Moscow Mitch

Another reason Mitch won't bring up election protection bills for a vote...

Two former top staffers to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have lobbied Congress and the Treasury Department on the development of a new Kentucky aluminum mill backed by the Russian aluminum giant Rusal, according to a new lobbying disclosure.

The disclosure comes as Democrats are pushing the Trump administration to review Rusal’s $200 million investment in the Kentucky project — concerned that the mill will supply the Defense Department — and as McConnell weathers criticism for helping block a congressional effort to stop the investment.

The Russian firm was only able to make the investment after it won sanctions relief from penalties the Treasury Department initially imposed in April 2018 on Rusal and other companies owned by Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch and Kremlin ally accused of facilitating Moscow’s nefarious activities, such as seizing land in Ukraine, supplying arms for the Syrian regime and meddling in other countries’ elections.

[...]

McConnell told reporters in May that his support for lifting the sanctions was “completely unrelated to anything that might happen in my home state.”

  Politico

That's a good one.

“A number of us supported the administration,” McConnell said. “That position ended up prevailing. I think the administration made a recommendation without political consideration. And that’s — that was how I voted — the reason I voted the way I did.”

[...]

It’s unclear whether the former staffers — Hunter Bates, a former McConnell chief of staff, and Brendan Dunn, who advised the Kentucky Republican on tax, trade and financial services matters before heading to K Street last year — directly lobbied McConnell’s office over the aluminum mill project.

Depends on what your definition of "lobby" is.

In Washington, it’s common for congressional staffers to lobby their former colleagues.

[...]

[T]he law and lobbying firm where Bates and Dunn work, and McConnell’s office declined to comment on whether they had done so.

[...]

Democratic lawmakers have called for an investigation of the project by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an interagency body that can recommend the cancellation of foreign financial arrangements with U.S. firms over national security concerns.

Who heads that one? Oh, gee. It's under the Treasury Department.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The payoff

Pretty good odds, I'd say.  

Here it comes

I was wondering how many GOP Congressmen were involved in the Russia scandal themselves. Let the outing begin.

Party loyalty is often cited as the reason that GOP leaders have not been more outspoken in their criticism of President Donald Trump and his refusal to condemn Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election. Yet there may be another reason that top Republicans have not been more vocal in their condemnation. Perhaps it's because they have their own links to the Russian oligarchy that they would prefer go unnoticed.

Donald Trump and the political action committees for Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Lindsey Graham, John Kasich and John McCain accepted $7.35 million in contributions from a Ukrainian-born oligarch [Leonard "Len" Blavatnik] who is the business partner of two of Russian president Vladimir Putin's favorite oligarchs and a Russian government bank.

[...]

In 2010, Oxford University drew intense criticism for accepting a donation of 75 million pounds from Blavatnik for a new school of government bearing his name. Faculty, alumni and international human rights activists claimed the university was selling its reputation and prestige to Putin's associates.

[...]

Blavatnik's relationships with Russian oligarchs close to Putin, particularly Oleg Deripaska, should be worrisome for Trump and the six GOP leaders who took Blavatnik's money during the 2016 presidential campaign.

  Dallas

I wonder how many of those few knew where their money was coming from.  Even if they did, I don't think that automatically makes them criminally complicit in anything, but it does make them suspect on the Russian-influence-kompromat front.  While Blavatnik appears to have UK-US citizenship, he is a co-owner of a Russian company, RUSAL, that is under US sanctions.  RUSAL is the second largest aluminum company in the world.

Mitch McConnell was the top recipient of Blavatnik's donations, collecting $2.5 million.

[...]

Marco Rubio's Conservative Solutions PAC and his Florida First Project received $1.5 million through Blavatnik's two holding companies. Other high dollar recipients of funding from Blavatnik were PACS representing Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker at $1.1 million, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham at $800,000, Ohio Governor John Kasich at $250,000 and Arizona Senator John McCain at $200,000.

[...]

Ironically, the shared address of Blavatnik's companies is directly across the street from Trump Tower on 5th Avenue in New York.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.