When the people of the United States were reintroduced to Robert Mueller, he was made known to us as a man of impeccable credentials and rock-solid integrity that would consider Russian involvement in the U.S. Presidential campaign and alert the American people to any wrongdoing. It is now clear he is riddled with conflicts of interest and steeped in the situation himself. If he were that person with unimpeachable rectitude, he would step aside.
The reasons are clear, and they come from three different angles that the press has finally stepped up to look into and Congress has started to dig its heels into.
First, there is the one most related to Mueller which is the sale of 20% of our native uranium supply to a Russian-controlled firm. When one speaks of a Russian-controlled firm, it goes without saying Putin has his hand in there somewhere. When I wrote a column about Peter Schweizer’s excellent book, I did not touch on the Uranium One deal specifically because it was the most widely-covered aspect of the book. I chose to highlight some other aspects of the slime oozing from the Clinton operation.
Schweizer dealt with the sale of a large portion of our uranium supply to a man and his country that was deemed to be a major adversary three years after President Obama laughed off the assertion by his opponent, Mitt Romney, in a presidential campaign. The charge that the sale was improper was barely picked up by the press and then dropped as the press focused on the wild accusations being made that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians which then catapulted him to the Oval Office.
New revelations have focused on whether there were illegalities and payoffs to the Clintons through money paid to President Clinton for speeches and multi-million dollar donations to the Clinton Foundation which were used to underwrite the Clinton lifestyle and keep their future campaign staff together and working on the Clinton behalf. Certainly, the fact that the main character in the Uranium One deal, Frank Giustra, supplied his private plane to the Clinton’s for campaign events was itself an illegal act.
The Clintons would like you to believe that the agencies involved in approving the uranium deal were somehow as powerful or significant as the Secretary of State, the most important cabinet post. The Democrats want you to believe that Clinton really did not have sway on this decision. To contrast, her successor stopped the Keystone Pipeline single-handedly. This argument makes no sense. Also, none of the other participants had a private foundation receiving millions in donations from parties to the transaction.
Mueller was Director of the FBI and asleep at the wheel when this all happened. Even if he was deemed not responsible at the time, how could he carry on his duties as head of the FBI and then be in charge of investigating FBI activities without it being a clear conflict?
Next, there is the issue of James Comey (aka Mueller’s bosom buddy) whose actions during the election reek and yearn to be investigated. It is clear he politicized the FBI by his actions. It is clear he decided to hold that press conference where he usurped prosecutorial responsibility with warped logic and divinely created new standards that provided Clinton enough cover to continue her run for the Presidency. In addition, paperwork shows he may have made his decision before considering all of the facts.
How could Mueller possibly consider this questionable activity of the agency he once ran for 12 years with anything but a prejudiced eye, attempting to protect an agency that clearly looks compromised because of political positioning?
Then there is the infamous Steele dossier. This is a doozy. The twisted arguments to cover the potentially criminal activity bewitches the imagination. The research, which was originally funded by a Republican billionaire to Fusion GPS, will be used as a cover while his money had nothing to do with the potentially illegal action. In fact, think about it, if Paul Singer paid for the research by Fusion GPS up until April, it would be highly inappropriate for Fusion to release that information to the DNC and HRC campaign without authorization by Singer. Yet those who are trying to confuse the situation assert the dossier was a continuum. That is nonsense.
Christopher Steele was hired during the period of the funding by the DNC and HRC campaign. The fact that Maggie Haberman of the NYT, an ardent non-supporter of Trump, would come forth and complain about being lied to by Fusion GPS and related entities for over a year speaks volumes.
Which brings into question why all the lies? Why does no person of consequence at the HRC campaign or DNC have any idea who spent millions to get this info? They all talk about how competent they are, but on just this one point they are all incompetent. HRC wanted to be president, but she did not know about this, the wiping of her hard drive or other important matters of her time at state or the campaign. That’s a stretch, to put it mildly.
Was the infamous dossier a lynchpin for the rationale of Mueller’s hiring in the first place as it was supposedly prima facie evidence of Trump collusion? Now that is it is clear it was the Dems working with Steele and the Russians, it was only “opposition research.” When Donald Jr. met with some Russian unknown, on the advice of a colleague, who supposedly had ties to the Kremlin (because this person would have some dirt on Clinton), the world nearly exploded even though it was supposedly for opposition research and provided nothing.
Somehow, someway, the dossier which is supposedly for opposition research ended up in the hands of the FBI run by Comey. Some believe it was the genesis of the improper wiretapping of Trump Tower. Nevertheless, Comey relied on it enough to present it to the president-elect in a private meeting, apparently without saying April Fools.
And then there is the informant that has been sequestered by the FBI. Why? And why did they apparently meet with Steele and discuss hiring him? Also, why has Congress requested documents from the FBI and been denied them for six months. Seems very much like an agency out of control.
How is Mueller supposed to consider the activity of Comey and the FBI regarding this with any creditability or independence?
If you have read my columns over the years, you know that on my first day of work with a mega-huge CPA firm, they told me: “the appearance of a conflict of interest is the same as a conflict of interest.” Mr. Mueller, they may not have taught you that in law school, but it also applies to you. Resign.