Bonus Russiagate, with Real Russian!

I give you Russian collusion! Conflict of Interest? Mueller's FBI Has a History With Russian Oligarch Oleg Deripaska

Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska is a name that pops up from time to time in the collusion narrative, though it has been conspicuously absent from Mueller’s indictments. Now, a new report published at The Hill by investigative reporter John Solomon could help explain why: Deripaska has a history of working with Mueller's FBI.

According to Solomon's sources, the Bureau in 2009 asked the oligarch to spend millions of his own dollars to fund an FBI-supervised operation to rescue retired FBI agent Robert Levinson, who was captured in Iran while working for the CIA in 2007. The sources include more than a dozen participants inside and outside the FBI, the Levinson family, a retired agent who supervised the case, Deripaska's lawyer, and Deripaska himself.
. . .
Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz told Solomon he believes Mueller has "a conflict of interest" because of the FBI's past dealings with the Russian.

“The real question becomes whether it was proper to leave [Deripaska] out of the Manafort indictment, and whether that omission was to avoid the kind of transparency that is really required by the law,” Dershowitz said.

Ace: Should Mueller Recuse Himself Due to His Prior Dealings with Russian Oligarch Oleg Deripaska?

"Mueller previously, how do I say this?, colluded with the Russian oligarch, who may now be a witness in his prosecution of Paul Manafort."
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Alan Derschowitz questions not only Mueller's conflict of interest, but asks the question: If Paul Manafort was indicted for colluding with Deripaska, why was Deripaska himself left out of the indictment? That seems like on-its-face evidence that Mueller's judgment is compromised when it comes to his old Russian gangster/oligarch pal.

Is the FBI now just the Best Friends Club with Guns?

John Solomon Discusses FBI Approaching Oleg Deripaska in September 2016, for Help Framing Trump-Russia Investigation…



But this is even more concerning, if true:  GAME-CHANGER: Russian Associate of Robert Mueller Refused FBI Request to Manufacture Collusion Narrative

Deripaska also appears to be one of the first Russians the FBI asked for help when it began investigating the now-infamous Fusion GPS “Steele Dossier.” [Adam] Waldman, his American lawyer until the sanctions hit, gave me a detailed account, some of which U.S. officials confirm separately.

Two months before Trump was elected president, Deripaska was in New York as part of Russia’s United Nations delegation when three FBI agents awakened him in his home; at least one agent had worked with Deripaska on the aborted effort to rescue Levinson. During an hour-long visit, the agents posited a theory that Trump’s campaign was secretly colluding with Russia to hijack the U.S. election.

“Deripaska laughed but realized, despite the joviality, that they were serious,” the lawyer said. “So he told them in his informed opinion the idea they were proposing was false. ‘You are trying to create something out of nothing,’ he told them.” The agents left though the FBI sought more information in 2017 from the Russian, sources tell me. Waldman declined to say if Deripaska has been in contact with the FBI since Sept, 2016.

Conspiracy to Frame Trump ‘Unraveling,’ Ex-Prosecutor Says, Former U.S. Attorney Joseph diGenova points to unexpected and potentially damaging revelations about Mueller's alleged conflict of interest

Celebrating the one year anniversary of the Mueller probe, Byron York: One year into the Mueller investigation, we still don't know what's going on. Rudy On A Year Of Mueller: We Have A “Plan B” If He Doesn’t End The Russiagate Probe Soon. John Marston at The Hill: Mueller will not charge Trump

More spotlight on John Brennan: Real Clear Investigation: Two Colleagues Contradict Brennan's Denial of Reliance on Dossier  Ace: Two Colleagues Contradict Onetime Communist Party Voter John Brennan's Claims About His Non-Use of the Dossier. Hang him for treason, and burn the body, just to be sure.  The revealing crumb left in the David Corn/Michael Isikoff book on the Russia investigation.

Under John Brennan, the CIA operated as an opposition research outfit for the Hillary Clinton campaign. It appears from leaked news stories in the British press that Brennan’s oafish spying on Trump began around April 2016, right after Trump’s biggest primary victories. As it became urgently clear to Brennan that Trump was going to face off against Hillary, Brennan turned to “intelligence partners” in Europe for dirt on Trump. But they didn’t have any, save some pretty skimpy material on “contacts” between Trump campaign officials and Russians. . .

Thing to make you go hmmm! Sen. Rand Paul Warns That Haspel Is Close to John Brennan: What Does She Know About Trump Surveillance?

More collusion linkage between the players: Peter Strzok Was Selected By John Brennan To Help Author The ICA, Based Partly On The Steele Dossier, birds of a feather. The good news is that the conspiracy is fairly small; only a few bullets will be needed when they're all lined up against the wall. As brought to you by Wombat-socho's "In The Mailbox: 05.15.18" Power Line sums it up: John Brennan, Lying Nutter.

Former Federal Prosecutor Andrew McCarthy reads the Strzok/Page texts: The Strzok-Page Texts and the Origins of the Trump-Russia Investigation Hint, it points to the Obama White House directing it. Andrew McCarthy Discusses The Ongoing Battle Between Congress and the Careerists Within the DOJ…

As McCarthy points out, it is not likely there was a singular FBI source buried within the Trump campaign.  Instead it’s more likely that particular campaign aides were targeted and dirtied-up by unofficial intelligence operators like Stefan Halper.  Once those aides were given the appearance of being aligned with foreign enterprise, the FBI was then able to conduct surveillance and construct a narrative useful for their ‘insurance policy’.

This Maltese Professor May Hold The Key To When The FBI Really Began Surveilling The Trump Campaign "Did Joseph Mifsud use George Papadopoulos as a pawn to set up Donald Trump? Did he feed Papadopoulos information about Russia to see how the Trump campaign responded?"

Bad news for Paul Manafort, one of the judges overseeing one of the sets of charges against him has ruled that Mueller is within his mandate in charging him. Note this is not the judge that excoriated Mueller's team a few days ago.

Michael Avenatti, the Deep State Tool "Don’t even think about investigating me, Stormy Daniels’ lawyer warns Daily Caller reporters."

After host Howard Kurtz noted Avenatti “is a guy who’s been on CNN and MSNBC more than a hundred times in a couple of months," Hemingway asked the right questions and she explained what has really begin going on with the lawyer.

He is the front man for a well-funded and well-coordinated operation that has received next to no criticism or reflection by many people in the media. I saw something that showed that he had $175 million in free coverage on the various networks. And I think it is worth asking, Who is this guy? How does he have access to Special Counsel or Treasury Department documents? Who are his connections? Who’s paying for this? We know that he ostensibly represents Stormy Daniels. She has said she’s not paying him. It’s worth finding out just a little bit more about who’s driving the coverage.

Even CNN is starting to see how ridiculous this is: CNN To Avenatti: You’re Acting A Bit Like Michael Cohen, Don’t You Think?