Russian officials engaged in a racketeering scheme that saw bribes exchanged for America giving Russia control of almost a quarter of its uranium supply -- and the Department of Justice helped cover it all up, the Hill reported in a blockbuster report today.
The biggest beneficiary of the cover-up was Hillary Clinton, whose Clinton Foundation received millions from Russia-affiliated agents, and then returned the favor by using her position on the State Department's Committee on Foreign Investment to approve "giving Moscow control of more than 20 percent of America's uranium supply."
After spending months decrying Russian meddling in America's 2016 presidential election, it would seem natural to assume that the explosive report would receive non-stop coverage.
What actually happened?
In the 12 hours since The Hill broke the story today, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, NBC, and CNBC have -- combined -- covered the story ... zero times. Searches of Grabien's database of news programming found just one mention of the story, and that came on Fox Business Network.
Over the same 12 hours, these same networks have mentioned Robert Mueller's probe into the Trump campaign's contacts with Russia at least 17 times.
Why is the media ignoring this massive story? Even as these networks have repeatedly warned over the last 10 months that the very foundation of America's republic was at risk owing to Russian political meddling?
After all, a CNN reporter called the Trump campaign's mere meeting with a Russian lawyer "borderline treason." At the height of the Russia meddling media bonanza, it became a matter of course for reporters interviewing Democratic lawmakers to ask when they're going to initiate impeachment proceedings against President Trump.
It's inescapable that partisanship explains the discrepancy. Whereas the investigation into Trump colluding with Russia during the 2016 campaign has yet to yield a single piece of hard evidence, as the investigators themselves admit, today's report offered hard evidence the Obama Administration effectively covered up evidence of Russian "bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering" that affected U.S. policymaking.
As The Hill reports:
Before the Obama administration approved a controversial deal in 2010 giving Moscow control of a large swath of American uranium, the FBI had gathered substantial evidence that Russian nuclear industry officials were engaged in bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering designed to grow Vladimir Putin’s atomic energy business inside the United States, according to government documents and interviews.
Federal agents used a confidential U.S. witness working inside the Russian nuclear industry to gather extensive financial records, make secret recordings and intercept emails as early as 2009 that showed Moscow had compromised an American uranium trucking firm with bribes and kickbacks in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, FBI and court documents show.
They also obtained an eyewitness account — backed by documents — indicating Russian nuclear officials had routed millions of dollars to the U.S. designed to benefit former President Bill Clinton’s charitable foundation during the time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton served on a government body that provided a favorable decision to Moscow, sources told The Hill.
The Hill details how the Obama's DoJ helped keep the matter quiet:
Rather than bring immediate charges in 2010, however, the Department of Justice (DOJ) continued investigating the matter for nearly four more years, essentially leaving the American public and Congress in the dark about Russian nuclear corruption on U.S. soil during a period when the Obama administration made two major decisions benefiting Putin’s commercial nuclear ambitions.
The first decision occurred in October 2010, when the State Department and government agencies on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States unanimously approved the partial sale of Canadian mining company Uranium One to the Russian nuclear giant Rosatom, giving Moscow control of more than 20 percent of America’s uranium supply.
Even more damning for the Obama Administration is that Eric Holder, who as then head of the Department of Justice was well aware of the FBI's evidence of Russian racketeering, was himself involved in the decision to broaden Russia's control over America's uranium supply.
The Obama administration’s decision to approve Rosatom’s purchase of Uranium One has been a source of political controversy since 2015.
That’s when conservative author Peter Schweitzer and The New York Times documented how Bill Clinton collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in Russian speaking fees and his charitable foundation collected millions in donations from parties interested in the deal while Hillary Clinton presided on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
The Obama administration and the Clintons defended their actions at the time, insisting there was no evidence that any Russians or donors engaged in wrongdoing and there was no national security reason for any member of the committee to oppose the Uranium One deal.
But FBI, Energy Department and court documents reviewed by The Hill show the FBI in fact had gathered substantial evidence well before the committee’s decision that Vadim Mikerin — the main Russian overseeing Putin’s nuclear expansion inside the United States — was engaged in wrongdoing starting in 2009.
Then-Attorney General Eric Holder was among the Obama administration officials joining Hillary Clinton on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States at the time the Uranium One deal was approved. Multiple current and former government officials told The Hill they did not know whether the FBI or DOJ ever alerted committee members to the criminal activity they uncovered.
To fully appreciate the depth of this story, especially its impact on America's national security, read it all.