As America’s mainstream media was busy making a laughing stock of themselves during President Trump’s joint press conference with Vladimir Putin, they have all but ignored the bombshell dropped regarding the Clinton campaign accepting potentially illegal contributions totally $400 million dollars.
First, Putin blindsided the media when asked if he would extradite the 12 Russian officials indicted by Robert Mueller’s special counsel last week for allegedly interfering in the 2016 presidential election. Although he did not agree to extradite the officials, he did invite Mueller and his team to participate in joint interrogation effects on Russian soil to question the accused.
“We can suggest that the Mueller commission … files us an official request to carry out interrogation of the people that they deem guilty. Representatives of our prosecutor’s office and investigative authorities can carry out these interrogations and file the materials to the United States.”
“We can take another step: We can let U.S. official representatives, including Mueller, take part in these interrogations. We can raise the question of making these actions mutual. We can expect from the United States to question those representatives of special services that we suspect have carried out unlawful actions against Russia.”
Mueller’s indictments of the 12 Russian officials last week were largely political, as no one expects any of those accused to be extradited or to willing come to the United States to stand trial. It’s likely that Mueller will not be taking Putin’s offer to travel to Russia in order to questions the 12 Russians named in the indictment, as a court battle where his special counsel would be forced to present actual evidence of their alleged election meddling is the last thing his team wants due to the fact said evidence either doesn’t exist or is shaky at best.
Putin went on to drop another bombshell, accusing British businessman Bill Browder of funneling hundreds of millions of dollars that he made in Russia business dealings to Hillary Clinton’s campaign while avoiding paying taxes in either Russia or the US.
“There is a well-known case of Hermitage Capital. According to our investigation, (British businessman Bill) Browder’s partners have illegally made more than $1.5 billion in Russia. They have paid no taxes in Russia and the United States but they transferred this money to the United States, $400 million have been channeled into (Hillary) Clinton’s pre-election campaign.”
#BREAKING President Putin accuses Hillary Clinton of accepting $400 million in illegal Russian campaign contributions. #Hilsinki2018 pic.twitter.com/ubmwpJu9dT
— The Columbia Bugle
(@ColumbiaBugle) July 16, 2018
(@ColumbiaBugle) Bill Browder is CEO of a financing company called Hermitage Capital, who was also involved in lobbying Congress to get the Magnitsky Act passed.
Browder, who became Russia’s leading investor by being a shareholder activist who exposed corruption, worked with Congress to get the Magnitsky Act passed, preventing foreigners who violate human rights from entering the U.S. The Magnitsky Act is named after Browder’s Russian accountant, Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Russian prison under suspicious circumstances amid allegations of physical torture.
Putin stated he has evidence that a large portion of the $1.5 billion Browder’s company earned in Russia through business dealings made its way illegally into the hands of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, totaling $400 million, while avoiding taxes.
Russian President Vladimir Putin took the opportunity to call out Hermitage Capital CEO Bill Browder’s acquaintances for supposedly dodging tax payments while discussing alleged collusion during the 2016 presidential election campaign.
“Business associates of Mr. Browder have earned over $1.5 billion in Russia,” said Putin via an interpreter. “They never paid any taxes — neither in Russia or the United States and yet the money escaped the country.”
According to Putin, Browder’s associates contributed $400 million to Hillary Clinton’s campaign—and while the contribution itself may have been legal, he said, “the way the money was earned was illegal.”
“So we have a solid reason to believe that some intelligence officers accompanied and guided these transactions,” Putin added.
Surprisingly, Putin stated he has evidence that American intelligence officers “guided” the transactions totaling $400 million to the Clinton campaign, which would indicate a shocking level of collusion between US government intelligence agencies and a political candidate in order to benefit her campaign, while also aiding the campaign in avoiding taxes on huge sums of money.
Ironically, William Browder’s grandfather was a high ranking leader of the American Communist Party. Browder, who now lives in Britain, has been a long time foe of the Kremlin.
Mr. Browder’s paternal grandfather was a leader of the American Communist Party; his father was a distinguished mathematician. Bill Browder took a different path. After getting an M.B.A. from Stanford in 1989, he went into finance, joining a flood of investors looking to make a fortune from the privatization of the Russian economy following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Mr. Browder, 54 — a frequent Kremlin critic who now lives and works in Britain — was thrust back into the news on Monday, when Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, accused Mr. Browder and his associates of evading taxes on some $1.5 billion of earnings in the country.
“They never paid any taxes,” Mr. Putin said at a news conference, standing alongside President Trump. “Neither in Russia nor in the United States. Yet, the money escaped the country.”
Mr. Putin also suggested that Mr. Browder might be part of a quid pro quo deal, in which Russia would share information with American investigators examining meddling in the 2016 presidential election and, in exchange, the Americans would help Russia get information on Mr. Browder. Mr. Trump later called it “an incredible offer.”
William Browder was also involved in litigation with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who was the same Russian lawyer who had a brief meeting with Donald Trump Jr. and became a hot topic for the mainstream media last year in their efforts to prove alleged Russian collusion on the Trump campaign.
Veselnitskaya was involved in litigation against Browder in 2014 and sought the help of Fusion GPS (the same company responsible for the “Trump dossier), which lends credence to the theory that her entire meeting with Donald Trump Jr. was a setup and used as evidence of alleged Russian collusion.
In December, 2014, the sources said, Veselnitskaya, who then was involved in litigation pitting her Russian client against British-American financier William Browder, received a legal research memo reporting that the Ziff Brothers, two New York financiers allied with Browder, had made a large contribution to a Clinton charity.
The memo had been prepared by Fusion, which had been hired to conduct legal research on Browder by Baker and Hostetler law firm. The firm represented Russian businessman Denis Katsyv, who was engaged in disputes with Browder and U.S. prosecutors.
Glenn Simpson, one of Fusion GPS’ founders, met with Veselnitskaya about that litigation before and after her meeting with Trump Jr., Kushner and Manafort, according to a source familiar with the matter.
In other words, Browder’s involvement in both the Clinton campaign’s finances and the 2016 election may be deeper and more involved than simply funneling tax-free money while avoiding taxes to the Clinton campaign.
Putin also suggested that, in return for him allowing Mueller’s special counsel to interrogate the 12 Russian officials named in last week’s indictment, he would request that US officials investigate Broward for financial crimes related to funneling $400 million of money earned in Russia to Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
MORE: Putin says we suspect U.S. intelligence officials were involved in channeling $400 million from businessman Browder to Hillary Clinton election campaign
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) July 16, 2018
Essentially, Putin is giving Mueller much of what he supposedly wants in exchange for US law enforcement officials assisting him in Russia’s investigations in William Browder’s alleged tax evasion on $400 million funneled to the Hillary Clinton campaign.
Given that these allegations involve Hillary Clinton, and the fact that the leadership of the FBI has gone through extraordinary lengths to absolve Clinton of any all potential wrongdoing, Putin’s surprise offer will likely be ignored and be memory-holed by the mainstream media in the coming days.
Thus far Robert Mueller and his special counsel have avoided even scratching the surface of any potential wrongdoing on the part of Hillary Clinton or her associates throughout the 2016 election, especially the fact that her campaign financed the very dossier used by the FBI a justification to spy on the Trump campaign, it’s unlikely that Mueller will take Putin up on his offer to travel to Russia to question the 12 officials named in his indictment.
This only exposes Mueller’s entire investigation, along with his indictments of Russian officials, as nothing more than yet another political attack on Donald Trump’s administration and literally nothing more than a tax-payer funded Democrat-aligned attempt to remove a sitting president of the United States.
