"Lock her up?" The FBI probe into the Clinton Foundation is still ongoing

Donald Trump has lost interest in locking her up, doesn’t want to hurt the Clintons and is content to allow Hillary to continue wandering in the woods like some sort of modern day dryad. So all of that nonsense about investigating her affairs is safely behind us and we can all get on with our lives.

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Not so fast. Apparently nobody told the FBI about the change in plans. According to some research done by the Daily Caller News Foundation, the FBI is continuing to investigate the Clinton Foundation over corruption and money laundering charges in several locations.

Officials at FBI headquarters instructed its New York field office to continue its corruption investigation into the Clinton Foundation following the election of Republican candidate Donald Trump, according to a former senior law enforcement official.

The instructions ordered agents to “go forward” with their ongoing inquiry into the Clinton Foundation which is focusing on issues of corruption and money laundering, according to the source.

“There were no instructions to shut it down, to discontinue or to stand down on the investigation, but to continue its work,” the former official told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview.

He said he received this information about a week ago and that the order originated from the bureau’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. well after the November 8 election. He did not know who at FBI Headquarters issued the order.

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To borrow a phrase, the only thing actually surprising about this is that anyone would be surprised. It’s a criminal investigation and that’s sort of what the FBI does for a living. There was either a case to be made for violations of the law or there wasn’t. Losing the election should have no bearing on the investigative process whatsoever. Absent being offered a pardon, the mere fact of no longer being in contention for the presidency has no bearing on the situation.

And even if the FBI had somehow lost interest in the case, that doesn’t mean that the Clintons are in the clear at all. The US Attorney’s office in New York got hold of a corruption case involving the Big Apple offices of the Clinton Foundation back in July and Preet Bharara has been on the case since then. It’s always a slow, methodical process for Bharara, but if there’s something to be found he eventually finds it. (It took him a couple of years to bring down the top Democrat and Republican in the state government, but they both wound up facing prison terms.) There’s nobody out there who will shut that investigation down unless they reach a point where there is insufficient reason to pursue it.

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I suppose the real question at this point is what the public reaction will be if someone suddenly shows up at the Clintons’ doorstep next year with a warrant and they wind up heading to court. It’s a red hot story if the woman running for or on the cusp of becoming the next President of the United States is served notice to appear before a judge, but at this point will Clinton be getting something of a sympathy vote from the public? (Oh, leave the poor woman alone. She’s suffered enough!) But no matter how it plays in the public opinion polls, that really shouldn’t matter either. There was either a crime committed or there wasn’t. And if there was, somebody has to answer for it.

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Ed Morrissey 10:00 PM | November 22, 2024
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