Uranium One: Who, what is tied to the growing scandal

As news breaks of fresh investigations into the Uranium One deal, the National Review has reported a full account of the scandal’s history that now includes special counsel Robert Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

A series of sales and investments which led to Russian energy agencies owning majority shares of U.S. uranium deposits, the Uranium One deal, as reporter Andrew McCarthy would point out, is no longer just an issue involving the Clintons, but a wider spread of politicians and U.S.-based organizations.

Uranium One is a Canadian mining company which owns a significant amount of North American uranium. Uranium One, as it currently stands, was created when Frank Giustra, friend of the Clinton family and financier for Ur-Asia Energy obtaining uranium-mining rights in Kazakhstan. The resulting merger saw headquarters relocated from South Africa to Canada.

Troubled relations with the Kazakh government saw stock prices fall, where Russian agency Rosatom bought a majority share. By 2013, after an approval by the Committee on Foreign Investment, this Russian company would own Uranium One in its entirety, extracting and owning 20% of all U.S. uranium.

The journey began in May 2008, when Russia invaded Georgia and Congress tabled a Bush-era agreement which would have allowed nuclear cooperation between the U.S. and Russia. After settling into office, Obama was set to make a good faith attempt to improve relations between both governments, and he and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were to begin drafting plans for nuclear cooperation.

The first step would be issuing a visa for one of Tenex’s, a Russian uranium transportation company, leader, Vadim Mikerin, a U.S. visa.

While in the U.S., Mikerin would go on to extort and defraud U.S. contractors millions of dollars through inflated uranium prices. The cash would be laundered and used to enrich Kremlin connected uranium companies around the world.

To begin using these resources for nuclear expansion, Mikerin would enlist the help of a D.C. lobbyist, who quietly gathered information in the background, and is now an informant for an FBI investigation into uranium racketeering. The investigation required approval from then-director Robert Mueller, currently acting as special prosecutor in the Trump-Russia investigation. All actions and meetings regarding the investigation were chosen to take place in Maryland, where Rod Rosenstein held his position as U.S. attorney. Rosenstein would appear later during the same Trump-Russia investigation as Mueller’s appointee.

Despite having a case since early 2010, the Obama administration would wait until 2014, months after the successful takeover of Uranium One, to arrest Mikerin. In fact, charges had taken so long to be filed that most had exceeded their statute of limitations. When the FBI had every opportunity to carry out a RICO case, Rosenstein opted to make as small of a show as possible. The resulting trial would end in a plea deal, all taking place under the radar.

After the trial, the FBI’s informant wanted to alert Congress about what he had seen during the investigation. Specifically, circumstances regarding the State Departments approval of the Uranium One sale to Russia and efforts to gain favor with Clinton and help the deal.

The Justice Department’s response? A non-disclosure agreement.

As National Review’s McCarthy would put it, “this stinks.”