Robert Mueller's past ties to a Russian oligarch who is now a witness in the special counsel's probe are raising questions of a possible conflict of interest. On Monday, new details emerged about then-FBI Director Mueller's 2009 deal with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska to help rescue ex-agent hostage Robert Levinson from Iran, as recounted in a column by John Solomon for The Hill. Andrew McCabe, the recently-fired FBI deputy director who was deeply involved in the Russian election meddling probe, was one of Deripaska's early FBI contacts, sources told Solomon. Deripaska's lawyer told Solomon that the Russian ultimately spent $25million assembling a private search and rescue team working with Iranian contacts. Stunningly, Deripaska was never named in Mueller's indictment of Manafort, on tax fraud charges unrelated to the election.

Source: Daily Mail May 15, 2018 04:04 UTC