by WorldTribune Staff, March 4, 2022
As Russia was launching its invasion of Ukraine, Hillary Clinton went on MSNBC to slam former President Donald Trump for “giving aid and comfort to Vladimir Putin” by saying the Russian leader was a “genius.”
Turns out Hillary did not exactly maintain an arms-length relationship with Russia-Ukraine saga, as Judicial Watch points out in its March 3 Investigative Bulletin:
In her MSNBC appearance, Hillary “conveniently omitted mention that not too long ago, she and her husband had raked in millions working both sides of a Russia-Ukraine grift,” the bulletin noted.
The Clinton clan, in fact, may give the Biden family a run for its money when it comes to personally capitalizing on the Russia-Ukraine showdown.
While his wife was heading up U.S. foreign policy as secretary of state in the Obama administration, Bill Clinton was raking in millions of dollars from speech fees, including a $500,000 bonanza from a single speech to a Russian investment firm with close ties to Putin’s inner circle.
Bill Clinton took in $48 million from 215 speeches, Judicial Watch discovered in a joint investigation with The Washington Times.
According to documents obtained by Judicial Watch in Freedom of Information Act litigation, State Department officials charged with reviewing proposed Bill Clinton speeches for possible conflicts of interest did not object to a single one.
The $500,000 speaking fee Bill Clinton received was from Renaissance Capital. Reuters reported that leaked emails showed top Renaissance officials awarding an unspecified stake in the firm to Matthias Warnig, a close Putin ally. “Warnig served as an officer in East Germany’s Stasi secret police at the same time as Putin was a KGB officer in Dresden in the late 1980s,” Reuters noted.
Bill and Hillary Clinton “also cultivated a relationship with Putin-connected oligarch Victor Vekselberg, who donated an estimated $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation,” the bulletin noted.
In 2018, Vekselberg was one of seven oligarchs sanctioned by the Trump administration for activities related to the Russian government’s “malign activity…including continuing to occupy Crimea and instigate violence in eastern Ukraine.”
Investigative reporter John Solomon discovered that Vekselberg also was involved in the Uranium One controversy — another lucrative source of cash for the Clinton network.
Related: GREATEST HITS, 14: FBI informant finally testifies on Clinton-Uranium One ties, February 8, 2018
The sale of Uranium One to Russia’s Rosatom was approved by both the U.S. and Canadian governments.
“In the years surrounding the deal — including before it became public knowledge — entities connected to Uranium One donated $145 million to the Clinton Foundation,” the Judicial Watch bulletin notes.
Bill and Hillary Clinton also had a Ukrainian benefactor.
According to a New York Times report, Ukrainian oligarch and steel baron Victor Pinchuk steered between $10 million and $25 million to the Clinton Foundation, loaned his private plane to the Clintons, flew to Los Angeles to attend Bill Clinton’s big 65th birthday party, and went to a dinner party at the Clintons’ home.