The United States Department of Justice decided Monday to drop all charges against two Russian companies controlled by one of President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies accused of to have interfered in the 2016 elections that gave Donald Trump the victory to the detriment of Hillary clinton. The decision is at least surprising and prosecutors have justified it in that “it is no longer in the interest of justice or national security” to go ahead with the lawsuit, since during the legal process, US information classified as sensitive could end up being revealed. The trial should have started next month.
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The case against the two companies, Concord Management and Consulting, and Concord Catering, was opened in 2018 at the time special counsel Robert Mueller, who investigated the Russian plot and the possible obstruction of the justice of the President of the United States. In addition, Mueller also accused 13 Russian nationals and the Internet Investigation Agency (known as the IRA) during his investigation. The Justice Department has assured that its intention is to go ahead with the case against those 13 Russians and the famous trolley farm, IRA.
Concord is a firm controlled by Yevgeni Prigozin, a Russian tycoon very close to Putin, and the only Russian entity to respond to charges brought before the US court as a result of Mueller’s investigation. The case put a lot of pressure on the Justice Department as information regarding the espionage had to be released to Concord’s legal teams so they could prepare for the trial. “The Government must evaluate the benefits of securing a guilty verdict against the cost of presenting this case in a trial, including the potential damages derived from exposing technical information of great importance to the security agencies, the Intelligence community or both institutions” , it is indicated in the communication of the Department of Justice. Part of the Justice investigation was to establish the relationship that Concord had with IRA, the trolley farm that operated from Saint Petersburg to influence from the social networks on the American electorate facing the 2016 presidential elections.
Some of the appearances that have occurred in the preparation of the case have been controversial to say the least by Concord’s lead attorney, Eric Dubelier, for his continued exits from it all and references to cartoon series from the 1970s to criticize the investigation. from Mueller. At a certain point in the preparatory process, in January of last year, Judge Danbey Friedrich ordered the lawyer to stop “once and for all” from doing antics. Dubelier has insisted that the whole case was a pure invention of American justice and went so far as to accuse the judge of being prejudiced against him.
Concord belongs to Yevgeni Prigozin, one of the closest allies of the Russian president. Known as Putin’s chef for his catering business, the entrepreneur started out as a hot dog vendor in the 1990s and later took advantage of the opportunities that came with the collapse of the USSR, eventually managing high-end restaurants for the new Russian elite. In one of them he met Putin. And the relationship between the two since then, founded on Prigozin’s loyalty, has been very fruitful for the businessman, who established Concord Catering.
With business in the military as well, Prigozin is reportedly after the Wagner mercenary company, which has dispatched contractors to defend the Kremlin’s interests in Syria, Ukraine, Libya and other African countries. He is one of the darkest men in the President’s environment.
Investigators contend that the President’s friend managed political projects for the Kremlin, such as the Internet Research Agency Agency (or IRA). Prigozin always denied it, despite reports that her company, Concord Catering, supported her financially. “Americans are very impressionable people, they see what they want to believe,” he said in one of his few conversations about the controversy. “I respect them a lot and it doesn’t bother me to be on the list, if they want to see the devil, leave them,” he said.
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