[SenateCommitteeOnTheJudiciary] Department of Justice (DOJ) records provided to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) offer a behind-the-scenes look at how top leadership during the Obama-Biden administration repeatedly interfered to prevent DOJ prosecutors and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents from investigating the Clinton Foundation’s financial dealings.
“The mainstream media smeared any investigation into Hillary Clinton as unfounded nonsense, but in reality, line agents and federal prosecutors seeking to follow up on legitimate leads were sidelined by partisan leadership looking to save Clinton’s reputation. That’s a night-and-day departure from how the Biden Justice Department handled the Arctic Frost investigation against President Trump,” Grassley said. “For too long, our Justice Department has chosen winners and losers instead of enforcing the law without regard to power, party or privilege. That must never happen again. I thank Attorney General Bondi and Director Patel for turning over these records, so the American people finally know how their Justice Department failed in the Clinton investigations.”
The records, including internal emails and an investigatory timeline, were provided to Grassley in response to his oversight request and whistleblower allegations. Per the records:
- On July 20, 2016—111 days before the 2016 election—an agent with the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division ordered that, “based on the sensitivities surrounding the Clinton Foundation,” agents were prohibited from issuing subpoenas, conducting interviews or sharing information related to the case with other offices so as to avoid “[creating] any impression we are investigating the Clinton Foundation or the Clintons.”
- In November 2016, FBI Headquarters, while under the leadership of then-Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, stepped in to block the Clinton Foundation investigative team from accessing potentially incriminating evidence located on the laptop of Anthony Weiner, the husband of Hillary Clinton’s political aide, Huma Abedin. McCabe, among others, recommended the information instead be routed to the FBI’s “Midyear” investigative team.
- After the investigation was reopened in 2017, Main Justice holdovers from the previous administration allegedly provided prosecutors in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Arkansas (EDAR) with documents that omitted information regarding DOJ and FBI leadership’s interference. Additional requests the EDAR made to the FBI in 2018 “ruffled some feathers” and didn’t result in a response.
- An EDAR prosecutor concluded “there appear to be conflicts of interest for the leadership [at Main Justice, including the Public Integrity Section,] related to the 2016 [Clinton] investigations that undermine any confidence we might normally have in looking to them for assistance.”
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