Mueller, Podesta, the Ukraine's President Yanukovych and Manafort.

Now Robert Mueller is prosecuting Manfort for doing work in the Ukraine for Viktor Yanukovych back in 2013. However, Mueller worked with Yanukovych in 2013 as well. Yanukovych served as President of the Ukraine from 2010 until 2014.

Yanukovych is currently in exile in Russia and wanted by the Ukraine for high treason. November 2013 saw the beginning of a series of events that led to his ousting as President. Yanukovych rejected a pending EU association agreement, choosing instead to pursue a Russian loan bailout and closer ties with Russia. The Ukrainian parliament voted to remove him from his post. After his departure, Yanukovych declared himself to remain "the legitimate head of the Ukrainian state elected in a free vote by Ukrainian citizens." In June of 2015, Yanukovych was officially deprived of the title of President of Ukraine by the Supreme Rada of Ukraine.

Last week a memo was released showing Assistant AG Rod Rosenstein directing the Mueller investigation to look into allegations that Paul Manafort:

“Committed a crime or crimes arising out of payments he received from the Ukrainian government before and during the tenure of President Viktor Yanukovych.”

Neither Rosenstein or Mueller offered that Mueller interacted with the former Ukrainian President as well.

Here's a picture of Mueller and Yanukovych together in 2013 shared by the Ukrainian Embassy on Facebook with the post:

“We are grateful to American side for support of our efforts aimed at settlement of frozen conflicts, ensuring control over conventional arms in Europe and combating trafficking. We count on further support and cooperation with USA within the OSCE in order to enhance stability and security in the area which is under jurisdiction of the given organization,” the President said at the meeting with FBI Director Robert Mueller.

The Head of State reminded that since the beginning of 2013, Ukraine had been presiding in the OSCE. “We determined priorities of our presidency in close cooperation with member-states of the OSCE. I am pleased to note that we have a constructive cooperation with Washington in this sphere,” the President emphasized.

“Ukrainian-American cooperation efficiently develops in many spheres of mutual interest. Your visit is very interesting for Ukraine and relations between our law enforcement bodies have established good traditions of cooperation and communication in the course of 20 years. I am confident that there is a potential for further broadening of cooperation,” Viktor Yanukovych said.

He stressed that Ukraine paid particular attention to the issue of combating terrorism. We have adopted a number of documents aimed at increasing the efficiency of such work.

“The level of cooperation between central executive governmental bodies involved in anti-terrorist actions is pretty high. The Security Service elaborated respective documents, they were reviewed and approved by respective Presidential Decree,” the Head of State noted.

The President emphasized that Ukraine is very close to signing the Association Agreement with the EU in November. “There are some preparations left but I hope that we will fulfill everything and sign the Agreement,” he said.

In his turn, FBI Director Robert Mueller expressed gratitude to the President of Ukraine for the assistance provided after the explosions in Boston. “I would like to focus on the most important issue for us – the issue of combating terrorism. I would like to say thank you for the assistance provided to us after the Boston Marathon,” he noted.

FBI Director also informed that in the course of his meetings in Ukraine, he planned to discuss a number of issues of mutual interest.

Who only knows what the issues of mutual interest were!

This is not the first interaction Mueller had with the Russians. In 2009 Mueller hand delivered uranium to the Russians on an airport tarmac per the request of Hillary Clinton. Mueller also was Head of the FBI when the Obama Administration sold 20% of US uranium to the Russians in the Uranium One deal.

Mueller also reportedly visited Moscow before he visited the Ukrainian President in 2013.

How can Mueller be investigating Manfort for business with the Ukraine and Russia when Mueller is as suspect as Manafort ever was?

Here's the rest of the story on Mueller, Rosenstein, McCabe, Comey, Podesta, the Ukraine, Russia, Manafort and Clinton.

Uranium One was represented by the Podesta Group from 2011 to 2013 (managed by John Podesta’s brother), which cashiered $180,000 from its client. John Podesta was Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff, Obama's right hand man and Hillary's campaign manager. John Podesta was HATED BY Andrew Breitbart who threatened to expose him shortly before he "suddenly" died in March 2012. Tony, the foreign lobbyist, is John's brother. The Podesta Group had avoided registration as a foreign agent by claiming that a client, the European Centre for Modern Ukraine, had no ties to a foreign government. The European Centre for Modern Ukraine was likely funded by ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich from the billions he extracted before fleeing Ukraine.

Manafort and Gates approached the Podesta Group in 2012 about lobbying on behalf of the Ukrainian government. The Podesta Group did work to benefit Yanukovich through the Brussels-based nonprofit European Centre for a Modern Ukraine. The Podesta Group earned more than $1.2 million from Yanukovich from 2012 through 2014 before he was ousted as President of the Ukraine.

The Obama Justice Department chose not to share this information with those government officials responsible for the October 2010 approval of the partial sale of Uranium One to Rosatom. If the FBI’s evidence of Rosatom’s violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act had been disclosed in a timely fashion, the chances for government approval of the Uranium One-Rosatom deal would have vanished, despite its high-level backing from The Podesta Group, Uranium One’s substantial payments to the Clinton Foundation, and Russia’s direct payments to Bill Clinton himself. Hence the stakes in withholding the FBI evidence were quite high.

Given its importance to Russia, one might wonder why the Russian Rosatom representatives insisted on kickbacks and money laundering, whose disclosure could have scotched the whole Uranium One-Rosatom deal. For those who follow Putin’s kleptocracy, there is no mystery. Every Kremlin deal confers a license to steal on the participating Putin associates. Control of Rosneft or Gazprom is a license to steal billions. In this case, stealing from contactors on the Rosatom deal was a license to steal millions. There is a second explanation beyond greed and rent seeking: by making criminal conduct a condition for doing business, the Russian side would have compromising material (kompromat) to use against its U.S. partners if the need arose.

Those who attempt to do business with Russia understand that the Putin economy is basically one vast criminal conspiracy. Its business deals are Mafia operations, such as the Uranium One deal, which divert state revenue into private pockets. The Uranium One deal served both Russia’s national security interests while lining the pockets of those Russian placed in charge. Putin’s oligarchs can keep their gains if they stay on the right side of the Kremlin. The Kremlin rule, however, is not to get caught. In this case, the Russian operative was found out and will serve a prison sentence. He may be glad. Who knows what the Kremlin has in store for him? Those U.S. officials and PR executives involved in the Rosatom deal should remember: Those who lie with dogs come up with fleas.

Justice officials involved in the “silent” 2009 to 2015 investigation of Rosatom include Robert Mueller, James Comey, Rod Rosenstein, and Andrew McCabe – all intertwined in the ongoing investigation of President Donald Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia. The failure of this “gang of four” to blow the whistle on Rosatom means they must recuse themselves from any Russian investigations, Robert Mueller included. The attempts in Washington to link Trump with Russia may turn out to shine light on much bigger scandals by the gang of four.

So, Paul Manafort has accused Robert Mueller of carrying out an illegal search of his property only 10 days after Mueller was appointed as special counsel in May 2017. What was Mueller really looking for IMHO? Podesta Group incriminating documents on behalf of the DNC, Obama and Hillary Clinton. Remember, John Podesta was Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff, Obama's right-hand-man and Hillary Clinton's campaign manager. His brother, Tony, was a corrupt international lobbyist who had business dealings with Manafort and the Russians.

During the search, FBI agents grabbed boxes of Manafort's business records, which covered his work for Ukrainian politicians and in a movie production business, according to the filing. Investigators were looking for documents related to the now-defunct lobbying firm Podesta Group, which also did international lobbying and was run by the brother of Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman.

An FBI agent said in an affidavit it believed Manafort might also have records in the boxes of his business relationship with Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch who was sanctioned by the Trump administration. Prosecutors have said they've shielded Manafort and public from seeing descriptions in the warrant documentation that could reveal their ongoing investigation.

Manafort had paid a little more than $300 a month since 2015 to rent the large metal-walled room to hold his business records, on Holland Lane in Alexandria, according to the filing. It held 21 boxes of paperwork and a metal filing cabinet that appeared to be filled with documents dating back decades.
They emptied the storage unit in the search, Manafort's lawyers said.

I never did understand how Mueller could be Special Counsel when his law firm worked for Manafort and Ivanka Trump. Is this how Trump and Sessions set up Mueller and Rosenstein?
Before he became Special Counsel, Robert Mueller was a partner at the law firm WilmerHale, which had both Paul Manafort and Ivanka Trump/Jared Kushner as clients. Mueller quit WilmerHale to become Special Counsel and brought over several associates with him. Manafort fired WilmerHale after his house was raided.

Now, Federal government insiders believe that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein did not have the authority to legally appoint Robert Mueller as special counsel, due to this major glaring conflict of interest in the case. Rosenstein's DOJ signed a waiver for Mueller on May 18th. Nobody understands why.

Robert Mueller still worked for WilmerHale — the very firm representing Paul Manafort — when Rod Rosenstein contacted Mueller to give him the go-ahead to investigate Manafort for suspected Russia ties. That should have come up in any fair (and legally required) background check that Rosenstein should have done on Mueller. Manafort was still being represented by WilmerHale when his house was raided by federal authorities in August 2017, at which time he dropped WilmerHale as his representation.

“Acting AG Rod Rosenstein did not follow the law established to appoint a special counsel. This was made clear when he and the special counsel on Monday filed a response to Paul Manafort’s motion to dismiss. In the CFR (600.3) for special counsel it states “to ensure that a Special Counsel undergoes an appropriate background investigation and a detailed review of ethics and conflicts of interest issues“.
That’s where the entire Rosenstein-Mueller team runs into trouble.

“In the Prosecutions response to Manafort’s motion to dismiss, they provide as evidence Attachment “A” the letter from Rosenstein dated 05/17/2017 appointing Robert Mueller as special counsel. They also provide Attachment “B” the 08/02/2017 Memorandum from Rosenstein to Mueller referencing the scope of investigation and definition of authority. In the “Memorandum” Rosenstein list Manafort as a prime target “Allegations that Paul Manafort: Committed ….”!”
“Mueller was working at the WilmerHale law firm when picked as special counsel. Manafort has and was using WilmerHale as his law firm.

The prosecution’s response to the motion to dismiss reveals that Rosenstein did not follow the law otherwise the background would have initially disqualified Mueller or any staff from WilmerHale or at the least would have disqualified them once Rosenstein issued the Memorandum in August revealing that Mueller’s Firm’s client Manafort as a target. Part of the Memorandum is redacted and the further question exists: is Jared Kushner in the redacted section because the fact that Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are and have been client’s of Mueller’s law firm should have been reason to disqualifiy “WilmerHale insiders” during the required background check of Mueller and his staff."

Robert Mueller was nominated for the position of FBI Director by George W. Bush on July 5, 2001 and his confirmation vote on the Senate floor on August 2, 2001, was unanimous, 98–0. He officially became the FBI director on September 4, 2001, just one week before the September 11 attacks against the United States homeland.

In May 2011, President Obama asked Mueller to continue at the helm of the FBI for two additional years beyond his normal 10-year term, which would have expired on September 4, 2011. On September 4, 2013, Mueller was replaced by James Comey.