DOJ Inquiry Into Hillary Clinton Has Seemingly Ended With No Consequences

From CNN:

A Justice Department review of business dealings tied to Hillary Clinton -- championed by President Donald Trump and his allies -- has wound down with officials not finding enough evidence to recommend the formal opening of a criminal investigation, according to current and former US officials. 

The Justice Department has not formally closed the review, which was led by US Attorney John Huber of Utah, the officials told CNN. 

A spokeswoman for Huber deferred comment to the Justice Department's spokeswoman, whodeclined to comment. The Department of Justice also declined to comment to the Washington Post, which first reported that Huber's review had essentially come to an end. 

The probe, which launched in November 2017 under then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, was given momentum by Trump and conservatives on Capitol Hill who pushed for greater scrutiny of the former Democratic presidential nominee.

Huber was said to be examining allegations that donors to the Clinton Foundation had been given special treatment by Clinton when she served as secretary of state in the first half of the Obama administration.

The allegations first were investigated in 2015-16 and were based at least in part on claims published in the 2015 opposition research book "Clinton Cash," which was written by conservative writer Peter Schweizer. Trump and his allies have criticized the Justice Department for using opposition research paid for by Democrats in the probe of ties between associates of the Trump campaign and Russia. 

The review also explored allegations that a Russian nuclear energy agency donated to the Clinton Foundation in order to later secure her approval for its purchase of Uranium One, a uranium mining company, when Clinton led the State Department. 

At the time of Huber's appointment, special counsel Robert Mueller had been deep into his damaging investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, and leading Republican lawmakers, as well as Trump, had hounded the attorney general to appoint a second special counsel to look into the Clinton matters.

Instead, Sessions turned to Huber, a respected prosecutor who had first been appointed to the position by President Barack Obama.

Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch is NOT happy and went on a spree today exposing all the evidence he claims was not pursued.

Here's more from Judicial Watch:

Judicial Watch announced today it received 211 pages of emails between former  FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page that detail special accommodations given to the lawyers of Hillary Clinton and her aides during the FBI investigation of the Clinton email controversy.

The new emails include a discussion about negotiations with Beth Wilkinson, a lawyer for the Clinton aides who gathered and then deleted 33,000 emails for Hillary Clinton, over the destruction of laptops provided to the FBI.

The records were obtained in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed after the Justice Department failed to respond to a December 4, 2017, FOIA request seeking communications, including but not limited to, emails, text messages and instant chats, between FBI official Peter Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice) No. 1:18-cv-00154)). Judicial Watch seeks:

• All records of communications, including but not limited to, emails, text messages and instant chats, between FBI official Peter Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page;
• All travel requests, travel authorizations, travel vouchers and expense reports of Peter Strzok;
• All travel requests, travel authorizations, travel vouchers and expense reports of Lisa Page.

The FBI is only processing the records at a rate of 500 pages per month and have refused to process text messages. At this rate, the production of these communications won’t be completed for almost another two more years – in late 2021.

In an April 25, 2016, email from Strzok to FBI Agent Jonathan Moffa and other FBI officials, Strzok indicated that Wilkinson and Hillary Clinton lawyer David Kendall were set to meet the following day with FBI/DOJ in the Counterespionage Section of the FBI. Strzok tells his colleagues, “If you have strong objection (I do not other than finding out after the DD [Deputy Director]), we should raise it now.” Moffa replies, “It’s weird the DD [Andrew McCabe] is the first to know though. When did that become the norm?” Strzok replies, “Since the butthurt. I think there’s some passive aggressive stuff going on. Whatever.”

Did CBS Just Publish The Infamous “Clinton Kill List”?

On May 11, 2016, Strzok submitted a “Wilkinson negotiation timeline” to Assistant Director for the Counterintelligence Division Bill Priestap wherein he laid out unspecified “negotiations” that had taken place between FBI/DOJ and Wilkinson. Strzok noted that “We will have spent 34 days waiting for opposing counsel to make the initial step of any tangible offer, about which we have no idea of if it will be anywhere close to what we have been specific about (at least since the Mills interview, if not earlier by DoJ) wanting.” Mills refers to Cheryl Mills, a top Clinton State Department official who then served as Clinton’s private lawyer who led the Clinton email review and destruction.

In an April 8, 2016, email to FBI officials, Strzok outlines questions for the FBI’s upcoming interviews of Clinton aides Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson “concerning their post-State employment.” Strzok then forwards the email on to Page, Moffa and other unidentified persons, indicating that the questions were prepared “in anticipation of potential need for further discussion between the FBI and DOJ on the analysis of attorney-client and attorney work product privileges and protections.”

Heather Samuelson, the Clinton lawyer who deleted the 33,000 Clinton emails and was one of several Obama-era State Department officials, lawyers, and Clinton aides who were ordered by Judge Lamberth to provide answers under oath to Judicial Watch’s questions about the Benghazi and Clinton email scandals. Ms. Samuelson testified last year that the Justice Department also gave her immunity.

On March 22, 2016, Strzok writes in an email to Priestap, “[Redacted] indicated he feels a need (and I agreed) to respond to Beth [Wilkinson] quickly about taking possession of the laptops. She is fine to provide them to be destroyed, but not to store them.”

On April 13, 2016, Strzok emailed Priestap and expressed concern about “the content of that Baker-Wilkinson contact,” apparently referring to a phone call between FBI General Counsel James Baker and Wilkinson. Strzok told Priestap, “To the extent you can ask what Jim’s contact was and ask that the investigative team be kept abreast of contact with our DOJ counterparts, I would greatly appreciate it.” Strzok forwarded the note to Page, saying, “You still think I don’t have reason to be angry?”

On April 1, 2016, Strzok forwards to Priestap, FBI Counterintelligence Division official Robert Jones, Moffa and some unidentified FBI officials a Politico report discussing the highly unusual legal strategy of Wilkinson simultaneously representing four of Hillary Clinton’s top aides in the email scandal.

On March 23, 2016, Page emails Strzok at 8:39 p.m. with the subject line “God, I’m in such a bad mood” and said, “I really just hate everyone. Especially DOJ. ??????”

Strzok replies: “God me too! I’m trying to figure out why I’m in a foul mood, I think it’s DoJ plus prospect of packing and travel and late night all for bullsh*t meeting postponed and [redacted] and wondering how Bill’s feeling. Got a weird too many people to coordinate I’m punting to [redacted] message earlier this morning. Why are you cranky? This stuff? The UC media provisions? Why did you end up staying up so late? And hi. The only saving grace is the glorious moon tonight.”

Page responds: “Just everything. Fighting with doj and internally on uc policy (it’s back up to DD – I don’t want to hear about it). [Redacted] I need an office closer to Andy, I need to clean my office, I need to write my PAR. [Redacted]. Just proposed to Andy [McCabe] that we have a pre-meet on Friday. Think we need it plus it will give us an opportunity to skinny down the room if he thinks it’s too big.”

Strzok replies: “Babe, that stinks across the board. I don’t have an easy answer for you on the hours. If you can’t get out before 7 on a day he isn’t there, well, you’re going to have to give somewhere. You definitely do need an office closer. Andy needs to do that. There are at least 5 people I can think of who easily can go. … Going to bed soon [redacted] United managed to f*ck up seat assignments when they split the locator record, so that’s nice [redacted].”

In her reply, Page discusses a meeting that would take place between DOJ and FBI officials concerning the Hillary Clinton investigation, writing, “I texted Andy pre-meet, he agreed, I called [redacted] to ensure it gets on the calendar. I don’t care what Mike and Bill think, you’re going to be there. I also talked to [redacted] about skinnying up the room – right now we’ll have ELEVEN, which is retarded.”

Strzok responds: “If it’s any consolation, I think doj will have 5 plus one on speaker phone.”