FBI Warned Of Russian Intelligence Links To Oligarch In Cohen Payment Allegation

[dajoki]

FBI Warned Of Russian Intelligence Links To Oligarch In Cohen Payment Allegation
May 11, 201810:47 AM ET
Updated at 11:09 a.m.
https://www.npr.org/2018/05/11/610381368/fbi-warned-of-russian-intelligence-links-to-oligarch-in-cohen-payment-allegation


The FBI warned four years ago that a foundation controlled by the Russian oligarch who allegedly reimbursed Donald Trump's personal lawyer might have been acting on behalf of Russia's intelligence services.

FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Lucia Ziobro wrote an unusual column in the Boston Business Journal in April of 2014 to warn that a foundation controlled by Russian energy baron Viktor Vekselberg might be part of a Moscow spying campaign that sought to siphon up American science and technology.

"The foundation may be a means for the Russian government to access our nation's sensitive or classified research, development facilities and dual-use technologies with military and commercial applications," Ziobro wrote. "This analysis is supported by reports coming out of Russia itself."

Fast forward to this week: Vekselberg's name has been in U.S. headlines because of allegations about his involvement with payments to Trump's longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. I am imagining that there is a big bulletin board somewhere

in Mueller's offices that has photos tacked onto it with push pins which are strung to one another with colored yarn, and it looks like a huge spider web created by a spider on meth.