House Democrats Probe Plan To Sell Nuclear Tech To Saudis
CAMEROTA: A plan to sell nuclear power to the Saudis is under investigation by House Democrats. The proposal was backed by former National Security adviser Michael Flynn, and a new report says Trump administration officials kept pushing for it through early 2017 despite warnings that the technology could be used to develop weapons. Kara Scannell is live for us from Washington with all of the latest developments. What is the latest, Kara?</s>KARA SCANNELL, CNN REPORTER: That's right, Alisyn. So, this new report from the House Oversight Committee shows that despite multiple warnings, White House officials continued to push forward with this plan that would potentially give nuclear power and build nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia. Now, according to the report that was -- that the House Democrats had filed, they found that "Multiple whistleblowers came forward to warn about efforts inside the White House to rush the transfer of highly-sensitive U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia. They've warned about political appointees ignoring directives from top ethics advisers at the White House who have repeatedly and unsuccessfully ordered senior Trump administration officials to halt their efforts." So, Alisyn, this report finds in the first three months of the administration that the staff of the National Security Council were warning that the plans to produce this power plant could violate the law in two ways. One, it could violate the conflicts of interest because the plan was being pushed by a private company that had ties to Michael Flynn, the then-National Security adviser. He had worked as an adviser to them before he joined the administration, pushing this same plan. And they were also worried it could violate the Atomic Energy Act, which really limits the transfer of nuclear technology outside the U.S. to a foreign country without the approval of Congress. So the staffers were really concerned that this was bypassing the normal protocols in order to get this plan through. They raised this internally to ethics and legal officials. The top lawyer on the National Security Council told them to stop working on this plan. The White House officials, including Michael Flynn and some of his allies, continued to push for it. They were trying to get a proposal in the hands of President Trump before he had key meetings with Saudi leaders. And this continued -- despite these multiple warnings, they were continuing to do this. Now, Cummings' committee -- the House Oversight Committee is saying that they're going to investigate this. They want to know whether the U.S. was acting in the best interest of U.S. national security or to line the pockets of those close to the administration, John.</s>BERMAN: Part of the new oversight you will see from the Democratic- controlled House. Kara Scannell, thank you very much for that report -- appreciate it. An alarming trend among young women. More of them are having heart attacks. Why? We're going to speak to Dr. Sanjay Gupta about it, next.