The FBI has released 129 pages of documents from a decade-old investigation into the Clinton Foundation and Bill Clinton’s 11th-hour pardon of financier Marc Rich.
“This initial release consists of material from the FBI’s files related to the William J. Clinton Foundation, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization,” the FBI wrote on its website Tuesday.
“The bulk of these records come from a 2001 FBI investigation into the pardon of Marc Rich (1934-2013) … by President Clinton in 2001; it was closed in 2005,” the bureau said.
Rich and his ex-wife were generous donors to the Clintons and gave heavily to the construction of Clinton’s presidential library in Arkansas.
It was not immediately clear what prompted the FBI to publish the files Tuesday. However, the bureau posted the documents on the section of its website dedicated to records released through the Freedom of Information Act.
According to the files, Eric Holder, then a former deputy attorney general, was “the only person at DOJ notified of the pardon sought by Rich.” Clinton did not follow the proper procedures when pardoning Rich on the final day of his presidency.
The FBI’s public corruptions unit handled the case, which ultimately yielded no criminal charges for anyone involved.
James Comey, then a U.S. attorney, reportedly took over the investigation from Mary Jo White. Comey was critical of Holder’s involvement in the pardoning controversy, which he called a “huge misjudgement” on the part of Holder.
Rich and his business partner, Pincus Green, had fled to Switzerland in 1983 after he was indicted on multiple counts that included wire fraud and racketeering. Some of Rich’s charges stemmed from his decision in 1980 to pursue business in Iran despite restrictions on doing so that were related to the hostage crisis in Tehran.
Clinton’s decision to pardon both Rich and Green sparked a firestorm at the time given the donations Rich’s family had made to Democratic causes, including $450,000 to the Clinton library, and the fact that Rich had hired Jack Quinn, Clinton’s former White House counsel, to represent him.
Brian Fallon, a Clinton campaign spokesman, quickly lashed out at the FBI for releasing the mostly-redacted files from the Rich pardon probe.
Absent a FOIA litigation deadline, this is odd.
Will FBI be posting docs on Trump’s housing discrimination in ’70s?https://t.co/uJMMzX6rtI— Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) November 1, 2016
The Clinton campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the release.
