Cummings Objects to Gowdy Denying Access to “Confidential Informant” on Uranium One as Even Conservative Outlets Debunk GOP Claims

Nov 15, 2017
Press Release

Cummings Objects to Gowdy Denying Access to “Confidential Informant” on Uranium One as Even Conservative Outlets Debunk GOP Claims

 

“I do not know why you are hiding this former informant.”

 

Washington, D.C. (Nov. 15, 2017)—Today, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter to Chairman Trey Gowdy objecting to Republicans’ ongoing refusal—for the last 23 days—to provide Democrats with access to an unidentified “confidential informant” they claim has “explosive” new evidence demonstrating how former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton masterminded a plan with then-FBI Director Robert Mueller to orchestrate the unanimous decision in 2010 by all nine member agencies of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) regarding Uranium One.

“Although this news became public more than three weeks ago, you have refused repeated requests to make this former informant available to Democrats, raising serious questions about why you are concealing this individual from Members of the Oversight Committee who are supposed to be investigating this person’s claims,” Cummings wrote.

On October 22, 2017, Republican Committee Member Ron DeSantis claimed during a nationally televised interview on Fox News:  “We have the money that went to Bill Clinton for the speech, the half a million dollars.  Millions of dollars to the Foundation from sources connected with Uranium One.  And then you have the approval of the deal on the CFIUS board, which Hillary Clinton was a member of, in 2010.  So you do have the quid, you have the quo.  This informant, I believe, would be able to link those two together.”

These claims have been widely debunked in the past, including by the Washington Post Fact Checkerand PolitiFact.

Last night, Fox News anchor Shepard Smith debunked these claims again, explaining: “The accusation is predicated on the charge that Secretary Clinton approved the sale.  She did not.”  He added:  “Most of those donations were from one man, Frank Giustra, the founder of the company in Canada. ... But Giustra says he sold his stake in the company back in 2007.  That is three years before the uranium/Russia deal and a year and a half before Hillary Clinton became secretary of state.”

Even the conservative National Review weighed in:  “Shep is right.  The Uranium One story is crap.”

“It appears that the only thing that has changed since these claims were first debunked is that you now have an unidentified ‘confidential informant’ who claims to have uncovered a ‘bribery scheme’ in which Secretary Clinton was paid off to effect the unanimous approval of the Uranium One deal,” Cummings wrote to Gowdy today.  “But you have refused for more than three weeks to make this informant available to Democratic Members of the Committee conducting this investigation.”

Cummings sent a previous letter to Gowdy on November 7, 2017, seeking access to the individual after the Federal Bureau of Investigation authorized the individual to speak to both Republicans and Democrats on the Committee.  Gowdy ignored this request.

“This is not a responsible way to conduct an investigation,” Cummings wrote.  “I do not know why you are hiding this former informant, despite the fact that the FBI has authorized this individual to speak to both Republicans and Democrats.  However, your refusal to allow Members of our Committee to speak with this individual and to evaluate this individual’s claims raises serious questions about the credibility of the Committee’s investigation.”

Click here to read today’s letter.

 
115th Congress