Russiagate Investigators

The Russiagate Investigators

The First to be alerted of the Russian Hacking under Obama:

In early August 2016, CIA Director John Brennan sent an “eyes only” letter by courier to President Obama, who was joined in the Situation Room with 3 top White House Aides, Susan E. Rice, deputy national security adviser Avril Haines, and Denis McDonough White House chief of staff.  Washington Post

Read Obama’s Secret Struggle to Punish Russia for Putin’s Election Assault Washington Post  June 23, 2017

The US Department of Justice

Robert Mueller’s Special Counsel Office

Robert Mueller, Special Investigator into the Russian Election Interference appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on May 17, 2017, after Sessions recused himself for having been caught meeting Kislyak. “the Justice Department ramrod who remade the FBI after 9/11. As special counsel appointed in the wake of the Comey firing, Mueller has one job, no deadline and bottomless resources, and he is assembling an all-star team of veteran prosecutors whose expert backgrounds go beyond counterintelligence to include money laundering, corporate fraud and the limits of Executive Branch power.” Time Magazine, Will Robert Mueller Separate Fact From Fiction? David Von Drehle  

Link to all of the filings in the Mueller probe.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

FBI Director James Comey opened Investigation July 2016. Andrew McCabe became acting director after Comey was fired.

The Gang Of Eight

Under the “gang of eight” system, the executive branch of the United States discloses highly sensitive intelligence information to the following positions within the US congress:[6] Wikipedia Gang of Eight (intelligence)

Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence  (House Intelligence Committee)

Investigating the Nature and Scope of Russian espionage to protect future elections.

  • Chair: Devin Nunes, R-CA RECUSED HIMSELF OF THE INVESTIGATION, Adam Schiff, D-CA Ranking Member
  • Mike Conaway, R-TX, Peter King, R-NY, Frank LoBiondo, R-NJ, Rick Crawford, R-AR, Trey Gowdy, R-SC, Ton Rooney, R-FL, Will Hurd, R-Tx, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-FL, Mike Turner, R-OH, Brad Wenstrup, R-OH, Chris Stewart, R-UT, Elise Stefanik, R-NY
  • Jim Himes, D-CT, Terri Sewell, D-AL, Andre Carson, D-IN, Jackie Speier, D-CA, Mike Quigley, D-IL, Eric Swalwell, D-CA, Joaquin Castro, D-TX, Denny Heck, D-WA

Senate Select Committee on Intelligence    (SSCI)

  • Richard Burr, R-NC, Chairman      Mark Warner, D-VA, Vice Chairman
  • Ex officio: John McCain, R-AZ, Mitch McConnell, R-KY, Jack Reed, D-RI, Chuck Schumer, D-NY
  • Jim Risch, R-ID, Marco Rubio, R-FL, Susan Collins, R-ME, Roy Blunt, R-MO, James Lankford, R-OK, Tom Cotton, R-AR, John Cornyn, R-TX
  • Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, Former Chairman, Ron Wyden, D-OR, Martin Heinrich, D-NM, Angus King, D-ME, Joe Manchin, D-WV, Kamala Harris, D-CA

SDNY-Southern District of New York US Attorney

Campaign Conspiracy and the Trump Organization’s finances

Inauguration Funding

Trump Inauguration Spending Under Criminal Investigation by Federal Prosecutors Probe looking into whether committee misspent funds and top donors gave money in exchange for access to the administration Wall St. Journal December 13, 2018 “In April raids of Mr. Cohen’s home, office and hotel room, [FBI] agents obtained a recorded conversation between Mr. Cohen and Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former adviser to Melania Trump, who worked on the inaugural events. In the recording, Ms. Wolkoff express concern about how the Inaugural committee was spending money.”

$107 million from large donors and dubious spending.

Trump SuperPAC Funding

Trump Inaugural Fund and Super PAC Said to Be Scrutinized for Illegal Foreign Donations  NY Times. Federal prosecutors are investigating whether President Trump’s inaugural fund and a pro-Trump super PAC received illegal foreign donations.By Sharon LaFraniere, Maggie Haberman and Adam Goldman “Federal prosecutors are examining whether foreigners illegally funneled donations to President Trump’s inaugural committee and a pro-Trump super PAC in hopes of buying influence over American policy. The inquiry focuses on whether people from Middle Eastern nations — including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — used straw donors to disguise their donations to the two funds. Federal law prohibits foreign contributions to federal campaigns, political action committees and inaugural funds. Thomas J. Barrack Jr., a billionaire financier and one of Mr. Trump’s closest friends, raised money for both funds.Paul Manafort, who then headed the campaign, suggested that Mr. Barrack step into the void by creating and raising funds for the political action committee, which could collect unlimited amounts of money as long as it avoided coordinating closely with the candidate. In an interview with investigators a year ago, Mr. Barrack said that Mr. Manafort seemed to view the political committee as an arm of the campaign, despite laws meant to prevent such coordination. Federal election law requires a cooling-off period of at least 120 days before campaign staff members join a political committee backing the same candidate, but Mr. Manafort dispatched two friends from the campaign, Laurance Gay and Ken McKay, to run the operation. A press officer said at the time that the committee violated no rules because the campaign never paid the two men.“

Rebuilding America Now with Paul Manafort

  • Sam Patten, Manafort aide, is cooperating

Foreign Lobbying

The Paul Manafort money laundering probe led to questions about FARA registrations for lobbying done for work relating to Ukraine of these other lobbyists:

  • Tony Podesta suddenly closed his lobbying firm in 2017. Mueller
  • Vin Weber-Mercury LLC
  • Greg Craig, former White House counsel, Skadden Arps, law firm employer until quit in 2018
  • Alex van der Zwaan, London-based Skadden Arps attorney, pleaded guilty and was in jail from May 7, 2018-June 4, 2018 Rick Gatesfor lying about a Skadden-prepared report from 2012 for the Ukraine government, commissioned by Paul Manafort and  “to defend then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who had jailed one of his most prominent political opponents, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.” Politico
  • Rick Gates, pleaded guilty February 2018 and is cooperating

District of Columbia US Attorney

Maria Butina and the NRA

  • Maria Butina, Russian spy sent to infiltrate the Republican Party via the NRA, founder of The Right To Bear Arms (Russian gun-rights, which they don’t have in Russia) pleaded guilty and is a cooperating witness
  • Paul Erickson, Butina’s mark, a GOP operative within the NRA, whom she lived with while attending American University
  • Alexander Torshin, Maria Butina’s Russian Boss 
  • David Keene, former president of the N.R.A.
  • “Sheriff” David Clarke

Operative Offered Trump Campaign ‘Kremlin Connection’ Using N.R.A. Ties NY Times. December 3, 2017 Donald J. Trump, then the Republican presidential nominee, speaking at the National Rifle Association convention in Louisville, Ky., in May 2016. By Nicholas Fandos  “A May 2016 email to the campaign adviser, Rick Dearborn, bore the subject line “Kremlin Connection.” In it, the N.R.A. member said he wanted the advice of Mr. Dearborn and Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, then a foreign policy adviser to Mr. Trump and Mr. Dearborn’s longtime boss, about how to proceed in connecting the two leaders. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, penned letters to several Trump campaign foreign policy advisers last week asking for all documents related to the N.R.A., Mr. Erickson, Mr. Torshin, Mr. Clay, Mr. Dearborn and others.

In December 2015, Mr. Erickson returned to Russia as part of an N.R.A. delegation that included David Keene, the group’s onetime president, top donors and David A. Clarke Jr., the former sheriff of Milwaukee Countywho became a popular Trump campaign surrogate. At one stop, the group met with Dmitry Rogozin, the deputy prime minister in charge of defense. A photograph from the meeting shows Mr. Torshin was also present.

In the United States, the hospitality was returned. Mr. Torshin and Ms. Butina attended the N.R.A.’s annual convention in 2014 and 2015. Ms. Butina told the conservative news site Townhall that she attended the N.R.A. Women’s Leadership Luncheon as a guest of Sandra S. Froman, a former president of the group. And in 2015, she was given a tour of the N.R.A.’s Virginia headquarters. Mr. Torshin, he wrote, was planning to attend a reception being planned by Mr. Clay honoring wounded veterans that he expected Mr. Trump would also attend. Mr. Torshin expected to use the reception to “make ‘first contact’ ” with the candidate and present Mr. Trump’s wife, Melania, with a gift from the Russian Orthodox Church. According to Mr. Clay, neither Mr. Trump nor his campaign officials attended the veterans’ dinner. The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., and Mr. Torshin did attend a separate N.R.A. dinner that night.

Mr. Torshin served in the upper house of the Russian Parliament and was a member of the country’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee, a government body that includes the ministers of defense, interior and foreign affairs and the director of the Federal Security Service, known as F.S.B., the K.G.B.’s successor. He has been a leading advocate of gun rights in Russia and of more closely linking the government and the Russian Orthodox Church.

Spanish investigators say that while he was in Parliament, Mr. Torshin laundered money for the Russian mafia through Spanish banks and properties. Mr. Torshin has denied those accusations.”