Mueller's own Russian conflict? FBI under his watch once asked oligarch at the center of jailed Kremlin escort's collusion claim to spend $25million to help rescue ex-agent held hostage in Iran

  • When Mueller ran FBI, agency asked Oleg Deripaska to rescue hostage in Iran
  • Retired FBI agent Robert Levinson was believed captured by Iran in 2007
  • Russian oligarch ultimately spent $25million on private search and rescue team
  • Now-fired deputy director Andrew McCabe played key role in courting Russian
  • Bureau may have needed Deripaska to evade bans on spending money in Iran
  • Rescue mission fell through after Clinton-led State Department backed out
  • Now Mueller has left Deripaska out of indictments despite ties to Paul Manafort 
  • An escort jailed in Thailand claims Deripaska was Manafort's pipeline to Putin
  • Oligarch says FBI quizzed him on 'dirty dossier' claims but he thought it was joke 
  • Mueller's past FBI ties to Deripaska are raising questions of conflict of interest

Robert Mueller's past ties to a Russian oligarch who is now a witness in the special counsel's probe are raising questions of a possible conflict of interest.  

On Monday, new details emerged about then-FBI Director Mueller's 2009 deal with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska to help rescue ex-agent hostage Robert Levinson from Iran, as recounted in a column by John Solomon for The Hill.

Now Deripaska's ties to Paul Manafort have brought him under the scrutiny of Mueller's investigators, raising the possibility of a conflict of interest and renewing ethical scrutiny on the millions the oligarch spent assisting the FBI in 2009.

The strange saga dates back to 2007, when Levinson, a retired agent for the FBI and DEA, disappeared on Iran's Kish Island while he was supposedly investigating cigarette smuggling - but was reportedly on a secret CIA mission. 

Robert M
Oleg Deripaska

New details have emerged about then-FBI Director Mueller's (left) 2009 deal with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska (right) to help rescue a former agent held hostage in Iran

Though Iran has never admitted it, Levinson was believed to be held in a secret government prison there after his disappearance. 

In mid-2008, FBI agents met with Deripaska in a Paris hotel to ask for his assistance in negotiating with Iran for Levinson's release, the New York Times reported several years later.

Andrew McCabe, the recently-fired FBI deputy director who was deeply involved in the Russian election meddling probe, was one of Deripaska's early FBI contacts, sources told Solomon. 

The Russian oligarch's participation was crucial, as he had close business ties in Iran, and US laws might make it illegal for the FBI or any US citizen to spend any money in Iran.

Deripaska, an aluminum magnate, offered to put his millions into a rescue operation. In return, he reportedly wanted the FBI to smooth the path for lifting travel restrictions that prohibited him from entering the US.

Deripaska's lawyer told Solomon that the Russian ultimately spent $25million assembling a private search and rescue team working with Iranian contacts. 

Mueller, then leading the FBI, would have been well aware of the deal. 'I kept Director Mueller and Deputy Director [John] Pistole informed of the various efforts and operations,' Robyn Gritz, the retired agent who supervised the Levinson case in 2009, told Solomon. 'We tried to turn over every stone we could to rescue Bob.'

Andrew McCabe, (above) the recently-fired FBI deputy director who was deeply involved in the Russian election meddling probe, was reportedly one of Deripaska's early FBI contacts

Andrew McCabe, (above) the recently-fired FBI deputy director who was deeply involved in the Russian election meddling probe, was reportedly one of Deripaska's early FBI contacts

By several accounts, the State Department, then under Hillary Clinton, blocked a deal for Levinson's return from going through. 'We tried to turn over every stone we could to rescue Bob, but every time we started to get close, the State Department seemed to always get in the way,' Gritz said.

'Deripaska's efforts came very close to success,' David McGee, a former federal prosecutor who represents Levinson's family, told Solomon. 

'We were told at one point that the terms of Levinson's release had been agreed to by Iran and the US and included a statement by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pointing a finger away from Iran. At the last minute, Secretary Clinton decided not to make the agreed-on statement,' McGee said.

Mueller’s spokesman declined to comment to Solomon, as did McCabe and the State Department.

Levinson remains missing to this day. He was last seen alive in 2011, in photos that showed him wearing an orange jumpsuit. 

The FBI ended the operation cooperating with Deripaska the same year.

Levinson remains missing to this day. He was last seen alive in 2011, in a set of photos including this one that showed him wearing an orange jumpsuit

Levinson remains missing to this day. He was last seen alive in 2011, in a set of photos including this one that showed him wearing an orange jumpsuit

Fast forward to 2016, when Deripaska resurfaced as a potential witness in the Russian election meddling probe.

Now granted entry to the US on a diplomatic passport, though he doesn’t work for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Deripaska says he was startled awake by FBI agents in his New York hotel room two months before the 2016 election.

They wanted to ask him about the claims in British ex-spy Christopher Steele's 'dirty dossier', which alleged links between Donald Trump's campaign and the Russian government. 

'Deripaska laughed but realized, despite the joviality, that they were serious,' his American lawyer Adam Waldman told Solomon. 

'So he told them in his informed opinion the idea they were proposing was false. "You are trying to create something out of nothing," he told them.' 

Later, Mueller's probe uncovered evidence that Paul Manafort, then Trump's campaign chairman, made overtures to offer Deripaska 'private briefings' on the campaign, the Washington Post reported. The oligarch says he never got the message about briefings, and there's no indication such a meeting took place.

Manafort and Deripaska have longstanding business ties. Deripaska sued Manafort in January, alleging he was defrauded in a 2007 investing deal. 

In 2016, FBI agents burst into Deripaska's (above) hotel room in New York to quiz him on the claims in the 'dirty dossier'. He recalls laughing, thinking they were joking at first

In 2016, FBI agents burst into Deripaska's (above) hotel room in New York to quiz him on the claims in the 'dirty dossier'. He recalls laughing, thinking they were joking at first

Anastasia Vashukevich, a call girl who was once Deripaska's mistress, has claimed from behind bars in a Thai jail that she had key evidence proving he was involved in election interference

Anastasia Vashukevich, a call girl who was once Deripaska's mistress, has claimed from behind bars in a Thai jail that she had key evidence proving he was involved in election interference

In February, video surfaced of Deripaska on a private yacht with Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Sergei Eduardovich Prikhodko. 

A Russian opposition leader claimed that the video showed that Deripaska was a conduit between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.

Belarussian escort Anastasia Vashukevich, Deripaska's former mistress who was seen in the yacht video, made the shocking claim from behind bars in a Thai prison that she had incriminating information on Deripaska. 

'Deripaska had a plan about elections,' she told the New York Times. Vashukevich remains jailed on prostitution charges in Thailand and has not publicly elaborated on her claims.

Stunningly, Deripaska was never named in Mueller's indictment of Manafort, on tax fraud charges unrelated to the election. Manafort has pleaded not guilty to all charges and is vigorously contesting the case. 

Now some are wondering if Mueller's dealing's with Deripaska on the Levinson hostage case create a conflict of interest, since the oligarch is presumably a key witness in the special counsel's probe into alleged 'links' between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.

'The real question becomes whether it was proper to leave [Deripaska] out of the Manafort indictment, and whether that omission was to avoid the kind of transparency that is really required by the law,' attorney Alan Dershowitz told Solomon. 

Who is Oleg Deripaska? The billionaire oligarch with links to Putin and Trump's shamed campaign manager

 Oleg Deripaska, who is said to be a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is considered one of Russia 's wealthiest men. 

Born in 1968 in the city of Dzerzhinsk, some 250 miles east of Moscow, Deripaska attended the School of Physics at Moscow State University before graduating from Moscow's School of Economics at Plekhanov Academy of Economics. 

He went on to establish himself in the domestic metals industry and in 2008, Forbes magazine listed Deripaska as the ninth-richest man in the world, worth about $28 billion. 

Controversial: Russian oligarch and billionaire Oleg Deripaska has many powerful friends in politics

Controversial: Russian oligarch and billionaire Oleg Deripaska has many powerful friends in politics

But when the financial crisis hit he almost went bankrupt before bouncing back - with the help of the Kremlin, according to some reports. 

In 2016, Forbes ranked Deripaska as Russia's 41st wealthiest man. 

He hit the headlines in 2017 when he was found to have ties with Paul Manfort, President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman.

A report claimed $26million was transferred from Oguster Management Ltd – a company owned by Deripaska – to Yiakora Ventures Ltd - entities linked to Manafort.

Manafort denied that any business he did with Deripaska a decade ago was related to helping the Russian government.

British peer Lord Mandelson is also an intimate friend of Deripaska, having in 2005 famously joined him in a 'Banya' — a traditional sauna in which they were thrashed with bunches of birch twigs by a 25-year-old man, before jumping into freezing water. 

Deripaska also hosted Lord Mandelson on his super-yacht, where the pair holidayed alongside Nat Rothschild, then shadow chancellor George Osborne and Tory fund-raiser Andrew Feldman in Corfu in 2008.