President Donald Trump asked then-acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker if a US attorney he appointed could oversee an investigation tied to himself after the US attorney in question had already recused himself from the probe, The New York Time
s reported Tuesday.
The Times report cited several US officials with direct knowledge of the call that the paper said occurred late last year.
Trump tapped Whitaker to lead the Justice Department in November after he fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whom Trump regularly slammed for recusing himself from the Russia investigation.
Trump soured on Whitaker as well, according to Times, which said it was "unclear" what Whitaker did after the call. The Times said there was no evidence Whitaker took steps to intervene in the investigation Trump asked
about, although the report said he told Justice Department associates that the prosecutors needed "adult supervision."
CNN reported in December that Trump had lashed out at Whitaker on at least two occasions, angered by federal prosecutors who referenced Trump in crimes to which his former attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty. The first instance came after Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about a proposed Trump Tower project in Moscow, and the second came after prosecutors implicated Trump in a hush-money scheme to silence women.
Trump later denied the CNN report in a tweet saying he had "great respect" for Whitaker.
Attorney General William Barr was confirmed last week to take over the department permanently.
Kerri Kupec, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, said Whitaker told the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month that "'at no time has the White House asked for nor have I provided any promises or commitments concerning the special counsel's investigation or any other investigation.' Mr. Whitaker stands by his testimony," she said. When pressed directly by House Judiciary Committee members about any conversations with the President about the southern district of New York investigation Whitaker refused to answer.
Trump on Tuesday denied a question from a reporter about whether he asked Whitaker about a recusal matter in the case.
"No, I don't know who gave you that," Trump said.
Trump went on to praise Whitaker as "a very, very straight shooter" and said he had "a lot of respect" for him.
The President also praised Whitaker's performance during the House Judiciary Committee hearing earlier this month, calling it "exceptional."
"He should be given a lot of thanks from our nation," Trump said.
The investigation Trump called Whitaker about is led by the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, a Manhattan-based team that has prosecuted Cohen. After a showdown early in his White House tenure, Trump fired the head of that office.
Preet Bharara, the former US attorney who is now a CNN contributor, later said he felt if he had stayed on the job, Trump would have asked him "to do something inappropriate."
Trump's then-Attorney General Sessions went on to appoint Geoffrey Berman, a former law partner of Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani, to lead the high-profile office. CNN reported after the federal raid on Cohen last year that Berman had been recused from the probe.
The administration of President Donald Trump is bypassing the United States Congress to advance the sale of US nuclear power plants to Saudi Arabia, despite concerns it would violate US law guarding against technology transfers, according to a new report by a congressional committee.
Security analysts worry the technology would allow Saudi Arabia to produce nuclear weapons in the future, potentially contributing to an arms race in the Middle East.
US legislators are concerned about the stability of Saudi leadership under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) because of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the war in Yemen.
Multiple unnamed "whistleblowers" have come forward to warn about White House attempts to speed the transfer of highly sensitive US nuclear technology to build new nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia, according to the staff report by the House Oversight and Reform Committee.
"The whistleblowers who came forward have warned of conflicts of interest among top White House advisers that could implicate federal criminal statutes," Representative Elijah Cummings, the Democrat chairman of the committee, said in a letter to the White House on Tuesday.
The committee is investigating efforts by US nuclear power companies to win Trump administration approval to build nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries.
IP3 consortium
A key target of the Oversight Committee's inquiry is an effort by IP3 International, a consortium of nuclear power producers that began lobbying during the Trump transition in late 2016 and early 2017 to win presidential approval to develop nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia.
Most recently, Trump met on February 12 with the IP3 International representatives and the chief executive officers of major US nuclear energy producers to discuss developing nuclear power plants in Jordan and Saudi Arabia, a meeting that was initiated by IP3's founder, retired Army General Jack Keane, according to the committee report which cited Bloomberg News.
The IP3 proposal has been repeatedly promoted to White House officials by Thomas Barrack, according to the report. Barrack is a personal friend of the president who raised $107m for Trump's Inaugural Committee. US prosecutors in New York are investigating the inaugural committee activities.
'Chaos, dysfunction, backbiting'
The committee released documents describing the IP3 proposal. Cummings' letter further demands documents and emails from the White House related to its discussions of potential nuclear power development in the Middle East.
Whistleblowers "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", Cummings wrote in the letter.
Meanwhile, a US Senate proposal offered by Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat - with support from Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican - seeks to block Saudi Arabia from developing bomb material by prohibiting it from enriching uranium or reusing plutonium from any future power plants.
'Trump picking favourites'
In addition, the committee report focuses on former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, a retired army general who in 2016 worked as an adviser to a subsidiary of IP3 while he was also serving in Trump's presidential campaign.
Flynn was an advocate for IP3's plan to sell nuclear power plants to Saudi Arabia in the transition period after Trump won the US election and when he joined the White House as national security adviser, according to the unnamed whistleblowers cited in the report.
As Trump took office in early 2017, Bud McFarlane, former President Ronald Reagan's national security adviser and now an adviser to IP3, emailed Flynn draft documents for the president's signature outlining a new "Marshall Plan for the Middle East" centred on development of dozens of civilian nuclear power plants by US companies.
Under US law, any deal to sell Saudi Arabia nuclear energy technology would require a prior agreement, approved by Congress, between the US and Saudi Arabia to place fissionable material under the monitoring and control of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency.
Separately, on January 1, 2017, McFarlane, the founders of IP3 and the CEOs of six companies - Exelon Corp., Toshiba Energy, Bechtel Corp., Centrus, GE Power and Siemens USA - had sent a letter to MBS promoting the proposal, according to the report.
"This is more about Trump wanting to do favours for the Saudis for financial reasons and to buttress the Saudis against Iran in the region. But the Saudis do not need nuclear power, and if they get it, will only push Iran to restart its nuclear programme," Tom Collina, policy director at the Ploughshares Fund, a non-proliferation advocacy group based in Washington, DC, told Al Jazeera.
"This is Trump picking favourites in the Middle East which will not end well," Collina said.
In 2015, Iran reached agreement with five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and the European Union not to develop nuclear weapons in exchange for relief from economic sanctions. Iran is receiving technical assistance from Russia in developing civilian nuclear power.
In May 2018, Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the Iran nuclear agreement, which had been negotiated by the administration of his predecessor, Barack Obama, and re-imposed oil and financial sanctions.
Iran has continued to comply with the agreement. The EU, Russia and China have refused to go along with US efforts to reimpose sanctions.
On Sunday, US Vice President Mike Pence clashed with German Chancellor Angela Merkel over the Iran deal in competing speeches given at the Munich Security Conference.
Pence called on European allies to join the US in withdrawing from the agreement, while, for her part, Merkel defended the Iran nuclear deal, saying it effectively limits Tehran's ability to produce bomb material.
Washington, D.C. (Feb. 19, 2019)—Today, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, the Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, issued an interim staff report after multiple whistleblowers came forward to warn about efforts inside the White House to rush the transfer of highly sensitive U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia in potential violation of the Atomic Energy Act and without review by Congress as required by law—efforts that may be ongoing to this day. The report states:
“The whistleblowers who came forward have expressed significant concerns about the potential procedural and legal violations connected with rushing through a plan to transfer nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia. They have warned of conflicts of interest among top White House advisers that could implicate federal criminal statutes. 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.”
The report warns that that White House efforts to transfer sensitive U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia may be accelerating after meetings last week at the White House and ahead of a planned visit to Saudi Arabia by the President’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner:
“The Committee’s investigation is particularly critical because the Administration’s efforts to transfer sensitive U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia appear to be ongoing. On February 12, 2019, the President met with nuclear power developers at the White House about sharing nuclear technology with countries in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia. In addition, next week Mr. Kushner will be embarking on a tour of Middle Eastern capitals—including Riyadh—to discuss the economic portion of the Administration’s Middle East peace plan.”
The report highlights concerning events involving Saudi Arabia, including the brutal murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, which was met with equivocation by President Trump and other top Administration officials, and the refusal by the White House to submit a report on Mr. Khashoggi’s killing that was requested on a bipartisan basis by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
The report indicates that there is now serious, bipartisan concern with the Trump Administration’s efforts to transfer sensitive U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia. For example, on October 31, 2018, Republican Senators Marco Rubio, Todd Young, Cory Gardner, Rand Paul, and Dean Heller sent a letter to President Trump urging him to “suspend talks related to a potential civil nuclear cooperation agreement between the United States and Saudi Arabia” due to “serious concerns about the transparency, accountability, and judgment of current decisionmakers in Saudi Arabia.”
The report describes new documents and communications between White House officials, including former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, former Deputy National Security Advisor K.T. McFarland, and former NSC Senior Director for Middle East and North African Affairs Derek Harvey, as well as with Thomas Barrack, President Trump’s personal friend of several decades and the Chairman of his Inaugural Committee, and Rick Gates, President Trump’s former Deputy Campaign Manager and Deputy Chairman of the Inaugural Committee who has now pleaded guilty to financial fraud and lying to investigators.
Today, Cummings also sent letters to multiple entities involved with promoting this plan, including the White House; the Departments of Commerce, Defense, Energy, State, and Treasury; the Joint Chiefs of Staff; the Central Intelligence Agency; Flynn Intel Group; IP3; ACU Strategies; Colony NorthStar; and Mr. Barrack.
Click here to read the interim staff report.
Click here to read the documents released with the report.
Click here to read the letter to the White House.
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Chad Day, Associated Press
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Michael Flynn pushed to share nuclear tech with Saudis, report says
Politics Feb 19, 2019 1:30 PM EST
WASHINGTON — Senior White House officials pushed a project to share nuclear power technology with Saudi Arabia despite the objections of ethics and national security officials, according to a new congressional report citing whistleblowers within the administration.
Lawmakers from both parties have expressed concerns that Saudi Arabia could develop nuclear weapons if the U.S. technology were transferred without proper safeguards.
The Democratic-led House oversight committee opened an investigation Tuesday into the claims by several unnamed whistleblowers who said they witnessed “abnormal acts” in the White House regarding the proposal to build dozens of nuclear reactors across the Middle Eastern kingdom.
The report raises concerns about whether some in a White House marked by “chaos, dysfunction, and backbiting” sought to circumvent established national security procedures regarding nuclear power technology. It also comes as Trump son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner is developing a Middle East peace plan that could include economic proposals for Saudi Arabia.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to the report, the effort was pushed by former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was fired in early 2017. Derek Harvey, a National Security Council official brought in by Flynn, continued work on the proposal, which has remained under consideration by the Trump administration.
Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, announced the investigation Tuesday.
Relying on the whistleblower accounts, email and other documents , the committee’s report details how NSC and ethics officials repeatedly warned that the actions of Flynn and one of his senior aides could run afoul of federal conflicts of interest law and statutes governing the transfer of nuclear technology to foreign powers.
The probe puts new scrutiny on Flynn’s early days in the administration as he awaits sentencing for lying to the FBI in the Russia investigation. Congressional investigators are also probing the role of Tom Barrack, a proponent of the nuclear proposal who ran Trump’s presidential inaugural committee, which is separately under investigation by federal prosecutors in New York. Rick Gates, a former Barrack employee and cooperator in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, was also involved in advocating for the nuclear proposal.
An attorney for Flynn declined to comment. Harvey and representatives for Barrack did not immediately return requests for comment.
According to the report, the whistleblowers came forward to the committee because they had concerns “about efforts inside the White House to rush the transfer of highly sensitive U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia in potential violation of the Atomic Energy Act and without review by Congress as required by law — efforts that may be ongoing to this day.”
The report tracks closely with public reporting, including a 2017 article by the nonprofit news outlet ProPublica, which detailed some of the concerns raised inside the National Security Council about the nuclear proposal — known as the “Marshall Plan for the Middle East — advocated by a company called IP3 International.
IP3 is led by a group of retired U.S. military officers and national security officials, including retired Rear Adm. Michael Hewitt, retired Army Gen. Jack Keane and former Reagan national security adviser Bud McFarlane. IP3 and other proponents of nuclear power in the Middle East argue that the U.S. needs to be involved because otherwise it will lose out to Russia, China and others on billions of dollars in business. They also say that the U.S. involvement — and the limits on nuclear fuel that come with it— are essential to stem an arms race in the region.
IP3 did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Up until the month before he joined the Trump administration, Flynn listed himself as a consultant to a previous iteration of Hewitt’s company advocating a similar nuclear power proposal, though the company told The Washington Post that Flynn was offered a role as an adviser but never formally came aboard.
Still, according to the report, Flynn served as a conduit for IP3 inside the White House.
Just days after Trump’s inauguration, the company sent Flynn a draft memo for the president’s signature that would have appointed Barrack as a “special representative” in charge of carrying out the nuclear power proposal and called on the director of the CIA and the secretaries of State, Energy, Treasury and Defense to lend him support. The report also quotes former deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland as saying Trump personally told Barrack he could lead the plan’s implementation.
The report also catalogs the actions of Harvey, the Flynn confidant who was put in charge of the NSC’s Middle East and North African affairs.
According to the report, upon entering the White House in January 2017, Harvey saw his mission as getting Trump to adopt the nuclear proposal despite the objections of ethics and national security officials. Even when H.R. McMaster, who replaced Flynn as national security adviser, and NSC lawyer John Eisenberg directed for work to stop on the proposal because of concerns about its legality, Harvey ignored them and continued pursuing the proposal, according to the report.
Harvey was fired from the NSC in July 2017. He then joined the staff of GOP Rep. Devin Nunes of California, a Trump ally and the former Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee.
This was fucked up from what I know about it. But it's about time the GOP tries to steal one after all the races the Dem's have stolen over the years lulz...
It would suck if they are truly impacted by it, but Eminent Domain isn't anything new.What ever happened to private property and land ownership rights?
Hurd says 1,000 Texas farmers could have land seized to build Trump's border wall
That's sort of illegal.
Sounds like a socialist land grab to me.It would suck if they are truly impacted by it, but Eminent Domain isn't anything new.
It 100% is. Although the compensation involved in those "land grabs" are usually fairly substantial. It's taxpayer money, so it's sort of like Monopoly money.Sounds like a socialist land grab to me.
I'm no fan of Pocahontas but this is a good lesson in not just looking at headlines.
Not sure what you meant? (Not a dig at you just curious) She and Kamala both support reparations. Which is top 5, one of the most racist bullshit ideas ever. All this does is create more tension. It is also their way of trying to bury the jussie (racebaiter) story line. Hell, I dont even remember obama doing that.I'm no fan of Pocahontas but this is a good lesson in not just looking at headlines.
Reading comprehension is key.