WASHINGTON — The top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee sent a letter Tuesday to Chairman Trey Gowdy questioning the motives behind a new Republican-launched investigation into why the Obama administration allowed a Russian company to acquire U.S. uranium mines while Hillary Clinton was secretary of State.

Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the committee's senior Democrat, also said in the letter that Democrats want access this week to a "confidential informant" that some Republicans say will provide new evidence about the 2010 uranium deal.

"These actions raise serious questions about whether Republicans are reopening this investigation of Hillary Clinton for the same illegitimate reasons that President Trump demanded it — to try to distract public attention from the ongoing criminal probe into President Trump’s campaign and its ties to Russia, and to unfairly malign the official charged with executing it, Special Counsel Robert Mueller," Cummings wrote.

In response, Gowdy said he has "spent the better part of 2017 investigating what Russia did with respect to our electoral process in 2016."

"By nearly everyone's admission, the United States underestimated Russia's capability and desire to undermine the fundamentals of our republic," the South Carolina Republican said in a statement. "It is not unreasonable to wonder whether those same nefarious intentions were manifest in 2010."

Gowdy also said the latest investigation of Clinton and the Obama administration "is not — nor will it ever be — about one individual."

"It is about whether or not all pertinent information was known and shared with CFIUS (the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) at the time they made their decision and whether the actions of Russia in 2015 and 2016 should cause the U.S. to reevaluate Russia's motives in 2010," Gowdy said.

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The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States is an inter-agency government panel that reviews the national security implications of foreign investments in U.S. companies or operations. The nine-member panel unanimously approved the uranium deal.

Gowdy and House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., announced on Oct 24 that they were looking into whether the FBI or Department of Justice ever opened an investigation of the sale of U.S. uranium mines to the Russians in 2010 during the Obama administration.

Recent reports in The Hill newspaper said there was an FBI investigation into Russian officials engaging in bribery and extortion while trying to buy Uranium One, a Canadian company that controlled 20% of the U.S. uranium supply.

Republicans are now questioning why the Obama administration and the State Department, under Clinton's leadership, allowed the sale to the Russian government-run Rosatom, and whether donations to the Clinton Foundation had any role in the decision.

"With no consultation with Democrats, you and other Republicans rushed to launch your latest investigation of Secretary Clinton and Mr. Mueller directly after President Trump initiated his own Twitter campaign just days earlier to distract from the ongoing Russia investigations," Cummings wrote to Gowdy.

Some Republicans have said Mueller should be investigating the Uranium One deal. Mueller is tasked with probing Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.

Trump tweeted about the uranium deal on Oct. 19, calling it "the biggest story that Fake Media doesn’t want to follow!"

"President Trump made these tweets less than 24 hours after a series of blistering news reports that Attorney General Jeff Sessions refused repeatedly to answer questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee about his conversations with the President regarding Russia and the firing of FBI Director James Comey," Cummings wrote.

Trump fired Comey in May in the midst of an FBI investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.

Cummings also asked for access to an unidentifed "confidential informant" that Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., said has information about alleged efforts to bribe Clinton to approve the Uranium One deal. Cummings asked Gowdy to bring the informant in this week to speak to committee members.

"We do not know who this former informant is, where this former informant is from, whether the FBI substantiated this former informant’s claims, or whether this former informant is credible," Cummings wrote

"It has now been more than two weeks since ... DeSantis declared on national television that our Committee is investigating this matter, but you have not taken any investigative steps — at least as far as I am aware — and you have not brought the confidential informant in to provide us with the information authorized by the Department of Justice," Cummings wrote.

Cummings sees the latest investigation involving Clinton as a continuation of Republican efforts against the former Democratic presidential nominee.

Gowdy led the Select Committee on Benghazi, which spent more than two years and nearly $8 million investigating the 2012 terrorist attacks at the U.S. compound in eastern Libya where four Americans died, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

Gowdy went after Clinton's actions as secretary of State as part of that probe. In the end, a final report released last December by the select committee did not single out any wrongdoing by Clinton in regard to the attack. However, Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of State was revealed as part of the Benghazi investigation.

Comey declined to pursue criminal charges regarding the email system, but it was a major issue in the 2016 presidential election.

Cummings, who was the senior Democrat on the select committee, denounced the Benghazi investigation as nothing mere than an effort by Republicans to weaken Clinton during her presidential campaign.