Hidden deep within CNN’s story about the latest batch of Clinton emails involving the Clinton Foundation — covered by PJ Media here — is a previously unreported nugget of information:
The Clinton Foundation was not part of the recent investigation into her private server; it was separate. The FBI went to Justice Department earlier this year asking for it to open a case into the foundation, but the public integrity unit declined. The Justice Department had looked into whether it should open a case on the foundation a year prior and found it didn’t have sufficient evidence to do so.
During his June 7 appearance before the House Oversight and Reform Committee, FBI Director James Comey refused to comment on whether the FBI probe into the Clinton Foundation was still open:
Asked by Chairman Jason Chaffetz if he had “looked at the Clinton Foundation,” Comey answered, “I’m not going to comment on the existence or non-existence of any other investigations.”
Asked if the Clinton Foundation was tied into the email investigation, Comey simply said, “I’m not going to answer that.”
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the former chairman of the Oversight Committee, said back in May that he believed the FBI wouldn’t finish the public corruption track of the investigation until after the election:
[C]oordinating her activities and President Clinton’s activities and Chelsea’s activities in the Clinton Foundation, they’re probably going to have to leave that until after the election.
The emails, released by Judicial Watch on Tuesday, expose how the Clinton Foundation improperly influenced the State Department during Clinton’s tenure as secretary of State. The Clinton campaign attempted to downplay the revelations in an email to CNN:
“Neither of these emails involve the secretary or relate to the Foundation’s work,” said an emailed statement from Clinton campaign spokesman Josh Schwerin. “They are communications between her aides and the President’s personal aide, and indeed the recommendation was for one of the Secretary’s former staffers who was not employed by the Foundation.”
Schwerin may be referring to the email exchange involving Clinton Foundation official Doug Band and his attempt to get a job for an unnamed associate:
In the email Band tells Hillary Clinton’s former aides at the State Department Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin that it is “important to take care of [Redacted]. Band is reassured by Abedin that “Personnel has been sending him options.” Band was co-founder of Teneo Strategy with Bill Clinton and a top official of the Clinton Foundation, including its Clinton Global Initiative.
Department of Justice officials filed a motion in federal court in June seeking a 27-month delay in producing correspondence between Clinton’s four top aides and officials with the Clinton Foundation and Teneo Holdings. Via the Daily Caller:
U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras, a President Obama-appointed judge, had previously ordered the State Department to release the requested documents by July 21. But Department of Justice lawyers informed Contreras Wednesday night that “the [State] department discovered errors in the manner in which the searches had been conducted in order to capture documents potentially responsive to plaintiff’s request.” The motion was filed by Justice Department attorney Joseph Borson on behalf of the State Department.
Judge Contreras ruled to “grant in part and deny in part” the defendant’s motion for an extension of time to complete the document production.
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