Trump’s Secret Nuclear Tech Transfer to Saudi Attracts Lawsuit

Back from the dead is former President Donald Trump’s nuclear scandal that led to the transfer of highly sensitive nuclear technology and assistance to one of its long-time allies and one of the world’s biggest human rights abusers – Saudi Arabia. Now digging up the former administration’s dirt is American Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog group that has now filed a lawsuit against CIA and the State Department for failing to disclose the requested records.

CIA Pays for Trump’s Slips

The CIA and State Department became the targets of Trumps slips and got sued by the American Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog group. The lawsuit, if explained, simply demands the respective departments to release the records associated with Trump and his administration’s effort to transfer sensitive nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia during the President’s tenure.

Call it corruption or incompetence, the conflict of interests tied to the deal for Donald Trump could massively affect the national security of the country. As per the lawsuit, the American Oversight demands for the records for people to see as they are “entitled” to it.

As per the hush-hush deal pursued by Trump, US nuclear power technology was shared with Saudi, which has been further focused at building two of its own nuclear power plants, apparently for energy purposes. US Energy Secretary Rick Perry was the one to pass six different authorizations to sell nuclear power technology as well as assistance to the Kingdom.

Not one, but multiple employees from the government sector came together as whistle-blowers to secretly report and warn about the efforts made from within the Trump White House about the highly sensitive nuclear technology transfer to Saudi Arabia.

Considering the reputation of the Gulf nation, several American lawmakers have expressed their concerns regarding the transfer of not only nuclear technology, but also assistance to Saudi Arabia, which could potentially set off a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. The concerns grew strong especially since the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman claimed that his country would go ahead with developing nuclear weaponry, if Iran – its rival – did so.

Reportedly, the country has also refused to adopt the US standards blocking two paths to the possibility of developing fissile material for nuclear-based weapons secretly, i.e., enriching uranium and reprocessing spent fuel.

As of April 2022, which is a month after receiving the FOIA requests from the American Oversight, neither the State Department nor the CIA released the said records abiding by the requests. Thus, a lawsuit was filed later on to pressure the respective departments to release the responsive records. The release of the records will clearly show how the Trump administration irresponsibly sold the American national interest for personal and professional interests of the President.