Night last week we were talking on the show about the Siberian Energy group on the right and we accidentally showed the website of the Siberian Energy group on the left. Im sorry about that. You can understand why we might mix those up. The live Siberian Energy group versus the dead Siberian Energy group. Interesting. The reason we even know we made that mistake and put up the website is this article on politico. Com concerning the murky origins of half a Million Dollars paid to former security advisor mike flynn. The Siberian Group is the only publicly traded gas and Exploration Company in the u. S. That has 100 of its assets in russia. Siberian energy group. Part of what politico talked
about last week and we told you on the show, there is a link between the ceo of that now defunct Siberian Energy group and the guy who paid mike flynn more than half a Million Dollars mike flynn did not disclose on his Security Clearance application in washington. This is the money that was paid to flynn that caused him to retroactively register as an agent of a foreign power after he was fired from the white house. The guy that paid flynn that money has his own Business History in russia as reported by politico, reporting at least one Financing Deal personally approved by Vladamir Putin. This is an interesting thing about the flynn story, right . That link from the guy who paid flynn to his russian Business Dealings that personally involve putin, does that mean the money used to pay National Security advisor mike flynn might have
its origins in russia while russia at that very time was attacking the u. S. Election to help trump win . Thats the question, people trying to figure out the trump russia story by following the money thats what makes this whole question red hot. Thats why this is so important. The prospect when flynn was being paid during the campaign this possibility has been raised maybe who was paying flynn maybe the source of his foreign money were the same people attacking the election on trumps behalf. Its a red hot question and an important question particularly there is this new observable phenomenon in washington, d. C. Where republicans in positions of authority find themselves getting up close and personal to the flynn side of the Trump Investigation those republicans keep poofing. They keep finding reasons to absent themselves from the investigation. Congressman nunes and sally
yates and what they told mike flynn and told the white house, devin nunes canceled that hearing and got himself kicked off entirely and jason chaffetz, disclosing about money for sources. Before that happened, he announced he was quitting congress and up and left town without any warning to go get foot surgery for an old injury and said he wouldnt be back for weeks. Then, right after that the day after it was made public the Department Of DefenseInspector General was taking its own independent investigation of mike flynn and foreign payments the day after that the Attorney General of the United States, Jeff Sessions announced for the first time he was out of this, too, he would recuse himself from any Justice Department investigation that touched on mike flynn. Something about the investigation into mike flynn makes republicans turn tail and run away from these
investigations. The question of mike flynn and these foreign payments makes republicans faint. That makes the question of flynns foreign payments very interesting. It is extraordinary enough the National Security advisor was fired. Its extraordinary enough the National Security advisor was fired for lying about his contacts with the Foreign Government. It is extraordinary enough he did not report his payments from foreign sources on his Security Clearance application. It is extraordinary enough as nbc news reported friday night the trump transition knew about mike flynns foreign payments and they hired him as National Security advisor anyway. It is sfroor enough that the sitting Attorney General and the sitting Vice President head of the transition, they both now deny there was any way they could have known about those foreign payments to mike flynn at the time. Even though its clear the white
house and transition absolutely did know about those foreign payments to mike flynn at the time. The whole thing is extraordinary enough already before you get to the question whether or not the on for payments that came to mike flynn during the campaign might have come from putin connected sources. The guy who paid mike flynn denies the money came from putin connected sources although he himself has had russian Business Dealings directly with Vladamir Putin. The link between that guy who paid flynn and the Siberian Energy guy is through a couple of d. C. Based nonprofit groups that lobby on turkish interests. Both of these men have loose ties to those turkish organizations and deny having played a key role in founding them. The exSiberian Energy ceo denies any connection to flynn or connection to the man who paid
flynn or Vladamir Putin and doesnt want anybody to think of him as a russian linked oligarch, that said he had a gas Company Withholdings in russia. As his lawyers wrote to us to make his denials and said they were bidding at a public auction they left out from their defiant Lawyer Letter to us all the stuff from this is old bioon his siberian Company Website about all the years he spent working with the russian government including the part he literally brags about his quote extensive ties to russias Business Community as well as federal government and regional authorities. Whether or not he is ultimately going to turn out to be tied to these payments to mike flynn as politico suggested and we
talked about last week, he says hes not. His denial to politico and now to us he has any connections whatsoever to the putin government, his denial he has connections to the putin government is a little undercut by his previous public boasting about his previous extensive ties to the putin government. The mike flynn story kind of pulls it as red hot at the center of this bullseye. The official story about it is getting more and more upsetting to more and more people. Were hearing about it in more and more different kinds of ways everyday. The central story what happened to mike flynn and where that money came from and why he was paid and who he told about it and how it affected his employment at the white house and how the white house responded when they were told what they were told about his contacts with Foreign Government and russian officials, none of that makes any sense. Fbi director james comey
testified he was nauseated by the knowledge the election result might have been affected by his choice to talk before the election about the fbi investigation into Hillary Clintons email server and his choice to not talk until after the election about the fbis counterintelligence investigation into the Trump Campaign and the possibility they colluded with the russian attack. Tomorrow, james comey and mike rogers will testify Behind Closed Doors to the house intelligence committee, the investigation from which chairman nunes has now been recused, then on monday there will be another open hearing in the senate. That one will involve sally yates fired by the Trump White House for refusing to defend the muslim ban in court a couple days after she went to the white house to tell them about mike flynns contacts with the russian government and lying about those contacts and potentially vulnerable to russian blackmail. That mike flynn issue is what
she is going to be testifying about in the senate on monday. Depending how that hearing goes maybe we will learn more at that hearing about the murky origins of the foreign funding that went to Michael Flynn during the campaign while russia was attacking our election on behalf of trumps interests. Maybe we will hear more about why the white house story about that money and Michael Flynn just doesnt add up. If we do get closer to the truth on that figuring out why the white house has not been telling the truth about that thus far i fully expect we will see at least one more d. C. Republican faint from the shock thus requiring him or her to be immediately excused from this investigation. At that point i will also fully expect more threatening letters from lawyers. Even so, we will stay on it, no matter what, i promise. Today we also got a grand new display how the trump party will fight against the investigation. Where is all this speculation about collusion coming from . In January Buzzfeed published a Dossier Spinning Wild Conspiracy theories about the Trump Campaign. Buzzfeed acknowledged the claims were unverified and some of the details were clearly wrong. Buzzfeed has since been sued for publishing them. Since then much of the dossier has been proven wrong and many of his outlandish claims have failed to gain traction. Republican senator Chuck Grassley today trying to make the annual fbi oversight hearing this year focus on what hes now characterizing as a scandal the fact the fbi has used the Dossier Intelligence gathered by former fbi agent Christopher Steel as part of its Trump Investigation. The public needs to know what role the dossier has played and where it came from. We need to know more about it,
how much the nvi relied on it. According to press reports, the fbi has relied on the document to testify its current investigation. There have been reports the fbi agreed to pay the author of the dossier. The author of the dossier is someone who a long standing relationship with the fbi, a key version who worked with the fbi on investigation that led to multiple arrests an indictments of International Soccer that happened all over the world and substantially prosecuted here in the United States the least soccer major country there is was prosecuted here because the fbi and the u. S. Justice department nailed the corruption in that multibillion dollars
organization because they worked with mi6 agent Christopher Steel to do it. The Republican Party has just taken a turn on the trump Russia Investigation, they decided to defend against the trump Russia Investigation by attacking Christopher Steel and attacking the fbi once again with this British Intelligence officer the fbi has had a long standing productive intelligence relationship in the past led to very high profile criminal indictments. In order to make that turn, in order to try to discredit and turn against the trumpRussia Investigation on this basis, republicans have to reach. Since the dossier came out, piece after piece of it have been corroborated by the free press, which is very inconvenient for them for this argument. Heres cnn, u. S. Investigators corroborate some aspects of the russia dossier. The bbc, Trump Rush Dossier Key claim verified. One of the claims in the dossier was a trump advisors trip to moscow during the campaign. The Trump Campaign itself verified that one. The New York Times reported key american allies, british and dutch corroborated information Trump Campaign figures having meetings during the campaign with russian officials. Cnn reported parts of this dossier Passed Mustereen In Federal Court when the dossier was used in part to justify a secret fisa Court Warrant for u. S. Surveillance on a Trump Campaign advisor. Its going to be an Uphill Battle for republicans to make the pivot on this and denounce and defend against the whole trumpRussia Investigation as if it is somehow tainted or suspicious because it includes this dossier. The republican claim today is the dossier has been increasingly discredited. Thats not true in terms of the Public Record about the dossier, quite the opposite. As time goes on more and more pieces do get independently corroborated. Thats apparently what they decided on. In fact what has to be one of the greatest political smoke bombs of all time. The republicans today started today to claim the dossier itself between the Trump Campaign and russians, they started to claim today that claim itself is a russian op. What . Thats what theyre going to say now. Are you familiar with fusion . I know the name. Okay. Are they part of the russian intelligence apparatus . I cant say. Do you agree with me if fusion was involved with preparing a dossier against trump that would be interfering against the elections with the republicans . I cant say with the
russians. They want to let you know the new defense against the trump Russia Investigation is that the trump Russia Investigation is a russian operation which is amazing but that really is what they started arguing publicly today. On monday, next week, Lindsey Graham will be the one chairing that Committee Hearing in the senate where sally yates will testify what she and the Justice Department found out about mike flynn and foreign contacts and on for conversation and how the white house handle that information. Lindsey graham also apparently invited former obama National Security advisor susan rice to testify at that same hearing because why just have the hearing on the trump Russia Investigation when you can also muddy the waters with the president s claims the Obama Administration was secretly wiretapping trump tower and susan rice must have been up to no good. Susan rice is declining to testify at that hearing on monday. She called the request a diversion from what is
supposedly the topic of the hearing, the Trump Campaign and russia and noted the invitation came just from the republican side of that committee and the ranking democrat of the Committee Said the white house backed her up on that saying it was not actually a bipartisan request to testify and he supports her decision to say know. Theres a lot going on right now, just in washington right now. The house vote on Repealing Obamacare is likely to take place sometime early tomorrow, early to midday tomorrow. We have the latest on that coming up next. The Trump Administration may also be about to lose yet another senior nominee for the new administration. This is somebody who replaced their previous nominee. They may be losing their new nominee for that same job as well. That Story Ahead Tonight as well. On the trump Russia Investigation, all of a sudden we are in full pushback mode in terms of the other side of this. The smoke bombs are flying,
counterallegations and diversions are flying, republicans with ambitions are jumping out of the investigation anywhere they can and Lawyer Letters coming down like rain. This is a new phase of this game here. This took a turn today. Republicans are no longer just saying if trump and russia colluded, thats a serious thing, a game changer we need to get to the bottom of it, they are pushing back on the concept of this being investigated. This took a turn today. Everybody on your toes