Corrupted Beyond Their Own Awareness
Reuters -- (WASHINGTON, Oct 27) – A federal grand jury on Friday approved the first charges in the investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, a source briefed on the matter told Reuters.
The indictment was sealed under orders from a federal judge so it was not clear what the charges were or who the target was, the source said, adding that it could be unsealed as early as Monday.
The filing of charges by the grand jury in Washington was first reported on Friday by CNN, which said the target could be taken into custody as soon as Monday.
U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in January that Russia interfered in the election to try to help President Donald Trump defeat Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton through a campaign of hacking and releasing embarrassing emails, and disseminating propaganda via social media to discredit her campaign.
Special counsel Robert Mueller, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is investigating whether Trump campaign officials colluded with those Russian efforts.
“If the Special Counsel finds it necessary and appropriate, the Special Counsel is authorized to prosecute federal crimes arising from the investigation of these matters,” Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said in a May 17 letter appointing Mueller.
Sources familiar with Mueller’s investigation said he has used that broad authority to investigate links between Trump aides and foreign governments as well as possible money laundering, tax evasion and other financial crimes.
Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, declined to comment on Friday.
Trump, a Republican who was elected president last November, has denied allegations that his campaign colluded with Russians and condemned investigations into the matter as “a witch hunt”.
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Robert Mueller To Resign From Russia Probe
Breitbart -- The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board called Thursday for FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller to step down from his role in investigating alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election, saying that he lacks the “critical distance” to analyze recent revelations about the FBI’s role in the saga.
“It is no slur against Mr. Mueller’s integrity to say that he lacks the critical distance to conduct a credible probe of the bureau he ran for a dozen years,” the Journal’s editorial board wrote. “He could best serve the country by resigning to prevent further political turmoil over that conflict of interest.”
The board was writing in response to recent reports that suggest the FBI uncovered evidence of the Russian bribery and money laundering in the U.S. ahead of a 2010 decision by the Obama administration to greenlight the partial sale of the Canadian firm Uranium One to Russian energy giant Rosatom. The deal transferred control of 20 percent of U.S. uranium stocks to the Russians.
Government Accountability Institute (GAI) President and Breitbart News Senior Editor-at-Large Peter Schweizer broke the Uranium One scandal in his book Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich. He reported that Clinton’s State Department, along with other federal agencies, approved the transfer of 20 percent of all U.S. uranium to Russia and that nine foreign investors in the deal gave $145 million to the Clinton Foundation.
But the controversy re-emerged last week after the Hill reported that the FBI uncovered “substantial evidence that Russian nuclear industry officials were engaged in bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering” to expand Russia’s nuclear footprint in the U.S. as early as 2009, but the Justice Department did not inform Congress and the public, and did not act on the information until 2014, after the sale was completed.
The FBI also reportedly found evidence that Russian officials routed “millions of dollars” to the U.S. to be funneled into the Clinton Foundation — at a time when Hillary Clinton was serving as secretary of state and served on the government body that approved the deal.
Additionally, the Washington Post reported this week that the Democratic National Committee and Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign funded Fusion GPS as it put together the so-called “Trump dossier,” a dossier of mostly uncorroborated accusations against Trump, many of which the Journal notes are based largely on Kremlin-connected sources. This raises the possibility that Democrats funded a Moscow-pushed misinformation campaign against Trump.
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