The conservative group Citizens United has received emails from the Clinton Foundation that show the organization’s own dealings with the Russians.
While they don’t reveal anything criminal, they do showcase a relationship the Clintons had with the Russians that would be a front-page story on the New York Times had Trump done the same. The emails in question show Clinton Foundation staff pushing Hillary Clinton’s State Department to approve a meeting between Bill Clinton and Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian oligarch. Vekselberg was named the head of a partnership that was called the “Russian Silicon Valley” three months before the emails urging a meeting with Bill Clinton began.
Vekselberg’s name is especially relevant given that authorities raided the offices of his firm, Renova Group, last week following allegations of bribery.
The Clinton Foundation emails were passed along to the Washington Examiner, which reported:
Vekselberg’s Renova Group has donated between $50,000 and $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation, donor records show. Another firm associated with Vekselberg, OC Oerlikon, donated $25,000 to the Clinton Foundation.
In April of that year, Bill Clinton’s staff had submitted to the State Department ethics office a request for the former president to deliver a paid speech in Moscow on June 28, 2010, an engagement that necessitated the trip to Russia that a Clinton Foundation employee described. Renaissance Capital, a Russian investment bank, paid Bill Clinton $500,000 for that speech, according to his wife’s financial disclosures from 2010. The State Department had given its approval for the trip just two days after Bill Clinton’s office filed its request.
This is particularly interesting because it’s Robert Mueller’s special counsel that’s now probing Vekselberg. CNN reported Tuesday evening that Mr. Mueller’s team was asking questions about hundreds of thousands of dollars paid to Michael Cohen by oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. In early April, the Mueller probe inquired about a payment that Michael Cohen received from Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Pinchuk. Pinchuk has given $25 million of his own money to the Clinton Foundation.
How is it that figures with strong connections to the Clinton’s are getting members of the Trump team in trouble? Could it all be a setup? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
