Sixty-nine percent of Americans support the Mueller probe and want to see it through to the end. Why doesn’t Mitch McConnell? This incredible international drama of intrigue and conspiracy has a new name to add to the cast of characters hastening the downfall of our democracy – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Mitch enters the story through his brother-in-law, Jim Breyer, a global tech venture capitalist. Mitch is married to Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, and Jim’s married to her sister, Angela, CEO of the family’s shipping enterprise.
The story seems to begin in 2005 when Jim invested in Facebook and joined their board. At an international tech summit in 2009 he met Kremlin backed Yuri Milner, a Russian tech entrepreneur, along with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin-Salman (MBS).
Milner and Breyer began working together through Milner’s company, DST, and then circuitously, Milner bought stock and later a board seat at Facebook and Twitter. Consequently, Russia owns 8% of Facebook and 5% of Twitter with Putin’s agent on those social media boards.
During Trump’s 2016 campaign, Jim had a meeting with MBS and later joined the Blackstone Group (Kushner’s lenders), seemingly at MBS’s urging. Then Mitch’s big payday came three weeks after Jamal Khashoggi’s assassination when Jim attended MBS’s ill-fated conference. MBS pledged $20 billion to Blackstone to be earmarked for Elaine Chao’s $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan.
I don’t know if this means we are bargaining away our infrastructure to Saudi Arabia just as our social media was sold to Russia, or not. But our society is being bargained away piecemeal to whomever pays and flatters.
Jim’s many connections throughout the murky world of venture capital have been a boon for Mitch. During the 2016 election campaign, Ukrainian-born Len Blavatnik donated $2.5 million to Mitch McConnell’s Super Pac. Len Blavatnik, who’s currently under investigation by Robert Mueller, is Jim’s Harvard friend. While the money isn’t illegal because of Citizen’s United, it’s certainly unethical, tainted and highly suspicious.
But at least, now we know why Mitch won’t protect Mueller’s investigation. Is Mitch “the enemy within” from whom he swore to protect our Constitution?