elected nobody would have ever known. Nobody would have been the wiser. It would never have been a big deal even if it had surfaced. But she wasn’t elected, and now the DOJ is Donald Trump’s.

You might say it boiled down to Jeff Sessions. This is not… He didn’t recuse himself from this, if he wants to look into this. And this has some, perhaps, bombshells in it.

RUSH: All right, folks. We’ve got an audio sound bite for you here. This happened yesterday. Fox News, America News Headquarters, Leland Vittert speaking to Ron DeSantis, Republican Congressman of Florida, about the investigation into the sale of the American uranium company to the Russians. Here’s the question: “So many Republicans on the committee. There’s a lot of frustration on the committee. They don’t have a lot of faith in the chairman. Things aren’t getting done. A lot of times folks cannot initiate the statements the way you have and not much happens. What’s the promise of the fol…?”

It’s kind of a convoluted question, but the answer will explain the point here. DESANTIS: I’ve spoken with Chairman Gowdy. He believes this is an important issue, and he’s indicated to me that he’s supportive of what we’re doing. So I think that you are gonna see action. You’re right, though. Last Congress we in the Oversight Committee wanted to investigate the foundation and all the other payments involving the Clintons, and we were not allowed to do that by the leadership of the House for whatever reason. Well, now I think that this information is so explosive that there’s no way you can justify not getting all the information on this. Remember, we have three Russia investigations about Trump and Russia. There’s not been any evidence of collusion. Here’s there’s a lot of evidence, and this stuff needs to be vetted thoroughly.

RUSH: Now, the point here: This is DeSantis saying that the leadership, Republican leadership shut down the Oversight Committee looking into Hillary, Obama, Mueller and uranium and all that, and he said “for whatever reason.” I’ll tell you why. They then thought Hillary was gonna win, and they don’t want typical Clinton payback after she won if they had begun an investigation into her. That’s why! That’s why they didn’t permit this investigation to go forward, because they were convinced she was gonna win and there would be blowback, payback, testicle lockboxes and everything.

Matt

"Trumpers, who are most critical of Mueller’s investigation, normally (correctly, I’d say) see Trump as brilliant, playing 3D chess while his opponents play “Catch Phrase” (to which every correct answer is “racism” . . . but I digress). Yet in this one area, they seem to think, Trump was a dolt, that he didn’t realize what he was doing."

That seems to sum things up nicely.

Matt

Umm...OK.

I've got beachfront property in Colorado for sale, Spike, if you're interested.

Matt

On Sean Hannity's radio program, today, 24 October, 2017, I heard Hannity say he knew of the details of the bribery and extortion associated with the Uranium One scandal a year and a half ago. He kept the secret because he had sworn to do so.

It was well before President Trump was elected. It was after Donald Trump declared his candidacy. It suggests Donald Trump knew of this before his election.

Update to link to reference:

From Sean Hannity Show, 24 October, 2017, on Youtube, 16:20 - 17:02:

I have known, for over a year, and have not told you, because I was sworn to secrecy, that there was an informant that had infiltrated this whole case.

I have known about the bribery, and the kickbacks, and the extortion, and the money laundering. and I have known that the FBI knew in 2009 and 2010 that this network was created, infiltration had taken place, and the infiltration was that Vladimir Putin wanted to get into the U.S. Uranium market because as a superpower, that is where he gets his power from.

This implies that President Trump has been three 3-D chess moves ahead of his opponents from the start.

Where would Hannity and Trump obtain such devastating information? Why was it important to keep it secret until now?

It is plausible this was the work of patriots in the intelligence agencies. People who could see the corruption on the inside, but could not see a way to stop it from the inside.

The Republican revolution in the states showed them the possibility of a President who took his oath of office seriously. A president with the fortitude and genius to root out the rot in the deep state. That President is Donald Trump. A President who would appoint judges who believed the Constitution was the law of the land, not an impediment to a "progressive" future. A President who would push back against subversion of American sovereignty to globalism. It would mean everything for supporters of the Second Amendment.

It does not mean the Trump Presidency was a certainty, or that decisive victory against the deep state was a sure bet.

Poker is a better analogy than chess. Trump had a couple of aces in the hole. He had to keep his opponents in the dark about them, until the play would be decisive. A decisive play could win an enormous political pot to secure the future for the Republic and Constitutional government.

Hillary Clinton's pushing of the "Russian Collusion" ploy after the election was a gift from heaven. The opposition kept doubling down on every round of bets, while President Trump had two aces in the hole and another pair of aces in his hand.

When was the optimum time to rake in the pot? It would have to be long enough before the mid-terms to give President Trump a decisive majority in 2018. It would include sweeping out establishment, deep state RINOs. That play is happening in slow motion.

More than two weeks before the election of President Trump, I wrote "2056: Looking Backward from a Trump Future". From the essay:

The balance was tipped by a patriotic and eclectic group of police and federal law enforcement officers, centered in the FBI and the NYPD. In the following years, thousands of agents and officers claimed to have been involved. We may never know the numbers for certain. It appears that less than a hundred were the core group. They understood that the Clinton crime machine and its tentacles had already compromised many in the top levels of government. They had witnessed how the compromised DOJ had been politicized and used to cover-up high level corruption.

What could they do? The Fast and Furious scandal showed how little whistle blowers were protected, and how effectively the establishment media was able to spin, deflect, and spike any revelations of misconduct. There had been no punishment for the politicization of the IRS. The lack of punishment showed the essential impotency of the Republican House and Senate.

Donald Trump became these law officers' last chance to save the Republic. The American Republic was set up to facilitate the bloodless transfer of power. The officers could not act while President Obama was in office. Their careers would have been destroyed to no effect. If they waited until Hillary was elected, their situation would have been worse. If any other Republican were elected, the unwritten rules of the American Aristocracy would prevent them from doing anything effective. The Republican would simply be another face of a corrupt establishment.

Trump offered a revolutionary chance. There was a narrow window of opportunity to stop the Clinton campaign. Expose the Clinton corruption, allow truth to elect an outsider, and the corruption could be rooted out under a Trump administration that had promised to "Drain the Swamp" in Washington, D.C.

The vision of the future from the essay is looking more likely than ever. Bob Corker is not running for re-election. Jeff Flake just announced that he will not run for re-election. Senator McCain has severe health problems. He is unlikely to survive to the 2018 election.

The establishment media has spent the last 10 months obsessively discrediting itself in front of the nation. President Trump is repeatedly beating them.

What other aces has President Trump been dealt, now that he is in charge of the casino?

Donald Trump is presiding over a revolution as compelling and potent as the Franklin Roosevelt revolution that moved the United States far from limited government and adherence to the Constitution. It is just beginning. It is early.

The light appearing on the horizon is looking more and more like sunrise, and less and less like an oncoming train.

©2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

I see you are still pulling your critical pontificating facts out of your arse poser.

The early Repub who paid to start this dossier was doing opposition research. That would tell me it was possibly one of the other Repub Prez candidates.....Kasich?...Cruz or Jeb maybe?? Doesn't matter really at this point.

The Feds may want to consider pulling Hilly and Willy's passports and any of these other DNC crooks in case they try to flee.

I don't want to get speeding too fast with all of the breaking news....but Hil and Will's teflon jacket maybe wearing thin. We'll see.....

Grey ghost, you contempt for anything Trump makes you ignorant at times. Trump didn't hire Mueller. He was appointed to conduct a special investigation.

Sorry, it was to much fun to let that one by without doing it too.

God bless, Steve

Terry

"To recap: from the outset Trump hired Mueller via Rosenstein to carry out the investigation of the Dems..."

Just a few quotes from Slade's copy and paste. Hired...appointed... call it what you want. We all know who is responsible for Mueller being where he's at.

Matt

The FBI’s Political Meddling Mueller is the wrong sleuth when his ex-agency is so tangled up with Russia.

By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. Oct. 24, 2017 6:17 p.m. ET 1585 COMMENTS

Let’s give plausible accounts of the known facts, then explain why demands that Robert Mueller recuse himself from the Russia investigation may not be the fanciful partisan grandstanding you imagine.

Here’s a story consistent with what has been reported in the press—how reliably reported is uncertain. Democratic political opponents of Donald Trump financed a British former spook who spread money among contacts in Russia, who in turn over drinks solicited stories from their supposedly “connected” sources in Moscow. If these people were really connected in any meaningful sense, then they made sure the stories they spun were consistent with the interests of the regime, if not actually scripted by the regime.

The resulting Trump dossier then became a factor in Obama administration decisions to launch an FBI counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign, and after the election to trumpet suspicions of Trump collusion with Russia.

We know of a second, possibly even more consequential way the FBI was effectively a vehicle for Russian meddling in U.S. politics. Authoritative news reports say FBI chief James Comey’s intervention in the Hillary Clinton email matter was prompted by a Russian intelligence document that his colleagues suspected was a Russian plant.

OK, Mr. Mueller was a former close colleague and leader but no longer part of the FBI when these events occurred. This may or may not make him a questionable person to lead a Russia-meddling investigation in which the FBI’s own actions are necessarily a concern.

But now we come to the Rosatom disclosures last week in The Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress.

Here’s another story as plausible as we can make it based on credible reporting. After the Cold War, in its own interest, the U.S. wanted to build bridges to the Russian nuclear establishment. The Putin government, for national or commercial purposes, agreed and sought to expand its nuclear business in the U.S.

The purchase and consolidation of certain assets were facilitated by Canadian entrepreneurs who gave large sums to the Clinton Foundation, and perhaps arranged a Bill Clinton speech in Moscow for $500,000. A key transaction had to be approved by Hillary Clinton’s State Department.

Now we learn that, before and during these transactions, the FBI had uncovered a bribery and kickback scheme involving Russia’s U.S. nuclear business, and also received reports of Russian officials seeking to curry favor through donations to the Clinton Foundation.

This criminal activity was apparently not disclosed to agencies vetting the 2010 transfer of U.S. commercial nuclear assets to Russia. The FBI made no move to break up the scheme until long after the transaction closed. Only five years later, the Justice Department, in 2015, disclosed a plea deal with the Russian perpetrator so quietly that its significance was missed until The Hill reported on the FBI investigation last week.

For anyone who cares to look, the real problem here is that the FBI itself is so thoroughly implicated in the Russia meddling story.

The agency, when Mr. Mueller headed it, soft-pedaled an investigation highly embarrassing to Mrs. Clinton as well as the Obama Russia reset policy. More recently, if just one of two things is true—Russia sponsored the Trump Dossier, or Russian fake intelligence prompted Mr. Comey’s email intervention—then Russian operations, via their impact on the FBI, influenced and continue to influence our politics in a way far more consequential than any Facebook ad, the preoccupation of John McCain, who apparently cannot behold a mountain if there’s a molehill anywhere nearby.

Which means that Mr. Mueller has the means, motive and opportunity to obfuscate and distract from matters embarrassing to the FBI, while pleasing a large part of the political spectrum. He need only confine his focus to the flimsy, disingenuous but popular (with the media) accusation that the shambolic Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin.

Mr. Mueller’s tenure may not have bridged the two investigations, but James Comey’s, Rod Rosenstein’s , Andrew Weissmann’s , and Andrew McCabe’s did. Mr. Rosenstein appointed Mr. Mueller as special counsel. Mr. Weissmann now serves on Mr. Mueller’s team. Mr. McCabe remains deputy FBI director. All were involved in the nuclear racketeering matter and the Russia meddling matter.

Let’s stop here. All this needs to be sorted out, but not in a spirit of panic and hysteria. We are a prosperous, successful country, in pretty good shape right now by historical standards, even if our officials behave in the frequently dubious, self-interested way they always have.

But still: By any normal evidentiary, probative or journalistic measure, the big story here is the FBI—its politicized handling of Russian matters, and not competently so.

To put it bluntly, whatever its hip-pocket rationales along the way, the FBI would not have so much to cover up now if it had not helped give us Mrs. Clinton as Democratic nominee and then, in all likelihood, inadvertently helped Mr. Trump to the presidency.

Center for Security Policy President Frank Gaffney joined SiriusXM host Raheem Kassam on Wednesday’s Breitbart News Daily to talk about the latest revelations regarding the Clinton campaign, the Democratic National Committee, the politicized Obama Justice Department, and actual collusion with Russia in the 2016 presidential campaign. Gaffney said the current news environment provided a “target-rich environment” for punditry, but was regrettably “hard on the country.

“I particularly am thinking of this dossier business and the attacks on Donald Trump that have been relentlessly pursued,” he said. “Interestingly enough, with the help – in some cases more than just help, the active participation – of some people who have prominently featured in an actual case of Russian collusion at the highest levels of the United States government.”

“You can’t make this stuff up,” he exclaimed. “It’s an extraordinary tale. It’s worth exploring.”

“There now seems to be, at long last, a willingness on the part of congressional Republicans – amazingly! – to conduct the kinds of investigations into this actual saga of collusion by Hillary Clinton, by Bill Clinton, apparently by the Democratic National Committee – and, by the way, by people like Robert Mueller, and James Comey, and Andrew McCabe, and Rod Rosenstein, and Eric Holder.”

“These are people who have been prominently featured, either in condemning Donald Trump for the putative collusion of members of his campaign with the Russians, or are actively involved in the investigation thereof,” Gaffney explained. “The trouble is, I don’t see how a one of these people, if they’re not actually going to be subject to criminal prosecution – and I say that advisedly – at the very least are now completely incapable of performing an independent and honest investigation into these so-called allegations against Donald Trump.”

Gaffney added that the latest developments in the story put another organization in the crosshairs: the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States or CFIUS.

“It is an inter-agency group that has a critically important responsibility. That responsibility is to try to make sure that we are not selling off assets of this country that will have grievous national security implications. It’s got a whole cast of Cabinet officers as its members, including the Secretary of State, including the Secretary of the Treasury,” he said.

“It turns out that as this so-called Uranium One transaction was being considered by CFIUS for approval – this was, of course, the transfer of 20 percent of America’s uranium stocks to the Russians – and the voting on that idea was going to be conducted by, among others, Hillary Clinton and Eric Holder – then the Attorney General of the United States, she was the Secretary of State of course – Hillary Clinton was taking in, either personally or through her husband or through her foundation, $145 million dollars from Russian interests associated with this transaction,” he continued.

“And Eric Holder knew that! The Mueller team knew it at the FBI, Comey, McCabe, others, and Rod Rosenstein. This is scandalous in the first order. They did nothing to prevent this transaction. It went through. The Clintons were enriched. We sold, I believe, national security assets in the form of this uranium to Russians,” Gaffney charged.

“And CFIUS – get this – at the same time this was going down, a guy who was the staff director in effect of this organization, a fellow by the name of Amin Mir, is a Pakistani expat with sharia supremacist ties both personal and familial, including to the Muslim Brotherhood,” he added.

“Now, you’ve just got to ask yourself, as the Pakistanis are all over this saga with the Capitol Hill Democrats IT scandal, who is in charge of actually monitoring what’s in the national security interests of the United States? Certainly not CFIUS. Certainly not the Attorney General, or the Secretary of State, or for that matter President Obama himself during this critical period of time,” he said.

Gaffney called for “public hearings, as well as investigations,” which he deemed likely to result in “criminal prosecution of at least some of these individuals.”

“At the bare minimum, they cannot in good faith proceed with their own investigations now underway – again, without evidence of actual collusion by the Trump campaign with the Russians,” he said. “It is high time that the Washington Post get around to covering this. I’m delighted that they are. But let’s be honest, Raheem: this saga would not have gotten the attention that it has, finally, were it not for the work that you guys at Breitbart and the Daily Caller and others have been doing on it. It has to now go to the next step for sure on Capitol Hill.”

On the crucial question of whether special counsel Robert Mueller has been compromised by the latest revelations, Gaffney replied, “Absolutely. Indisputably.”

“Here’s the charge: he knew that Hillary Clinton and her circle were involved in what can only be described as a pay-to-play scheme, and he did not bring that information forward at the time that the scheme was being essentially blessed by this organization, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. That’s malfeasance, I believe. That is certainly incompatible with the kind of assignment and responsibilities he now has,” Gaffney contended.

“There are lots of good people in the FBI, thank God,” he reflected. “But the leadership has been, I believe, corrupt for some time. Jim Comey, for example, has been called by many a ‘dirty cop.’ Bob Mueller has been shown now, I think, to be compromised. Andrew McCabe, for crying out loud, took money from Hillary Clinton’s best friend – through his wife, of course – $750,000 while he’s investigating Hillary Clinton. You just can’t make this stuff up.”

“The people in the bowels of that bureau are poorly served, as is the country, by this kind of leadership,” he said. “It’s high time that Donald Trump cleans the place out, I think.”

As another example of corruption, Gaffney cited the case of “this Pakistani national at the heart of the CFIUS process,” linking it to how “Imran Awan and his family were deeply tied to a number of these members of Congress through IT services.”

“At the very time that the FBI is telling us that they’re satisfied – this is Jim Comey – that the Democratic National Committee’s computer services were penetrated by the Russians, it turns out that Imran Awan, who may have ties to Pakistani intelligence, by the way, had the passwords for Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s access to that system,” he said.

Gaffney cited Republican representatives in an informal meeting saying there is “much more evidence of Pakistan’s intelligence service being involved in the compromise of Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the DNC and so on than there is of the Russians.”

“And the FBI, under this corrupt leadership, claimed without actually investigating this computer system itself, the servers of the DNC itself – they took the word of, get this, a Russian-tied company that indeed it was Russian involvement, not somebody else’s,” he continued. “We’ve got so many strings to pull. We need rigorous congressional oversight. I pray the logjam is finally broken, that Paul Ryan will let that kind of work be done on the Hill, as it should have been long before now.”

Kassam concluded by asking if it was time for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to “un-recuse” himself from matters related to the 2016 election.

“I think there’s plenty of things that he can do, including getting into the issues that we’ve just talked about now on Uranium One, for example, without un-recusing himself,” Gaffney replied. “Whether he can do that with respect to the rest of it, I just am not in a position to say.”

“We need his leadership on certainly the evidence of Hillary Clinton’s collusion, and Bill Clinton’s and the Clinton team’s, with the Russians on Uranium One and so much more,” he added. “Skolkovo is another story which we’ll have to come back to some other day, I know. This is ripe for criminal investigation. We need it on the Hill, and probably in the Justice Department as well.”