Posted on 02/19/2019 1:34:04 PM PST by yesthatjallen
Democrats on the House Oversight and Reform Committee announced Tuesday they are launching an investigation into the Trump administration’s dealings with Saudi Arabia after several whistleblowers expressed concern about efforts to sell the kingdom nuclear technology.
The announcement came in conjunction with the release of a report by committee staff that said senior White House officials pushed for the sale of nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia despite warnings from ethics advisers and national security officials to stop.
“Based on this snapshot of events, the committee is now launching an investigation to determine whether the actions being pursued by the Trump administration are in the national security interests of the United States or, rather, serve those who stand to gain financially as a result of this potential change in U.S. foreign policy,” the report said.
To continue the investigation, House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) sent letters to several people and organizations involved with promoting the plan, including the White House, the CIA, the Flynn Intel Group, IP3 and the departments of Commerce, Defense, Energy, State and Treasury.
The version of the letter sent to the White House, which was released by the committee, asks for documents by March 5 related to the nuclear power plan from Trump's inauguration to the present.
Among the concerns, according to the report, are that ethics officials raised red flags about former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s connection to a company dedicated to building nuclear plants in Saudi Arabia.
The report cites several unnamed whistleblowers who said they witnessed “abnormal acts” inside the White House regarding efforts to sell Saudi Arabia nuclear energy reactors.
The whistleblowers “have warned of conflicts of interest among top White House advisers that could implicate federal criminal statutes,” the report said. “They have also warned about a working environment inside the White House marked by chaos, dysfunction, and backbiting.
“And they have warned about political appointees ignoring directives from top ethics advisors at the White House who repeatedly and unsuccessfully ordered senior Trump administration officials to halt their efforts.”
A spokesman for the National Security Council (NSC) did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.
The company at issue is called IP3 International. Flynn was an adviser to the company from June 2016 to December 2016 at the same time he served on Trump’s presidential campaign and transition team.
IP3 did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.
Flynn was named national security adviser to Trump but resigned after serving just a few weeks. In December 2017, he pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI.
During the first week of the Trump administration, the report said, Flynn confidant Derek Harvey relayed that Flynn had made the decision during the transition to adopt IP3’s nuclear plan for Saudi Arabia, dubbed the Middle East Marshall Plan.
Career staff warned that the law requires an agreement, known as a 123 agreement, to sell nuclear reactors to other countries to ensure it meets nonproliferation standards, according to the report.
But days after Trump’s inauguration, IP3 sent Flynn a memo intended for Trump to approve that endorsed the Middle East Marshall Plan and named Trump confidant Tom Barrack as the special representative to carry out the nuclear power proposal.
The National Security Council’s ethics and legal advisers also reportedly concluded that Flynn had a potential conflict of interest that could violate the law, the report added.
“As a result, NSC Legal Advisor John Eisenberg instructed NSC staff to cease all work on the plan,” the report said.
But the White House continued work on the plan, even after Flynn was fired in February 2017.
On March 24, 2017, multiple employees raised concerns to the National Security Council legal adviser, according to the report. After that, then-national security adviser H.R. McMaster told staff they should stop all work on the proposal, according to the report.
“However, NSC staff remained concerned because the same individuals continued their work on IP3’s proposal,” the report said.
The report cites a Feb. 12 White House meeting between staff and nuclear power developers to discuss sharing nuclear technology with Middle East countries as an example of the work, as well as a planned trip to the Middle East by White House adviser and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner
On the bright side this will be an opportunity to bring up questions about Hillary, the Obama administration, and SA.
Dems launch investigation into Trump’s bowel habits...
Ethics advisors ... repeatedly ... ordered ...
The author is either ignoring the contradiction or is not fluent enough in English fo understand that “advisors” don’t give “orders”.
Think they should have done a little more homework. This goes back to the Obama years
All middle east countries who’s economy relies on oil income had better be investing wisely and diversifying their economies. The USA doesn’t need their oil anymore, and worldwide demand will continue to drop. When they can no longer subsidies their poor it will be a bloodbath.
Yeah, for sure, this time, they are going to pin one on the Orange Man he can’t shake off.
Like they have dozens of times before.
Studying a potential strategy is not at all the same as actually implementing it.
“Think they should have done a little more homework. This goes back to the Obama years.”
They did their homework. They know that they need to ignore anything from Jan 2017 and prior since that’d be racist. The only need to focus from that point forward since orange man bad.
More Fake News from the DNC and their media.
The GOP never had the gonads to launch a House investigation into Obama’s dealings with Iran, even though he had at least two folks inside the administration with prior experience working as lobbyists for the Mullahs in Tehran.
So, they are going to switch from Russian Collusion to Saudi Collusion. What next, Tahitian Collusion?
“...that said senior White House officials pushed for the sale of nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia..”
But never mind the actual sale of uranium to Russia.
Guess who are the number one all time donors to the Clintoon Foundation? Saudi Arabian Royalty.
KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia, Aug 25, 2017 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia and China are to cooperate on nuclear energy projects following discussions between the two countries this week on ways to support the kingdom’s nuclear energy programme, state news agency SPA reported.
Saudi Arabia has been for years trying to diversify its energy mix so that it can export more of its oil, rather than burning it at power and water desalination plants.
And in what would these federal criminal statutes be implicated?
Hint: It ain't Congress!!!
Orange Man Bad plan very well may work. Our side has played passive since the election by design. The GOP wants the President gone and for some inexplicable reason, the President is not defending to the full capability. There is nothing to lose at this point by President Trump going nuclear against the swamp but I am afraid this may end up with a whimper. The President’s enemies want him gone in 2020 and will stop at nothing. They are that psychotic.
SSDD.
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