U.S. Attorney John Durham, as part of his review of the Barack Obama administration’s use of U.S. intelligence agencies to spy on the 2016 Trump campaign, has been asked to review the DOJ’s investigation of the Clinton Foundation.
The New York Times reports Durham “has sought documents and interviews about how federal law enforcement officials handled an investigation around the same time into allegations of political corruption at the Clinton Foundation.”
The report cites people familiar with the matter.
“Mr. Durham’s team members have suggested to others that they are comparing the two investigations as well as examining whether investigators in the Russia inquiry flouted laws or policies,” the report said. “It was not clear whether Mr. Durham’s investigators were similarly looking for violations in the Clinton Foundation investigation, nor whether the comparison would be included or play a major role in the outcome of Mr. Durham’s inquiry.”
The paper said the information suggests “the scope of his review is broader than previously known.”
“The suspected crimes themselves are not comparable — one involves a possible conspiracy between a presidential campaign and a foreign adversary to interfere in an election, and the other involves potential bribery and corruption,” the Times said.
The primary evidence presented to support the Russian collusion claims, however, was largely by special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
The corruption investigation into the Clinton Foundation was launched after 64 House Republicans wrote to the IRS, FBI and Federal Trade Commission alleging that the foundation is “lawless” and needed to be investigation for “public corruption.”
It is well known that many foreign interests made large donations to the foundation controlled by the Clintons when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state for Barack Obama.
The Times report said: “Critics have suggested that she was part of a quid pro quo in which the foundation received large donations in exchange for supporting the sale of Uranium One, a Canadian company with ties to mining stakes in the United States, to a Russian nuclear agency. The deal was approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States when Mrs. Clinton was secretary of state under President Barack Obama and had a voting seat on the panel.”
The Clinton Foundation case initially was referred to the IRS tax-exempt operations office for review, but the federal review did not result in any charges.
It then was moved to prosecutors in Arkansas, who secured a subpoena, but to date no charges have come from that review either.
The Times reported: “Some former law enforcement officials declined to talk to Mr. Durham’s team about the foundation investigation because they felt the nature of his inquiry was highly unusual, according to people familiar with the investigation. Mr. Durham’s staff members sought information about the debate over the subpoenas that the FBI tried to obtain in 2016 and have also approached current agents about the matter, but it is not clear what they told investigators.”
The foundation, in a statement, said it routinely is the target of “baseless, politically motivated allegations.”
The Times report said, “Mr. Durham’s focus on the Clinton Foundation inquiry comes as concerns deepen among Democrats and some former Justice Department officials that his investigation is being weaponized politically to help Mr. Trump.”
Barr told a congressional committee the evidence shows the Obama administration spied on the Trump campaign. He also has called the Russia collusion claims “one of the greatest travesties in American history.”
So far, in Durham’s investigation, former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith has pleaded guilty to altering evidence.
The Clinton Foundation investigation ended up involving Andrew McCabe, then the deputy FBI director, who was accused of leaking information to a reporter and then lying about it to the DOJ inspector general.
He later was fired.
Democrats in recent days have demanded the DOJ investigate Durham’s investigation of the Russian collusion investigation.
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, including Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., have suggested Durham’s investigation violates policy.
“We write to request that you investigate whether U.S. Attorney John Durham’s investigation complies with Department of Justice policies, including policies that protect criminal investigations from political influence,” a group of 10 Democratic senators wrote to Inspector General Michael Horowitz.
The Democrats’ claim Attorney General William Barr and White House officials have made statements showing the Durham probe is “being misused for partisan political purposes and undermines the legitimacy of any investigative steps” the prosecutor has taken.
Barr asked Durham in March 2019 to review the FBI, CIA and other agencies’ activities related to the Trump campaign. Much of Durham’s work has followed up on a report that Horowitz issued on the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation on Dec. 9.
That report blasted the FBI for 17 “significant” errors and omissions in applications for surveillance warrants on Trump aide Carter Page.
Barr has provided some insight into areas that Durham is investigating. He has said that Durham is investigating whether the Russian government fed disinformation into the Steele dossier, as well as whether the FBI has been forthcoming about its activities before formally opening the Russia-collusion probe, Crossfire Hurricane.
Barr has rejected Democrat claims that Durham’s work is partisan. And he has confirmed that more charges are possible from Durham’s work.
