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  • 2017-06-21 (xsd:date)
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  • Did Hillary Clinton Tell FBI's Mueller to Deliver Uranium to Russians in 2009 'Secret Tarmac Meeting'? (en)
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  • In May and June 2017, a number of hyperpartisan news and opinion web sites published articles reporting that former Federal Bureau of Investigation director Robert Mueller, who in mid-May was named special counsel in the Justice Department's investigation into alleged ties between the Trump presidential campaign and Russian officials, was himself enmeshed in secret dealings with Russia related to his 2009 delivery of a sample of highly enriched uranium (HEU) to Moscow ordered by Hillary Clinton. The conspiracy web site Intellihub noted that the transfer was revealed in a WikiLeaks release of a classified State Department cable: The WikiLeaks release was announced via Twitter on 18 May, the day after Mueller was appointed special counsel: Intellihub characterized the plane-side transfer of uranium shocking and rather reminisce [sic] of the infamous [then-Attorney General] Loretta Lynch/Bill Clinton meeting which occurred on a Phoenix, Arizona, tarmac back in June of 2016 (which meeting was cited by former FBI Director James Comey as the reason he concluded the Department of Justice wasn't capable of an independent investigation into Hillary Clinton's e-mail issues at the State Department). Read in its entirety, however, the cable itself reveals nothing questionable or nefarious about the transfer of evidence between Mueller and a similarly placed Russian law enforcement official in Moscow. It merely asked the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to inform the Russian government that the transfer, which was postponed from an earlier date, would take place on 21 September 2009. Moreover, it provided a complete explanation of why the transfer was taking place: The 2006 sting operation was widely reported after the fact by U.S. newspapers, including the Washington Post: Despite partisan attempts to make it appear conspiratorial, the transfer of the sample of confiscated uranium was simply an instance of cooperative law enforcement between three countries: the U.S., Georgia, and Russia. The Russia government requested a sample of the uranium for forensic testing, the Georgian government signed off on it, and the U.S. government carried out the delivery. The total amount of HEU confiscated in the sting was 3.5 ounces (about 100 grams). The amount Mueller delivered to the Russians was ten grams (the weight of four U.S. pennies). (en)
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