House probes nuclear venture in Saudi Arabia

WASHINGTON — House Democrats said Tuesday they would begin a full-scale inquiry into White House involvement in a proposed venture to bring nuclear power facilities to Saudi Arabia, citing whistle-blower claims that administration officials disregarded warnings that potential conflicts of interest could put U.S. security at risk.

In a 24-page report from the House Oversight and Reform Committee, the Democrats said their concerns centered on actions taken in the early weeks of the Trump administration to secure government backing for a plan to build a series of nuclear power plants across Saudi Arabia. But they said there was evidence as recently as last week that the White House was still considering the proposal.

Claims presented by whistleblowers and White House documents obtained by the committee show that the company backing the nuclear plan, IP3 International, and allies in the White House were working so closely that the company sent a draft memo to Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, to circulate just days after the inauguration.

Even after Flynn left the White House in February 2017, officials on the National Security Council pushed ahead, the Democrats said, ignoring advice from the NSC’s ethics counsel and other lawyers to cease all work on the plan because of potentially illegal conflicts.

The Democrats’ investigation comes at a sensitive time, when lawmakers of both parties are incensed over the Trump administration’s reluctance to punish Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the Saudi government over the slaying of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, DMd., chairman of the Oversight Committee, first disclosed claims brought to him by one of the whistle-blowers in November 2017 and called on the committee’s Republican chairman at the time to further scrutinize them. The Republicans did not touch it. On Tuesday, Cummings said he was now able to do that work himself.