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Skip to content Sections SEARCH Politics SUBSCRIBE FOR $1/WEEKLog in Monday, May 22, 2023 Today’s Paper SUBSCRIBE FOR $1/WEEK Politics|Justice Dept. Investigated Clinton Foundation Until Trump’s Final Days https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/22/us/politics/fbi-clinton-foundation.html * Give this article * * Advertisement Continue reading the main story Supported by Continue reading the main story JUSTICE DEPT. INVESTIGATED CLINTON FOUNDATION UNTIL TRUMP’S FINAL DAYS President Donald J. Trump and his allies tried to cast the Clinton Foundation as corrupt. But the yearslong investigation sputtered to its conclusion without charges. * Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share. Give this article * * * Read in app The Clinton Foundation became attack fodder for Republicans in 2015.Credit...Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images By Adam Goldman Reporting from Washington May 22, 2023Updated 3:18 p.m. ET The Justice Department kept open the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s family foundation for nearly all of President Donald J. Trump’s administration, with prosecutors closing the case without charges just days before he left office. Newly released documents and interviews with former department officials show that the investigation stretched long past when F.B.I. agents and prosecutors knew it was a dead end. The conclusion of the case, which centered on the Clinton Foundation’s dealings with foreign donors when Mrs. Clinton served as secretary of state under President Barack Obama, has not previously been reported. Mr. Trump, who campaigned on a promise to “lock her up,” spent much of his four-year term pressuring the F.B.I. and the Justice Department to target political rivals. After being accused by the president’s allies of serving as part of a deep-state cabal working against him, F.B.I. officials insisted that the department acknowledge in writing that there was no case to bring. Advertisement Continue reading the main story The closing documents, which were obtained by The New York Times as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, spelled the end to an investigation that top prosecutors had expressed doubts about from the beginning. Still, it became a rallying cry for Republicans who believed the F.B.I. would ultimately turn up evidence of corruption and damage Mrs. Clinton’s political fortunes. The foundation became attack fodder for Republicans in 2015 after the conservative author Peter Schweizer published the book “Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich,” an investigation of donations that foreign entities made to the family organization. Mr. Schweizer is the president of the Government Accountability Institute, where Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s former chief strategist, was a founder and the executive chairman. A spokesman for the Clinton Foundation, Craig Minassian, said that the organization had been “subjected to politically motivated allegations with no basis in fact.” THE DURHAM INVESTIGATION * Final Report: After four years of investigating the Trump-Russia inquiry, the special counsel John Durham accused the F.B.I. of ignoring mitigating facts, but he did not find evidence of politically motivated misconduct. * How the Inquiry Unraveled: Interviews with more than a dozen current and former officials showed how Durham’s investigation became roiled by internal dissent over prosecutorial ethics. * Failing to Deliver: The dysfunctional investigation ended with a whimper that stood in contrast to the countless hours of political furor that spun off from it, our Washington correspondent writes. * The Right’s Reaction: Despite offering few conclusions, conservative leaders and right-wing outlets say Durham’s report lends credence to their conspiracy theories about the F.B.I. Republicans seized on the accusations in Mr. Schweizer’s book, accusing Mrs. Clinton of supporting the interests of foundation donors as part of a quid pro quo. Specifically, critics focused on the foundation’s receipt of 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 in 2010 by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States when Mrs. Clinton, as secretary of state, had a voting seat on the panel. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Mr. Schweizer’s research caught the eye of F.B.I. agents in Washington, who in 2016 opened a preliminary investigation based solely on “unvetted hearsay information” in the book, according to the final report by John H. Durham, the Trump-era special counsel who led an investigation into the bureau’s inquiry into possible ties between Mr. Trump’s campaign and Russia. The F.B.I. in New York and Little Rock, Ark., also opened investigations that relied on information from confidential source reporting, according to Mr. Durham. Mr. Durham also compared the handling of the Clinton Foundation investigation to the F.B.I.’s treatment of the Russia investigation. As part of his inquiry, Mr. Durham questioned Mrs. Clinton last spring. “Secretary Clinton was voluntarily interviewed by Special Counsel Durham on May 11, 2022,” said David E. Kendall, her lawyer. “No topics were off limits. She answered every question.” The Justice Department did not think much of the foundation investigations, frustrating F.B.I. agents. Raymond N. Hulser, a prosecutor in charge of the public integrity section at the time, told Mr. Durham that the Washington case that was based on the book lacked predication. Indeed, some prosecutors at the time believed the book had been discredited. The investigation became a source of friction at the F.B.I. as agents believed the Justice Department had stymied their work. Advertisement Continue reading the main story That tension spilled into public view and had far-reaching consequences. Andrew G. McCabe, then the F.B.I.’s deputy director, was accused of leaking information about the case to a Wall Street Journal reporter and later lying about it to the Justice Department’s inspector general. The episode helped prompt his dismissal in 2018 and a failed effort by the department to prosecute him. In August 2016, the three foundation cases were consolidated under the supervision of agents in New York. Agents were authorized to seek subpoenas from the U.S. attorneys’ offices in Manhattan and Brooklyn, but prosecutors declined to issue them. The investigation seemed to go dormant. Ultimately, the F.B.I. moved the case to Little Rock. In 2017, after prosecutors there requested help, the deputy attorney general’s office said the Justice Department would support the case. Eventually, prosecutors secured a subpoena for the charity in early 2018 and the F.B.I. detailed personnel to examine donor records. Investigators also interviewed the former chief financial officer for the foundation. Career prosecutors in Little Rock then closed the case, notifying the F.B.I.’s office there in two letters in January 2021. But in a toxic atmosphere in which Mr. Trump had long accused the F.B.I. of bias, the top agent in Little Rock wanted it known that career prosecutors, not F.B.I. officials, were behind the decision. Advertisement Continue reading the main story In August 2021, the F.B.I. received what is known as a declination memo from prosecutors and as a result considered the matter closed. “All of the evidence obtained during the course of this investigation has been returned or otherwise destroyed,” according to the F.B.I. Jo Becker contributed reporting. Advertisement Continue reading the main story SITE INDEX SITE INFORMATION NAVIGATION * © 2023 The New York Times Company * NYTCo * Contact Us * Accessibility * Work with us * Advertise * T Brand Studio * Your Ad Choices * Privacy Policy * Terms of Service * Terms of Sale * Site Map * Canada * International * Help * Subscriptions KEEP READING WITH ONE OF THESE OPTIONS: CREATE A FREE ACCOUNT. ACCESS ADDITIONAL ARTICLES FOR NO COST, NO CREDIT CARD INFORMATION NEEDED. FREE Continue Already have an account? Log in. GET ALL OF THE TIMES. ALL OF OUR NEWS COVERAGE, PLUS RECIPES, GAMES, PRODUCT REVIEWS, AND MORE. $6.25 $1/WEEK BILLED AS $4 EVERY 4 WEEKS FOR YOUR FIRST YEAR. Subscribe now Cancel or pause anytime. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Offer for a New York Times All Access subscription; current subscribers not eligible. Subscription excludes print edition. 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