JUNE 2017 : (PROSECUTOR WEISSMANN MAKES OFFER TO [PUTIN-BACKED] UKRAINIAN OLIGARCH DMITRY FIRTASH) The ink was still drying on special counsel Robert Mueller’s appointment papers when his chief deputy, the famously aggressive and occasionally controversial prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, made a bold but secret overture in early June 2017.Weissmann quietly reached out to the American lawyers for Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash with a tempting offer: Give us some dirt on Donald Trump in the Russia case, and Team Mueller might make his 2014 U.S. criminal charges go away....
------- How Mueller deputy Andrew Weissmann's offer to an oligarch could boomerang on DOJ, The Hill, 07/22/19 | John Solomon
....He is Dmitry Firtash, a former fireman and soldier. In little more than a decade, the Ukrainian went from obscurity to wealth and renown, largely by buying gas from Russia and selling it in his home country. His success was built on remarkable sweetheart deals brokered by associates of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, at immense cost to Russian taxpayers, a Reuters investigation shows. -—— Special Report - Putin’s allies channelled billions to Ukraine oligarch, reuters.com, November 26, 2014, by Stephen Grey, Tom Bergin, Sevgil Musaieva and Roman Anin