Opinion | DOJ, FBI Tried To Collude with Russian Oligarch Against Trump, Oligarch Reportedly Confirms
More information has come forward regarding the alleged “collusion” between then presidential-candidate Donald Trump and Russia to get Trump elected. The Hill’s John Solomon reported that he and his team have been speaking with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska’s team.
The communication took place over several days, and what resulted is a series of interesting developments involving the DOJ, the FBI, and the Russians.
Solomon began his report by explaining that there seemed to be two theories regarding Deripaska’s involvement in the alleged collusion. One was from the Democrats and it was related to his business dealings with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
The other theory, floated by Republicans, was that he may have helped former MI-6 officer Christopher Steele compile the infamous dossier against Trump. Apparently, neither is true.
But what is true, according to a statement from Deripaska, is that there was some collusion. Solomon wrote of the oligarch that “he did collude with Americans in the form of voluntarily assisting and meeting with the FBI, the DOJ and people such as Ohr between 2009 and 2016.”
Notice those dates. Trump announced his candidacy in mid-2016.
American intelligence agencies had been reaching out to Deripaska for years prior to that.
That time frame is also during President Barack Obama’s tenure. He was the sitting president when these events took place — when Deripaska says he was working with U.S. intelligence.
Solomon explained that, “It is irrefutable that after he began helping the FBI, Deripaska regained entry to the United States. And he visited numerous times between 2009 and 2017, visa entry records show.”
“We now know that, on multiple occasions during those visits, the DOJ and FBI secretly collaborated with Deripaska in the hope of getting help, first regarding Levinson, then on Ohr’s matters, and finally on the Manafort case.” So, multiple times U.S. intelligence agencies reached out to the Russian oligarch for assistance.
Why would he help the DOJ and FBI? Solomon wrote that, “U.S. officials told me they assumed Deripaska let Putin’s team know he was helping the U.S. government and that his motive for helping was to keep visiting America.”
According to The Boston Globe, one of two of their cited meetings between Deripaska and the FBI took place in September 2016. “The latter meeting came two months after the FBI began investigating Russian interference in the election and a month after Manafort left the Trump campaign amid reports about his work for Russia-aligned political parties in Ukraine.”
Perhaps further illustrating a decided lack of “collusion” between Trump and Russia or Deripaska, is the fact that currently Deripaska is yet again banned from entering the United States. This was part of Trump’s move to slap Russia for their meddling in the 2016 elections.
The ban affected more than just Deripaska. It is, in fact, also just one of multiple swipes Trump has taken at Putin and Russia.
Via his team, Deripaska also relayed a message to Solomon for the American people. “The latest reckless media chatter proposes that I had some unspecified involvement in the so-called dossier.”
He added, “Like most of the absurd fantasies and smears that ricochet across the internet, it is utterly false. I had absolutely nothing to do with this project, and I never had any knowledge of it until it was reported in the media and I certainly wasn’t involved in any activity related to it.”
As more and more information continues to be revealed, many believe that collusion did in fact take place, but it was at the hands of the Democrats.
It seems that whatever the Democrats accuse the Republicans of doing is what they are, in fact, doing themselves.
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