Hillary Clinton condemned reports that say the Trump administration is considering appointing a special counsel to investigate her involvement in a 2010 deal that allowed Russia to buy a stake in U.S. uranium production, calling such an appointment “an abuse of power.”
“If they send a signal that we’re going to be like some dictatorship, like some authoritarian regime, where political opponents are going to be unfairly, fraudulently investigated, that rips at the fabric of the contract we have, that we can trust our justice system,” Clinton told Mother Jones, when asked about reports Attorney General Jeff Sessions has asked prosecutors to examine the need for a special counsel.
“It will be incredibly demoralizing to people who have served at the Justice Department, under both Republicans and Democrats, because they know better,” Clinton continued. “But it will also send a terrible signal to our country and the world that somehow we are giving up on the kind of values that we used to live by and we used to promote worldwide.”
In 2010, Russian nuclear energy agency Rosatom was permitted by the Obama administration’s Committee on Foreign Investments to acquire a controlling stake in Uranium One, a Canadian-based company with projects in the U.S.
Clinton sat on the nine-member panel as then-secretary of state.
The 2016 Democratic presidential nominee denied any wrongdoing, saying she “deeply” regretted the politicization of the country’s justice system.
“This Uranium One story has been debunked countless times by members of the press, by independent experts,” she added. “It is nothing but a false charge that the Trump administration is trying to drum up to avoid attention being drawn to them.”
