House Opens Inquiry Into Proposed U.S. Nuclear Venture in Saudi Arabia – The New York Times

The draft memo also referenced another close Trump associate, Thomas J. Barrack, who served as chairman of the president’s inaugural committee. It said that Mr. Trump had appointed Mr. Barrack as a special representative to implement the plan, which it called “the Middle East Marshall Plan.” The memo also directed agencies to support Mr. Barrack’s efforts.

The Democrats’ investigation comes at a sensitive time, when lawmakers of both parties are incensed over the Trump administration’s reluctance to punish Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the Saudi government over the slaying of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. As supporters of the nuclear deal maneuvered in opening days of the Trump White House, the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was orchestrating what would be Mr. Trump’s first overseas trip as president, to Saudi Arabia, and met on his own with the then-deputy crown prince, Mr. bin Salman, before the prince became the power behind the Saudi throne.

At a March 2017 meeting, a National Security Council aide tried to revive the IP3 plan “so that Jared Kushner can present it to the President for approval,” the Democratic report said. Mr. Kushner is scheduled to travel to the region next week to brief diplomats on the economic portions of the Trump administration’s Middle East peace plan.

Representative Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, chairman of the Oversight Committee, first disclosed claims brought to him by one of the whistle-blowers in November 2017, and called on the committee’s Republican chairman at the time to further scrutinize them. The Republicans did not touch it, so on Tuesday, after laying out a more detailed timeline of events, Mr. Cummings said he was now able to do that work himself.

“Further investigation is needed to determine whether the actions being pursued by the Trump Administration are in the national security interest of the United States or, rather, serve those who stand to gain financially as a result of this potential change in U.S. foreign policy,” Mr. Cummings’s staff wrote in the report.