A top prosecutor now on Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team discouraged the FBI from pursuing an investigation into the Clinton Foundation in 2016 due to what he believed was “negligible evidence” despite the existence of “multiple” Suspicious Activity Reports related to “hundreds of thousands of dollars in foreign transactions,” according to a report.
Fox News Digital first reported on Friday that Ray Hulser, who was the former chief of the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section but now serves on Smith’s team prosecuting former President Donald Trump, was the official who “declined prosecution” of the Clinton Foundation in 2016, according to Special Counsel John Durham’s report, which came out in May 2023.
The Durham report said that in January 2016, three different FBI field offices had opened investigations into “possible criminal activity involving the Clinton Foundation.” The three offices were the New York Field Office (NYFO), the Little Rock Field Office (LRFO), and the Washington Field Office (WFO) .
The report said the LRFO case opening communication referred to an “intelligence product and corroborating financial reporting that a particular commercial ‘industry likely engaged a federal public official in a flow of benefits scheme, namely, large monetary contributions were made to a non-profit, under both direct and indirect control of the federal public official, in exchange for favorable government action and/or influence.’”
The report said the WFO investigation was opened as a preliminary investigation, because the Case Agent wanted to determine if he could develop additional information to corroborate allegations in the book Clinton Cash by Breitbart News senior contributor Peter Schweizer.
The report said additionally, the LRFO and NYFO investigations including predication “based on source reporting that identified foreign governments that had made, or offered to make, contributions to the Foundation in exchange for favorable or preferential treatment from Clinton.”
Durham’s report said that due to three different field offices investigating the Clinton Foundation, there was a “perceived need to conduct coordination meetings between the field offices, FBI Headquarters, and appropriate U.S. Attorney’s offices,” as well as “components” from the main Justice Department.
Durham’s report also said, “These meetings likely were deemed especially important given that the investigations were occurring in an election year in which Clinton was a declared candidate for President.”
Hulser during a February 1, 2016, meeting “downplayed information provided by the New York Field Office [confidential human source]” and “recalled that the amount involved in the financial reporting was ‘de minimus.’” The report also said during that meeting, Hulser “declined prosecution” of the Clinton Foundation on behalf of the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section.
Hulser, who was interviewed by Durham, said that he made it clear that his decision was “not binding on the various U.S. Attorneys’ Offices or FBI field divisions.”
Then-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe and then-FBI Director James Comey also reportedly pressured the field offices to close their cases.
In August 2016, a meeting was held to direct that the WFO and LRFO investigations “be closed and consolidated” into the NYFO investigation, Fox News Digital reported. During that meeting, U.S. attorneys’ offices declined to issue subpoenas, the report said.
Hulser also reportedly told Durham that he felt Schweizer’s book was “insufficient predication” for at least one of the investigations.
Fox News contributor Andy McCarthy told Fox News Digital that “nobody should be surprised” that Special Counsel Jack Smith has people on his team who “have been involved in situations that make it politically conflicting for them to be involved in this.”
McCarthy also said it was “obvious from the beginning” that the Biden Justice Department’s decision to appoint a special counsel was “utterly political and done to create distance between the attorney general and the president from the decision to bring charges against Trump.”
President Joe Biden (L) and Attorney General Merrick Garland walk into the East Room at the White House on May 16, 2022, in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“Smith has conducted it throughout with an eye on the election calendar,” he added.
Durham had noted how the timing of the 2016 election had played into the FBI’s reasoning to only open a “preliminary” investigation into the Clinton Foundation, whereas with Trump, it was not considered an impediment to immediately opening a full investigation into whether his campaign was colluding with Russia.
Smith has vigorously pursued charges against Trump for “election interference” and allegedly retaining classified information after leaving office, despite the upcoming 2024 election and Trump’s candidacy.
Hulser also was involved in the DOJ’s prosecution of former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro, who was held in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the Democrat-led House committee investigating the events of January 6, 2021.
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