Mark Helenowski/Mother Jones
Hillary Clinton responded on Wednesday to news that the Trump administration is considering appointing a special counsel to investigate her alleged ties to the Uranium One deal, calling the move “a disastrous step into politicizing the Justice Department” and “such an abuse of power.”
In an exclusive interview with Mother Jones, Clinton said such an investigation would have devastating consequences for the justice system in America. “If they send a signal that we’re going to be like some dictatorship, like some authoritarian regime, where political opponents are going to be unfairly, fraudulently investigated, that rips at the fabric of the contract we have, that we can trust our justice system,” Clinton said. “It will be incredibly demoralizing to people who have served at the Justice Department, under both Republicans and Democrats, because they know better. But it will also send a terrible signal to our country and the world that somehow we are giving up on the kind of values that we used to live by and we used to promote worldwide.”
The New York Times and Washington Post reported this week that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had asked top prosecutors to examine whether to appoint a special counsel to probe the sale of a uranium company to Russian interests while Clinton was secretary of state. Republicans, including President Donald Trump, have alleged links between the sale of the company and donations to the Clinton Foundation, even though nine different federal agencies signed off on the deal in 2010.
“I regret deeply that this appears to be the politicization of the Justice Department and our justice system,” Clinton said on Wednesday. “This Uranium One story has been debunked countless times by members of the press, by independent experts. It is nothing but a false charge that the Trump administration is trying to drum up to avoid attention being drawn to them.”
She said the Trump administration was trying to change the subject from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump’s presidential campaign and the Russian government. But she said she was not personally worried about being prosecuted.
“I’m not concerned, because I know that there is no basis to it,” she said. “I regret if they do it because it will be such a disastrous step to politicizing the justice system. And at the end of the day, nothing will come of it, but it will, you know, cause a lot of terrible consequences that we might live with for a really long time.”
Stay tuned for the full interview with Clinton.
