President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer helped a major donor to Trump’s inauguration pitch a nuclear-power investment to the Qatari sovereign wealth fund at a meeting in April, according to people familiar with the matter.
The donor, Franklin L. Haney, is seeking to complete a pair of unfinished nuclear reactors in Alabama known as the Bellefonte Nuclear Plant. His company is lobbying the Trump administration for an extension of tax credits, federal disclosures show.
Haney, 77, recently hired Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer, as a consultant, one of the people familiar with the matter said. It isn’t clear how much Haney paid Cohen. On April 5, Cohen and Haney met with the vice chairman of the Qatar Investment Authority, Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohamed al-Thani, to seek an investment in the plant, the people familiar with the matter said.
The meeting took place at the Four Seasons Hotel at the Surf Club near Miami Beach, where a Qatari delegation, which was in town for a roadshow aimed at pairing U.S. investors with Qatari business executives, spent several days. There is no indication whether the Qataris have decided to invest. Cohen also pitched Sheikh al-Thani on a separate infrastructure project that didn’t involve Haney, one of the people familiar with the matter said. Details of that project and how large of an investment Haney and Cohen were said to be soliciting are unclear. The Atomic Energy Act prohibits the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from issuing licenses to nuclear operators that are “owned, controlled or dominated” by a foreign corporation or government.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.[1]
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References
- ^ An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com. (www.wsj.com)
- ^ GE to merge rail division with Wabtec in $11 billion deal. (www.wsj.com)
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