Wikileaks Mocks Clinton Campaign’s Russia Conspiracy Theories

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Photos: Getty; Edit: BNN
Ezra Dulis

Wikileaks mocked Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton Tuesday morning for claiming that her opponents are linked to Vladimir Putin — even though her State Department and campaign chairman have done major business with Russia.

“No link between Trump & Russia,” the message says — in reference to a New York Times article that the FBI concluded that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has “no clear link to Russia.” Earlier on the same day as this report, Clinton went all in with this conspiracy theory during a stump speech:

[Side note: Clinton boasted in a paid private speech that she visited Putin’s “private inner sanctum” as Secretary of State.]

“No link between Assange & Russia,” it says next — in reference to claims from Hillary Clinton during the final presidential debate, campaign chairman John Podesta, and vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange received Podesta’s emails from Russian hackers.

“But Podesta & Clinton involved in selling 20% of US uranium to Russia,” it concludes. This is in reference to reporting from Peter Schweizer — President of the Government Accountability Institute and Breitbart News Senior Editor-at-Large — in his book Clinton Cash. Schweizer wrote that Clinton, while Secretary of State, approved the transfer of one fifth of America’s uranium supplies to Putin’s Russia. The head of the company buying this uranium gave millions to the Clinton Foundation, and Clinton did not disclose that fact to the Obama Administration.

This reporting has been confirmed by the New York Times:

CONFIRMED: Hillary’s Foundation Hid a $2.35 Million Foreign Donation from the Head of the Russian Govt’s Uranium Company that Had Business Before Hillary Clinton’s State Dept.—a Clear Violation of the Memorandum of Understanding with the Obama Administration

The New York Times has confirmed that Hillary Clinton violated the Memorandum of Understanding she signed with the Obama administration promising to disclose all foreign donations during her tenure as Sec. of State.

As Clinton Cash reveals, Ian Telfer, the foreign head of the Russian-owned uranium company, Uranium One, which Hillary Clinton approved to acquire U.S. uranium, made four individual hidden donations to the Clinton Foundation totaling $2.35 million, none of which appear in Clinton Foundation disclosures.

…

CONFIRMED: Hillary’s Approval of the Russian Takeover of Uranium One Transferred 20% of All U.S. Uranium to the Russian Govt.

The New York Times confirms, “The sale gave the Russians control of one-fifth of all uranium production capacity in the United States.”

The Times also verifies the book’s reporting that Hillary’s uranium transfer to Russia represented, at the time, a projected 50% of all U.S. uranium output.

Wikileaks’ mention of Podesta is not clearly proven. There is no documentation to suggest he was involved in the Uranium One deal — though his brother Tony was. However, we do know that Podesta was involved with a company called Joule Unlimited, which received funding from a Russian government-owned company called Rusnano:

Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta sat on the executive board of a small energy company called Joule Unlimited… Other Joule board members included senior Russian officials. According to the GAI report: “Two months after Podesta joined the board, Vladimir Putin’s Rusnano announced that it would invest up to one billion rubles into Joule Unlimited, which amounts to $35 million. That represents one-fifth of the entire amount of investment dollars Joule collected from 2007 to 2013.”

Rusnano, which former Russian education and science minister and current science advisor to Vladmir Putin Andrei Fursenko describes as “Putin’s child,” was founded by Putin in 2007.

Podesta claims to have divested from Joule in 2014, but emails from Wikileaks throw doubts on that claim. First, we learned that Podesta transferred his 75,000 common shares in Joule to a company named Leonidio Holdings — where his daughter Megan Sprouse is a “managing member.” The Wall Street Journal’s James Freeman further questioned Podesta’s “divestment,” as he apparently helped pay legal bills for Leonidio:

WikiLeaks also shows Mr. Podesta receiving a bill for legal expenses related to Leonidio’s incorporation in Delaware. We wonder how often people pay the bills to create corporations in which they have no interest.

Podesta has yet to publicly discuss his involvement with Joule.

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