To push the debunked Uranium One scandal, Fox hypes informant deemed not credible by Justice Dept.
Published
Fox & Friends hyped the dubious claims of an FBI informant who said that Russian officials tried to give donations to the Clinton Foundation in exchange for approving the Uranium One nuclear deal, even though Department of Justice (DOJ) officials have reportedly said they considered the informant “too unreliable to use as a witness due to inconsistencies in his story.”
According to the informant’s testimony, Russians paid an American firm to influence then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (through donations to the Clinton Foundation) to approve the sale of the mining company Uranium One. The Fox & Friends hosts called it a “brand new bombshell” and reported the claims as credible. Sean Hannity did the same last night.
However, Justice Department officials, in a December briefing to House oversight committee staff, reportedly said that “the whistleblower had offered no evidence about Clinton” and that they “began to have ‘serious credibility concerns’ because of ‘inconsistencies’ between the individual’s statements and documents they obtained as part of the investigation.” Mother Jones reported that in a recent letter, Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) further explained:
[Justice Department] officials said that “at no point did [the individual] provide any allegation of corruption, illegality, or impropriety on Clinton, the Clinton Foundation, President Clinton, the Uranium One deal, or CFIUS,” Cummings and Schiff wrote. “They also confirmed that there were ‘no allegations of impropriety or illegality’ regarding Secretary Clinton in any of the documents they reviewed.”
The Uranium One claim has been relentlessly hyped by Fox News despite being debunked by many people including Fox’s own Shep Smith. From the February 8 edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends: