Mueller, the Russians, and Balch

Now is the time for Mueller and his G-Men to go deep into the intricate ownership, corporate structure, financial records, and wire transfers of Black Hall Aerospace.

With the federal indictment today of Paul Manafort and his associate Rick Gates,  K Street is shaking as two lobbying firms, The Podesta Group and Mercury, were hired in an alleged criminal scheme to influence Capitol Hill on behalf of the government of the Ukraine.

The two lobbying firms allegedly pocketed $2 million in fees.

Allegedly laundering $12,000,000 and not registering as foreign agents, Manafort and Gates are not the only ones facing prison time. So is George Papadopoulos, a former Trump adviser,  who plead guilty to lying to the FBI today about his contacts with the Russian government.

Since the inception of Office of the Special Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice, the CDLU has been briefing Mueller’s team about Balch & Bingham’s lobbying of a Russian-linked aerospace company called Black Hall Aerospace, Inc.  a/k/a AAL USA, Inc.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, between 2014 and 2017 Black Hall Aerospace paid out over $1.3 million in lobbying fees, including a portion to Balch,  to influence decision makers in Washington, DC.

On the same day as U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russian investigation, March 2, Balch scrubbed their website about their success in changing Russian sanctions on behalf of Black Hall.

Now is the time for Mueller and his G-Men to go deep into the intricate ownership, corporate structure, financial records, and wire transfers of Black Hall Aerospace.

If anyone lies to the FBI as Balch attempted to deceive the public about their lobbying ties to Black Hall, they should be treated like Papadopoulos.