Elijah Cummings heads the House Oversight Committee, and he is doing exactly that. Which is why Trump is attacking Cummings now. Because this report (PDF) is political dynamite. It says Trump and cronies are attempting to bypass regulations and rules about transfer of nuclear technology, to enrich themselves. This is blatant corruption and complete disregard for the country and its security..
Some quotes:
The Committee’s first interim staff report explained that whistleblowers inside the White House expressed alarm about corporate interests attempting to use their influence with the Trump Administration to bypass these concerns in order to serve their own financial interests in building nuclear reactors in Saudi Arabia. The Committee received documents bolstering the whistleblowers’ accounts and showing frequent communications between these corporate interests and Trump Administration officials.
Boldfaced in the original:
Overall, the new documents obtained by the Committee reveal that, with regard to Saudi Arabia, the Trump Administration has virtually obliterated the lines normally separating government policymaking from corporate and foreign interests. The documents show the Administration’s willingness to let private parties with close ties to the President wield outsized influence over U.S. policy towards Saudi Arabia. These new documents raise serious questions about whether the White House is willing to place the potential profits of the President’s friends above the national security of the American people and the universal objective of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.
Barrack, of course. Flynn too.
A key component of Mr. Barrack’s plan, which he called the Middle East Marshall Plan, was to purchase Westinghouse Electric Company—the only U.S. manufacturer of large-scale nuclear reactors—using significant Saudi and Emirati capital, but with enough U.S. ownership to bypass scrutiny from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
In 2015 to 2016, General Michael Flynn worked closely with companies seeking to profit from the transfer of U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia, including by serving as an advisor to IP3, as well as IP3’s predecessor company. New documents show that in 2016, General Flynn informed his business partners about upcoming interactions with officials in Russia and the Middle East—including Russian President Vladimir Putin and then-Saudi Deputy Crown Prince MBS—and offered to use these contacts to further IP3’s business interests.
On May 26, 2016, candidate Donald Trump was scheduled to give a major energy speech. New documents show that Mr. Barrack—Donald Trump’s personal friend, informal advisor, inauguration chairman, and campaign donor—shared a draft of the speech with Saudi and Emirati officials to coordinate pro-Gulf language
IP3 officials traveled to Saudi Arabia in December 2016—after the election and before the inauguration—to solicit a $120 million investment from then-Saudi Deputy Crown Prince MBS in exchange for a 10% stake in IP3. The documents suggest that IP3 was soliciting these funds by highlighting its close ties to General Flynn and the support of the incoming Trump Administration for IP3’s plan to transfer U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia.