Jack - State Department Fingers RIM

Episode Date: June 19, 2022

This week in news stemming from Mueller world: the United States government on Wednesday designated an individual connected to the Russian Imperial Movement (RIM) -- an ultranationalist, white supremacist organization -- as a terrorist and sanctioned two others for involvement with the group; plus some Sabotage and the Fantasy Indictment League.Follow AG on Twitter:Dr. Allison Gill https://twitter.com/allisongillhttps://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrotehttps://twitter.com/dailybeanspodHow We Win Fundswingleft.org/fundraise/howwewin

Hey, it's Kimberly Host of The Start Me Up Podcast. If you like your politics with some loose talk and salty language, you're going to love my show. I interview the coolest people like Mary Trump, Kathy Griffin, and DNC Chair Jamie Harrison. The Start Me Up Podcast has an easygoing, casual style and a strong emphasis on left-leaning politics. We also have Frank discussions about sex and more than a few spirited rants. Just visit patreon.com slash start me up or wherever you get your podcast and start listening today.

Hey all, this is Glenn Kirschner and you're listening to Muller Shee wrote. So to be clear, Mr. Trump has no financial relationships with any Russian oligarchs. That's what he said. That's what I think that's obviously what our position is. I'm not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time of truth in that campaign and I didn't have, not have communications with the Russians. What do I have to get involved with Putin

for having nothing to do with Putin? I've never spoken to him. I don't know anything about a mother than he will respect me. Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. So it is political. You're a communist.

No, Mr. Green. Communism is just a red hairing. Like all members of the oldest profession I'm a capitalist. Hello and welcome to Muller She Wrote. I'm your host, A.G. Allison Gill. This is going to be a very brief episode. I'm in D.C. We were supposed to have the week off this week for Muller She Wrote, but there is some Mollern News. And I can't, you know me, I did an episode from an airplane bathroom. I can't not tell you about what comes out

on a week to week basis. It was a very short episode, but a very important one. And we're covering here in DC at the hearings, we're at the one six committee hearings this week. And so you can check out the daily beans, to listen for all of that that comes out every weekday morning. But along with regards to the Mueller news, there is a fantasy indictment leak ready to go today, along with some stories about a Russian White supremacist group and a very interesting

story for the sabotage segment you don't want to miss. And it's not being covered anywhere in mainstream media and that's why I am here today, I have to bring it to you, I just have to. So let's jump in with just the facts. All right, first up, the US government on Wednesday designated an individual connected to the Russian Imperial movement, an ultra-nationalist white supremacist organization, as a terrorist, and sanctioned two others for involvement with the group. We can do this with foreign actors, right? We can designate them as terrorists. The organization and three of its leaders were classified as terrorists in 2020 by the

US State Department. The first time in history, the agency has designated a white supremacist group as such. On Wednesday, the State Department announced it was designating Anton Thulin as a specially designated global terrorist, SDGT, quote, proposing a significant risk for committing acts of terrorism. Thulin, a Swedish national, traveled to Russia in 2016 and received paramilitary training from the RIM, known as the Russian Imperial Movement, including bomb-making, and that's according to a statement from a State Department spokesperson,

a Ned Price, as we know, we know him. He was convicted. This guy by a Swedish court in 2017 sentenced to 22 months in prison, quote, in connection with the detection of a powerful homemade bomb near a refugee residential center in Gothenburg, Sweden. That's according to Ned Price. And the State Department also said after serving his sentence, Thuland sought to receive additional paramilitary training, sought to receive it in Poland before he was expelled by Polish authorities who cited the serious, real and current threat

to security and public order that this guy posed. The United States quote is designating Anton Thuland because his continued pursuit of terrorist training even after serving a prison sentence for his role in the 2017 attack in Sweden demonstrates that he continues to pose a significant risk of committing acts of terrorism. Unquote, the terrorist designations deny Thulin access to the US financial system with the intention of making it more difficult to move money through the international system and fund his efforts and their efforts to the group that he's part of and the US Treasury also by the way slap sanctions on European based RIM member

Stanislav Shevchuk and Russian based supporter Alexander Zhukovsky now shevchuk was sanctioned quote for having acted or purported to act or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, RIM, and Juch Kofsky for having, quote, materially assisted sponsor to provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods and services, too, or in support of RIM. According to the Treasury Statement, Shav Chuk traveled to the United States in 2017 with the objective of establishing connections between RIM

and far-right extremist and white nationalist groups. Such as the Proud Boys, the Oathkeepers, etc. He also spoke on behalf of RIM at rallies in Europe and advocated publicly for the group throughout Europe as recently as 2019. Now, Zhukovsky has repeatedly used his account on Russia-based social media platform VK, formerly known as VK VKontakte, to fundraise and recruit for RIM. So he's been using social media to get money for this group. And since 2014, quote, Zhukovsky has raised over 200 million rubles to purchase weapons and military equipment for RIM, 200 million, and other pro-Russian fighters in the Dombassin, Ukraine, and has facilitated the travel of rim fighters to the region. So these guys who are supporting the Russian back, the attack on Ukraine, are, we're in

the US giving speeches to and helping recruit for US white nationalists and white supremacist groups. Since Russia began, quote, it's unprovoked war against Ukraine in February 2022, Zhyskovsky has continued using his social media account and online payment methods to purchase military equipment and supplies for Russian fighters, carrying out the invasion of Ukraine and continued fighting in the Dombas region. Zhyskovsky has also taught at RIM's RIM's partisan, or I think it's yeah, partisan training center in St. Petersburg, Russia, where participants receive training to conduct acts of terrorism and violence.

So these guys were slapped with those sanctions put on this list. But that's the frightening part to me is in, you know, they were in the US. They were in the US talking to white supremacists here. According to the Treasury Department, and that chef choked, quote, travel to the US in 2017, established connections between RIM and the far right extremist white nationalist groups. They're not listed here, but I we know we can imagine. All right, with that, it's time for some sabotage. All right, this is the story that got pretty like virtually no attention. Now granted, there's been a lot of stuff going on in the news. But a former senior FBI official who oversaw the FBI's politically sensitive

investigation in 2016 into Clinton's use of a private email server, and Donald Trump's ties to Russia had, quote, extensive contacts with news media in violation of FBI policy Adjustus Department Watchdog report found. Now, this is, of course, not the most reliable Justice Department Watchdog, as we know from previous reports that came out about folks like McCabe and Struck. Justice Department Inspector General Review released in 2018 an investigative summary issued last year did not name the former official, but the report made public Monday identified him as Michael Steinbach, who served as the executive assistant director of the FBI's National Security Bureau.

Steinbach in hundreds of contacts with me had hundreds of contacts with the media for several years, while heading up the FBI's counterterrorism division, and then continued such interactions in 2016 when he took up the senior national security role. That's according to a report from the inspector general Horowitz quote this media content contact included social engagements outside of FBI headquarters without any coordination from the office of public affairs involving drinks lunches and dinners. The heavily redacted 27 page report released to Politico reported on here by Josh Gerstein under the Freedom of Information Act dated July 2021 does not accuse Steinbach of unauthorized disclosures

to the media. However, Horowitz's office has expressed concerns that extensive unsupervised contacts between FBI officials in the media can lead to such leaks and make them harder to investigate. So there weren't actually any leaks found here. Just you should stop having drinks and lunch with media people. The Office of Inspector General's 2018 report looking at the Bureau's actions during the 2016 presidential election said the FBI's policy on media contacts was being widely ignored and said violations of that policy appeared to emanate from a cultural attitude.

One passage in the newly released reports says prosecution was declined, but the remainder of the line is redacted from the copy of the made public Monday. Steinbach, who retired from the FBI in 2017 after a 22-year career, did not respond to email social media message seeking comment on the report.

Inspector General Report also faults Steinbach for accepting free tickets to two big Washington media gollas, the Radio and Television Correspondents Association dinner in 2015, and the White House Correspondents Association dinner in 2016. The report says he was obliged to get approval from ethics officials at the FBI and failed to do so. He also failed to report the tickets on his annual financial disclosure form. The report says Steinbach had at least 27 in-person meetings with seven reporters from 2014 through his retirement three years later. They frequented various restaurants near FBI headquarters, including Capitol Grill, Gordon Beers, Asian Nine, and Central, according to the report, which says investigators were unable to determine who

paid for the drinks or meals during these social engagements. Meanwhile, Donald is leasing out the floors of his hotel to the entirety of Saudi Arabia. But okay, the report can see it's that Steinbach did engage with FBI public affairs officials about a limited number of interactions, but said that in many instances there were no records of any such coordination. Steinbach declined to be interviewed by the Inspector General's Office, which has no way to compel such an interview after they retired. However, he did answer questions in another FBI inquiry a few months after his retirement, maintained that his

interactions with journalists were approved. Steinbach stated that he was authorized while EAD of NSB to provide non-case-related information to the media as background. Steinbach said he was frequently contacted by the media for comment and questions relative to a variety of security issues, national security issues, and the media was relentless and aggressive when there were attempts to get a story. But he was authorized to do this. Do you remember how they were looking into McCabe for some sort of leak to the Wall Street Journal? He was fully authorized to do that.

That's why he won his pension back. And we, you know, was founded and we were wrongfully terminated. While the Inspector General report called the FBI's media policy unambiguous, some FBI officials interviewed during the investigation to disagree. The policy was not clear on what was required or considered

approved, and that coordination with OPA was completely undefined. That's one official, whose name was deleted from the report. One official said Steinbach told him, former FBI director James Comey urged top officials to be more engaged with the press. Quote, Comey's approach entailed proactively trying to find media sources that the FBI could trust

to get stories right and to protect the brand of the FBI. According to one unnamed official, the report includes numerous text and email exchanges between Steinbach and various reporters whose names and news organizations have been redacted. However, the report quotes one unnamed CNN reporter ribbing Steinbach by texting about attending the White House correspondence dinner with a different journalist. That the CNN reporter said, I put you on the map and now you're cheating on me with blank the other reporter. I keep waiting for my invite from you, Steinbach replied.

A CNN spokesperson had no immediate comment Monday night. FBI director Christopher Ray, who was confirmed in 2017, August, following Trump's firing of Comey, stressed following the release of the 2018 Inspector General report the FBI had become too relaxed in its dealings with the media. Quote, we issued new media policy that's much stricter and more clear than has been in place before. He said back then, we will make painfully cleared everyone. We don't tolerate noncompliance. FBI spokespeople did not have any immediate response to a request for comment Monday, but on Wednesday issued a statement, deploring Steinbach's actions and downplaying any ambiguity

in the agency's policies at the time. Quote, the FBI expects all our employees to hear to the highest standards of honesty and integrity when one of our own fails to adhere to these standards, we take those allegations very seriously. That's the statement from Ray. Quote, as noted in the report in 2016, the FBI referred this former employee's activities to the DOJ Office of the Inspector General for an investigation. To be clear, the former employee was in violation of our media subpolicy then, just as he would be now and his conduct was completely unacceptable. That's right. Alright, it's time for the fantasy indictment league.

I'm gonna be a dite-it! No, it is gonna be a... Dite-it! I'm gonna dick... A dite-it! I'm gonna dick-it! Hold it! It's gonna be okay. Just calm down.

I can't calm down, I'm gonna be a dite! And I'm gonna stick to the basics today this week with Gates, L-A-Kee. That's one of the people who got one of those contracts with Joel Greenberg and the tax office, but didn't do any work. Very suspicious and Jacob Engels. So those three in the middle district of Florida, actually, and I'll add a rando straw candidate donor down there because of all their straw candidate ghost candidates schemes. Then up into DC, I'm going to go with Sidney Powell and

Rudy and Eastman. I think out of DC. I don't know if we're going to see a Rudy Southern District of New York indictment yet. We should in any moment now, but they might be waiting on the coup stuff because they they seized his phones in April of 2021, all of them after the coup. So they have all that stuff rooting. And maybe a plea agreement with Ali Alexander. Okay. I think also a Bertino plea agreement. He's one of the proud boys leaders who was who was rated the same day.

Tari was arrested. He seems to be cooperating with the committee. So I assume he's cooperating with the Department of Justice, but we haven't seen anything formal. And Donald, yeah, I'm going to put Donald on there. I really think the Department of Justice is going to indict him or Fannie Willis will, or possibly both.

We'll see. All right, thanks for listening to my short show today from DC. Check out all the daily beans that are coming out this week. They're going to be good all from my DC coverage. And I'm going to be back in the hearing room for the January 6th committee hearings on Tuesday at 1 p.m. Eastern. And we also have out today another episode of the MSW book club on Ellie Mistalls. Allow me to retort Black Eyes Guide to the Constitution. Very, very

excellent book. I'm Juneteenth, everybody. Until next time, please take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health, and vote blue over Q. I've been AG, and this is Mullershy Road is written and produced by Allison Gill in partnership with MSW Media. Sound designed in engineering or by Molly Hockey, Jesse Egan is our copywriter and our art and web designer by Joa Reader at Moxie Design Studios. Mollershy Road is a proud member of MSW Media, a group of creator-owned podcasts focused

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