Mueller investigates Trump links to Ukrainian oligarch, ignores decades-long Clinton connection

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s partisan hypocrisy is on display.

The man charged with investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election is investigating a $150,000 donation Victor Pinchuk, a Ukrainian oligarch, gave to the Donald J. Trump Foundation in September 2015, three months after Mr. Trump announced that he was running for president.

In exchange for the honorarium, Trump appeared over a video link at a conference hosted by Pinchuk in Kiev, Ukraine. The payment was reportedly negotiated with President Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, the New York Times reports. Cohen’s Manhattan office was raided by the FBI Monday.

In a statement released to the New York Times, the Victor Pinchuk Foundation said it reached out to then-candidate Trump to “promote strengthened and enduring ties between Ukraine and the West.”

In remarks to the conference, Mr. Trump described why he was running for president. He applauded Pinchuk as a “special entrepreneur” whom he could learn a lot from. He urged Europe to “band together” to help Ukraine and give it the “proper respect” it deserves.

“I don’t think you are getting the support that you need,” Trump said. “Our president is not strong and he is not doing what he should be doing for the Ukraine.”

“Part of the problem that Ukraine has with the United States is that Putin does not respect our president whatsoever,” Trump added, delivering remarks that he often used on the campaign trail. Nothing Trump said appears to be particularly supportive of Moscow’s agenda. He’s more critical of President Obama and European inaction on defense issues.

It’s quite baffling that special counsel Mueller has decided to go after President Trump on this front, given that he is not investigating the oligarch’s substantial and decades-long financial and personal relationships with Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Since 2006, Pinchuk has delivered at least $13 million to the Clinton Foundation. From 1994 to 2005, Pinchuk offloaded between $10 million and $25 million to the foundation. He has in the past lent his private plane to Hillary Clinton, according to the New York Times. In 2011, he traveled to California to attend Hillary Clinton’s 65th birthday party. And unlike the donation to then-candidate Trump, some of Pinchuk’s Clinton Foundation contributions were made while Hillary Clinton was serving as secretary of state.

Pinchuk leveraged his influence with Mrs. Clinton to arrange “about a dozen meetings with State Department officials on behalf of or with Mr. Pinchuk,” the shocking Times report added.

Moreover, emails released in late 2016 showed that Clinton’s spokesperson lied to the public, insisting that she never met with Pinchuk while she was secretary of state. In fact, Pinchuk was invited to Hillary Clinton’s home during her last year as the U.S. chief diplomat.

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