EXCLUSIVE:
Joint FBI-US Attorney Probe Of Clinton Foundation Is Underway by Richard
Pollock, 8/11/16
Multiple FBI investigations are
underway involving potential corruption charges against the Clinton Foundation,
according to a former senior law enforcement official. The investigation centers on New
York City where the Clinton Foundation has its main offices, according to the
former official who has direct knowledge of the activities. Prosecutorial support will come
from various U.S. Attorneys Offices — a major departure from other centralized
FBI investigations.
The New York-based probe is being
led by Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New
York. Bharara’s prosecutorial aggressiveness has resulted in a large
number of convictions of banks, hedge
funds and Wall Street insiders.
The official said involvement of the
U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York “would be seen by
agents as a positive development as prosecutors there are generally thought to be more
aggressive than the career lawyers within the DOJ.”
Bharara’s official
biography notes that he, “has applied
renewed focus on large-scale, sophisticated financial frauds by creating two
new units – the Complex Frauds Unit and the complementary Civil Frauds Unit. “The Civil Frauds Unit has collected
close to $500 million in settlements since its inception, including
multi-million dollar settlements with Deutsche Bank and CitiMortgage for faulty
lending practices and other fraudulent conduct.”
Nicholas Biase, a spokesman for
Bharara, said he would “decline comment.” Similarly, FBI
spokeswoman Samantha Shero said, “we do not have a comment on
investigative activity.” Bharara is best known for securing convictions of
prominent political figures, including former New York State Assembly Speaker
Sheldon Silver. Silver had a seemingly intractable grip on power in the state
for decades. He was convicted of accepting $4 million in exchange for helping a
cancer researcher and two real estate developers. He also secured the
conviction of New York Republican Majority Leader Dean Skelos, who was
sentenced to five years in prison for corruption.
The former official said the
investigation is being coordinated between bureau field offices and FBI
managers at headquarters in Washington, D.C. The unusual process would
ensure senior FBI supervisors, including Director James Comey, would be kept abreast of
case progress and of significant developments.
The reliance on U.S. attorneys would
be a significant departure from the centralized manner in which the
FBI managed the investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton’s use of a private server and email addresses. That investigation was conducted
with agents at FBI headquarters, who coordinated with the Department of
Justice’s National Security Division (NSD).
The Clinton email probe was
considered a “small cell” investigation, with FBI agents and NSD attorneys
frequently conferring. Comey short-circuited the effort in early July by
announcing that “no reasonable prosecutor” would try Clinton for the “careless”
handling of classified material. “Although we did not find clear
evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws
governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they
were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified
information,” he announced in a July 5 press conference.
Comey, however, wouldn’t
answer questions about any ongoing FBI investigation of the Clinton
Foundation. Before a July 7 congressional hearing about his decision not to recommend prosecution of
Clinton, Comey told House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
Chairman Jason Chaffetz, “I’m not going to comment on the existence or
nonexistence of other investigations.” “Was the Clinton Foundation tied into
this investigation?” Chaffetz persisted. “I’m not going to answer that,”
Comey replied.
In its 15 years of operations, the
Clinton Foundation, formally known as the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton
Foundation, has collected up to $2 billion from donors, according to the Washington Post. The donors include a wide range of the world’s wealthiest
people: Eastern European tycoons, Arab Sheiks, African mining magnates, hedge
fund billionaires and Wall Street firms.
The Post reported that the couple
brought in $3 billion when campaign contributions are included in the total. “The
Clintons’ fundraising operation — $3 billion amassed by one couple, working in
tandem for more than four decades — has no equal,” the Post reported in a
wide-ranging investigation into the sources of the couple’s funds. In a related development Thursday,
CNN reported that
earlier this year, Justice Department officials in three different field
offices “were in agreement a public corruption investigation should be launched”
of Clinton Foundation activities.
The probe was sparked by a bank
notifying the FBI of “suspicious activity” around a foreign donor to the
Clinton Foundation, according to Pamela Brown, CNN’s Justice Department
reporter.
Had it been launched, that
investigation would have looked at conflicts of interest between requests by
foreign donors and official acts by Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. CNN
did not identify the bank or the foreign donor. Brown reported the FBI and Justice
Department officials met but there was “disagreement” whether to launch such an
investigation. In the end, the investigation was killed. A separate investigation was
approved, however, focusing on Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who was a member
of the Clinton Foundation’s board of directors for most if its existence.
http://dailycaller.com/2016/08/11/exclusive-joint-fbi-us-attorney-probe-of-clinton-foundation-is-underway/
Clinton
Foundation Smoking Gun
Clinton
email reveals ‘pay for play’ conducted from the Clinton State Department. See video:
http://www.dickmorris.com/smoking-gun-clinton-foundation-scandal-dick-morris-tv-lunch-alert/?utm_source=dm reports&utm_medium=dmreports&utm_campaign=dmreports
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