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FBI informant in Obama-era Russian nuclear bribery cleared to testify before Congress
The Hill ^ | 10/25/17 | John Solomon

Posted on 10/25/2017 5:28:02 PM PDT by markomalley

The Justice Department on Wednesday night released a former FBI informant from a confidentiality agreement, allowing him to testify before Congress about what he witnessed undercover about the Russian nuclear industry’s efforts to win favorable decisions during the Obama administration.

Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores confirmed to The Hill a deal had been reached clearing the informant to talk to Congress for the first tie, nearly eight years after he first went undercover for the FBI.

“As of tonight, the Department of Justice has authorized the informant to disclose to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, as well as one member of each of their staffs, any information or documents he has concerning alleged corruption or bribery involving transactions in the uranium market, including but not limited to anything related to Vadim Mikerin, Rosatom, Tenex, Uranium One, or the Clinton Foundation,” she said.

Multiple congressional committees have been seeking to interview the informant, whose name has not been released publicly, because he stayed undercover for nearly five years providing agents information on Russia’s aggressive efforts to grow its atomic energy business in America.

His work helped the Justice Department secure convictions against Russia’s top commercial nuclear executive in the United States, a Russian financier in New Jersey and the head of a U.S. uranium trucking company in what prosecutors said was a long-running racketeering scheme involving bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering.

But the informant was unable to provide answers to recent lawmakers’ inquiries because he had signed a non-disclosure agreement with the bureau. He also was forced by the Justice Department in 2016 to withdraw a lawsuit that threatened to call attention to the case during last year’s election.

The man’s lawyer, Victoria Toensing, told The Hill on Wednesday night that the FBI sent her a formal letter saying it no longer had any reason to ask the informant to keep his work confidential, clearing the way for him to potentially testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the House Intelligence Committee and the House Oversight and Reform Committee.

The committees are keen to learn what the informant knows about any Russian efforts to curry favor with Bill and Hillary Clinton, to win Obama administration approval for Moscow’s purchase of large uranium assets in the United States or to secure billions in new contracts uranium sales contracts with American utilities.

“The FBI has informed me that they are releasing my client from his NDA so that he can testify to Congress about his work uncovering the Russian nuclear bribery case and the efforts he witnessed by Moscow to gain influence with the Clintons in hopes of winning favorable uranium decisions from the Obama administration,” Toensing said.

“He is now able and willing to talk with the confessional committees seeking his testimony though I will be working with all parties to ensure his identity remains confidential to ensure his safety,” she added.

Russia’s uranium business drew controversy starting in 2015 when it was revealed that Bill Clinton collected a $500,000 speaking fee from a Russian bank and millions more in charitable donations interested in the Uranium One deal while his wife Hillary Clinton served as secretary of state. Russia’s Tenex nuclear sales arm also secured billions in new American nuclear fuel contracts around the same time.

The Obama administration said they saw no national security reasons to block the deals, one of which gave Vladimir Putin control of 20 percent of America’s uranium stockpile.

But last week a series of stories published in The Hill disclosed that before those decisions were made, the FBI had gathered extensive evidence that Vadim Mikerin. Tenex’s chief executive inside the United States, was directing a massive bribery scheme that compromised an American trucking company that shipped uranium for Russia.

The evidence was first gathered in 2009 but charges weren’t brought until 2014. Mikerin pled guilt a year later to a money laundering charge and is currently in prison.

But key members of Congress said they weren’t alerted to the case at the time and are now deeply concerned the Obama administration had a good security reason not to approve the deals given the corruption was uncovered.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government
KEYWORDS: boom; bribery; fbi; hillary; russia; uranium
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To: bitt

Or he has been ‘gotten’ to by the corrupt state and they cleared him for testimony /cynical bastard off


21 posted on 10/25/2017 6:08:24 PM PDT by Electric Graffiti (Obama voters killed America. Treat them accordingly.)
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To: hardspunned

“Are you going to give this guy up for the FBI to protect? I kinda of trust the secret service but that’s about it.”

I don’t trust ANY of them.

Security you can trust? Paging Erik Prince, we need a Blackwater Security detail now!


22 posted on 10/25/2017 6:12:35 PM PDT by Bshaw (A nefarious deceit is upon us all!)
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To: Electric Graffiti

“oh, this is silly,.. you will never believe it..I fell in the shower and bumped my head, and now I can’t remember anything past the big eclipse..” “Okay, I’m done.”


23 posted on 10/25/2017 6:14:14 PM PDT by bitt (press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally)
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To: bitt

“I can’t recall” The ol Hillary rotten Clinton song and dance.


24 posted on 10/25/2017 6:16:16 PM PDT by Electric Graffiti (Obama voters killed America. Treat them accordingly.)
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To: SERKIT

She so belongs in jail.


25 posted on 10/25/2017 6:17:38 PM PDT by neverevergiveup
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To: markomalley

So do we routinely sell uranium on the open market? If not why was this sale authorized by the Obama administration to begin with? The clear answer is to enrich the Clintons or that Hillary was so compromised by Russian agents on this issue that they were compelled to do so to maintain the facade and avoid scrutiny.


26 posted on 10/25/2017 6:33:53 PM PDT by vigilence (Vigilence)
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To: markomalley
They wil NEVER put a former First Lady in jail - I don’t care what she’s done. Obama will skate as well. They’ll put the informant in jail - watch and learn, turn and burn
27 posted on 10/25/2017 6:36:05 PM PDT by atc23 (The Confederacy was the single greatest conservative resistance to federal authority ever)
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To: markomalley

Please give your info to your attornies before the clintoons off you.


28 posted on 10/25/2017 6:37:40 PM PDT by chit*chat
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Now we all know what a horrific busy number of work weeks A.G. Sessions has been buried in.

Mr. Sessions, I apologize to you for doubting your resolve. I thought you were just skating in a cushy FedGov job.

You’ve been a busy, busy boy. Thank you.


29 posted on 10/25/2017 6:38:10 PM PDT by USCG SimTech
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To: markomalley

This person needs to sleep in the Lincoln bedroom for years or beside President Trump... I am worried about both of them.x


30 posted on 10/25/2017 6:38:57 PM PDT by DAVEY CROCKETT (Thank you Free Republic. Thank you President Donald J Trump)
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To: markomalley

Hope the guy doesn’t arkancide before he can testify.....better have security around him.


31 posted on 10/25/2017 6:39:36 PM PDT by Some Fat Guy in L.A. (Still bitterly clinging to rational thought despite it's unfashionability)
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To: atc23
They wil NEVER put a former First Lady in jail - I don’t care what she’s done. Obama will skate as well. They’ll put the informant in jail - watch and learn, turn and burn

A non-politician will never get elected to president either. These are very different times now.

32 posted on 10/25/2017 6:40:10 PM PDT by USCG SimTech
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To: markomalley

This informant needs protection from the Clintons. People have a mysterious way of disappearing when they displease the Clintons.


33 posted on 10/25/2017 6:41:24 PM PDT by BAW (I'm not tired of winning.)
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To: Some Fat Guy in L.A.
Hope the guy doesn’t arkancide before he can testify.....better have security around him.

Probably deep in Camp David sleeping in a cot just outside the SCIF, ready to answer questions as this continues to explode.

34 posted on 10/25/2017 6:42:57 PM PDT by USCG SimTech
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To: Bshaw

I was going to say that the Defense Intelligence Agency would probably be best but I like your idea better


35 posted on 10/25/2017 6:43:37 PM PDT by cyclotic (Trump tweets are the only news source you can trust.)
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To: bitt

I hate to say it, but...

BOOM!

It’s about uranium, so big boom!


36 posted on 10/25/2017 6:50:32 PM PDT by Flick Lives
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To: markomalley

The tab for the Mueller Special investigation needs to be paid by the DNC, Hillary, Comey, and Obama.


37 posted on 10/25/2017 6:58:48 PM PDT by Lopeover (The 2016 Election is about allegiance to the United States!)
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To: USCG SimTech

thank you for saying that. Sessions and a small loyal group have been working behind the scene in a great big sting.

And DJT has been in the shadows looking ‘above it all’, lol...

Do we want a special prosecutor? NOW!


38 posted on 10/25/2017 7:11:19 PM PDT by bitt (press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally)
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To: TheDon
Many very powerful and desperate people really don’t care how protected the witness is. Their future depends on the witness not testifying about what they know. Of course, there are many ways to persuade someone to not testifying or to lie.

But witness tampering is illegal.

39 posted on 10/25/2017 7:35:24 PM PDT by gunsequalfreedom
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To: magua

“Hillary going to jail so Obama doesn’t have to.”

No way. Its Thighness would rat out God rather than take any punishment itself.


40 posted on 10/25/2017 8:48:13 PM PDT by Rembrandt
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