Russian oligarch gloats after US Justice Department drops election-meddling charges

Russian oligarch Yevegeny Prigozhin, who bankrolled the troll farm that meddled in the 2016 presidential election, took a victory lap on Tuesday after the US Justice Department dropped charges against two of his companies, weeks before a scheduled trial.

Prigozhin, often dubbed “Putin’s chef” for his close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, blasted the federal prosecutors who brought the case and denied once again that he was involved in the Kremlin’s sweeping interference in 2016. In a statement released Tuesday, Prigozhin slammed former special counsel Robert Mueller and claimed he and his company were “illegally persecuted.”

President Donald Trump also trumpeted the development, even though it was a setback for his own Justice Department. While Trump dealt with the coronavirus pandemic, he found time Monday evening to re-tweet two tweets that said the outcome tarnished the legacy of the Russia investigation that Mueller led. One of the tweets read, “How embarrassing for Team Mueller.”

The criminal case against Prigozhin and his companies, including Concord Management and Consulting, was initiated by Mueller in 2018 and was slated to go to trial next month. But prosecutors abruptly announced Monday that they were scrapping the charges.

They accused Prigozhin of manipulating the US legal system by hiring American lawyers to fish around for sensitive national security materials. In a court filing, prosecutors acknowledged that “sensitive, non-public information … has gone to Russia” during the legal process, and said that the potential benefits of a conviction at trial no longer outweighed the national security risks.

Even though the Justice Department dropped some of the charges, Prigozhin is still under criminal indictment. He is living safely in Russia, which does not extradite its own citizens.

Prosecutors accused Prigozhin of providing “false and misleading statements” in an affidavit that was submitted as part of the trial preparations, which would be illegal. They said the US government would “continue its efforts to apprehend” Prigozhin and his 12 indicted employees.

Back in St. Petersburg, Prigozhin spun the legal development as proof that the accusations that he and his companies interfered in the US presidential election “are lies and fiction.” The leading US intelligence agencies unanimously concluded that the Russian government meddled in the 2016 election to help Trump win, and that Prigozhin’s troll farm played an influential role.

In the statement, Prigozhin thanked his lawyer Eric Dubelier for leading the case “to a victorious end.” For two years, Dubelier waged a heated legal campaign against Mueller in the courts, at one point insulting a prosecutor with profanity and comparing the investigation to “Looney Tunes.”

Prigozhin also used the opportunity to take a parting shot at Mueller, suggesting perhaps sarcastically that it was a “brave move” for him to step down last year, before the case against Concord went to trial, because “Mueller understood what lawlessness he was dragged into.”