Free Republic

House Republicans are probing whether the Department of Justice retaliated against one of their impeachment witnesses — a former business associate of Hunter Biden who revealed a 2014 conversation then-Vice President Biden had with his son and the former mayor of Moscow. Jason Galanis, who is currently serving a 14-year federal prison sentence for defrauding an American Indian tribe, disclosed a May 4, 2014, speaker phone conversation between Hunter and Joe Biden and Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina and her husband, the ex-Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov. Galanis was interviewed last month from his prison cell in Montgomery, Ala., and during his...

The effort to revive Russian collusion claims in Joe Biden's impeachment probe is running into an inconvenient truth for Democrats: Hunter Biden and his business partners waged a concerted campaign to squeeze oligarchs in Vladimir Putin's country for investments, an effort that ultimately paved the way for the first son to score a big payday from Burisma Holdings in neighboring Ukraine. Hunter Biden and his partners' pursuit of Russian riches began as early as 2010 with payments from a Moscow-based machinery firm and its "patriarch," and they intensified a few years later at a time when Joe Biden's son was...

February 2, 2011, 3:33 pm Investment Banking | Legal/Regulatory Police Search Deutsche Bank Office in Russia By ANDREW E. KRAMER 6:10 p.m. | Updated MOSCOW — Masked policemen raided Deutsche Bank’s main Moscow office on Wednesday, questioning bankers and unnerving employees. Police said they were searching for documents in a real estate deal linked to a member of the Russian Parliament, now living in exile in the United States. The parliamentarian, Ashot Yegiazaryan, had business dealings with companies tied to the former mayor of Moscow, Yuri M. Luzhkov, who fell from favor and resigned last fall. Deutsche Bank said in...

The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee dismissed Chairman James Comer’s Wednesday morning release of bank records that appear to show Hunter Biden was paid millions by Eastern European oligarchs. The 19-page memo, which provides screenshots of redacted financial records, says millions of dollars in payments came from Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings, Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina and Kazakhstani oligarch Kenes Rakishev. The records also suggest Joe Biden attended dinners with Baturina, Rakishev and a representative from Burisma while he was vice president.

House lawmakers want the Trump administration to investigate reports that a wealthy foundation used an offshore shell company to give millions of dollars to environmental activists opposed to U.S. energy development. “If you connect the dots, it is clear that Russia is funding U.S. environmental groups in an effort to suppress our domestic oil and gas industry, specifically hydraulic fracking,” Texas Republican Rep. Lamar Smith said Friday. Smith and Texas Republican Rep. Randy Weber asked Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to investigate whether or not environmentalists were funneling money to U.S. environmental groups through a Bermuda-based shell company. Republicans are pitching...

Declassified footnote lays out intelligence community concerns about Steele's ties to Russia and disinformation Key FBI officials failed to review an intelligence file identifying Christopher Steele's ties to Russian oligarchs and were later advised some of the information he provided agents in his dossier appeared to be misinformation planted by Russian intelligence, according to declassified information made public Friday. The explosive revelations were contained in footnotes that had been originally redacted from Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz's December report on FBI failures in the Russia case. The information was provided to two Senate committees in recent days. One of...

VIDEO After breaking a supposed scoop based on ONE SOURCE about Donald Trump having a bank loan co-signed by Russian "oligarchs," Lawrence O'Donnell was forced to apologize by the President's attorneys. Watch O'Donnell pretend to be contrite as he performs an act of extreme self-humiliation on MSNBC.

Special counsel Robert Mueller's team has taken the unusual step of questioning Russian oligarchs who traveled into the US, stopping at least one and searching his electronic devices when his private jet landed at a New York area airport, according to multiple sources familiar with the inquiry. A second Russian oligarch was stopped during a recent trip to the US, although it is not clear if he was searched, according to a person briefed on the matter. Mueller's team has also made an informal voluntary document and interview request to a third Russian oligarch who has not traveled to the...

The chief paradox of the upcoming elections in Russia is that everyone knows who the winner will be but no one knows what his policy will be – or even whether it will be completely 'his.' After establishing “a personalist dictatorship, Putin has watched as his system has drifted into one in which he will remain president, but “groups of siloviki” will fight over the spoils. Putin’s inability to protect members of his elite from the consequences of Western sanctions has given rise to this situation. Those sanctions have already led to the failure of three of the 15 largest...

Russian businessmen buying property in Israel don't spend much time here - but they feel safe. Israel has become a "neutral zone" for Russian Jewish oligarchs buying property in the country, "where they can all meet, safe from extradition for (often politically motivated) indictments," according to an article in the Economist. Even though few of the businessmen "spend more than a few weekends a year" at their homes in Israel, according to the article, "many of them have gone to the trouble of obtaining Israeli citizenship" – which they are entitled to under the Law of Return.