The Uranium One controversy involves various theories promoted by conservative media, politicians, and commentators that characterized the sale of the uranium mining company Uranium One to the Russian state-owned corporation Rosatom as a $145 million bribery scandal involving Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation. No evidence of wrongdoing was ever found.
Since the 2015 publication of the book Clinton Cash by Breitbart News editor and Steve Bannon collaborator Peter Schweizer, as well as a 2015 New York Times article that used some of Schweizer's raw research, allegations of a bribery scheme involving Hillary Clinton, the Clinton Foundation and the 2010 sale of Uranium One persisted, primarily in conservative media. Fox News host Sean Hannity characterized it as "the biggest scandal — or, at least, one of them — in American history," while his frequent guest and former Trump advisor Seb Gorka equated it with treason worthy of a death sentence.
Despite four years of discussion and analysis of the matter—as well as an FBI investigation—no evidence of any quid pro quo or other wrong-doing surfaced. Numerous Republican politicians and pundits, including President Donald Trump, insisted that the Clinton-Uranium One story was the "real" Russian scandal, rather than the matters for which the Trump administration was investigated. The Washington Post reported in January 2020 that an additional Justice Department investigation into the matter, initiated after Donald Trump took office in 2017, was winding down after finding nothing worth pursuing.
Timeline of events
2005: $145 million alleged bribes to Clinton Foundation
Frank Giustra donated $31.3 million to the Clinton Foundation, to be followed in 2007 with a pledge of at least $100 million. These amounts constituted the bulk of the $145 million in supposed bribes paid to the Clinton Foundation.
2007: Uranium One acquired UrAsia Energy
On April 20, 2007, Uranium One, a Canadian mining company with headquarters in Toronto, acquired UrAsia Energy, a Canadian firm with headquarters in Vancouver, from Frank Giustra, who then resigned from the UrAsia Energy Board of Directors. Having severed ties with UrAsia Energy and Uranium One in 2007, Giustra had no evident beneficial interest in the subsequent sale of Uranium One to Rosatom in 2010 because he sold the 2,790,000 Uranium One shares he received in exchange for his shares of UrAsia (UrAsia sharesholders received 0.45 shares of Uranium One as per the deal terms) in 2007. UrAsia has interests in rich uranium operations in Kazakhstan, and UrAsia Energy's acquisition of its Kazakhstan uranium interests from Kazatomprom followed a trip to Almaty in 2005 by Giustra and former U.S. President Bill Clinton where they met with Nursultan Nazarbayev, the leader of Kazakhstan. Giustra denies reporting by The New York Times that he and Clinton traveled together to Almaty. Substantial contributions to the Clinton Foundation by Giustra followed, with Clinton, Giustra, and Mexican telecommunications billionaire Carlos Slim in 2007 establishing the Clinton Foundation's Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative to combat poverty in the developing world. In addition to his initial pledge of $100 million, Giustra pledged to contribute half of his future earnings from mining to the initiative. There is no indication that Giustra was contemplating any transaction with Russian interests at the time he began donating to the Clinton Foundation in 2005; rather, he sold UrAsia Energy to Uranium One, a South African-Canadian company based in Toronto, in 2007. That sale was completed two months before he made his pledges to the Clinton Foundation.
Since uranium is considered a strategic asset with national security implications and Uranium One owned uranium mining operations in the United States, the acquisition of Uranium One by Rosatom was reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a committee of nine government cabinet departments and agencies including the United States Department of State, which was then headed by Hillary Clinton. Clinton herself did not sit on CFIUS, but rather the State Department was represented by Jose Fernandez, the Assistant Secretary of State for Economic, Energy and Business Affairs, who stated that Clinton was not involved in the Uranium One matter. Although CFIUS members can object to such a foreign transaction, none did, and no member can veto a decision; veto power rests solely with the president. CFIUS unanimously approved the Uranium One sale. The Utah Division of Radiation Control and Canada's foreign investment review agency also approved the transaction.