The decent core of FBI agents who forced director James Comey’s hand last Friday isn’t finished with the Clintons yet:
The FBI unexpectedly released 129 pages of documents related to an investigation closed without charges in 2005 into President Bill Clinton’s pardon of Marc Rich, who had been married to a wealthy Democratic donor.
The file was posted online Monday but received little attention until the FBI noted it in a tweet on Tuesday afternoon. It comes as Director James Comey faces fire from Democrats and even some Republicans for releasing information about his renewed investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of e-mail.
The unusual timing of the release was the result of a Freedom of Information Act request that had been completed and was posted under standard FBI practice, according to a law enforcement official who asked not to be identified discussing internal matters. But the Clinton campaign immediately questioned the timing of the release.
“Absent a FOIA litigation deadline, this is odd,” Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said on Twitter.
Boo hoo! The Marc Rich pardon — which Eric Holder facilitated — always stank to high heaven: a flat-out bribe to Bill Clinton, to present the most charitable interpretation. But then, the Clintons are never ones to look away from large sums of money, even when the national security of the United States has been compromised, as it was in Rich’s case.
The investigation stemmed from one of several pardons Clinton made on the last day of his presidency in 2001, that of financier and international fugitive Marc Rich, whose ex-wife Denise had given to the Democratic National Committee and the entity that would later become the Clinton Foundation.
While the files may seem dated, they invoke figures beyond the Clintons who went on to play key roles in official Washington — including Comey.
He served as prosecutor in charge of a legal case against Rich from 1987 to 1993. As the U.S. attorney in Manhattan in 2002, Comey took over a criminal investigation of Clinton’s pardons. “I was stunned” at the Rich pardon, Comey wrote in a letter to lawmakers in 2008.
A congressional investigation later found that Clinton didn’t follow standard protocol but there was no proof of a quid pro quo. Denise Rich invoked her constitutional right against self-incrimination during the investigation. Her ex-husband, Marc, died in 2013.
The Clintons have gotten away with it — with everything — because people simply refuse to believe that a gang of criminals could possible rise so high in the American government. “You can’t prove it!” they shout, and then move on to the next crime. The American people finally have a chance to put an end to them both a week from tomorrow. We should take it.
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