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On March 28, 2013 a [[State Department]] email from Baxter Hunt to a number of officials including then-U.S. Foreign Service Officer John Tefft (who would go on to be U.S. Ambassador to Russia in 2014) and State Department Director for the Office of Eastern Europe Alexander Kasanof, Hunt writes:
On March 28, 2013 a [[State Department]] email from Baxter Hunt to a number of officials including then-U.S. Foreign Service Officer John Tefft (who would go on to be U.S. Ambassador to Russia in 2014) and State Department Director for the Office of Eastern Europe Alexander Kasanof, Hunt writes:
{{quotebox-float|See below, I also stressed to them the need for GOU [Government of Ukraine] to take concrete steps to get new SBA with IMF and avoid PFC/loss of GSP. Podesta Group is noted among host of Ukraine lobbyists in article I’ll forward in article on low side.<br>*Ben Chang and Mark Tavlarides of the Podesta Group, which is representing the Party of Regions, told us they were working with Klyuyev on a visit he plans to make to Washington in early May. They are working to broaden the POR’s contacts on the Hill, including setting up a meeting for Klyuyev with Chris Smith, and have advised Kyiv to stop trying to justify their actions against Tymoshenko in Washington. They also noted that during his recent meeting with former EC President Prodi, HFAC Chairman Ed Royce said that Congress would not be enacting sanctions legislation against Ukraine.<ref>http://www.judicialwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/JW-v-State-Podesta-records-02489-1.pdf</ref>}} The Podesta Group was owned by and employed John and Tony Podesta in 2013. John Podesta was the 2016 Hillary Clinton Presidential campaign manager. The Party of Regions is the Putin-controlled group, according to Special Counsel [[Robert Mueller]]'s 2017 indictment of [[Paul Manafort]]. Tymoshenko, who served several years in prison on corruption charges, including murder, was sprung from prison after the Obama-sponsored coup that overthrew the democratically elected regime and brought a [[nationalist]] and neo-fascist regime to power. The criminal code was revised by the new regime to exonerate Tymoshenko. Obama campaign consultants from 2008 managed Tymoshenko's 2010 election campaign for the presidency of the Ukraine.<ref>https://www.politico.com/story/2009/11/obama-consultants-land-abroad-029410</ref>
{{quotebox-float|See below, I also stressed to them the need for GOU [Government of Ukraine] to take concrete steps to get new SBA with IMF and avoid PFC/loss of GSP. Podesta Group is noted among host of Ukraine lobbyists in article I’ll forward in article on low side.<br>*Ben Chang and Mark Tavlarides of the Podesta Group, which is representing the Party of Regions, told us they were working with Klyuyev on a visit he plans to make to Washington in early May. They are working to broaden the POR’s contacts on the Hill, including setting up a meeting for Klyuyev with Chris Smith, and have advised Kyiv to stop trying to justify their actions against Tymoshenko in Washington. They also noted that during his recent meeting with former EC President Prodi, HFAC Chairman Ed Royce said that Congress would not be enacting sanctions legislation against Ukraine.<ref>http://www.judicialwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/JW-v-State-Podesta-records-02489-1.pdf</ref>}} The Podesta Group was owned by and employed John and Tony Podesta in 2013. John Podesta was the 2016 Hillary Clinton Presidential campaign manager. The Party of Regions is the Putin-controlled group, according to Special Counsel [[Robert Mueller]]'s 2017 indictment of [[Paul Manafort]]. Tymoshenko, who served several years in prison on corruption charges, including murder, was sprung from prison after the Obama-sponsored coup that overthrew the democratically elected regime and brought a [[nationalist]] and neo-fascist regime to power. The criminal code was revised by the new regime to exonerate Tymoshenko. Obama campaign consultants from 2008 managed Tymoshenko's 2010 election campaign for the presidency of the Ukraine.<ref>https://www.politico.com/story/2009/11/obama-consultants-land-abroad-029410</ref>
===Bernie Sanders, Paul Manafort, and Tad Devine===
{{See also|John McCain 2008 presidential campaign|United States presidential election, 2016|Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign}}
[[File:SG-ted-devine-bernie-sanders-paul-manafort.jpg|right|350px|thumb|Ted Devine (left) Benrie Sanders (center) Paul Manafort (right). Devine and Sanders colluded with Putin stooge Victor Yanukovich and reported to Russian intelligence officer Konstantin Kilimnik. Manafort faces life in prison. Devine was hired by Sanders as chief strategist for his 2016 and 2018 presidential campaigns.<ref>https://twitter.com/PuestoLoco/status/1070005636535148545</ref>]]
''[[USA Today]]'' reported a [[The indictment of 12 Russian nationals, 13 July 2018#Use of Organization 1|37-page indictment]] from special counsel [[Mueller office|Robert Mueller's investigation]] shows that Russians worked to boost the campaign of Bernie Sanders to damage Hillary Clinton. The Russians “engaged in operations primarily intended to communicate derogatory information about Hillary Clinton, to denigrate other candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and to support Bernie Sanders."<ref>https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/17/indictment-russians-also-tried-help-bernie-sanders-jill-stein-presidential-campaigns/348051002/</ref>
Sanders hired [[Paul Manafort]] partner [[Tad Devine]] of Devine Mulvey Longabaug as his chief strategist.<ref>http://dmlmessage.com/about/</ref> Devine and Manafort worked for the election of [[Putin]] [[crony]] [[Victor Yanukovich]] as President of the [[Ukraine]] in 2010.<ref>https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/07/bernie-sanders-strategist-tad-devine-paul-manafort-files-mueller</ref> In February 2019 Sanders entered the [[2020 presidential election]] and re-hired Devine's company, of which Devine is president.<ref>https://www.thedailybeast.com/bernie-sanders-hires-top-civil-liberties-advocate-faiz-shakir-as-campaign-manager</ref>
Sen. [[John McCain]] met twice with Oleg Deripaska, whose [[visa]] was blocked by the United States amidst intelligence community concerns. The meetings were arranged by Paul Manafort and his lobbying firm partner Rick Davis, who later became McCain's campaign manager. Davis was McCain's campaign manager in both 2000 and 2008.
In the mid-2000s Davis connected with Deripaska. At the time, the Davis-Manafort firm was advising with pro-Russian political figures in Ukraine and also doing work in [[Montenegro]], another former Soviet satellite that Putin was trying to influence.
During the 2008 campaign, the Davis Manafort firm disclosed through its U.S. partner Daniel J. Edelman Inc., that it was working for the political party in Ukraine supporting Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who was backed by Putin. "Davis Manafort International LLC is directed by a foreign political party, the Ukraine Parties of Regions, to consult on the political campaign in Ukraine," the January 2008 Foreign Agent Registration Act filing showed. The work included developing "a communications campaign to increase Prime Minister Yanukovych's visibility in the U.S. and [[Europe]]," the report added, indicating that Davis and Manafort were being paid a $35,000 a month retainer for the work that began in spring 2007. Manafort was first questioned by the FBI about his Russian and Ukrainian ties in 2014 while working with the McCain campaign, two years before he became Trump's campaign manager, and agents probed him on how he first came to work for Deripaska through McCain's top political adviser, Davis.<ref>https://archive.is/Elc7K</ref>
[[File:Levinson.jpg|left|300px|thumb|On November 9, 2019, it was reported that Robert Levinson was still alive.<ref>https://www.dailywire.com/news/iran-makes-stunning-admission-regarding-fbi-agent-gone-missing-since-2007</ref>]]
In 2009, when [[Robert Mueller]] ran the FBI, the bureau asked Oleg Deripaska to spend millions of his own dollars funding an FBI-supervised operation to rescue a retired FBI agent, Robert Levinson, captured in [[Iran]] while working for the CIA in 2007. Mueller wanted a foreigner to fund the operation in order to circumvent U.S. sanctions law that barred spending money in Iran. They arrangement may have also violated the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits the government from accepting voluntary services.
One agent who helped court Deripaska was Andrew McCabe.
Deripaska ultimately spent $25 million assembling a private search and rescue team that worked with contacts in Iran connected with his aluminum business.
Deripaska is one of the first Russians the FBI asked for help when it began investigating the ''Steele dossier''. The agents posited a theory that Trump's campaign was secretly colluding with Russia to hijack the U.S. election. {{Quotebox|"Deripaska laughed but realized, despite the joviality, that they were serious," said his agent [[Adam Waldman]]. "So he told them in his informed opinion the idea they were proposing was false. 'You are trying to create something out of nothing,' he told them."<ref>https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/387625-mueller-may-have-a-conflict-and-it-leads-directly-to-a-russian-oligarch</ref>}}
Deripaska once hired Paul Manafort as a political adviser. In an affidavit attached to the July 2017 warrant application, an FBI agent said he reviewed tax returns for a company controlled by Manafort and his wife that showed a $10 million loan from Deripaska.<ref>https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-manafort/manafort-had-10-million-loan-from-russian-oligarch-court-filing-idUSKBN1JN2YF</ref> Mueller's indictment of Manafort makes no mention of Deripaska. Prof. [[Alan Dershowitz]] said he believes Mueller has a [[conflict of interest]] because Mueller's FBI previously accepted financial help from a Russian that is, at the very least, a witness in the current probe; {{Quotebox|"The real question becomes whether it was proper to leave [Deripaska] out of the Manafort indictment, and whether that omission was to avoid the kind of transparency that is really required by the law.'}}
Tony Podesta represented the [[Brussels]] based European Centre for Modern Ukraine (ECFMU), a front organization for former Ukrainian President [[Viktor Yanukovych]]. The ECFMU was founded to enhance [[EU]]-Ukrainian relations. The ECFMU is linked with the Ukrainian Party of Regions. Podesta was paid $900,000.<ref>Hosenball, Mark (December 20, 2013). [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-ukraine-lobbying/with-cash-ukraines-political-foes-bring-fight-to-washington-idUSBRE9BJ1B220131220 With cash, Ukraine's political foes bring fight to Washington]. ''Reuters''. Retrieved September 30, 2018.</ref>
Tony Podesta represented the [[Brussels]] based European Centre for Modern Ukraine (ECFMU), a front organization for former Ukrainian President [[Viktor Yanukovych]]. The ECFMU was founded to enhance [[EU]]-Ukrainian relations. The ECFMU is linked with the Ukrainian Party of Regions. Podesta was paid $900,000.<ref>Hosenball, Mark (December 20, 2013). [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-ukraine-lobbying/with-cash-ukraines-political-foes-bring-fight-to-washington-idUSBRE9BJ1B220131220 With cash, Ukraine's political foes bring fight to Washington]. ''Reuters''. Retrieved September 30, 2018.</ref>