President Putin offers to have Mueller interview the 12 Russians… Mueller declines?

In an article titled “Vladimir Putin Humiliated Robert Mueller” Steven Ahle wrote:

Putin invited Mueller and some of his team to Russia to interrogate the 12 men. Then Putin took it a step further and reminded Mueller that the US and Russia have an extradition treaty and he could have the 12 men sent to the US to meet with Mueller and face the charges. To no one’s surprise, Mueller has decided to do neither one. I don’t blame him after what happened with the first 16 indictments of Russians. One of the companies they named didn’t even exist until after the time frame in which they allegedly committed crimes. Another company has aggressively answered the bogus charges against them. Therefore setting Mueller into full panic mode because he had no evidence against them.

Ahle goes on to note, “Then Putin hit Mueller with the knockout blow, suggesting that the US intelligence agents had helped Bill Browder funnel 1.5 billion dollars out of Russia, with 400 million being rerouted to the Hillary campaign. He asked for Mueller’s help in investigating the matter.”

Who is Bill Browder?

Politifact’s Jon Greenberg reports:

The Russians say that Browder and his partners at Ziff Brothers Investments, a New York venture capital firm, illegally syphoned billions of rubles out of the country.

In the 2016 election cycle, Ziff Brothers Investments gave $1.7 million. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, nearly two-thirds, or about $1.1 million, went to Democratic committees, and the rest to Republicans.

The center listed the firm’s top recipients:

Recipient	Amount
DNC Services Corp	$296,966
Senate Majority PAC	$250,000
Defending Main Street	$200,000
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Cmte	$40,000
Democratic State Central Cmte/Louisiana	$35,412
National Republican Congressional Cmte	$32,400
Democratic Party of Montana	$28,622
Democratic Executive Cmte of Florida	$27,287
Democratic Party of New Hampshire	$27,287
Democratic Party of Virginia	$27,287
Democratic Party of Wisconsin	$27,287
Georgia Federal Elections Cmte	$27,287

Greenberg concluded:

Putin said associates of Bill Browder gave $400 million to the Clinton campaign. The associates appear to be the Ziff brothers. According to public data, Ziff Brothers Investments gave about $315,000 to Clinton and the Democratic National Committee.

Overall, the firm gave about $1.1 million to Democratic committees around the country.

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Trump’s Russian Reset: He Says He Misspoke on Election Interference

EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is of Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, shown testifying before Congress while serving as FBI director in 2013. (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

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