In what has been a long-awaited development, at least to those who weren’t employed by the Obama administration or who aren’t suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) announced a multiple committee investigation into the Uranium One deal. Standing in for Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) at the announcement was Ron Desantis (R-FL), who heads the subcommittee on national security. They were joined by New York Republican Peter King, who not only sits on the Emerging Threats Subcommittee, but was also a ranking member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee in 2010 and wrote a letter that October questioning the wisdom of selling a Russian company 20% of our Uranium supply.
This new probe is, according to these Congressmen, separate from the current Russia collusion investigation. It will focus on the deal specifically, which they do not feel was properly investigated by the previous Congress. They refuse to jump to conclusions yet, but they do claim to have new information not previously available and a confidential informant who the Department of Justice has officially cleared to cooperate. They will focus the investigation on whether there was an ongoing FBI or DOJ investigation at the time of the deal, and if so, why Congress was not made aware of it. Notably missing from the announcement were any mentions of allegations against then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or President Barack Obama. The scope of the investigation is narrow right now, but where the probe ends up will likely depend on what they find out from the DOJ and their informant.
This Development Just One of Many
The Russia interference investigation has turned up little enough in the way of solid evidence against Trump or anyone in his campaign, but it has unearthed a number of allegations against the former administration. We saw the stirrings of this back in the summer, when former FBI Director James Comey dropped the story of then-Attorney General Lynch telling him to call the email investigation “a matter” on the Senate during his testimony.
Of course, we later discovered that Mr. Comey wasn’t as innocent as he tried to pass himself off to be, and that he had, apparently, drafted a letter exonerating Hillary Clinton of any guilt in the email investigation a couple of months before even interviewing her. And Comey’s not the only one with complicated ties to this “matter.” Robert Mueller apparently has a conflict of interest dilemma considering he owns millions of dollars in Russian investments. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s guilty of something nefarious, but it does mean there are significant conflicts that might interfere with his objectivity in the investigation. That is, after all, one of the driving arguments behind the Trump emoluments case. During the more recent Jeff Sessions testimony, a few Senators on the Judiciary Committee expressed interest in a fresh look at both the Uranium One deal and the Clinton email scandal.
New Probe Not Surprising
If anything about this new probe surprises anyone, it should be that it took this long to come out. Nunes, Desantis, and King all say that this is an entirely separate issue. However, their choice to begin the investigation with the Department of Justice and FBI and their possible mishandling of the situation rings familiar. With all the interest in investigating any possible shady Russian dealings of the Obama administration and the Clintons, it was only a matter of time before we saw a fresh look at Uranium One.
The Hypocrisy of the Left
The response from the left was quite predictable. The Washington Post reports:
“In a C-SPAN interview Monday, Clinton said the new focus on the uranium deal is “baloney” and evidence that the Trump administration is worried and trying to deflect attention away from the probes into the Trump team’s alleged ties to the Kremlin.”
Well, at least she said the ties were alleged. Trump calls the investigation into his relationship with Russia a witch hunt, and Clinton still supports the “hunt” today. But what about investigating her own ties to Russia? Well, it looks like Hillary likes her baloney sandwich with a side of irony.
But Mrs. Clinton isn’t the only Democrat weighing in on the probe. Fox News Reports:
“This new investigation is a massive diversion to distract from the lack of Republican oversight of the Trump Administration and the national security threat that Russia poses,” Reps. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., the top Democrats on the oversight and judiciary committees, respectively, said in a statement. “The Russian government continues to represent a clear and present threat to the United States and our democratic system, and we are the targets of near-constant cyberattacks by foreign adversaries. Yet House Republicans have taken no concrete steps to secure our next election. Apparently, House Republicans are more concerned about Jim Comey than Vladimir Putin.”
So, Russia poses a massive security threat, but we don’t need to investigate an allegedly shady deal between Russia and the U.S. involving Uranium? Hey, what happened to where there’s smoke there’s fire? Apparently, we need to investigate Russian meddling in the U.S., but only if it points to Donald Trump’s guilt and leads to the progressive pipe dream that he’ll be impeached and somehow Hillary will end up president anyway.
Good luck with that.
