Informant to testify in Russian purchase probe
House panels looking at possible Clinton role in sale to Russian company
The Justice Department late Wednesday lifted a gag order on an FBI informant to provide testimony to Congress about an inquiry linked to a 2010 deal that transferred ownership of a uranium mining firm to a Russian-owned company, according to several media sources.
The action comes a day after California Rep. Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, announced an investigation into the matter and any role then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton played in the deal.
Nunes, a California Republican and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said at a news conference Tuesday that his panel and the House Oversight Committee would jointly probe the deal, which President Donald Trump has called “the real Russia story.”
Nunes and other Trump supporters have raised the 7-year-old uranium deal while four congressional committees and Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III are looking into Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether Moscow had any direct links to the Trump campaign.
Nunes said the House probe would focus initially on whether the FBI or Justice Department had investigated attempts by Russian officials to gain influence over the American energy industry.
The House probe of the uranium deal parallels a Senate Judiciary Committee probe into whether the FBI had evidence that Russian nuclear officials were involved in fraudulent dealings in 2009 before the uranium deal was approved.
In April, Nunes stepped away from leading the House Intelligence Committee probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election after the House Ethics Committee said it was investigating whether he had improperly disclosed classified information.
Trump and his supporters frequently cite the 2010 purchase of Uranium One by Rosatom, a Russian-run company, as a counter to questions about Russian support for Trump’s presidential bid.
The sale was approved while Hillary Clinton led the State Department and some investors in the U.S. company had relationships with former President Clinton and had donated to the Clinton Foundation.
The State Department was one of nine U.S. departments or agencies that approved the sale.
Clinton’s presidential campaign and former State Department officials said she was not involved in the approval process by a government panel that examines foreign acquisitions of U.S. companies.