Republicans have announced parallel Congress investigations into a uranium deal under President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s emails.
One committee will investigate how the Obama administration approved a 2010 acquisition that gave Russia control of 20% of the US uranium supply.
Two other panels will scrutinize the FBI decision not to charge former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over her private email server.
Democrats pilloried the investigations as “a massive diversion”.
Both issues to be placed under the spotlight by the committees are longstanding political grievances of President Donald Trump.
Donald Trump’s campaign aides are currently the subject of congressional investigations into whether they colluded with alleged Russia attempts to sway last year’s presidential election.
On October 24, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte and House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy announced investigations into the previous administration.
They said there were “outstanding questions” about the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails.
Bob Goodlatte and Trey Gowdy said they wished to know why former FBI director James Comey chose to divulge the inquiry into Hillary Clinton, but not the one about Trump aides and Russia.
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Meanwhile, Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, announced his panel’s investigation into the sale of a Canadian mining company that had mines in the American West.
Uranium One – which owned a fifth of US uranium supplies – was acquired seven years ago by Russian state-owned company Rosatom.
President Donad Trump tweeted on October 19: “Uranium deal to Russia, with Clinton help and Obama Administration knowledge, is the biggest story that Fake Media doesn’t want to follow!”
The State Department, under Hillary Clinton, helped approve the deal.
Last week, The Hill reported that at the time of the sale the FBI was investigating alleged attempts by Russia to gain influence in the US nuclear industry through bribery and extortion.
The New York Times and The Hill have reported that Russian nuclear officials and Uranium One’s chairman donated millions of dollars to the Clinton charitable foundation.
Devin Nunes told reporters at Capitol Hill on October 24: “One of the things we are concerned about is whether or not there was an FBI investigation, was there a DOJ investigation and if so, why was Congress not informed of this matter.”
However, Democratic congressmen accused Republicans of creating a distraction.
Elijah Cummings and John Conyers in a statement on October 24: “This new investigation is a massive diversion to distract from the lack of Republican oversight of the Trump administration and the national security threat that Russia poses.”
In an interview with C-SPAN on October 23, Hillary Clinton said that the Uranium One allegations are “baloney”.
