US Politics Mega-thread - Page 9042

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.

Federal agents used a confidential U.S. witness working inside the Russian nuclear industry to gather extensive financial records, make secret recordings and intercept emails as early as 2009 that showed Moscow had compromised an American uranium trucking firm with bribes and kickbacks in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, FBI and court documents show.

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.

The racketeering scheme was conducted “with the consent of higher level officials” in Russia who “shared the proceeds” from the kickbacks, one agent declared in an affidavit years later.

Rather than bring immediate charges in 2010, however, the Department of Justice (DOJ) continued investigating the matter for nearly four more years, essentially leaving the American public and Congress in the dark about Russian nuclear corruption on U.S. soil during a period when the Obama administration made two major decisions benefiting Putin’s commercial nuclear ambitions.
The first decision occurred in October 2010, when the State Department and government agencies on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States unanimously approved the partial sale of Canadian mining company Uranium One to the Russian nuclear giant Rosatom, giving Moscow control of more than 20 percent of America’s uranium supply.

When this sale was used by Trump on the campaign trail last year, Hillary Clinton’s spokesman said she was not involved in the committee review and noted the State Department official who handled it said she “never intervened ... on any [Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States] matter.”

In 2011, the administration gave approval for Rosatom’s Tenex subsidiary to sell commercial uranium to U.S. nuclear power plants in a partnership with the United States Enrichment Corp. Before then, Tenex had been limited to selling U.S. nuclear power plants reprocessed uranium recovered from dismantled Soviet nuclear weapons under the 1990s Megatons to Megawatts peace program.

“The Russians were compromising American contractors in the nuclear industry with kickbacks and extortion threats, all of which raised legitimate national security concerns. And none of that evidence got aired before the Obama administration made those decisions,” a person who worked on the case told The Hill, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution by U.S. or Russian officials.

The Obama administration’s decision to approve Rosatom’s purchase of Uranium One has been a source of political controversy since 2015.

That’s when conservative author Peter Schweitzer and The New York Times documented how Bill Clinton collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in Russian speaking fees and his charitable foundation collected millions in donations from parties interested in the deal while Hillary Clinton presided on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

The Obama administration and the Clintons defended their actions at the time, insisting there was no evidence that any Russians or donors engaged in wrongdoing and there was no national security reason for any member of the committee to oppose the Uranium One deal.

But FBI, Energy Department and court documents reviewed by The Hill show the FBI in fact had gathered substantial evidence well before the committee’s decision that Vadim Mikerin — the main Russian overseeing Putin’s nuclear expansion inside the United States — was engaged in wrongdoing starting in 2009.

Then-Attorney General Eric Holder was among the Obama administration officials joining Hillary Clinton on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States at the time the Uranium One deal was approved. Multiple current and former government officials told The Hill they did not know whether the FBI or DOJ ever alerted committee members to the criminal activity they uncovered.

Spokesmen for Holder and Clinton did not return calls seeking comment. The Justice Department also didn’t comment.

Mikerin was a director of Rosatom’s Tenex in Moscow since the early 2000s, where he oversaw Rosatom’s nuclear collaboration with the United States under the Megatons to Megwatts program and its commercial uranium sales to other countries. In 2010, Mikerin was dispatched to the U.S. on a work visa approved by the Obama administration to open Rosatom’s new American arm called Tenam.

Between 2009 and January 2012, Mikerin “did knowingly and willfully combine, conspire confederate and agree with other persons … to obstruct, delay and affect commerce and the movement of an article and commodity (enriched uranium) in commerce by extortion,” a November 2014 indictment stated.

His illegal conduct was captured with the help of a confidential witness, an American businessman, who began making kickback payments at Mikerin’s direction and with the permission of the FBI. The first kickback payment recorded by the FBI through its informant was dated Nov. 27, 2009, the records show.

In evidentiary affidavits signed in 2014 and 2015, an Energy Department agent assigned to assist the FBI in the case testified that Mikerin supervised a “racketeering scheme” that involved extortion, bribery, money laundering and kickbacks that were both directed by and provided benefit to more senior officials back in Russia.

“As part of the scheme, Mikerin, with the consent of higher level officials at TENEX and Rosatom (both Russian state-owned entities) would offer no-bid contracts to US businesses in exchange for kickbacks in the form of money payments made to some offshore banks accounts,” Agent David Gadren testified.

“Mikerin apparently then shared the proceeds with other co-conspirators associated with TENEX in Russia and elsewhere,” the agent added.

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.

Both men now play a key role in the current investigation into possible, but still unproven, collusion between Russia and Donald Trump’s campaign during the 2016 election cycle. McCabe is under congressional and Justice Department inspector general investigation in connection with money his wife’s Virginia state Senate campaign accepted in 2015 from now-Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe at a time when McAuliffe was reportedly under investigation by the FBI. The probe is not focused on McAuliffe's conduct but rather on whether McCabe's attendance violated the Hatch Act or other FBI conflict rules.

On October 22 2017 05:14 Danglars wrote:
And speaking of conspiracy theories, this one passed in silence but is interesting in its own right. Not as a OBAMA SUX/U H8 OBAMA narrative plot device, but a successfully squelched story. I would say along the lines that if Russian operatives spent $100,000 in facebook ads, and that legitimately interests you, this one will too.


The Hill

So take off your tribalist hats for a brief moment and just read. Includes the indictment affidavit and warrant affidavit.

On October 22 2017 05:14 Danglars wrote:
And speaking of conspiracy theories, this one passed in silence but is interesting in its own right. Not as a OBAMA SUX/U H8 OBAMA narrative plot device, but a successfully squelched story. I would say along the lines that if Russian operatives spent $100,000 in facebook ads, and that legitimately interests you, this one will too.


The Hill

So take off your tribalist hats for a brief moment and just read. Includes the indictment affidavit and warrant affidavit.

On October 22 2017 06:51 Sermokala wrote:
Thats the bad joke of conspiracy theories. Its easily debunked and leads no where and was only thought up in the beginning by people who wanted to make a conspiracy theory.

On October 22 2017 07:25 Adreme wrote:


You can extend that to pretty much every conspiracy theory. 9/11, Sandy Hook, Holocaust deniers, etc. etc. They all have there own easily debunked crazy conspiracy theory.

On October 22 2017 07:39 Sermokala wrote:

yeah but Uranium one has publicly available documents where you can clearly say "oh the dates don't line up so it didn't happen" The rest are a fever dream of people but uranium one is just sad.

On October 22 2017 07:39 Sermokala wrote:

yeah but Uranium one has publicly available documents where you can clearly say "oh the dates don't line up so it didn't happen" The rest are a fever dream of people but uranium one is just sad.

On October 22 2017 07:56 Danglars wrote:

I grant you this topic can't help but be associated with that book, but it still rather boggles the mind that indictments and plea deals get dismissed this easily when it involves the US and Russia. Also, Mueller. I guess the political angle can't be dismissed by those who have already made up their mind on one matter and thus all related matters.

21st Century Fox was back on the defensive Saturday after the New York Times revealed a new sexual harassment settlement involving former Fox News star Bill O’Reilly that was set just a month before the company signed O’Reilly to a lucrative new contract.

O’Reilly was fired by Fox News in April following the Times’ report that he had been involved in settlements of harassment and sexual harassment claims with five women totaling $13 million, dating back to 2002. On Saturday, the Times reported that O’Reilly personally reached a settlement in January with former Fox News legal analyst, Lis Wiehl, for $32 million, a fee far larger than previously disclosed settlements. In February, Fox News set a long-term contract with O’Reilly that included a huge salary boost.

In a lengthy statement, Fox News parent company 21st Century Fox defended the decision despite the company’s awareness of O’Reilly’s personal settlement with Wiehl. Fox emphasized that the new contract gave the company an out if further harassment claims were made against its star anchor. Two months after the contract was inked, O’Reilly was fired amid the firestorm over the Times’ initial report of the five settlements and the company’s investigation of additional allegations.

However, the timing of the Wiehl settlement paints a damning picture of Fox leadership’s willingness to keep O’Reilly in the fold despite its public statements about its efforts to ensure that 21st Century Fox divisions fostered a healthy and inclusive working environment for all employees. At the time O’Reilly’s new deal was set, Fox News was still reeling from the ouster of its founder and leader, Roger Ailes, amid sexual harassment scandal that led Fox News to reach a $20 million settlement with former anchor Gretchen Carlson.

Why are doctors who profit from vaccines the spokesmen for public health? Can government health agencies really be trusted to protect our children when they are so wedded to the pharmaceutical industry?

On October 22 2017 15:23 GreenHorizons wrote:
I get the points being made here but you guys do realize in the US we do have drug dealers with doctorates right?

The opiate epidemic is a direct result of said drug dealers pushing opiates onto the masses.