DOJ prosecutors are currently establishing whether a special counsel is needed to look into the controversial deal that gave Russia control over Canadian mining company Uranium One, which at the time controlled 20 percent of the uranium supply licensed for mining in the United States.
By giving Russia control over a significant portion of American uranium supplies, the deal created a potential national security risk. Despite the assurances of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to Congress that the uranium mined by Uranium One would not leave the United States, it did.
Chairman of the Senate judiciary committee Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has called on the DOJ to appoint a special counsel to look into the agreement.
Russia’s nuclear energy agency, Rosatom, acquired the controlling stake in Uranium One in 2010.
Because uranium, when enriched, is a key component for nuclear weapons, the deal required a national security review by the Committee on Foreign Investments (CFIUS) in the United States.
The State Department is part of CFIUS and was required to give its approval for the deal. At the time of the review and the approval given by the State Department, Hillary Clinton was serving as secretary of state.
During the time the deal was under review, payments made their way from Uranium One and Russian officials to the Clintons.
Uranium One’s chairman used his family foundation to make four donations to the Clinton Foundation, totaling $2.35 million.
According to The New York Times, those donations were not disclosed by the Clintons, despite a deal that Hillary Clinton reached with the Obama administration before being appointed as secretary of state that they would disclose all donors.
At the same time that the security review was being conducted, Bill Clinton received a speaking fee of $500,000 from a Kremlin-linked investment bank.
The FBI had also uncovered evidence of a sophisticated Russian bribery plot to get the controversial deal approved.
The FBI also had a witness who possessed documents showing that Russian nuclear officials had routed millions of dollars to the United States to benefit the Clinton Foundation, sources told The Hill.
An FBI informant in the case named William Campbell had gathered evidence on “millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks, plus extortion and money laundering,” the Hill reported based on a review of documents provided by Campbell.
Campbell had been prevented by then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch from testifying before Congress on his findings. In October, the DOJ lifted the gag order on the informant, allowing him to speak to congressional panels.
The FBI director at the time was Robert Mueller, who is now the special counsel investigating the allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 elections.
The sample had been requested by Russia following the seizure of highly enriched uranium in Georgia in 2006 that had been transferred to U.S. custody.
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