What you need to know about the Uranium One deal

Trump and others have criticized Hillary Clinton's approval of the Russian sale

Uranium One was the name of the Canadian company with large uranium stakes in North America and overseas — including some in the U.S. — that was purchased by the Russian energy giant, Rosatom, with the blessing of the Obama administration.

Here’s what you need to know:

The Deal

Given the wide ranging input, approval of this sale could not have been Clinton's doing alone.

Conditions

The conditions of the deal also conflict with any narrative that the sale put the U.S. at risk.

Pay-to-play?

The pay-to-play accusations are tricky. While money did flow to the foundation while the decisions were being made, money was also flowing well before Clinton was secretary of state and potentially in a position to influence any decision to approve that deal and also well before Uranium One’s takeover by the Russian firm .

For example, the New York Times reported that, from 2009 through 2013, Uranium One's chairman made four donations totaling $2.35 million to the Clinton Foundation.

Uranium One's predecessor company, UrAsia, also based in Canada, gave lots of money to the Clinton Foundation well before Clinton was secretary of state.

In 2006, Canadian mining financier Frank Giustra, who at the time owned UrAsia, gave $31.3 million to the Clinton Foundation.

In 2007 UrAsia merged with a South African mining company and became Uranium One.

Separately, Republicans also want to know if there was an FBI investigation during the Obama administration into the Uranium One deal.

Recently the DOJ has cleared an FBI informant to talk to Congress about his undercover efforts to learn more about the Russian nuclear deals in North America.

It's unclear what he knows, but the mere existence of this informant has helped fuel speculation there were corrupt dealings involving Clinton.