According to a story by Fox News, a prominent prosecutor on Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team protected the Clinton Foundation from being investigated by the federal authorities.
Pursuant to the assessment by former Special Counsel John Durham, Ray Hulser, who previously held the position of the chief of the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section (PIN), has been identified as the DOJ officer who chose not to pursue legal action against the Clintons in 2016.
The Durham report disclosed that despite three separate FBI field offices initiating probes into the Clinton Foundation, Hulser terminated the inquiries by means of the PIN. Nevertheless, Hulser asserted in a 2016 interview with Durham that the decision to stop the investigations made by his office was simply a recommendation.
The probes focused on the foundation’s numerous Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), that financial institutions are obligated to divulge.
According to Fox News:
Meanwhile, the Durham report states that during the February 2016 meeting, Hulser “declined prosecution” of the Clinton Foundation on behalf of the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section.
Hulser told Durham during his interview, though, that he “made it clear” that “his decision was not binding on the various U.S. Attorneys’ Offices or FBI field divisions.”
In interviewing another individual present for the meeting, Durham learned that the Justice Department’s reaction to the Clinton Foundation briefing was “hostile.”
“There are mega indications that the Obama Justice Department slow-walked and discouraged the Clinton Foundation investigation, including discouraging the FBI from pursuing it,” former federal prosecutor and Fox News contributor Andy McCarthy said.
Durham discovered the fact that it was a “perceived need” for the Department of Justice to collaborate with and provide assistance to its FBI field office’s inquiries into the Clintons, given the available information at that time. However, Hulser and the PIN successfully managed to deactivate them.
Durham conducted an interview with Hulser as a component of his investigative expedition. Hulser informed Durham that the FBI information regarding the Clinton Foundation was “poorly presented and that there was insufficient predication for at least one of the investigations due to its reliance on allegations contained in a book”:
“Hulser downplayed information provided by the New York Field Office CHS [confidential human source] and recalled that the amount involved in the financial reporting was ‘de minimus,’” the report states.
However, Durham’s team reviewed the financial reporting to better “understand the allegations.”
“The reporting, which in itself is not proof of wrongdoing, was a narrative describing multiple funds transfers, some of which involved international bank accounts that were suspected of facilitating bribery or gratuity violations,” the Durham report states in a footnote. “The transactions involved occurred between 2012 and 2014, and totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Currently, Smith’s team, under the leadership of Hulser, is actively pursuing legal action against Trump, who was Hillary Clinton’s opponent in the 2016 election. They are accusing him of obstruction, mishandling classified information, and other related allegations.
Source: Fox News