Barr’s Russia investigator has put some focus on Clinton Foundation: report

The Department of Justice’s probe into the origins of the Russia investigation is also looking into how the FBI handled allegations of political corruption at the Clinton Foundation, sources told The New York Times. 

Attorney General William Barr appointed U.S. Attorney John Durham to lead the investigation. He reportedly sought documents and interviews about how federal law enforcement officials handled an investigation into the Clinton Foundation, a nonprofit led by former President Bill Clinton and former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Sources told the Times that Durham is comparing the FBI’s investigation into alleged bribery at the Clinton Foundation with the investigation into President Trump’s 2016 campaign’s communications with Russian adversaries.

Those involved with the investigation described the move to compare the two as “unusual” and suggested a political motive. Barr and other supporters of the president have said the two investigations show a “double standard” the FBI upheld leading up to the 2016 election.

“There was a clear double standard by the Department of Justice and F.B.I. when it came to the Trump and Clinton campaigns in 2016,” Sen Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in an August statement. 

One of Durham’s top aides resigned earlier this month, reportedly over concerns that the investigation was being rushed to produce results before the November presidential election. 

Durham’s investigation produced its first public result in August with the arrest of former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who pleaded guilty to falsifying a document to justify surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser as part of the 2016 investigation.