US Dems investigating whether former Trump aide pushed a plan with the Russians to build nuclear plants in Egypt, Middle East: Democratic Party lawmakers are probing whether former national security adviser Michael Flynn secretly lobbied for a US-Russian project to build nuclear reactors in the Middle East, according to reports from Reuters and Newsweek. Lawmakers claim “Flynn failed to disclose a June 2015 trip he made to Egypt and Israel to promote the reactor project to investigators reviewing his renewal application and that he also did not list the foreigners with whom he met.” They’re demanding to know whether Flynn promoted the initiative “while he was a [Trump] campaign adviser, transition official, or President Trump’s national security adviser.”

The proposed project was “to construct 40 nuclear reactors across the Middle East thatwould feed a regional electric grid. The reactors would be “proliferation proof,” meaning they could not be used to produce fuel for nuclear weapons… would be funded by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states and built and run by a consortium of U.S., Russian, French, Dutch, Arab, British, Ukrainian and Israeli firms. A promotional slide promoting the project said security would be provided by Rosoboron, a Russian state-owned arms exporter that is under U.S. sanctions.” Thomas Cochran, a scientist involved with the project, told Newsweek the primary purpose of Flynn’s trip to Egypt was to convince the government at least to postpone accepting the agreement with Russia’s Rosatom to finance and build four reactors in order to carefully consider Flynn’s alternative.

The news comes as the Ismail government signed off yesterday on amendments to thelaw on the establishment of the Nuclear Power Plants Authority granting tax and customs exemptions, according to a statement. It’s the latest in a series of steps the government has taken toward finalizing the nuclear pact with Russia.