There’s an interesting, though hardly surprising, footnote to the Clinton/Russia/uranium story. If reports are true, the Clintons and their backers have already been caught in at least two lies about the matter.
The first lie pertains to the deal Bill Clinton brokered on behalf of Clinton Foundation backer Frank Giustra, in which Giustra obtained major uranium concessions from Kazakhstan. When he helped obtain these concessions for Giustra, Clinton spoke favorably about alleged progress in democracy and human rights being made in Kazakhstan. Quite likely, Clinton’s comments helped induce Kazakhstan to make the concessions.
Hoping to negate this suggestion, the Giustra-Clinton camp reportedly has claimed that the government of Kazakhstan was not involved in the deal that granted the uranium concessions. But Peter Schweizer presented Bret Baier with documents that show Kazakhstan was, in fact, a party to the deal.
The second lie came from Bill Clinton himself (this is shocking, I know). After the deal between Kazakhstan and Giustra was completed, the Kazakhs reportedly wanted a stake in U.S. energy giant Westinghouse.
This required U.S. government approval. According to Jo Becker of the New York Times, Giustra arranged for key Kazakh players to meet with Bill Clinton at the former president’s home in New York state for purposes of enlisting Clinton’s assistance in obtaining this approval.
The Times’ Becker told Fox News that both Bill Clinton (through the Clinton Foundation) and Giustra denied this meeting took place. But after Becker presented pictures from the meeting — prized possessions, apparently, of the Kazakhs who had the honor of seeing Bill — Clinton admitted that there was, in fact, such a meeting.
As ever, the Clintons seem prepared to lie (and to destroy documents) for the purpose of explaining away their ethical problems. As ever, we shouldn’t believe anything they say.
NOTE: I have modified this post slightly to reflect that Clinton’s denial that he met with Kazakh representatives in New York came via the Clinton Foundation, not directly from Clinton.
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