Several of those high-ranking officials had previous ties to the Clintons, he said. "The public’s lack of confidence in the Justice Department’s ability to handle investigations related to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton impartially ought to be of grave concern for its leadership," Grassley wrote. "The entire matter is in desperate need of independent, objective, non-partisan oversight. As the Inspector General, that is your statutory duty," he told DOJ Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz. Grassley named Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who met privately with former president Bill Clinton at a Phoenix airport in July, just days before the FBI announced it would not recommend the prosecution of Hillary Clinton. Grassley said Lynch's meeting with Clinton "creates the appearance of a conflict," given that she was appointed to the role of U.S. Attorney by then-President Bill Clinton and she was a partner at a law firm that represented both Bill and Hillary Clinton in their official government capacities.
Grassley also wants to know about possible conflicts of interest stemming from Peter Kazik's close ties to Clinton Campaign Chairman John Podesta. Kadzik, the Justice Department's liaison to Congress, emailed Podesta in May 2015, giving him a "heads up" that the head of the DOJ Civil Division was about to testify before the House Judicial Committee and was "Likely to get questions on State Department emails." In the May 19, 2015 email released Tuesday by WikiLeaks, Kadzik also informed Podesta that the latest FOIA filing "indicates it will be awhile (2016) before the State Department posts the emails" recovered from Hillary Clinton's private server. Podesta forwarded Kadzik's email to the Clinton campaign team, telling them: "Additional chances for mischief."
Sen. Grassley also flagged Andrew McCabe, the second-highest ranking official at the FBI. McCabe led the FBI’s Washington, D.C., field office, which provided personnel and resources to the Clinton server investigation around the same time Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe’s political action committee and the Virginia Democratic Party donated more than $675,000 to McCabe’s wife’s political campaign for a Virginia Senate seat. (McAuliffe, a Hillary Clinton supporter, was a prolific fundraiser for President Bill Clinton and is under investigation for allegedly taking campaign contributions from foreign entities, a review that McCabe was recused from during his wife’s political campaign.) Finally, Grassley wants the IG to examine why the Justice Department granted so many "unusual immunity agreements" with Hillary Clinton’s closest associates. The senator said it looks like the Justice Department, until now, has relied on immunity to get information, instead of approving the use of search warrants or grand jury subpoenas to compel cooperation with FBI’s investigation.
(The Justice Department reportedly approved a search warrant last weekend to examine a new trove of emails found on the home computer of Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton's top aide.) “The American people deserve to know whether political considerations have improperly affected the handling of this inquiry and understand why key officials failed to recuse themselves to protect the public’s confidence in a fair and impartial inquiry based on merits and the evidence rather than on politics,” Grassley said in his Nov. 2, 2016 letter DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz.
The full letter is printed below:
Banned
Advisor
Senior Member
Senior Member
Originally Posted by waltky
Granny says, "Dat's right - the foxes been guardin' the henhouse...
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