A top prosecutor reportedly tried to prevent an FBI investigation into the Clinton Foundation in 2016, according to Fox News Digital, and the person is now working on special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into former President Donald Trump.
Raymond Hulser was identified in former special counsel John Durham’s report as someone who “declined prosecution on behalf of the Public Integrity Section” regarding financial wrongdoing allegations against the Clinton Foundation.
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He started his two-decade career at the Department of Justice in the Public Integrity Section of the department’s Criminal Division, becoming chief of the section in 2015. Having worked together when Smith led the Public Integrity Section under the Obama administration, Hulser and Smith are working on cases against Trump in Washington and Florida.
Durham’s report accused the FBI of acting negligently and rushing into its Trump-Russia investigation, but it also provided additional information regarding a potential federal investigation into the Clinton Foundation.
Three different FBI field offices opened investigations into individual and foreign donations made to the Clinton Foundation.
“Beginning in January 2016, three different FBI field offices, the New York Field Office (“NYFO”), the Washington Field Office (“WFO”), and the Little Rock Field Office (“LRFO”), opened investigations into possible criminal activity involving the Clinton Foundation,” Durham wrote in his 316-page report.
The D.C. investigation stemmed from allegations made in Breitbart News senior editor at large Peter Schweizer’s book “Clinton Cash.” It alleged the Clintons accepted millions in donations from foreign governments, and Russian corporations, to influence foreign policy. The allegations date back to when Hillary Clinton served as secretary of state.
The FBI said its NYFO and WFO investigations “appear to have been opened as preliminary investigations due to the political sensitivity and their reliance on unvetted hearsay information (the Clinton Cash book) and CHS [confidential human source] reporting,” the Durham report states.
Several meetings focused on the allegations into the Clinton Foundation, including some at the FBI Headquarters, were sparked over the field office investigations. Durham wrote that Hulser told the office during a February 2016 meeting that “the FBI briefing 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 also downplayed the information provided by the NYFO CHS and recalled that the amount involved in the financial reporting was “de minimis,”” Durham wrote.
Durham’s team reviewed the financial reporting and wrote it “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 possibly facilitating bribery or gratuity violations. The transactions involved occurred between 2012 and 2014, and totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
However, a source familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital there were multiple Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) filed in connection with the Clinton Foundation during that time.
In a statement to the Daily Mail last year, a spokesperson for the Clinton Foundation denied the nonprofit organization had ever been involved in criminal activity, and they said the Durham report “emphasized what’s been clear for many years – there’s never been any wrongdoing by the Clinton Foundation.”
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“None of the Clintons have ever taken any money from the Clinton Foundation — in fact, the Clintons themselves are major donors to the Clinton Foundation,” the spokesperson said.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the Clinton Foundation and the DOJ’s Office of Public Affairs for comment.
