Whose 'nude selfie' could be US ‘national security’ concern? The Robert Mueller probe mystery deepens

New York: Whose nude selfie? That’s right. There’s a nude selfie that’s turned up in the Robert Mueller investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the US elections 2016 and the special counsel is citing “national security” concerns in not revealing the identity of the person in the photograph. Russian company Concord Management and Consulting wants the US district court for the District of Columbia to dismiss a request from Mueller to share sealed information with the judge overseeing the case.

Questions swirling around this story are hitting the ceiling: - Whose selfie is this? - If making the picture public could raise “national security concerns”, does it imply this is someone in the White House (because “who would go to war over Mike Pompeo’s nudes?") - Is it a face selfie, full body selfie or close-up shot? - Is it a woman or man? - Is this Putin’s leverage over Trump or at least one of them?

What is Concord Management’s role here? Concord Management and Consulting is among the Russian entities that Mueller indicted earlier this year, accusing them of participating in a Russian troll farm’s effort to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the election and possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.

What does Mueller say? Mueller is saying any “additional information is classified for reasons of national security” and he seeks permission to “submit the information ex parte”. The Russian company Concord Management and Catering is questiong this basis to Mueller witholding details.

What is the Russian firm saying? “Could the manner in which he collected a nude selfie really threaten the national security of the United States,” Concord’s lawyers ask in the 27 December filing. The Russian firm is pushing back against Mueller’s request for “secret ex parte communications” with the Court: “The Court will recall that from the outset the Special Counsel maintained that there was no classified information in this case. In fact, the Special Counsel continues to concede that the discovery in this case contains no classified information. Instead the Special Counsel asks the Court to accept secret ex parte communications from him to support the unprecedented argument that the Defendant itself cannot view millions of pages of non-classified discovery. This request is just another squinch to support the novelty of this entire proceeding.”

The man behind Concord Concord Management and Consulting is owned by a colourful character who ran Internet Research Agency - Yevgeniy Prigozhin - also nicknamed “Putin’s chef.” Prigozhin used to run a hot dog stand in St Petersburg, Russia in the 1990s before he became close to Putin. Concord Catering, another of Prigozhin’s companies that was indicted by Mueller, now provides food services at the Kremlin.

For Mueller probe obsessors, here’s a link to every single case filing in the ongoing investigation so far.

As expected, Mueller released a torrent of bombshell filings before Christmas and predictably went quiet over the holidays. As 2018 ends and the Trump freakouts continue, Muller’s silence tells us there’s something big coming in 2019. The tension mounts.

Just in: Indications that Russia is reacting to all of this. The country has detained a US citizen in Moscow on espionage suspicion and has begun a criminal case. Investigations are underway.