Trump Justice Department kept Clinton Foundation case open until last days of presidency: report

The Trump administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) kept an investigation into the Clinton Foundation open until the last days of his presidency, The New York Times reported Monday. 

The Times reported that documents and interviews with former DOJ officials revealed that the investigation continued significantly beyond the point when FBI agents and prosecutors knew that the case would not result in any charges being filed. 

The Times obtained the documents through a Freedom of Information Act request. 

The case looked into the Clinton Foundation’s relationship with foreign donors while Hillary Clinton, who ran against former President Trump in 2016, was serving as secretary of state during the Obama administration. 

Trump often led “lock her up” chants during his rallies in 2016, referring to Clinton. 

Conservative author Peter Schweizer wrote a book in 2015 discussing donations that foreign entities made to the Clinton Foundation, setting off attacks on the foundation and calls for a probe. 

The criticism of the foundation centered around donations that the Clinton Foundation received from a Canadian company called Uranium One as the company was being sold to a Russian nuclear agency. Clinton as secretary of state served on a committee that needed to vote to approve the deal at the time. 

The FBI opened investigations in Washington, New York City and Little Rock, Ark. The DOJ under the Obama administration did not make much of the investigations, frustrating FBI agents who felt the DOJ was creating an obstacle for their work, according to the New York Times.

The deputy attorney general’s office, under the Trump administration, indicated that it would support the investigation in 2017, the Times reported. Prosecutors issued a subpoena for the foundation in 2018, and investigators interviewed the foundation’s former chief financial officer. 

Prosecutors in Little Rock closed the case in January 2021, but the top agent there wanted it to be publicly stated that the prosecutors, not FBI agents, made the decision, according to the Times. 

Craig Minassian, a spokesperson for the Clinton Foundation, told The Hill in a statement that the reports from The New York Times and special counsel John Durham, who recently completed an investigation into the FBI’s probe into ties between Trump and Russia, show that the investigation into the foundation was launched because of the book, which has been discredited by organizations including The Washington Post, PolitiFact and FactCheck.org.

“The report shows, once again, the Clinton Foundation has been subjected to politically motivated allegations with no basis in fact,” Minassian said. “Despite this, what remains true is that our work makes a meaningful difference in the lives of millions of people across the United States and around the world.”

The Hill has reached out to the FBI and DOJ for comment.