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FACT CHECK ON URANIUM CLAIMS: MOSTLY FALSE

Hillary Clinton’s eponymous nonprofit foundation provided re...
vigorous henna kitty cat
  02/16/17
laugh my ass off at lib contortions
Ultramarine abusive piazza
  02/16/17
tl;dr Trump's one liners hit better- we're in an idiocrac...
Purple Boltzmann Range
  02/16/17
I LOVE how all lib fact checks are along the lines of "...
vigorous henna kitty cat
  02/16/17
...
Brass church building stock car
  02/16/17
...
citrine plaza
  02/16/17
...
odious costumed garrison
  02/16/17
...
razzmatazz sable heaven pozpig
  02/16/17
...
talented insane twinkling uncleanness
  02/16/17
...
dashing queen of the night
  02/16/17
...
Brass church building stock car
  02/16/17
FUCK LIBS. this article was such bullshit.
citrine plaza
  02/16/17
LJL @ this logic: "Third, most of their Clinton Foun...
Coral Library
  02/16/17
stop being such a misogynist
Ultramarine abusive piazza
  02/16/17
...
Brass church building stock car
  02/16/17
...
racy orchestra pit giraffe
  02/17/17
...
amber love of her life candlestick maker
  02/16/17
...
Jet territorial tattoo
  02/17/17
...
Brindle Bbw
  02/17/17
bulletproof!
Ivory stage
  02/17/17
Take that, Drumpfkins!
Frisky Digit Ratio Cruise Ship
  02/17/17
Just remember that ALL your Uranium ARE belong to us.
passionate alcoholic depressive organic girlfriend
  02/16/17
...
vigorous henna kitty cat
  02/16/17
libs can be such scumballs
Nighttime kitchen indirect expression
  02/16/17
Who cares about Hillary, the election has been over for awh...
Ruddy Boistinker
  02/16/17
...
vigorous henna kitty cat
  02/16/17
...
vigorous henna kitty cat
  02/16/17
...
nofapping disgusting prole ceo
  02/17/17
What do the Clintons do with foundation money? Buy beach hou...
Exciting chrome corner
  02/17/17
fly themselves and their friends around. give their friends ...
Fishy Police Squad
  02/17/17
pretty much this it seems like
racy orchestra pit giraffe
  02/17/17
don't forget about paying for Chelsea's wedding
Peach pistol
  02/17/17
holy shit this is a hilariously desperate article lmao libs...
Ivory stage
  02/17/17
There are still enough corp lawyers here to have people with...
marvelous macaca
  02/17/17
"Second, while nine people related to the company did d...
Floppy Khaki Elastic Band Sandwich
  02/17/17


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Reply Favorite

Date: February 16th, 2017 2:23 PM
Author: vigorous henna kitty cat

Hillary Clinton’s eponymous nonprofit foundation provided ready-made fodder for a series of attacks from Donald Trump.

In a major speech last week, the presumptive Republican nominee recited a number of claims from Clinton Cash, a 2015 bestselling investigation into donations to the Clinton Foundation.

Among them: "Hillary Clinton’s State Department approved the transfer of 20 percent of America’s uranium holdings to Russia, while nine investors in the deal funneled $145 million to the Clinton Foundation — $145 million dollars."

We wanted to vet this charge of Clinton engaging in pay-to-play politics.

Trump’s claim is a reductive version of his source material’s findings and runs into several problems.

First, the State Department did approve of Russia’s gradual takeover of a company with significant U.S. uranium assets, but it didn’t act unilaterally. State was one of nine government agencies, not to mention independent federal and state nuclear regulators, that had to sign off on the deal.

Second, while nine people related to the company did donate to the Clinton Foundation, it’s unclear whether they were still involved in the company by the time of the Russian deal and stood to benefit from it.

Third, most of their Clinton Foundation donations occurred before and during Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential bid, before she could have known she would become secretary of state.

The bottom line: While the connections between the Clinton Foundation and the Russian deal may appear fishy, there’s simply no proof of any quid pro quo.

Clinton’s unsubstantiated role

Did Clinton singlehandedly imperil national security by greenlighting the Russian deal, as Trump implies? No.

The company in question, Uranium One, does have mines, mills and tracts of land in Wyoming, Utah and other U.S. states equal to about 20 percent of U.S. uranium production capacity. It churns out a smaller portion of actual uranium produced in the United States (11 percent in 2014), according to Oilprice.com.

But that’s less cause for alarm than Trump is suggesting.

For one, the United States doesn’t actually produce all that much uranium (about 2 percent in 2015) and is actually a net importer of the chemical, according to Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear nonproliferation expert at Middlebury Institute and former director at the New America Foundation.

For another, Russia doesn’t have the licenses to export uranium outside the United States, Oilprice.org pointed out, "so it’s somewhat disingenuous to say this uranium is now Russia’s, to do with what it pleases." The Kremlin was likely more interested in Uranium One’s assets in Kazakhstan, the world’s largest producer.

Trump is also wrong that Clinton alone allowed the transfer.

The Kremlin’s 2010 purchase of a controlling stake in Uranium One had to be approved by the nine members of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

That included Clinton as secretary of state, but also the secretaries of the Treasury (the chairman of the committee), Defense, Justice, Commerce, Energy and Homeland Security as well as the the heads of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the Office of Science and Technology Policy. The deal also had to be okayed by the independent Nuclear Regulatory Commission as well as Utah’s nuclear regulator.

While it’s conceivable Clinton advocated for the deal, the author of Clinton Cash Peter Schweizer himself admitted that he doesn’t have "direct evidence" proving Clinton played a part. The State Department’s principal representative on the committee, Jose Fernandez, told Time that Clinton "never intervened with me on any CFIUS matter."

Why on earth would the United States allow the transfer of a uranium company?

As others, including a New York Times’ investigation, have explained, the United States was still seeking to "reset" its relationship with Russia and trying to get the Kremlin on board with its Iran nuclear deal. But at the end of the day, the Russian deal wasn’t that big.

Russia’s purchase of the company "had as much of an impact on national security as it would have if they set the money on fire," said Lewis. "That’s probably why (CFIUS and the NRC ) approved it."

A condensed timeline

Trump's suggestion that the Russian deal occurred "while nine investors funneled $145 million to the Clinton Foundation" is not supported by the evidence presented in Clinton Cash.

On the contrary, the donations detailed by author Schweizer occurred at least two years before the deal. Furthermore, it’s not clear from the book whether all nine of the Clinton Foundation donors were actually involved in the Russian deal at all.

The timeline is key here, so bear with us. Uranium One had several facelifts between 2007 and 2013.

Back in 2007, it was a South African company that had mining assets in Africa and Australia. That spring, it merged with another mining company, the Canada-based UrAsia Energy. The combined company kept Uranium One as its name but Toronto as its base. Under the terms of the deal, the shareholders of UrAsia retained a 60 percent stake in the new company.

Russia didn’t get involved until two years later, in June 2009, when its nuclear agency started buying shares in Uranium One. The Kremlin upped its stake in the company from 17 percent to a controlling 51 percent the following year, and assumed total ownership of the company in 2013 (and renamed it to Uranium One Holding).

Out of the nine investors listed in Clinton Cash, five were linked to UrAsia only, and Schweizer doesn’t say whether they were still involved with the company after the merger and when Russia was buying it out. (We asked Schweizer’s publicist via email, but we didn’t hear back.)

Using SEDAR, Canada’s filing system for public companies, we could only verify one UrAsia shareholder (Ian Telfer) who also owned stocks in Uranium One in 2010 and who chaired its Board of Directors. A New York Times investigation on the topic linked two others to Uranium One.

Why does it matter? Because UrAsia investors could have conceivably sold their shares before they could have profited off the Russian deal. In other words, giving to the Clinton Foundation wouldn’t have mattered to the allegedly Clinton-backed acquisition of 2010 if they had no stake in it.

We created a breakdown of the nine "investors" and their donations to the Clinton Foundation, based on the most complete information we could find through the Clinton Foundation, media reports and public filings as well as what Clinton Cash reported.

"Investor"

Connection

Donation

Year

Frank Giustra*

UrAsia Energy founder

$131.3 million

Late 2005 and June 2007

Frank Holmes*

Executive at U.S. Global Investors, which held Uranium One shares

$250,000 to $500,000

$100,000 in March 2008

Neil Woodyer*

Advisor to Uranium One

$500,000

March 2008

Robert Disbrow

Broker at Haywood Securities, which provided $58 million in capital UrAsia-Uranium One merger, according to Clinton Cash

$1 million to $5 million

$1 million in 2007

Paul Reynolds*

Financial advisor on UrAsia-Uranium One merger

$1 million to $5 million

$1 million in March 2008

Robert Cross

UrAsia shareholder and director

$500,000

March 2008

Egizio Bianchini

Cohead BMO’s Global Metals and Mining group, underwriter for UrAsia-Uranium One Merger

$600,000

March 2008

Sergey Kurzin

UrAsia shareholder

$1 million

March 2008

Ian Telfer**

Uranium One chairman

$3 million

March 2008

Total

$139.15 million to $146.9 million

*Also named and confirmed by the New York Times investigation.

As you can see in the chart, the $145 million in donations didn’t happen "while" the Russian deal was occurring in 2010. According to Clinton Cash, five donors contributed $136.4 million at or before a March 2008 benefit hosted by Giustra. While the book doesn’t specify when the other four donated to the Clinton Foundation, we were able to trace another $2.6 million to the March fundraiser.

Furthermore, the bulk of the $145 million comes from Frank Giustra, the founder of UrAsia Energy and a major Clinton Foundation donor. Guistra says he sold all of his stakes in Uranium One in the fall of 2007, "at least 18 months before Hillary Clinton became Secretary of State" and three years before the Russian deal. We couldn’t independently verify Giustra’s claim from UrAsia’s or Uranium One’s public filings.

Assuming Giustra is telling the truth, the donation amount from confirmed Uranium One investors drops from over $145 million to just $4 million. All of these occurred before the Russia deal.

One caveat: The New York Times found that Ian Telfer donated between $1.3 million and $5.6 million to the Clinton Foundation during and after the review process for the Russian deal.

So there’s evidence showing that one man involved with Uranium One (Telfer) donated millions to the Clinton Foundation at the same time as the deal. That certainly doesn’t look good for Hillary Clinton, but it’s a far cry from nine investors funneling $145 million.

Our ruling

Trump said, "Hillary Clinton’s State Department approved the transfer of 20 percent of America’s uranium holdings to Russia, while nine investors in the deal funneled $145 million to the Clinton Foundation."

There’s a grain of truth in this claim. Clinton’s State Department was one of nine government agencies to approve Russia’s acquisition of a company with U.S. uranium assets. Nine people related the company at some point in time donated to the Clinton Foundation, but we only found evidence that one did so "while" the Russian deal was occurring. The bulk of the $145 million in donations came two years before the deal.

Trump is certainly within his right to question the indisputable links between Clinton Foundation donors and their ties to Uranium One, but Trump’s charge exaggerates the links. More importantly, his suggestion of a quid pro quo is unsubstantiated, as Schweizer the author of Clinton Cash himself has admitted.

On the most basic level, Trump’s timeline is off. Most of the donations occurred before Clinton was named secretary of state.

We rate Trump’s claim Mostly False.

Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled the name of the State Department’s representative on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. He is Jose Fernandez.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32636914)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 16th, 2017 2:24 PM
Author: Ultramarine abusive piazza

laugh my ass off at lib contortions

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32636920)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 16th, 2017 2:24 PM
Author: Purple Boltzmann Range

tl;dr

Trump's one liners hit better- we're in an idiocracy

This is too long and has "facts"

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32636924)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 16th, 2017 2:25 PM
Author: vigorous henna kitty cat

I LOVE how all lib fact checks are along the lines of "It is true...but the point they were trying to make is FALSE!"

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32636933)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 16th, 2017 2:25 PM
Author: Brass church building stock car



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32636939)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 16th, 2017 2:27 PM
Author: citrine plaza



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32636950)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 16th, 2017 2:32 PM
Author: odious costumed garrison



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32636990)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 16th, 2017 2:37 PM
Author: razzmatazz sable heaven pozpig



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32637037)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 16th, 2017 3:13 PM
Author: talented insane twinkling uncleanness



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32637316)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 16th, 2017 9:36 PM
Author: dashing queen of the night



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32639949)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 16th, 2017 2:25 PM
Author: Brass church building stock car



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32636938)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 16th, 2017 2:27 PM
Author: citrine plaza

FUCK LIBS. this article was such bullshit.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32636948)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 16th, 2017 2:35 PM
Author: Coral Library

LJL @ this logic:

"Third, most of their Clinton Foundation donations occurred before and during Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential bid, before she could have known she would become secretary of state."

So... it's not influence peddling if they thought they were donating to a future President when they were actually donating to a future Secretary of State?

Hmmmmmmmmm.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32637011)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 16th, 2017 2:36 PM
Author: Ultramarine abusive piazza

stop being such a misogynist

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32637029)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 16th, 2017 2:42 PM
Author: Brass church building stock car



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32637094)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 17th, 2017 8:30 AM
Author: racy orchestra pit giraffe



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32642263)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 16th, 2017 9:29 PM
Author: amber love of her life candlestick maker



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32639880)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 17th, 2017 5:50 AM
Author: Jet territorial tattoo



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32642062)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 17th, 2017 6:04 AM
Author: Brindle Bbw



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32642065)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 17th, 2017 7:35 AM
Author: Ivory stage

bulletproof!

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32642132)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 17th, 2017 8:43 AM
Author: Frisky Digit Ratio Cruise Ship

Take that, Drumpfkins!

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32642304)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 16th, 2017 2:39 PM
Author: passionate alcoholic depressive organic girlfriend

Just remember that ALL your Uranium ARE belong to us.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32637066)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 16th, 2017 3:07 PM
Author: vigorous henna kitty cat



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32637270)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 16th, 2017 3:10 PM
Author: Nighttime kitchen indirect expression

libs can be such scumballs

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32637298)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 16th, 2017 3:20 PM
Author: Ruddy Boistinker

Who cares about Hillary, the election has been over for awhile and trump won. Time for him to get out of campaign mode and make America great again like he promised.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32637375)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 16th, 2017 9:01 PM
Author: vigorous henna kitty cat



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32639715)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 16th, 2017 9:33 PM
Author: vigorous henna kitty cat



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32639923)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 17th, 2017 5:51 AM
Author: nofapping disgusting prole ceo



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32642063)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 17th, 2017 6:48 AM
Author: Exciting chrome corner

What do the Clintons do with foundation money? Buy beach houses and exotic spots cars? Isnt it a charity?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32642078)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 17th, 2017 7:42 AM
Author: Fishy Police Squad

fly themselves and their friends around. give their friends cushy jobs.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32642142)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 17th, 2017 8:30 AM
Author: racy orchestra pit giraffe

pretty much this it seems like

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32642266)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 17th, 2017 8:32 AM
Author: Peach pistol

don't forget about paying for Chelsea's wedding

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32642277)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 17th, 2017 7:37 AM
Author: Ivory stage

holy shit this is a hilariously desperate article

lmao libs (u know what)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32642135)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 17th, 2017 7:51 AM
Author: marvelous macaca

There are still enough corp lawyers here to have people with familiarity with cfius and m&a to know this fact check rings true. doesn't sound like there was much potential for political meddling in this transaction.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32642152)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 17th, 2017 8:36 AM
Author: Floppy Khaki Elastic Band Sandwich

"Second, while nine people related to the company did donate to the Clinton Foundation, it’s unclear whether they were still involved in the company by the time of the Russian deal and stood to benefit from it."

What? They donated b/c they obviously stood to benefit at some point during the deal. Buying influence before you get fired or leave a company doesn't change the fact that you bought influence.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3528176&forum_id=2#32642283)