BY SARAH WESTWOOD | MAY 7, 2015

A Kazakh official involved in brokering a controversial mining deal for a major Clinton Foundation donor is behind bars for his role in the transaction, undercutting a Clinton campaign "fact-check" that attempted to dismiss ethical questions about the former president's ties to the lucrative contract.

Hillary for America and the Clinton-aligned group Media Matters pushed back on allegations that the Clintons had used their political clout to drum up millions in foundation donations and speaking fees by furthering the financial interests of friends in the wake of Tuesday's publication of Peter Schweizer's Clinton Cash.

Schweizer dedicated an entire chapter to a 2005 deal in which Bill Clinton allegedly helped his friend Frank Giustra break into a fiercely competitive uranium market, setting the stage for the high-profile takeover of mining conglomerate Uranium One by Russia.

In response to a spate of stories questioning whether Giustra's hefty donations to the Clinton Foundation influenced Hillary Clinton's position on the Uranium One deal, Giustra released a statement denying his involvement with the company.

He also claimed Bill Clinton "had nothing to do with the purchase of private mining stakes by a Canadian company," as Schweizer and others have suggested.

"That's just dead wrong," said Brian Fallon, a spokesman for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, in a video released Wednesday. "The main donor he's talking about sold his stake in the company two years before Hillary Clinton even became secretary of state."

Giustra had to step down from UrAsia's board when Uranium One acquired it in 2007 so his company could "pursue this transaction without any perception of conflict" because he was serving simultaneously as its financial advisor thanks to his position as chairman of Endeavour Financial.

Giustra noted in his statement that he sold his shares "at least 18 months before Hillary Clinton became the secretary of state. No one was speculating at that time that she would become the secretary of state."

"Schweizer spins a tale that in 2010, then-Secretary Clinton pushed the State Department to approve the sale of Uranium One to the Russian government in order to benefit a stakeholder who had donated to the Clinton Foundation," Hillary for America said in its pushback.

The campaign "fact-check" highlighted the fact that Giustra sold his stake "three years prior to the sale" of Uranium One to Russia.

But Giustra's firm, Endeavour Financial, remained Uranium One's financial advisor well after its acquisition of UrAsia, casting doubt on assertions that he severed his ties to the company before Hillary Clinton became secretary of state.

Giustra's claim that Bill Clinton played no role in helping UrAsia win mining rights in Kazakhstan in 2005 contradicts what at least one Kazakh official has said about the nature of both Clintons' involvement.

Mukhtar Dzhakishev, the Kazakh official in charge of the country's uranium and nuclear industry, claimed then-Sen. Hillary Clinton had "pressured Kazakh officials to secure a deal for the Canadians" by refusing to meet with the prime minister when he was in the U.S., according to Schweizer.

In 2008, Dzhakishev also said Bill Clinton, Frank Giustra and Kazakh President Nazarbayev discussed the mining deal at a banquet just days before UrAsia acquired significant stakes in three mines, although both Giustra and Bill Clinton deny those conversations.

Dzhakishev was among the key officials whose approval UrAsia would have needed to complete the transaction.

Giustra's company managed to secure a deal that industry insiders deemed a "mystery" less than 48 hours after he and Bill Clinton wrapped up their trip to Kazakhstan.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2564125