As Russia Sought Uranium Deal, Cash Rolled to Clintons

Between 2009 and 2013, Russia's state atomic energy agency took control of Canadian company Uranium One, which controlled some 20% of America's uranium deposits. The deal was approved by several US government agencies, including the State Department, then headed by Hillary Clinton. The New York Times takes a look at the money that then flowed from the Russians to the Clinton Foundation in an expose, spurred by Peter Schweizer's coming book, Clinton Cash. Uranium One's chairman, through his family foundation, donated $2.35 million to the Clinton Foundation, which the Clintons failed to publicly disclose "despite an agreement Mrs. Clinton had struck with the Obama White House to publicly identify all donors," the Times reports. Others linked to the company opened their wallets, too, while a Kremlin-linked investment bank promoting Uranium One stock paid Bill Clinton $500,000 for a speech.

The Times found no link between the donations and the approval of the deal, but it notes "the special ethical challenges presented by the Clinton Foundation, headed by a former president who relied heavily on foreign cash to accumulate $250 million in assets even as his wife helped steer American foreign policy as secretary of state." A rep for Hillary Clinton's campaign says there's no evidence she "ever took action as secretary of state to support the interests of donors to the Clinton Foundation." He adds, "To suggest the State Department, under then-Secretary Clinton, exerted undue influence in the US government's review of the sale of Uranium One is utterly baseless." Meanwhile, the Clinton Foundation will refile at least five tax returns after Reuters found it left out tens of millions of dollars in donations from foreign and US governments. The foundation cites an unspecified error. (More Clinton Foundation stories.)