by WorldTribune Staff, October 27, 2017
Recent revelations of the FBI’s role in the investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election make it impossible for Robert Mueller to conduct an objective probe and he should resign as special counsel, the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board said on Oct. 26.
“It is no slur against Mr. Mueller’s integrity to say that he lacks the critical distance to conduct a credible probe of the bureau he ran for a dozen years,” the Journal’s editorial board wrote.
“He could best serve the country by resigning to prevent further political turmoil over that conflict of interest.”
The Journal’s board argues that the news that broke this week on the FBI’s role in the discredited Trump dossier puts Mueller’s ability to lead the investigation into question.
“The more troubling question is whether the FBI played a role, even if inadvertently, in assisting a Russian disinformation campaign. We know the agency possessed the dossier in 2016, and according to media reports it debated paying Mr. Steele to continue his work in the runup to the election. This occurred while former FBI Director James Comey was ramping up his probe into supposed ties between the Trump campaign and Russians.
“All of this also raises questions about Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. The Fusion (GPS) news means the FBI’s role in Russia’s election interference must now be investigated – even as the FBI and Justice insist that Mr. Mueller’s probe prevents them from cooperating with Congressional investigators.”
Mueller served as the FBI’s director between 2001 and 2013 and led the agency at the same time the Uranium One deal was being debated and approved.
The FBI has uncovered evidence of Russian bribery and money laundering in the U.S. ahead of a 2010 decision by the Obama administration to approve the partial sale of the Canadian firm Uranium One to Russian energy giant Rosatom. The deal transferred control of 20 percent of U.S. uranium stocks to Russia.
Meanwhile, the lawyer for a former FBI informant who blew the whistle on the Uranium One scandal said the Obama Justice Department had threatened her client and his career.
Victoria Toensing, the lawyer for the informant, told The Daily Caller’s Vince Coglianese that Obama Justice Department lawyers told her client that “his reputation and liberty [was] in jeopardy” if he did not drop a lawsuit against the government.
On Oct. 25, the Trump Justice Department released the informant from a confidentiality agreement, clearing the way for him to testify before several congressional committees about his undercover work at Uranium One.
The FBI and Justice Department had previously blocked the informant from speaking with Congress or anyone else.
“The Russians have threatened him, and up until just last night the U.S. government has threatened him,” Toensing told Coglianese during an interview on WMAL’s “Mornings on the Mall.”
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