Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer strongly linked to the Putin regime and the campaign of Hillary Clinton, was indicted today by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York for alleged obstruction of justice in connection with the government's investigation of Prevezon Holdings, a Russian company she was advising; a company with close ties to Vladimir Putin.
Though the indictment is merely symbolic since Veselnitskaya is in Russia and chances of her extradition are nil, the government's action highlights the linkage between the Clinton campaign and its minions in the FBI and Justice Department during 2016.
Veselnitskaya is best known for her June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Fredo Trump Jr and Jared from Subway, which was set up based upon her claim of having information related to Hillary Clinton's missing emails (approximately 30,000 of her emails illegally kept on her private server while she was Secretary of State were deleted in order to obstruct the Federal investigation of her alleged breaking of federal law). However, when she showed up for the meeting what she wanted to discuss was the Magnitksy Act, a sanctions law against Russia that Putin has been desperate to have repealed (as was Veselnitskayas client Prevezon Holdings).
And here's where the plot thickens.
At the time Veselnitskaya was in the United States on a non-immigrant work visa issued by Homeland Security and the State Department, which is interesting since she was a Russian lawyer, not a qualified American lawyer. Her purpose for the 2016 visit was to work on repeal of the Magnitsky Act. On the same day Veselnitskaya had the meeting at the Trump Tower she met before and after with Glen Simpson.
Who is Glen Simpson? He's the head of Fusion GPS. His firm had been retained by the American law firm of BakerHostetler on behalf of Prevezon Holdings to work on repeal of the Magnitsky Act. Fusion was paid $524,000 by Baker between March and October 2016.
At the same time, Fusion was working for the Clinton campaign, having been hired through its outside law firm, Perkins Coie, which paid Fusion $1.024,000 between May and December 2016. In turn Fusion GPS hired Christopher Steele, who in turn hired various contacts to obtain information on Donald Trump from sources in Russian intelligence which was compiled into what is now known as the Steele Dossier. The only established coordination link between a 2016 Presidential election campaign and the Putin regime is the assembling of the Steele Dossier on behalf of Hillary Clinton, which, in turn, was used by the FBI and Justice Department to obtain the FISA warrant to tap the communications of Carter Page who worked on the Trump campaign. Under the terms of such warrant, the FBI could also monitor the communication of anyone who communicated with Page, and anyone who communicated with those communicating with Paige. In effect by this two-step operations pretty much the entire Trump circle of influence. What is particularly curious about all this is that Carter Page has not been indicted nor, as far as I can learn, been called before a grand jury or even questioned by any governmental authority about all this.
One of the Fusion GPS Russian experts was Nellie Ohr, wife of Bruce Ohr, a senior Justice Department official. In May 2016 Nellie Ohr obtained a ham radio license enabling her to make contacts outside of normal surveillance. Bruce Ohr in turn served as a two-way information conduit between Fusion GPS and the Justice Department. Rod Rosenstein, who oversees (I use the term loosely) the Mueller investigation, was apparently unaware that Ohr was working closely with Fusion GPS and he has since been demoted since his role as a mole was uncovered.
Meanwhile the FBI officials most closely involved in the Russia collusion investigation and obtaining of the FISA warrant were the same officials who made sure to clear Hillary Clinton of any criminal taint in the email investigation.
I continue to marvel at the stark contrast between the amateurs and the pros in the two campaigns. Trump and Jared were foolish enough to meet directly with Veselnitskaya, and even though the meeting ended up not having anything to do with Hillary, it apparently remains a focus of the Mueller investigation.
Meanwhile the pros at the Clinton campaign do it right. They have Perkins Coie hire Fusion GPS which hires Steele who hires cut-outs to deal with the Russians. So we have actual collusion but no apparent interest by Mueller.
Something stinks here.
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