The House Intelligence and Oversight Committees are investigating Russia’s involvement in a controversial Obama-era uranium deal, the panel’s chairman announced Tuesday.
Russia gradually acquired control of a Canadian mining company—Uranium One—with mining stakes in the United States from 2009 to 2013, a series of agreements that gave it control of 20 percent of America’s uranium production capacity.
As the New York Times reported in 2015:
Hillary Clinton’s State Department and was one of the agencies that approved Russia’s 2010 bid to increase its share in Uranium One to 51 percent. That approval has sparked controversy in part because of donations between 2009 and 2013 to the Clinton Foundation from people related to Uranium One.
The Hill reported last week that before the sale was approved, the FBI had evidence indicating that Russian officials had “routed millions of dollars to the US. designed to benefit” the Clinton Foundation, and that the Obama administration approved the deal even though the FBI had evidence that Russian nuclear industry officials were engaged in bribery and extortion “designed to grow Vladimir Putin’s atomic energy business inside the United States.”
House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes said questions surrounding the potential FBI probe would be front-and-center in the panel’s inquiry.
“One of the things that we’re concerned about is whether or not there was an FBI investigation? Was there a DOJ investigation? And if so, why was Congress not informed of this matter?” he said.
“It’s important we find out why that deal went through,” said New York congressman Peter King, who raised objections to the agreement years ago.
Nunes, who stepped aside from his panel’s Russia probe amid controversy in April, said the uranium inquiry was a separate matter.
“The current Russia investigation is about the election,” Nunes told reporters. “This is more about uranium and whether or not the government actually functioned properly.”
Nunes added that he has not spoken to anyone at the White House on the matter. “This is basically based off of our conversations with informants over the last several months,” he said.
The New York Times has previously reported that the chairman of Uranium One donated four times to the Clinton Foundation before and after 2010.
The panel’s top Democrat spoke out against the uranium probe Tuesday, describing it as a “coordinated distraction” from the Russia interference in the 2016 election, a subject the panel is investigating.
Clinton herself on Monday described the controversy as “baloney” that has “been debunked repeatedly.”
“The closer the investigation about real Russian ties between Trump associates and real Russians,” she said on C-SPAN, “the more they want to just throw mud on the wall.”
