Justice Department Sued For Docs On Obama DOJ’s
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Don’t think that with the raid on a Clinton Foundation / Uranium One whistleblower’s home by the FBI that it was for anything but to cover for Hillary Clinton. However, now government watchdog group Judicial Watch has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Justice to obtain DOJ documents on the efforts of Loretta Lynch and those under her to shut down an investigation into the Clinton Foundation.
The DOJ has routinely been passing deadlines for providing FOIA requests, as have other government agencies, such as the State Department. This has led to additional court costs through lawsuits in order to obtain them, and Judicial Watch has been at the tip of the spear in garnering this information.
Judicial Watch issued an FOIA request for the following:
All records of communication, including but not limited to e-mails (whether sent or received on .gov or non-.gov e-mail accounts), text messages, or instant chats, sent between officials in the offices of the FBI Director, Deputy Director and General Counsel on the one hand, and officials in the offices of the Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General and or Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General on the other hand, regarding the closure or possible closure of an investigation into the Clinton Foundation.
The timeframe of the request was given as between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2016.
Keep in mind that it was this organization using the same methods of FOIA lawsuits that led to the disclosure of Hillary Clinton’s illegal private email server which she knowingly sent and received classified information through and that information was read by those without the proper security clearance, including her maid.
Judicial Watch also reports that its FOIA lawsuits have been effective in breaking other stories with documentation.
In August 2016, a related Judicial Watch FOIA lawsuit broke open the story and began making conflict of interest documents public, showing that in April 2009 controversial Clinton Foundation official Doug Band pushed for a job for an 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.
Included in that document production was a 2009 email in which Band, directs Abedin and Mills to put Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire and Clinton Foundation donor Gilbert Chagoury in touch with the State Department’s “substance person” on Lebanon. Band notes that Chagoury is “key guy there [Lebanon] and to us,” and insists that Abedin call Amb. Jeffrey Feltman to connect him to Chagoury.
Judicial Watch has since uncovered many other instances of seeming pay-to-play and favoritism for the Clinton Foundation at the Clinton State Department.
While the FBI did begin an investigation into the Clinton Foundation beyond the email probe, agents were told they didn’t have “enough evidence to move forward” with their investigation of the Foundation.
However, what we now know from a DOJ Inspector General report from February 2018 is that the FBI was told to shut down the investigation by the Justice Department.
McCabe told the OIG that on August 12, 2016, he received a telephone call from PADAG [Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General, likely Matthew Axelrod] regarding the FBI’s handling of the CF [Clinton Foundation] Investigation (the “PADAG call”).
McCabe said that PADAG expressed concerns about FBI agents taking overt steps in the CF Investigation during the presidential campaign. According to McCabe, he pushed back, asking “are you telling me that I need to shut down a validly predicated investigation?” McCabe told us that the conversation was “very dramatic” and he never had a similar confrontation like the PADAG call with a high-level Department official in his entire FBI career.
It seems the Justice Department continued to engage in obstruction of justice long after Eric Holder left office.
Of course, all of that followed on the heels of the infamous tarmac meeting between Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch, which Judicial Watch also sued for information on, which the FBI set up. Judicial Watch then released 29 pages of documents on the tarmac. The DOJ continued to hide information on that meeting and the NSA was no help in getting information on it either.
Judicial Watch also reported on what took place later:
Reportedly, senior DOJ officials refused FBI requests to issue subpoenas on Clinton Foundation issues in 2016.
In January 2018, reports surfaced that the FBI reportedly launched a new investigation into potential Clinton Foundation pay-to-play but there has been no indication it is proceeding.
In October 18, 2018, Representative Bob Goodlatte, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee announced the release of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabes’ disciplinary file, which “reminds us how the Obama Justice Department sought to shut down the Clinton Foundation investigation during the 2016 presidential election.”
“The record shows the Obama Justice Department suppressed a public corruption investigation into the Clinton Foundation,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “It’s time for the DOJ to stop shielding the Clintons and produce records on this miscarriage of justice.”
https://www.dcclothesline.com/2018/12/03/just...stigation/