Peter Schweizer: Trump vs. Clintons' Russia ties (guess who always got a free pass)

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/03/03/peter-schweizer-trump-vs-
clintons-russia-ties-guess-who-always-got-free-pass.html

Many of those sounding the loudest alarm bells over Russian influence in
U.S. politics were curiously silent when far greater concerns were raised
about the Clintons.

Investigating the business ties between Russia and those in President
Donald Trump’s orbit is a legitimate exercise. One-time Trump campaign
chairman Paul Manafort was an advisor to the pro-Russian Ukrainian
president. Former Trump advisor Carter Page had energy deals involving
Russian companies. Former National Security Advisor General Michael Flynn
gave a nicely paid speech in Moscow as a private citizen and was less than
complete in explaining his conversations with Russian officials. And then
there is the simple fact that Attorney General (former senator) Jeff
Session, while a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee,
communicated with the Russian Ambassador—something senators do fairly
regularly.

Examining these relationships is worth doing. Still, those pushing the
narrative of troubling ties to Russia lose all credibility by wholly
ignoring the far deeper and more troubling relationships the Clintons and
their closest aides have maintained with Russian government officials for
years, including while they were in public office. Unlike the revelations
so far concerning Russian ties in the Trump camp, the Clinton deals
involved hundreds of millions of dollars and enormous favors that
benefitted Russian interests.

Bill and Hillary Clinton received large sums of money directly and
indirectly from Russian officials while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of
State. Bill Clinton was paid a cool $500,000 (well above his normal fee)
for a speech in Moscow in 2010. Who footed the bill? An investment firm
in Moscow called Renaissance Capital, which boasts deep ties to Russian
intelligence. The Clinton Foundation itself took money from Russian
officials and Putin-connected oligarchs. They also took donations from:

Viktor Vekselberg, a Putin confidant who gave through his company, Renova
Group
Andrey Vavilov, a former Russian government official who was Chairman of
SuperOx, a research company that was part of the “nuclear Cluster” at the
Russian government’s Skolkovo research facility
Elena Baturina, the wife of the former Mayor of Moscow, who apparently
gave them money through JSC Inteco, an entity that she controls
Then there is the glaring fact that the Clinton Foundation also scored
$145 million in donations from nine shareholders in a Canadian uranium
company called Uranium One that was sold to the Russian government in
2010. The deal required the approval of several federal government
agencies, including Hillary Clinton’s State Department. The deal allowed
Rosatom, the Russian State Nuclear Agency, to buy assets that amounted to
20 percent of American uranium. Rosatom, by the way controls the Russian
nuclear arsenal.

Equally troubling: some of those donations were hidden and not disclosed
by the Clintons. President Obama required the Clinton Foundation to
disclose all contributions as a condition of Hillary Clinton becoming
Secretary of State. But that did not happen. The only reason the hidden
donations ever came to light is because we uncovered them by combing
through Canadian tax records.

Everyone got what they wanted in this deal: the uranium investors made a
nice profit; the Russians acquired a strategic asset; and the Clinton
Foundation bagged a lot of money.

Hillary Clinton says she was not involved in the decision to approve the
sale of Uranium One. As proof, the Clinton campaign in 2015 trotted out
her former aide, Assistant Secretary of State Fernandez, to say publicly
that we should take his word for it that she was not involved in approving
that deal. But as we now know from the leaked Podesta emails, Fernandez
was all too eager to help Podesta kill the story, while getting other
favors from Podesta. That raises questions about the veracity of his
comments.

It seems strange that while some in Congress are eager to investigate the
activities of General Mike Flynn and his contacts with Russia, they have
no interest in looking into a transaction in which the Clinton Foundation
received a staggering $145 million. It’s that kind of inconsistency that
saps all credibility from those raising these issues.

Beyond the Clintons themselves, there is also the troubling case of one of
their closest aides, John Podesta. He served as Hillary Clinton’s 2016
campaign chairman. Podesta didn’t just have conversations with Russian
officials. He went into business with the Russian government while he was
advising Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.

In 2011, John Podesta joined the executive board of a small energy company
called Joule Unlimited. Two months after he joined the board, the Russian
government invested one billion rubles (approximately $35 million) into
the company. The money came from a Russian government investment fund
called Rusnano. What is Rusnano? It is a fund started in 2007 by Vladimir
Putin and has been described by Russian Education and Science Minister
Andrei Fursenko as “Putin’s Child.”

According to State Department cables leaked via Wikileaks, technology
venture funds like Rusnano were considered a national security concern by
U.S. officials because they could serve a “dual use” in their investments.
That is, their investments in civilian technologies could have a military
application.

In short, John Podesta was business partners with the Russian government
and Vladimir Putin. When John Podesta went to the White House in January
2014 to serve as counselor to President Obama, he failed to disclose his
board membership in one of the Joule entities on his financial disclosure
form. According to the Podesta emails, Podesta transferred his 75,000
shares in the company to an LLC controlled by his family. But as the Wall
Street Journal notes, the Podesta emails reveal he remained actively
engaged in company business after that fact.

None of the individuals in Trump’s orbit who have Russian ties—Paul
Manafort, Carter Page, and General Mike Flynn—are serving in the Trump
White House. Had Hillary Clinton won the presidency, John Podesta would
certainly have played a central role. Would the same people who are
currently sounding the alarm bells about Russian influence in American
politics have cared? I doubt it.


--
Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in
denial Hillary Rodham Clinton on December 19th, 2016. The clown car
parade of the democrat party has run out of gas.

Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for ending the disaster of the
Obama presidency.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp.

ObamaCare is a total 100% failure and no lie that can be put forth by its
supporters can dispute that.

Obama jobs, the result of ObamaCare. 12-15 working hours a week at minimum
wage, no benefits and the primary revenue stream for ObamaCare. It can't
be funded with money people don't have, yet liberals lie about how great
it is.

Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $20 trillion in the eight
years he was in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood queer
liberal democrat donors.