Washington, D.C. -Today, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter to Chairman Trey Gowdy asking how he plans to proceed with the Committee’s partisan investigation of allegations that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was bribed 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.
Cummings also seeks access to a former “confidential informant" that at least one Republican, Rep. Ron DeSantis, claims will provide new evidence demonstrating how Secretary Clinton allegedly masterminded a plan with then-FBI Director Robert Mueller and other CFIUS member agencies to approve the deal.
“These actions raise serious questions about whether Republicans are reopening this investigation of Hillary Clinton for the same illegitimate reasons that President Trump demanded it-to try to distract public attention from the ongoing criminal probe into President Trump’s campaign and its ties to Russia, and to unfairly malign the official charged with executing it, Special Counsel Robert Mueller," Cummings wrote.
In today’s letter, Cummings documented how Chairman Gowdy and other Republicans rushed to launch their partisan investigation directly after President Trump tweeted about the uranium deal less than 24 hours after a series of blistering news reports that Attorney General Jeff Sessions refused repeatedly to answer questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee about his conversations with the President regarding Russia and the firing of FBI Director James Comey.
Three days after the President’s tweet, Rep. DeSantis announced during a Fox News interview that the Committee was already conducting exactly the investigation President Trump sought. He also claimed that he spoke with a “confidential informant" that allegedly helped the FBI uncover this alleged bribery scheme. Less than 48 hours later, DeSantis held a press conference to confirm that the Committee indeed had launched this investigation.
“With no consultation with Democrats, you and other Republicans rushed to launch your latest investigation of Secretary Clinton and Mr. Mueller directly after President Trump initiated his own Twitter campaign just days earlier to distract from the ongoing Russia investigations," Cummings wrote. “It has now been more than two weeks since Chairman DeSantis declared on national television that our Committee is investigating this matter, but you have not taken any investigative steps-at least as far as I am aware-and you have not brought the confidential informant in to provide us with the information authorized by the Department of Justice."
Cummings explained that the Committee already investigated this issue and found no evidence to support these allegations. In June 2015, DeSantis and then-Chairman Jason Chaffetz sent 14 document request letters to all nine CFIUS member agencies-including both the Departments of State and Justice-as well as all five CFIUS observer offices.
Committee staff received two briefings from the Treasury Department and reviewed approximately 1,000 pages of classified documents. Satisfied with this response, the Committee released Department officials from having to testify at a document production hearing in January 2016.
In addition, at least four other congressional committees reviewed this issue and found no evidence to substantiate allegations.
“The committees that conducted these reviews identified no evidence to substantiate allegations that Secretary Clinton orchestrated, manipulated, or otherwise coerced CFIUS member agencies to approve the deal," Cummings wrote. “In contrast, they all dropped their investigations without further action, stopped sending letters, and never issued a report of their findings."
Cummings pointed out that DeSantis is the lead sponsor of legislation to kill Special Counsel Mueller’s probe of the Trump campaign and its Russian connections.
“It appears that the only thing that has changed since our Committee’s previous investigation is that Chairman DeSantis spoke with an unidentified ‘confidential informant’ who claims to have uncovered a ‘bribery scheme’ in which Secretary Clinton was paid off to effect the approval of the Uranium One deal," Cummings wrote. “We do not know who this former informant is, where this former informant is from, whether the FBI substantiated this former informant’s claims, or whether this former informant is credible."
Cummings asked to speak with the former informant this week.
“Since at least one Republican Member of our Committee, Chairman DeSantis, claims he has access to-and has been in discussions with-this former informant and his attorney, I now request that Democrats are given access to this individual. I ask that you invite the former informant to speak with the Committee this week. I also request copies of any documents or other information that Republican Members or staff have obtained relating to this investigation."
