Those Republicans! Just when you think you have them figured as habitual scandal mongers, they surprise you by letting a “real” scandal pass by virtually unnoticed. You would think the likes of Devin Nunes and Trey Gowdy, who cut their teeth on scandals like Obama’s “spying” on the Trump campaign and Benghazi!!!, would be breathing fire over Trump’s latest Twit storm accusing Obama of doing nothing to combat Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Even Adam Schiff admits that Obama could have done better, so what are they waiting for? Let the inquisition begin!
So what gives? Well, turns out that Republican leaders, especially Senate leader Mitch McConnell, didn’t exactly bathe themselves in patriotic glory. As Slates Ben Mathis-Lilley reports, McConnell led a Republican rebellion that essentially blocked Obama from taking the charges of Russian interference public. Quoting a Washington Post report, Mathis-Lilly writes:
McConnell “made clear to the administration that he would consider any effort by the White House to challenge the Russians publicly an act of partisan politics.” In other words, McConnell not only refused to condemn a foreign spy operation, he threatened to retaliate against his country’s efforts to defend itself. (McConnell has argued that a letter he later co-signed with other congressional leaders constituted an appropriate reaction to Russian meddling, but the letter in question literally did not use the word “Russia.”)
Certainly in light of the indictments brought last week by Robert Mueller that revealed a vast Russian conspiracy to monkey wrench our election, McConnell’s reaction could be seen as cynical at best. But, allow me to forward my own conspiracy theory. McConnell already knew that he, and several other prominent Republicans, were deep in it with Russians themselves. And, as usual, all you have to do is follow the money. The Dallas Morning News has done some excellent reporting on the isssue. It all starts with a Russian immigrant named Len Blavatnik, who holds a dual US-UK citizenship. Blavatnik, who conveniently has business ties to Treasury Sec. Steve Mnuchin, had been a minor contributor, by billionaire standards, to Republicans and Democrats up until 2014. But, as Ruth May reports:
In 2015-16, everything changed. Blavatnik's political contributions soared and made a hard right turn as he pumped $6.35 million into GOP political action committees, with millions of dollars going to top Republican leaders including Sens. Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham.
In 2017, donations continued, with $41,000 going to both Republican and Democrat candidates, along with $1 million to McConnell's Senate Leadership Fund.
May goes on the document business and family links between Blavatnik and Russian oligarchs Oleg Deripaska (Paul Manafort’s “buddy”) and Victor Vekselberg, both members of Putin’s inner circle and three Americans with extensive business interests in Russia and to Victor Vekselberg. By the end of the 2016 election cycle, Blavatnik and the three Americans had contributed $10.4 million, almost all going to Republicans. As for McConnell...
McConnell surely knew as a participant in high level intelligence briefings in 2016 that our electoral process was under attack by the Russians. Two weeks after the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a joint statement in October 2016 that the Russian government had directed the effort to interfere in our electoral process, McConnell's PAC accepted a $1 million donation from Blavatnik's AI-Altep Holdings. The PAC took another $1 million from Blavatnik's AI-Altep Holdings on March 30, 2017, just 10 days after former FBI Director James Comey publicly testified before the House Intelligence Committee about Russia's interference in the election.
Now, thanks to Citizens United, all this funny money is probably legal. But let’s not forget that Robert Mueller’s team is also reported to be looking into million of dollars in contributions made by the NRA that were allegedly first paid in rubles.
Worthy of a real investigation, don’t you think?