Hillary Clinton on Wednesday warned that if President Trump directs his Justice Department to investigate her role in a 2010 sale of a uranium company, it would be “a disastrous step into politicizing the Justice Department.”
“This is such an abuse of power,” Clinton said in an interview with Mother Jones, following reports that the Justice Department is considering appointing a special counsel to investigate.
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“I regret if they do it because it will be such a disastrous step into politicizing the justice system,” she said. “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.”
Several Republicans have called for a special counsel to be named to investigate the Obama-era deal, which happened while Clinton was secretary of State. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said this week that the State Department would only consider such a step if it fits “a factual basis that meets the standard of a special counsel.”
But Trump has expressed frustration with his Justice Department and Sessions, pointing to a “lack of investigation” into Clinton and citing the Uranium One deal.
The company, Uranium One, at the time the deal was made, controlled land equal to about 20 percent of the U.S.’s uranium capacity.
Republicans have sought to tie the takeover to $145 million in donations to the Clinton Foundation by stakeholders in the company.
Democrats have countered that Clinton wasn’t personally involved in the sale. Nine agencies, including the State Department, approved the deal at the time. It was also investigated by congressional committees in 2015.
Clinton said she is “not concerned” with whether a special counsel will be appointed or that she will face indictments “because I know that there is no basis to it.”
“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,” she said.