A key House Republican on Tuesday asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to investigate whether former President Barack Obama administration officials pressured the FBI to “stand down” from its probe of the Clinton Foundation that was ongoing during Hillary Clinton’s bid for the presidency.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said in a letter to Sessions that he wants an investigation into Sally Yates, who Obama appointed to serve as the deputy attorney general at the time. Goodlatte wants to know if Yates ordered her principal associate deputy attorney general, or PADAG, to call the FBI and ask for the probe of the Clinton Foundation to end.
“The American people continue to learn new information on a regular basis calling into question law enforcement’s impartiality, and creating the perception that the last administration was using political power to affect the outcome of investigations,” Goodlatte wrote to sessions.
According to a report from the Department of Justice inspector general, the PADAG called FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and “expressed concerns about FBI agents taking overt steps in the CF [Clinton Foundation] Investigation during the presidential campaign.”
Goodlatte is among the GOP lawmakers who have called for a special counsel to investigate the FBI’s handling of the Clinton Foundation.
[13 Republicans ask Jeff Sessions to appoint second special counsel to investigate FBI, DOJ]
Goodlatte told Sessions that “at a minimum the allegations deserve further scrutiny to determine whether the FBI was hampered in any way by top officials in the Department of Justice, top officials of the FBI itself, or senior officials of the Obama administration.”
Goodlatte called on Sessions to confirm that the department “will take immediate steps” to investigate “and hold any wrongdoers accountable.”
