Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Trump billionaire friend Tom Barrack aimed to profit from Mideast nuclear deal: Democrats
Source: Reuters
POLITICS JULY 29, 2019 / 5:11 PM / UPDATED 3 HOURS AGO
Trump billionaire friend aimed to profit from Mideast nuclear deal: Democrats
Jonathan Landay, Timothy Gardner
7 MIN READ
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tom Barrack, a billionaire friend of U.S. President Donald Trump, pursued a plan to buy Westinghouse Electric Corp even as he lobbied Trump to become a special envoy to promote the building by the firm of nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia, said a congressional report released on Monday.
While Barrack failed in both efforts, the report provides fresh evidence of the ease with which some corporate and foreign interests have gained access to Trump and other senior members of his administration.
Documents obtained by the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee raise “serious questions about whether the White House is willing to place the potential profits of the President’s friends above the national security of the American people and the universal objective of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons,” the report said.
The report is the second from the panel’s investigation into the plan to construct 40 nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Middle East. The plan was supported by Trump’s first national security adviser Michael Flynn, Barrack, Trump’s inaugural committee chairman, and a consortium of firms led by retired U.S. military commanders and former White House officials called IP3.
One company was Westinghouse, the only U.S. manufacturer of large reactors, which was bought out of bankruptcy by Brookfield Asset Management last August.
-snip-
Trump billionaire friend aimed to profit from Mideast nuclear deal: Democrats
Jonathan Landay, Timothy Gardner
7 MIN READ
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tom Barrack, a billionaire friend of U.S. President Donald Trump, pursued a plan to buy Westinghouse Electric Corp even as he lobbied Trump to become a special envoy to promote the building by the firm of nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia, said a congressional report released on Monday.
While Barrack failed in both efforts, the report provides fresh evidence of the ease with which some corporate and foreign interests have gained access to Trump and other senior members of his administration.
Documents obtained by the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee raise “serious questions about whether the White House is willing to place the potential profits of the President’s friends above the national security of the American people and the universal objective of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons,” the report said.
The report is the second from the panel’s investigation into the plan to construct 40 nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Middle East. The plan was supported by Trump’s first national security adviser Michael Flynn, Barrack, Trump’s inaugural committee chairman, and a consortium of firms led by retired U.S. military commanders and former White House officials called IP3.
One company was Westinghouse, the only U.S. manufacturer of large reactors, which was bought out of bankruptcy by Brookfield Asset Management last August.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-saudi-nuclearscheme/trump-billionaire-friend-aimed-to-profit-from-mideast-nuclear-deal-democrats-idUSKCN1UO28G