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Special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation began as opposition research helped by the Clinton Foundation and needs to end, former Clinton confidant Mark Penn argued Monday.
Writing for The Hill, Penn blasted the investigation on the Trump campaign.
"They started by telling the story of Alexander Downer, an Australian diplomat, as having remembered a bar conversation with George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign. But how did the FBI know they should talk to him?" Penn wrote.
"That's left out of their narrative. Downer's signature appears on a $25 million contribution to the Clinton Foundation. You don't need much imagination to figure that he was close with Clinton Foundation operatives who relayed information to the State Department, which then called the FBI to complete the loop. This wasn't intelligence. It was likely opposition research from the start."
Penn also alleged that high-ranking officials at the Department of Justice and the FBI conspired to let Hillary Clinton off the hook regarding her use of a private email system while she was secretary of state.
"At this point, there is little doubt that the highest echelons of the FBI and the Justice Department broke their own rules to end the Hillary Clinton 'matter,' but we can expect the inspector general to document what was done or, more pointedly, not done," Penn wrote.