Russian Spy Ring Got Close to Hillary Clinton; Previously, State Department Denied Russian Spy Ring Got Close to Hillary Clinton

Breath deeply. Namaste. Prayer-hands. Warrior Pose.

Hillary Clinton may sometimes not be entirely truthful with you.

As Hillary Clinton was beginning her job as President Obama's chief diplomat, federal agents observed as multiple arms of Vladimir Putin's machine unleashed an influence campaign designed to win access to the new secretary of State, her husband Bill Clinton and members of their inner circle, according to interviews and once-sealed FBI records.

Some of the activities FBI agents gathered evidence about in 2009 and 2010 were covert and illegal.

A female Russian spy posing as an American accountant, for instance, used a false identity to burrow her way into the employ of a major Democratic donor in hopes of gaining intelligence on Hillary Clinton’s department, records show. The spy was arrested and deported as she moved closer to getting inside the secretary's department, agents said.

Other activities were perfectly legal and sitting in plain view, such as when a subsidiary of Russia’s state-controlled nuclear energy company hired a Washington firm to lobby the Obama administration. At the time it was hired, the firm was providing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in pro bono support to Bill Clinton’s global charitable initiative, and it legally helped the Russian company secure federal decisions that led to billions in new U.S. commercial nuclear business, records show.

Agents were surprised by the timing and size of a $500,000 check that a Kremlin-linked bank provided Bill Clinton with for a single speech in the summer of 2010. The payday came just weeks after Hillary Clinton helped arrange for American executives to travel to Moscow to support Putin’s efforts to build his own country's version of Silicon Valley, agents said.

...

"There is not one shred of doubt from the evidence that we had that the Russians had set their sights on Hillary Clinton’s circle, because she was the quarterback of the Obama-Russian reset strategy and the assumed successor to Obama as president," said a source familiar with the FBI’s evidence at the time, speaking only on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to speak to the news media.

How did the Russian spy going by the name Cynthia Murphy get close to Hillary Clinton? Through her biggest weakness, of course -- money. Murphy got close to a Hillary fundraiser named Alan Patricof.

Back in 2010, when the spy story broke, Hillary Clinton's office issued a statement that there was “no reason to think the Secretary was a target of this spy ring.”

Court documents and agents who worked the case suggest otherwise, saying the Russians were specifically targeting her department and any intelligence they could get on the new administration’s emerging foreign policy.

The article goes on to note an informant for the FBI -- whose disclosures about the Uranium One deal have made recent news -- reports that he kept hearing about Russian efforts to buy their way into Hillary's inner circle. That informant's lawyer, Victoria Toensing, states:

"I can confirm that my client while working undercover for the FBI and in the employ of the Russian energy firm TENEX witnessed numerous, detailed conversations in which Russian actors described their efforts to lobby, influence or ingratiate themselves with the Clintons in hopes of winning favorable uranium decisions from the Obama administration," attorney Victoria Toensing said.

Definitely click on the article because it links the spy ring encircling the Clintons' with the enormous amounts of Russian cash the Clintons were taking at the exact same time. But I can't excerpt the whole thing.

The informant is being blocked from going public by a Non-Disclosure Agreement the Obama administration forced him to sign.

That may change, though. Charles Grassley has invited him to speak to the Senate Judiciary committee. A majority vote on that committee would produce a subpoena, which would trump any NDA (and presumably immunize him against any attempted action against him for breaching it).

The NDA may not even be legal, but I know a lot of Benghazi whistleblowers believe it is, and aren't willing to talk without that grant of congressional immunity. (Which, bizarrely, Congress won't give them.)

posted by Ace at 12:41 PM

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