The FBI has been given secret wiretaps Spanish police obtained regarding discussions between Alexander Torshin, a deputy governor of Russia’s Central Bank one with a long history of “good relationships” with U.S. lawmakers and the National Rifle Association, which was the basis for a meeting between Torshing and Donald Trump Jr. at the NRA’s annual convention in Louisville, Ky., in May 2016, all according to a top Spanish prosecutor who, unlike Mueller, apparently is willing to at least hint at what they know.
José Grinda leads the department which oversees investigations into Spanish organized crime, and said that his officers over the last few months requested and received transcripts of wiretapped conversations between Torshin and Alexander Romanov, a convicted Russian money launderer. The wiretaps reveal that Romanove refers to Torshin as “El Padrino,” the godfather.
“Just a few months ago, the wiretaps of these telephone conversations were given to the FBI,” Grinda said in response to a question from Yahoo News during a talk he gave at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, as reported by Huffington Post. Reporters specifically aske about Torshin’s meetings with Donald Trump Jr. and other American political figures, Grinda replied: “Mr. Trump’s son should be concerned.”
Ouch. Let’s hear someone on the right wing claim that this is part of a Democratic-driven political agenda. Huff-Post linked above explains the connection:
The comments by Grinda were the first clear sign that the FBI may be investigating Torshin, possibly as a part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Torshin — a close political ally of Vladimir Putin — had multiple contacts with conservative activists in the United States during the election, seeking to set up a summit between the Russian president and then candidate Trump. Although the summit never transpired, Torshin did meet briefly with the president’s son at a private dinner in Louisville during the May 2016 annual convention of the NRA. A member of the NRA since 2012, Torshin has been a regular attendee of the group’s conventions in recent years and hosted senior members of the group in Moscow.
Grinda said that the FBI, didn’t provide any reason for why they wanted the tapes, and Grinda didn’t mind at all. “I don’t have to ask them why they want this information,” he said. But Grinda did say that if Mueller or the S.D.N.Y. wanted to use the information as the basis, or part of the basis for a criminal case, they’d need to make a more formal request. However, the tone of the entire matter sure seems as though the Spanish want this sorted out as bad as we Americans do.
Again, I find this particularly important because it directly counters that the entire matter is driven by American politics. Spanish law enforcement apparently has no desire to do anything beyond catching the bad guys. Mueller’s office was contacted for comment and – per what we expect – declined to comment. Mueller isn’t going to say shit until he brings it all down with a hammer.
