Thread by @DavidCranmerUn1

Iran & US Negotiating Prisoner Swap As Nuke Talks Likely Stalled Into August | ZeroHedge
Via The Hill: Biden administration officials are also pressing Iran for information on the fate of Robert Levinson, a former American intelligence official zerohedge.com/geopolitical/p…

believed to have died in Iranian custody following his 2007 disappearance in the country.

A Russian oligarch caught in the crosshairs of Robert Mueller’s Russia probe says he spent over $20 million of his own money at the behest of Andrew McCabe, the fired deputy of the bureau,

on a mission – that was later scuttled – to free a retired FBI agent captured in Iran.
The supposed relationship between the FBI and Oleg Deripaska, a billionaire with close ties to the Kremlin, may raise speculation about whether the Mueller team and the bureau at large suffer

from a conflict of interest as it investigated Deripaska and his ties to Trump campaign officials.

But the Russian’s admission casts a shadow on McCabe, a former FBI deputy that was fired by President Trump, and Mueller himself over the effort to bring back Robert Levinson, a

retired FBI agent captured in Iran back in 2007 during a CIA mission
Deripaska told The Hill that he spent over $20 million of his own money between 2009 and 2011 on an operation to free Levinson.
He claims he paid for the mission because the FBI, then under Mueller’s leadership,

with McCabe, then-FBI supervisor and a supposed colleague of Levinson, asked him for the help.

Iran was responsible for the death of Bob Levinson, the retired FBI agent from Coral Springs who disappeared in Iran in in 2007, President Donald Trump’s administration said Monday.

The Trump administration concluded that Levinson was dead months ago, but Monday was the first time it said so publicly. “The government of Iran pledged to provide assistance in bringing Bob Levinson home, but it has never followed through. The truth is that Iranian intelligence

officers — with the approval of senior Iranian officials — were involved in Bob’s abduction and detention,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement. “We will never waver from our commitment to find out more about Bob’s long captivity, to give the Levinson family the

answers they deserve, and to finally bring Bob home.”The most troubling issue that Wray may face is the fact that his law firm — King & Spalding — represents Rosneft and Gazprom, two of Russia’s largest state-controlled oil companies.
Rosneft was prominently mentioned in the

now infamous 35-page dossier prepared by former British MI6 agent Christopher Steele. The dossier claims that the CEO of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, offered candidate Donald Trump, through Trump’s campaign advisor Carter Page, a 19% stake in the company in exchange for lifting U.S.

sanctions on Russia. The dossier claims that the offer was made in July while Page was in Moscow.
Rosneft is also the company that had a $500 billion oil drilling joint-venture with Exxon in 2012, when Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was Exxon’s CEO.

The law firm’s representation of Gazprom raises even more serious conflict issues for Wray. Gazprom was a partner in RosUkrEnergo AG (“RUE”), which is controlled by Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash. He is under federal indictment in Chicago for racketeering charges, has had

numerous financial dealings with former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, and is generally considered to be a member of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle. Though there is no indication that Wray personally worked on any of the Rosneft or Gazprom legal matters

handled by his law firm, he might well have an ethical and legal conflict of interest that would prevent him from any involvement of the FBI’s Russian probe. When a law firm such as King & Spalding represents clients, then all of the partners in that law firm have an actual or

potential conflict of interest, preventing them from undertaking any representation of any other client that has interests clearly adverse to those of these two Russian companies. These conflict rules continue to apply even after a lawyer leaves the law firm, so Wray could be

ethically barred from involving himself in a federal investigation that includes within its scope a probe of Rosneft, Gazprom and affiliated companies. The public appearance of conflict of interest and impropriety might require him to recuse himself from the investigation.

Bijan Rafiekian, also known as Bijan Kian, is a resident of San Juan Capistrano, California, and a prominent figure in monarchist Iranian American circles loyal to the former deposed King (shah) of Iran. A close friend of former Iranian Queen, Farah Diba, Kian, like other

monarchists, is interested in overthrowing Iran's Islamic government, also served on Trump’s transition team, in the division related to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

After the 9/11 attacks, the trio made routine visits to Afghanistan and Iraq. It was on one of those trips when General David H. Petraeus gave the nickname to the triumvirate, which became vocal proponents of President George W. Bush’s “surge” strategy in Iraq.
“They were the

three amigos. They were three inseparable friends,” Petraeus told ABC News. “At some point, I just started saying we had the three amigos coming in again.”

“This Three Amigo business was more than three different kinds of guys who became friends and sort of had a great time traveling around the world,” wonky-armed McCain added. “I think we really tried to stand for something.”

White, a three-time gold medalist, posted a photo of himself dressed as Simple Jack, prompting swift backlash.
Soeren Palumbo, co-founder of Special Olympics' Spread the Word to End the Word Campaign, said in a statement, "We are truly disappointed that Shaun White, an acclaimed

Olympian, would choose this costume which is so offensive and causes so much pain. Disability is not a joke nor should it be a punchline. We hope that Shaun White and others learn that this just continues stigma, stereotypes and discrimination."

This isn't the first time the Simple Jack character has sparked outrage. In 2008, when the movie was released, protesters decried the use of the word "retard" in the film, with people from organizations like the Special Olympics and the American Association of People with

Disabilities protesting the film across the street from its premiere. They held signs that said, "Call me by my name, not by my label.""Tropic Thunder" was also controversial for its use of blackface. In the film, Robert Downey Jr. plays actor Kirk Lazarus, a white man cast

to play a black soldier. He said he was satirizing over-the-top actors, not African-Americans.
Of course, White is not the first celebrity this year to get slammed over Halloween costume-related issues. "Megyn Kelly Today" was canceled after its namesake host defended blackface

Halloween costumes on the show last week.