Fox News is reporting today that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is expanding the probe into Hillary Clinton’s emails to see whether the possible “intersection” of Clinton Foundation work and State Department business may have violated public corruption laws.
The article reports:
“The agents are investigating the possible intersection of Clinton Foundation donations, the dispensation of State Department contracts and whether regular processes were followed,” one source said.
The development follows press reports over the past year about the potential overlap of State Department and Clinton Foundation work, and questions over whether donors benefited from their contacts inside the administration.
The Clinton Foundation is a public charity, known as a 501(c)(3). It had grants and contributions in excess of $144 million in 2013, the most current available data.
The article notes that there is pressure building inside the FBI to pursue this aspect of the case.
The article further reports:
One of the three sources said some FBI agents felt Petraeus was given a slap on the wrist for sharing highly classified information with his mistress and biographer Paula Broadwell, as well as lying to FBI agents about his actions. Petraeus pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in March 2015 after a two-plus-year federal investigation in which Attorney General Eric Holder initially declined to prosecute.
In the Petraeus case, the exposure of classified information was assessed to be limited.
By contrast, in the Clinton case, the number of classified emails has risen to at least 1,340. A 2015 appeal by the State Department to challenge the “Top Secret” classification of at least two emails failed and, as Fox News first reported, is now considered a settled matter.
…Separately, a former high-ranking State Department official emphasized to Fox News that Clinton’s deliberate non-use of her government email address may be increasingly “significant.”
“It is virtually automatic when one comes on board at the State Department to be assigned an email address,” the source said.
“It would have taken an affirmative act not to have one assigned … and it would also mean it was all planned out before she took office. This certainly raises questions about the so-called legal advice she claimed to have received from inside the State Department that what she was doing was proper.”
There are a lot of loose threads in this story. If Hillary Clinton is held accountable for her actions, how does that impact the Democratic presidential race? President Obama will ultimately determine whether the Justice Department blocks further investigation or action by the FBI in this matter. Does President Obama want Hillary Clinton out of the race so that Joe Biden can step in? Is that even possible with candidate registration dates in the primary elections? Does President Obama want Bernie Sanders to run as President on the Democratic ticket? In a perfect world, Hillary Clinton would probably be in jail for the way she handled classified information and for the corruption in the Clinton Foundation, but we do not live in a perfect world. This investigation is something we need to be aware of–whether the FBI expands its investigation or is forced to shut it down will be an indication of how corrupt our government has become.