(Hahahahaha!): Mueller may have a conflict — and it leads directly to a Russian oligarch

This nonsense gets more insane by the day. And what’s really obscene is the American taxpayer is paying for this clown act.

Mueller may have a conflict — and it leads directly to a Russian oligarch

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In 2009, when Mueller ran the FBI, the bureau asked Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska to spend millions of his own dollars funding an FBI-supervised operation to rescue a retired FBI agent, Robert Levinson, captured in Iran while working for the CIA in 2007.
 
Yes, that's the same Deripaska who has surfaced in Mueller's current investigation and who was recently sanctioned by the Trump administration.
The Levinson mission is confirmed by more than a dozen participants inside and outside the FBI, including Deripaska, his lawyer, the Levinson family and a retired agent who supervised the case. Mueller was kept apprised of the operation, officials told me.

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Deripaska's efforts came very close to success," said David McGee, a former federal prosecutor who represents Levinson's family. "We were told at one point that the terms of Levinson's release had been agreed to by Iran and the U.S. and included a statement by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pointing a finger away from Iran. At the last minute, Secretary Clinton decided not to make the agreed-on statement."

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First as the FBI prepared to get authority to surveil figures on Trump's campaign team, did it disclose to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that one of its past Russian sources waived them off the notion of Trump-Russia collusion? 

Second, the U.S. government in April imposed sanctions on Deripaska, one of several prominent Russians targeted to punish Vladimir Putin - using the same sort of allegations that State used from 2006 to 2009. Yet, between those two episodes, Deripaska seemed good enough for the FBI to ask him to fund that multimillion-dollar rescue mission. And to seek his help on a sensitive political investigation. And to allow him into the country eight times.

*

[Editor's note: This post was updated at 8:10 p.m. on May 14, 2018.]

http://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/387625-mueller-may-have-a-conflic...

Seems like old Booby Mueller doesn’t mind hiding a few details of Russian ‘collaboration’ himself.

EDIT: just to add another hitch in this story’s giddy-up...

How Rusal escaped the noose of U.S. sanctions

They were supposed to be the toughest sanctions the United States had ever imposed on a Russian oligarch. Seventeen days later, Washington watered them down.

On April 23, the U.S. Treasury eased restrictions on billionaire Oleg Deripaska's aluminum company Rusal. Instead of barring Rusal from international markets, which is what the United States originally intended to do, the Treasury suggested it might lift the sanctions altogether.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-sanctions-rusal-insight/how-rusal-...

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WaterLily's picture

Amanda, once again, your scathing snark has brightened my day.

(And thanks for aiming your spotlight on this never-ending shit-show).

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Amanda Matthews's picture

@WaterLily @WaterLily

a tradable commodity I’d make Bezos look like a pauper.

But she used the words “if being a smart ass”.

EDIT: is/if

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Bisbonian's picture

@Amanda Matthews , that it was better to be a smart ass, than to be a dumb ass.

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

Amanda Matthews's picture

@Bisbonian

Never did find out.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

snoopydawg's picture

During the time Mueller was the FBI they discovered a Russian bribery plot and they sent someone undercover to investigate it.

FBI uncovered Russian bribery plot before Obama administration approved controversial nuclear deal with Moscow

Before the Obama administration approved a controversial deal in 2010 giving Moscow control of a large swath of American uranium, the FBI had gathered substantial evidence that Russian nuclear industry officials were engaged in bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering designed to grow Vladimir Putin’s atomic energy business inside the United States, according to government documents and interviews.

They also obtained an eyewitness account — backed by documents — indicating Russian nuclear officials had routed millions of dollars to the U.S. designed to benefit former President Bill Clinton’s charitable foundation during the time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton served on a government body that provided a favorable decision to Moscow, sources told The Hill.

But this doesn't mean that Hillary was using her position as SOS to funnel millions into her foundation now does it? Nope, it does not. Every previous SOS and their spouse did that. Even when congress had told them that they would rather they not do it. Just business as usual.

The investigation was ultimately supervised by then-U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein, an Obama appointee who now serves as President Trump’s deputy attorney general, and then-Assistant FBI Director Andrew McCabe, now the deputy FBI director under Trump, Justice Department documents show.

The connections to the current Russia case are many. The Mikerin probe began in 2009 when Robert Mueller, now the special counsel in charge of the Trump case, was still FBI director. And it ended in late 2015 under the direction of then-FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump fired earlier this year.

Oh look. There are those 3 names again that we found out have been involved in investigating Billary going all the way back to 2003 or maybe longer.

Uranium one is the real Russian collusion scandal, not the one that Mueller is trying to prove. But hey, let's not let anyone know that Billary and possibly Barry were as or more corrupt as Trump.
This might one day come to light if rumors are true, but the culprits never thought that Hillary would lose the election and she planned on bury it.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

snoopydawg's picture

I'm not sure about the credibility of this website, but this has some more info about and it brings Barry into play.

Obama Administration, Hillary Clinton Covered Up Their Deep, Corrupt Ties To Russia

Can't wait for the history books on the Obama administration comes out.

Smile

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Amanda Matthews's picture

@snoopydawg @snoopydawg

How Rusal escaped the noose of U.S. sanctions

On April 23, the U.S. Treasury eased restrictions on billionaire Oleg Deripaska's aluminum company Rusal. Instead of barring Rusal from international markets, which is what the United States originally intended to do, the Treasury suggested it might lift the sanctions altogether.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-sanctions-rusal-insight/how-rusal-...

How does this fit in? I cannot figure out what is going in here unless there was a little ‘friendly’ blackmail involved. You know, like maybe Oleg called up Booby and said “Gee, it would sure be too bad if the news got wind of our previous bromance...”

Got any ideas?

Edit: ti/to

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

snoopydawg's picture

@Amanda Matthews

Plus it affected US defense company's profits and European companies in general.

All made the same argument, the sources said: a squeeze on the largest producer of aluminum outside China would hit businesses around the world, disrupting production of myriad goods from car and planes to cans and foil, and putting jobs at risk.

Many were worried the measures could lead to the closure of those plants and businesses in their countries that relied on Rusal supplies, and the potential loss of thousands of jobs.

I have no idea what gives us the right to put sanctions on any country just because we say so. Why do we get to decide what rules and laws other countries have to follow? Just because we have the biggest and bad-ass-ed military in the world? For gawd's sake, this country is the biggest law breaker in the last century and no one even thinks of putting sanctions on us. Maybe it's time for them to start thinking about doing it.

Sanctions

a threatened penalty for disobeying a law or rule. punish, discipline someone for
"the penalties available to sanction crime"

The sanctions were the toughest the United States has imposed on a listed Russian company since Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. The notice on April 6 gave buyers a deadline of 30 days to receive supplies from Rusal before dealings in dollars were prohibited.

This is an effing lie! Russia didn't annex Crimea, the people voted to stay with Russia (or join them) after we overthrew Ukraine's government and installed Hillary's BFF.

Annexation

forcible transition of one state's territory by another state. It is generally held to be an illegal act.

Of course I could be totally wrong about this and if I am then hopefully someone will set the record straight.

I got a massive dose of steroids recently and my thought processes are totally eff'd up and floating somewhere in an alternate universe. Plus I'm very ornery. Can't wait til this shit filters out and I'm me again. The dawgs can't wait either.

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Amanda Matthews's picture

@snoopydawg

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

snoopydawg's picture

@Amanda Matthews

Poor lil Charlie. She gets her feelings hurt so easily if I raise my voice. I've said "I'm sorry" so many times this week. I'm going to make it up to them tomorrow and take them on a special walk down by the water.

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Step 1: Examine the accuser(s).
There's a behavior known as projection (especially in politics).
How often is it that the accuser(s) are guilty of the SAME SHIT they accuse others of?

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Mike Taylor

ChemBob's picture

To a very large extent it's about racketeering, money laundering, campaign finance violations, and emoluments. What the hell has happened to this site? I come back for five minutes after a few months and it's like a tiny echo chamber with a full-blast Marshall speaker trapped in it. The worst thing about this investigation is if it removes Trump, but not Pence. Then there will be some real problems.

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Amanda Matthews's picture

@ChemBob

Show me where anyone here defined Mueller’s investigation? Also show me where it’s purpose was for anything BUT ‘collusion’ with the RUSSIANS! to get dirt on The Clinton Creature.

Get off your high horse. We know full well how this ‘investigation’ has spiraled out of control. And did you read anywhere in this post where ANYONE said our problems will be solved if Trump was impeached? Why no, you didn’t. In fact, impeachment wasn’t mentioned at all. Since you missed the point completely let me help you out. It’s about one of several conflicts of interest that Mueller has in regard to this fiasco for which the taxpayers are footing the bills.

I come back for five minutes after a few months and it's like a tiny echo chamber with a full-blast Marshall speaker trapped in it.

Let me be this FIRST to thank you for coming back and telling us how stupid we are.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

ChemBob's picture

@Amanda Matthews Zealots who are full of opinions and think they have facts that aren't yet actually available to the public are why I quit coming here.

It started out because most of us were banned from DKos due to our support for Bernie and our awareness of the issues with the DNC, which we vocally complained about past Kos' deadline and were banned as he promised. Now it seems as though crap gets posted here from conservative and biased right-wing sources and no one has the guts to call the posters out on it.

Quit pretending you actually know and have an unbiased understanding of what is going down at the moment, because you truly do not. None of us have all the information, but there can be some gestalt assemblage of a model of what is happening if one doesn't isolate themselves from it and only interact with the like-minded. Perhaps you would do better to not support the anti-Mueller Reich-wing talking points if you want actual change to occur. Mueller isn't perfect, the Dems are far from perfect (particularly the DNC and the DCCC), but the Trumpian/Pencers are horrid racists, misogynists, and fucking Nazis that need to be brought down immediately. Don't think that the irony of an old-time hippie, socialist, liberal hoping for the best from an ex-FBI director is lost on me, because it isn't; but if this doesn't work out, if he isn't unbiased and doesn't put country ahead of party, we are either utterly suppressed, with a boot on our necks forever, or there will be massive bloodshed in this country. I choose to look at this thing from all sides and hope that even the imperfections will not stop a progressive movement. Perhaps this is the wakeup call our country needed. Sorry if I offended you, but I was offended by the lack of critical approach to these very complex topics.

Perhaps I'll be on my way for another few months. Clearly I don't fit in here anymore.

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Amanda Matthews's picture

@ChemBob @ChemBob @ChemBob

in place to cover up for anything but a soft coup the Clinton Creature, Obama, the DNC, and certain members of the intelligence cimmunity tried to pull off. That’s one of the foulest political acts this country has ever seen. Nixon’s sonewhere in Hell laughing his ass off.

Mueller's as slimey and sleezy as the as the cast of charactets noted above and if you think he’s going to get rid of Trump, Pence, and the rest of them your ‘re seriously mistaken. There will be a Repubbie in the White House for the next four years regardless of Mueller. And he’s got so many conflicts of interest in this mess he should NEVER been allowed near this ‘investigation’.

Much of what Mueller’s pulling is do corrupt I would think even you would be offended. For example

Mueller: Secret Court Order Suspended Statute Of Limitations On Manafort Charge

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/manafort-mueller-secret-order-fo...

Apparently you have no problem with little things like illegal wiretaps, using a dossier ginned up by the Clinton crew to try to rig an election, secret court orders, and using investigative ‘powers’ to go outside the the parameters of an investigation.

U.S. judge says Mueller should not have 'unfettered power' in Russia probe

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-manafort/u-s-judge-q...

I do. People here do. I have no idea what you care about but it sure isn’t the electoral process or the law.

EDIT: two typos

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

@ChemBob

It started out because most of us were banned from DKos due to our support for Bernie and our awareness of the issues with the DNC, which we vocally complained about past Kos' deadline and were banned as he promised. Now it seems as though crap gets posted here from conservative and biased right-wing sources and no one has the guts to call the posters out on it.

Caucus99percent.com was established a full year and a quarter before the Great Bernie Migration landed here. Folks landed here because they needed a place to go after Kos' edict, and this was a convenient stop over. I recommend you follow the essay links at the bottom of the page and visit some of the essays that were published here before the mass bannings to get a feel for what this site was intended to be from it's inception.

This site was never intended to be a Bernie site, a Democratic party site or a progressive site, a right wing site or affiliated with any political faction per se, for that matter. C99p is a nonpartisan site where folks from all political persuasions are free to post, including yourself, as long as they act in a civil manner. Please refer to the site description in the header at the top of every page, it states "free-range politics", with emphasis on the 99% which happens to encompass all of the political spectrum. That is the essence of caucus99percent as it was and as it still is. Some may find that hard to swallow and have wished that we would become something other that we are, but it is what it is.

This site is about the 99% in all it's political flavors. Some may wish to fashion it to fit their own persuasions, and indeed some have tried, but in the end, c99p will stay unaffiliated with any political denomination. Declaring ourselves a Democratic site, a Bernie site, a progressive or a right wing site, etc., would only insure that we have become what you accused us of being, an echo chamber.

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ChemBob's picture

@JtC I was misremembering, confusing this site with another I joined about the same time. Sorry about that.

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smiley7's picture

@JtC
when having breakfast in most of Europe? Why can't we have such good tasting eggs? Inquiring minds want to know.

No fishing with arm in sling, a little guiding with one old client; missing fresh fish for dinner and the pleasure.

Pardon my butting in, just good to see you!

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@smiley7
bummer, man!

Great to see you too my friend.

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smiley7's picture

@JtC
necessities next week, matters with no good choices; difficult they are, these choices have been, but destiny made me the driver and Miss. Dasiy's extended family and co-conspirators must let go for santity's sake.

Or, we all wallow in bad consequences. Damn dementia and the peril it brings.

A lonely decision in the end, but squarely my responsibility; looking for courage, my friend, simply put, and i find it often here on c99 as i always have: a place, a solace from the wind as well as a springboard to knowledge and as Pluto wrote beautifully last week, a home of shared understanding beyond the ordinary.

Thank you, my friend, for continuing this presence for all writing here.

Until we cast a line...

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