In Case You Missed It: Robert Mueller Was FBI Director During The Russia Uranium Investigation

Is it time for Special Counsel Robert Mueller to recuse himself from his investigation into Russian activities in the 2016 presidential election?

Lost in much of the discussion over this week’s developments in the growing Russia/Uranium/Clinton scandal is the fact that none other than Mueller was the FBI Director during this investigation. And that investigation is under serious scrutiny.

Under Attorney General Eric Holder, the FBI informant at the center of the probe was prohibited from revealing any of the details of the investigation to members of Congress because of a non-disclosure agreement that has been characterized as unusual by the informant’s attorney, Victoria Toensing.

In fact, as the Obama Administration was weighing the sale of uranium to a Russian-backed firm, none of the details of the active FBI criminal investigation were disclosed by the Executive Branch to Congress. Then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers told The Hill:

He had never been told anything about the Russian nuclear corruption case even though many fellow lawmakers had serious concerns about the Obama administration’s approval of the Uranium One deal.

Yesterday, President Donald Trump called out the media for their obsessive coverage of the as-of-now-evidence-free Russia/Collusion story while not probing deeper into the Russian/Uranium/Clinton scandal which blew-up this week thanks to investigative reporting by John Solomon at The Hill and Sara Carter at Circa. He might want to have a conversation with Mueller and his own Deputy Attorney General as well.

Not only is Special Counsel Mueller tied-up in the uranium imbroglio, but the person supervising the investigation was then-US Attorney Rod Rosenstein. Rosenstein is now the Deputy Attorney General and after Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russian meddling case it was Obama appointee Rosenstein who decided to name none other than Mueller as Special Counsel for the probe.

Swamp much?

As Noah Rothman at Commentary points out, this tangled web is exactly what Trump supporters are looking for to further undermine the credibility of the Mueller investigation.

Anyone who wants to undermine the legitimacy of that probe and attack the characters of its principal investigators, though, now has a trove of new ammunition at their disposal. This was entirely a result of the Obama administration’s reckless, ideological pursuit of rapprochement with Moscow and the Clinton family’s negligent rent-seeking. Democrats have no one to blame but themselves for looking the other way.

Hillary Clinton and her dwindling cohort of image-makers are engaged in an increasingly desperate effort to save her from posterity’s reproach, but the water is rising up over their knees now. Theirs is a losing battle, and Democrats should resist the temptation to come to her defense.

Seriously, Never-Trumpers and Democrats should be first in line saying “This stinks… let’s get someone else on this Russia collusion thing.”

For a quick summary of the latest details involving the four year FBI investigation into kickbacks and bribes from Russian entities trying to solidify access to uranium and other materials to bolster that country’s nuclear program, read Mediaite’s summary here. The investigation touched on a $500,000 payment to former President Bill Clinton for a speaker fee while his wife, Hillary Clinton, was Secretary of State and voted to allow the uranium deal for the Russians.

In addition to the speaking fee, there were also over $2 million in donations to the Clinton Foundation from Uranium One (the Russia-connected entity at the center of the criminal investigation) that Hillary Clinton failed to disclose despite her assurances to do so during her confirmation hearings.

 

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.