Guest post by Joe Hoft
What was President Obama’s former Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul up to?
As a result of the meeting in Helsinki between President Trump and Russian President Putin the following was reported –
Russian prosecutors have named the former US ambassador in Moscow as a person of interest in an investigation – and Michael McFaul appears to be quite unnerved. He seems to think Russian President Vladimir Putin is after him. The evidence seems to point to Michael McFaul being the bag-man in Moscow for Clinton and Obama rather than just a Government employee.
McFaul has a storied past. D. Manny wrote at Politics Central that McFaul was one of the first individuals to discuss the to date never verified Russian hack of the DNC –
There is a 06/14/2016 article on Politico written by Daniel Strauss entitled, “Russian Government Hackers Broke into DNC Servers, Stole Trump Oppo; The Hackers had Access to the Information for Approximately One Year.” In that article, Strauss includes a comment attributed to Michael McFaul:
Michael McFaul, who served as U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014, called the hack “meddling in our personal affairs.”
“I am sure they intended to do this without being caught,” he told POLITICO. “They wanted to obtain the information without it being detected. That’s a kind of target that would make sense — in terms of them wanting to know things about what is going on here. Whether they were doing it to try to try to [sic] manipulate our political process, I’d have to think about that.”
He added: “Russia has tremendous capabilities, both the Russian government and their proxies and people somewhat affiliated with the government. We always underestimate their capabilities.”
First, such an odd choice from whom to seek a comment. What qualifications or expertise render McFaul an authority on matters such as Russian hacking? A search of Michael McFaul’s history shows he served as US ambassador to Russia two years prior to the Politco article, and what’s more, he previously made the news because Obama assigned McFaul to be an ambassador without having any prior diplomatic skills, to a major country like Russia too.
Manny goes on to state that soon after McFaul was appointed Ambassador in Russia he was visited by a number of Communist leaders from Russia at the US Embassy.
Perhaps the most shocking observation of McFaul is related to his invitation in front of Congress at a Foreign Affairs Committee. Pictures of the event are telling, not necessarily because of McFaul, but rather because of the individual he has sitting directly behind him, Natalia Veselnitskaya.
McFaul’s Congressional hearing occurred eight days after now famous Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr. This meeting resulted in Donald Jr. being interrogated for hours by Congress over his meeting with Veselnitskaya.
Veselnitskaya, who attended a Women’s March in Chicago, the day after President Trump was inaugurated, has denied any connections with the Kremlin. She is now famous for the following –
Veselnitskaya met with Donald Jr. during the 2016 presidential election campaign after a promise to deliver damaging opposition research that would prove Hillary Clinton’s collusion with the Russian government.
Donald Jr. has admitted no such research was obtained and that the meeting was essentially fruitless.
What is more shocking is that Veselnitskaya met with Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson, before and after her meeting with Donald Jr. Fusion is the firm behind the phony Trump-Russia dossier that was never confirmed and very possibly all made up but nevertheless was used by Obama’s Deep State to obtain a FISA warrant to spy on President Trump.
Now we know why Putin wants to ask questions of Ambassador McFaul. With McFaul’s questionable past, no telling what illegal or corrupt actions he has participated in during his time with Obama.
Hat tip by D. Manny