DOJ And FBI Dusting Off Hillary Clinton-Brand Speculum For Double-Headed Investigation!

Just gonna make America great again here

With the Mueller investigation turning up more evidence of connections between the Trump campaign/transition and Russia, and with more questions being raised about Donald Trump's fitness for office, and with some teenyweeny stories coming out last night about a wee spot of obstruction of justice inside Trump's White House, it only makes sense that the nation's top law enforcers are focused like a laser on Hillary Clinton.

 The Daily Beast reports the Justice Department is taking a little look-see at Hillary Clinton's private email server one more time, because even though the FBI couldn't find anything with which to lock her up back when James Comey was a Republican, maybe he missed some treason now that Fox News and Donald Trump have decided Comey was secretly a Clintonista the whole time. And The Hill has discovered a new FBI investigation into possible criming by the Clinton Foundation, too. Next we should expect a Congressional investigation to determine whether Clinton's health has deteriorated to the point that she must be removed from the presidency.

On the email front, the Daily Beast's Betsy Woodruff says an "ally" of Jeff Sessions said the renewed not-quite-an-investigation seeks "new details" on the handling of classified material on the server:

Officials’ questions include how much classified information was sent over Clinton’s server; who put that information into an unclassified environment, and how; and which investigators knew about these matters and when. The Sessions ally also said officials have questions about immunity agreements that Clinton aides may have made.

Woodruff also says a "former senior DOJ official" said officials at Justice are very much aware that Donald Trump would like them to find something with which to go after Clinton, and maybe lock up Huma Abedin, too, for doing very bad things. The topic has come up now and again on the Orange One's twitter, after all:

And yet no one is calling for an Investigation of Donald Trump's careless and Dangerous random Misuse of Capital letters? SAD!

In November, Stephen Boyd, head of DOJ's Office of Legislative Affairs, sent a letter to Rep. Bob Goodlatte, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, in which Boyd suggested Justice might have some good news for Goodlatte: That gum he likes is going to come back in style!

In the letter, Boyd wrote that Sessions “directed senior federal prosecutors to evaluate certain issues” the chairman was concerned about. He also wrote that those prosecutors would “make recommendations as to whether any matters not currently under investigation should be opened,” and that they would send those recommendations directly to the attorney general and his top deputy, Rod Rosenstein.

Looks like that process is moving right along, then. Thank goodness there's traditionally been a strong firewall between the presidency and the DOJ, or it might look like Justice is simply acting on whatever Donald Trump has just watched on "Fox & Friends."

Perhaps Boyd's letter was also referring to this new FBI investigation of whether the Clinton Foundation was involved in any illegal pay-to-play nastiness while Clinton was Secretary of State, because Crom knows that's an article of faith for rightwingers everywhere. The Hill, citing "law enforcement officials and a witness," reports that the investigation is being headed by FBI agents in Little Rock, Arkansas, where the Clinton Foundation was originally established (it's based in New York City now, which is probably a very suspicious location as well. Fittingly enough, the Little Rock FBI office is acting just like the New York one ).

The officials, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the probe is examining whether the Clintons promised or performed any policy favors in return for largesse to their charitable efforts or whether donors made commitments of donations in hopes of securing government outcomes.

Investigators might also look into whether the Clinton Foundation did dirty deeds by redirecting tax-exempt funds to personal or political purposes, and whether the organization's taxes are in order. WHY DON'T THEY RELEASE THEIR... oh, they already do. 

The witness that talked to The Hill said the FBI agents

focused on questions about whether donors to Clinton charitable efforts received any favorable treatment from the Obama administration on a policy decision previously highlighted in media reports.

That's nice and vague! (Uranium.) Further, the witness said the agents' questions

focused on government decisions and discussions of donations to Clinton entities during the time Hillary Clinton led President Obama's State Department.

OK! We'll assume that "policy decision previously highlighted in media reports" refers to the bogus Uranium One nonscandal (because it is definitely about the bogus Uranium One nonscandal) that Fox News and rightwing media have been pushing as "bigger than Watergate" ever since it was pushed in Peter Schweizer's error-filled Clinton Cash book (funded by -- hey, surprise -- Robert Mercer and family through Steve Bannon's "nonprofit" Government Accountability Institute).

Out here in Reality-Land, the State Department was one of nine federal agencies and other government bodies that approved the sale of a controlling share in Uranium One, a Canadian uranium-mining firm, to a Russian company. Clinton herself probably had no involvement in State's approval (again, one of nine agencies). The only person who could have actually blocked the deal was President Obama, and he signed off on it too. While Uranium One does indeed own mines in the USA, Russia does not have a license to export any uranium from the USA -- the deal might allow the Russian company to make a few dollars (US or Canadian), but the real aim of the deal appears to have been getting access to Uranium One's holdings in Kazakhstan.

Of course, in the wingnuttosphere, that's all just hooey, because Hillary Clinton conspired to give Russia 20% of our uranium, as Louie Gohmert's simple chart explained:

You want a REAL chart on this? Try Vox. 

Oh, and the supposed connection to the Clinton Foundation? It's kind of impossible without time travel. In the wingnut narrative, investors in Uranium One contributed a total of $145 million to the Clinton Foundation, and that's why Clinton (or far more likely, a lower-level staffer) signed off on the Uranium One sale (one of nine agencies, did we mention that?). Of course, in reality, to reach that huge total, you'd have to include a $141 million donation from Frank Giustra, who had actually sold his stock in Uranium One three years before the deal came up for State Department approval. Hey, maybe he still had really warm feelings for the company.

The FBI is "investigating" that? Get the fuck out.

The story in The Hill, by former Washington Times editor-in-chief John Solomon, sure does everything possible to lend credibility to the supposed investigation -- without actually including the word "uranium," we should note, so maybe there's some other huge Clinton policy decision that's been highlighted in media reports. We're especially impressed by this perfectly objective reporting:

Several GOP members of Congress have recently urged Attorney General Jeff Sessions to appoint a special counsel to look at the myriad issues surrounding the Clintons.

MYRIAD issues, people. Sadly, the story notes that Sessions and the DOJ better get their ducking stools and witchfinders general to work toot sweet, because "the statute of limitations on most federal felonies is five years, and Clinton left office in early 2013."

Needless to say, the reports that DOJ and the FBI are finally looking into the treachery of his 2016 opponent has gladdened the heart of the Tweeter-In-Chief:

It's clearly just a matter of time before Hillary will have to resign, go to jail, and turn over the nonpresidency to Tim Kaine.

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[ Daily Beast / The Hill / Vox / Vox ]