Trump's pick for the next FBI director has Russian ties of his own

President Trump's pick for the next FBI director has his own ties to Russia.

USA Today says that Christopher Wray's law firm King and Spalding, represents two of Russia's largest state-controlled oil companies, Rosneft and Gazprom.

The issue with Rosneft is that in 2012, they had a $500 billion dollar oil drilling joint-venture with Exxon. And at the time, Trump's Secretary of State Rex Tillerson happened to be the CEO.

But this deal was blocked by former President Barack Obama after he imposed sanctions which crushed business between Russia and U.S. companies.

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However, if the Trump administration lifts those sanctions, Exxon will be free to renew its agreement and Wray's firm could be in on the contract negotiations.

As for Gazprom, one of its partners is controlled by Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash who is under indictment for racketeering charges and is said to be part of Vladimir Putin's inner circle.

Wray's issue could be that his company's clients may provide and ethical and legal conflict of interest, which might actually require him to recuse himself from the FBI's Russian probe.

As USA Today points out, if he is confirmed as the new FBI director, it could very well be seen as Trump's attempt to put a "Russia-friendly" director at the head of the FBI.

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