When in the darkest of night, the last flicker of hope begins to fade,
I shall always stand by your side,
With a bucket of fuel to douse the embers,
Creating a massive firestorm,
While whispering, so sweetly in your ears those fateful words,
"I told you, so".
#Time2AuditGod
Joint FBI-US Attorney Probe Of Clinton Foundation Is Underway
Multiple FBI investigations are underway involving potential corruption charges against the Clinton Foundation, according to a former senior law enforcement official.
The investigation centers on New York City, where the Clinton Foundation has its main offices, according to the former official who has direct knowledge of the activities.
Prosecutorial support will come from various U.S. Attorneys Offices — a major departure from other centralized FBI investigations.
The New York-based probe is being led by Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. Bharara’s prosecutorial aggressiveness has resulted in a large number of convictions of banks, hedge funds and Wall Street insiders.
The official said involvement of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York “would be seen by agents as a positive development as prosecutors there are generally thought to be more aggressive than the career lawyers within the DOJ.”
Bharara’s government biography notes that he, “has applied renewed focus on large-scale, sophisticated financial frauds by creating two new units – the Complex Frauds Unit and the complementary Civil Frauds Unit.
“The Civil Frauds Unit has collected close to $500 million in settlements since its inception, including multi-million dollar settlements with Deutsche Bank and CitiMortgage for faulty lending practices and other fraudulent conduct.”
Nicholas Biase, a spokesman for Bharara, said he would “decline comment.” Similarly, FBI spokeswoman Samantha Shero said, “we do not have a comment on investigative activity.”
Bharara is best known for securing convictions of prominent political figures, including former New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Shiver. Silver had a seemingly intractable grip on power in the state for decades. He was convicted of accepting $4 million in exchange for helping a cancer researcher and two real estate developers.
He also secured the conviction of New York Republican Majority Leader Dean Skelos, who was sentenced to five years in prison for corruption.
The former official said the investigation is being coordinated between bureau field offices and FBI managers at headquarters in Washington, D.C. The unusual process would ensure senior FBI supervisors, including Director James Comey, would be kept abreast of case progress and of significant developments.
The reliance on U.S. attorneys would be a significant departure from the centralized manner in which the FBI managed the investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server and email addresses.
That investigation was conducted with agents at FBI headquarters, who coordinated with the Department of Justice’s National Security Division (NSD).
The Clinton email probe was considered a “small cell” investigation, with FBI agents and NSD attorneys frequently conferring. Comey short-circuited that investigation in early July by announcing that “no reasonable prosecutor” would try Clinton for the “careless” handling of classified material.
“Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information,” he announced in a July 5 press conference.
Comey, however, wouldn’t answer questions about any ongoing FBI investigation of the Clinton Foundation.
Before a July 7 congressional hearing about his decision not to recommend prosecution of Clinton, Comey told House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Jason Chaffetz, “I’m not going to comment on the existence or nonexistence of other investigations.”
“Was the Clinton Foundation tied into this investigation?” persisted Chaffetz.
“I’m not going to answer that,” Comey replied.
In its 15 years of operations, the Clinton Foundation, formally known as the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, has collected up to $2 billion from donors, according to The Washington Post. The donors include a wide range of the world’s wealthiest people: Eastern European tycoons, Arab Sheiks, African mining magnates, hedge fund billionaires and Wall Street firms.
WaPo reported that the couple brought in $3 billion, if you count all of their campaign contributions. “ The Clintons’ fundraising operation — $3 billion amassed by one couple, working in tandem for more than four decades — has no equal,” they reported as part of a wide-ranging investigation into the source of the couple’s funds.
In a related development, CNN reported Thursday that earlier this year, Justice Department officials in three different field offices “were in agreement a public corruption investigation should be launched” of Clinton Foundation activities.
The probe was sparked by a bank notifying the FBI of “suspicious activity” around a foreign donor to the Clinton Foundation, according to Pamela Brown, CNN’s Justice Department reporter.
The investigation, if launched, would have looked at conflicts of interest between requests by foreign donors and official acts by Hillary. CNN did not identify the bank or the foreign donor.
Brown reported the FBI and Justice Department officials met, and there was “disagreement” whether to launch such an investigation. In the end, the investigation was killed.
A separate investigation was approved involving Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who was a major director to the foundation for most if its existence.
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