WASHINGTON, DC – A newly declassified memo obtained by former Trump aide and current FBI Director Kash Patel details how senior Justice Department officials in 2016 blocked FBI agents from pursuing a corruption investigation into the Clinton Foundation, even as field offices in three cities pushed to move forward with evidence they believed warranted a criminal inquiry.
The internal memo, written in 2017 by a DOJ attorney assigned to the FBI during the Comey era, outlines how agents in New York, Little Rock, and Washington, D.C., faced repeated political pushback as they investigated whether then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was involved in a pay-to-play scheme tied to foreign donations to her family’s foundation.
According to the document, obtained by Just the News, then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates demanded the probe be shut down, allegedly telling top officials to “Shut it down!” when briefed on the inquiry.
Former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe is said to have restricted investigators from taking any “overt investigative steps” without his direct approval, a condition he reiterated multiple times during the election year.
The declassified records suggest the Justice Department signaled as early as February 2016 that it would not support any formal investigation, with multiple internal emails backing the memo’s claims of interference.
The memo, now circulating in Washington political and legal circles, is expected to reignite controversy over the handling of politically sensitive investigations during the Obama administration.
FBI agents had hoped to determine whether hundreds of millions of dollars donated to the Clinton Foundation by foreign and domestic entities with State Department business constituted improper influence or bribery.
Patel’s team has indicated additional supporting documentation may be released in the coming weeks, as scrutiny grows over what career agents described as “significant impediments” from leadership.
So far, neither McCabe nor Yates has publicly responded to the contents of the memo, which has yet to be officially addressed by the Justice Department.
