GOP seeks testimony from ‘informant’ on Russia uranium deal

In their newly announced investigation into the 2010 Russia uranium deal, the House Oversight Committee is seeking testimony from a "confidential informant" who was originally recruited by the Russians but then helped the FBI.

Northeast Florida Congressman Ron DeSantis sits on the House Oversight Committee, which is conducting a joint investigation along with the House Intelligence Committee.  DeSantis says the Russians in the uranium industry recruited the informant to get a “foothold in American politics.”  He became a lobbyist in Washington, but then in 2009 decided to help the FBI.

“He now is somebody who wants to come forward and tell what he knows about that investigation,” DeSantis says.

DeSantis says he had signed a non-disclosure agreement, so right now he’s not allowed to talk about it.  He says if they cannot get the agreement lifted, they will subpoena the informant to talk to Congress.

The 2010 deal approved by the Obama Administration basically gave the Russian uranium company Uranium One rights to twenty percent of the US uranium reserves.

“We knew that Russian entities paid Bill Clinton half a million dollars for a speech, and that they diverted millions and millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation while Hillary was Secretary of State, and obviously she was involved in approving this.”

Hillary Clinton at the time sat on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) which voted the deal up or down.

DeSantis says the whole deal raises issues of the “competence of the Obama Administration,” whether there was pay-to-play involving the Clintons, and which information was given or withheld from Congress.

“What I think the informant is going to say is really from day one the Russians were very interested in currying favor with the Clintons,” DeSantis says.  “Because they thought if they could get the Clintons to be supportive of what they were doing, that that would really take care of some of the other people.”

DeSantis also believes that if Congress known there was an FBI investigation into the Uranium One company at the time, they would not have approved the uranium deal at the time.

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