by Jerry Dunleavy at Just the News
Federal investigators looked into a wide range of potential pay-to-play and foreign influence schemes tied to the Clinton Foundation, but their inquiry was stymied from above. Here’s a look at some of those schemes that went as far back as 2010.
Internal investigative files show FBI agents and federal prosecutors attempted to investigate a wide range of activities involving the State Department under then-Secretary of State Clinton a decade ago, including whether foreign donations made to the Clinton Foundation were used as improper influence on U.S. foreign policy.
The FBI and DOJ inquiries were repeatedly shut down by FBI and DOJ leadership.
Just the News reported earlier this week about Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley’s release of a timeline written by federal investigators laying out the repeated political obstruction those agents faced from their own bureau bosses and the Justice Department during the 2016 election and beyond as they probed whether Hillary Clinton engaged in a pay-to-play corruption scheme involving her family foundation.
The documents turned over by FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi show that career agents and line prosecutors at the FBI and DOJ believed the Clinton Foundation saga may have been a criminal one, but orders from leaders such as then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe slow-walked and stonewalled the inquiry to the point where it was hobbled.
An internal investigative timeline stated that the FBI’s New York Field Office “initiated a Preliminary Investigation” on January 22, the Little Rock Field Office “initiated a Full Field Investigation” on January 27, and the Washington Field Office “initiated a Preliminary Investigation” on January 29, 2016.
Another internal timeline of the investigation said that the FBI’s Little Rock Field Office “submits case opening requesting full field investigation regarding Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership, Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative, Uranium One, Uranium One Americas, Frank Giustra, Ian Telfer.”
No cases were brought against Clinton. Below are some of the episodes in which investigations were stymied.