RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week Oct. 22 to Oct. 28 Featured Investigation Congressional pressure brought forth, at long last, disclosures about who funded the opposition research firm behind the infamous Trump dossier. The news looked certain to intensify political fights over Trump-Russia investigations in Washington -- and the FBI's role. In the spring of 2016, Fusion GPS was retained by Mark Elias, an attorney representing the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign, the Washington Post reported. Soon afterward, Fusion hired British spy Christopher Steele to produce the lurid dossier. Before the Democrats, the Washington Free Beacon, funded by Republican mega-donor Paul Singer, had hired Fusion to "provide research on multiple candidates in the Republican presidential primary," as well as Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, the publication said. The Free Beacon was at pains to note that it had nothing to do with the dossier. Other Articles First Charges Filed in Mueller Probe CNN A federal grand jury in Washington has approved the first charges in the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller, CNN reports. Anyone named in the charges, still sealed, could be taken into custody as soon as Monday. Obama Administration Fingerprints on Russian Uranium Deal National Review Although the Clintons have been at the center of pay-for-play questions surrounding the sale of 20 percent of America's uranium reserves to Russia, the Obama administration played the key role in advancing the deal and covering up the illegal activity that threatened it, Andrew McCarthy reports in a detailed examination for National Review. McCarthy writes: The Clintons were just doing what the Clintons do: cashing in on their "public service." The Obama administration, with Secretary Clinton at the forefront but hardly alone, was knowingly compromising American national-security interests. The administration green-lighted the transfer of control over one-fifth of American uranium-mining capacity to Russia, a hostile regime — and specifically to Russia's state-controlled nuclear-energy conglomerate, Rosatom. Worse, at the time the administration approved the transfer, it knew that Rosatom's American subsidiary was engaged in a lucrative racketeering enterprise that had already committed felony extortion, fraud, and money-laundering offenses 'Hurricane Harvey' Cuts Wide Cultural Path RealClearInvestigations The "Harvey Effect" hit with full force this week, as a string of high-powered men were accused of sexual harassment in the wake of the Weinstein revelations. After the Los Angeles Times reported that the writer/director James Toback had harassed 38 women, hundreds of other women stepped forward with similar claims. Two leading journalists - political journalist Mark Halperin and the New Republic's former literary editor, Leon Wieseltier - have been accused by multiple women of inappropriate behavior. A nine-month investigation by the New Orleans Times-Picayune found widespread sexual harassment at the restaurant group co-owned by celebrity chef John Besh. Former President George H.W. Bush, who is 93 and in a wheelchair, apologized for touching the behinds of at least two women during photo shoots. Female lawmakers in several states have accused male colleagues of inappropriate touching or requesting sex for political support. Many other women have posted their stories of sexual abuse on the hashtag #metoo. Sen. Elizabeth Warren's, however, met with skepticism. Her description of a frightening encounter with a colleague in the late 1970s - who, she said, lunged at her and chased her around his office - seemed at odds with the description of the episode she gave while speaking at the man's 1997 funeral service. And by the fact he had polio. JFK Conspiracy Theories Live On RealClearInvestigations JFK conspiracy-mongers can rest assured. The legally required release this week of government documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy offered nothing conclusive to put them out of business. Instead, the trove amounted to a dog's breakfast of tidbits, prompting the journalistic herd to stampede off in different directions. Some played up assassin Lee Harvey Oswald's meeting in Mexico City with a Soviet official affiliated with the KGB's "Assassination Department" just weeks before the shooting; others played up reported Kremlin suspicions that Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was behind the assassination. President Trump withheld some files, citing national security. And of what came out, it was a challenge for reporters to sort new revelations from old news that turned up in previously released files -- like the CIA's desire to use the mafia to take out Fidel Castro and JFK's joining Frank Sinatra's Rat Pack at "sex parties." |