No matter where you look in the Trump administration–from the president all the way down to many of his chief advisers–you find a link that cannot merely be coincidence: Russia. Dig a little, and you find a connection to Russia, Russian business interests, or Russian individuals.
And now we have yet another in form of President Trump’s nominee to be the next FBI Director, Christopher Wray.
Wray, who previously worked as an attorney at the Atlanta law firm of King and Spalding, represented an American energy executive in 2006 who was being criminally investigated by the Russian government. Yet in his official bio, Wray scrubbed any mention of being involved in that case.
A copy of Wray’s biography from King and Spalding which was archived in December 2016 stated that Wray had represented “an energy company president in a criminal investigation by Russian authorities.” But by June of this year, all mention of that case had mysteriously disappeared. Seeing as how the FBI is currently investigating the president and his associates for colluding with Russia, that seems more than a bit odd.
King and Spalding maintains that Wray himself made the edit to his bio, but were quick to add that he did so long before he was ever considered for any post in the Trump administration:
“Chris made this change to his bio, along with other minor tweaks, in an attempt to make the material more current. At the time he made the adjustments — January 12, 2017 — he was not being considered for, and did not anticipate being nominated for, FBI Director, or any position in government. Moreover, the representation that was dropped from his online bio related to a matter where Chris, King & Spalding, and the client were adverse to the Russian Government. Mr. Wray worked on this matter in 2006. Other attorneys at the firm worked on the matter in 2006, 2007, and 2011.”
It should also be noted that King and Spalding has done extensive legal work for the Russian state-owned oil companies Rosneft and Gazprom. Rosneft is the very same company that current Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made a $500 billion deal with when he was still the CEO of Exxon-Mobil.
Carter Page, who was once named by Trump as a key foreign policy adviser, once served as an adviser to Gazprom. And Gazprom also has connections to former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.
Russia everywhere. Turn over a rock inside the Trump tent and you find another connection to Russia. Yet the president and his defenders tell us it’s all a witch hunt.
Featured Image Via NBC News
