Obama's DOJ ordered federal agents to kill a criminal case against Hillary Clinton.
That was 2016 – the same year the FBI launched Crossfire Hurricane against Donald Trump as a full investigation on a rumor.
Now Chuck Grassley just dropped the 12 pages – and what's in them changes everything.
The Clinton Foundation Pay-to-Play Evidence the DOJ Buried
The FBI's Washington Field Office opened a preliminary investigation into the Clinton Foundation in January 2016.
The 12-page "electronic communication" – or EC – that kicked off that investigation is now public, released t by Sen. Chuck Grassley.
Foreign donations, pay-to-play schemes, a Russian uranium deal, a Haitian gold permit, Boeing's $900,000 pledge two months after Hillary Clinton flew to Moscow and personally lobbied Russian officials to buy American planes.
The FBI had confidential sources, Suspicious Activity Reports, and corroborating financial records.
Ray Hulser – then head of the Obama DOJ's Public Integrity Section – told field agents the case was "poorly presented" and refused to support the investigation.
That excuse collapsed the moment Grassley released the EC.
How Crossfire Hurricane Got a Full Investigation While Clinton Got a Cover-Up
Special Counsel John Durham put the contrast in writing: the FBI opened Crossfire Hurricane against Donald Trump in July 2016 as a full investigation – based on a secondhand account of something George Papadopoulos allegedly said at a London bar.
The Clinton Foundation investigation opened with a 12-page EC documenting millions in suspicious foreign donations, and DOJ leadership worked to kill it before it got off the ground.
Hulser told Durham's team his decision not to support prosecution "was not binding" on U.S. attorneys or field offices – then watched the investigation die anyway.
Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates told the Eastern District of Arkansas to shut the probe down in early 2016, with prosecutors given no reason why.
Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe ordered no investigative steps without his personal approval and repeated that directive multiple times.
Four U.S. Attorney's offices were approached for help with subpoenas and grand juries.
Three refused outright.
Kash Patel Now Holds Every Uranium One Document They Tried to Hide
The EC Grassley released today is the latest piece of a pattern that Grassley, Durham, and Kash Patel have been assembling in public for over a year.
In August 2025, Patel declassified a 2017 memo – written by a DOJ lawyer under Comey – showing FBI field agents in New York, Little Rock, and Washington had spent months being blocked at every turn.
"We were trying to explore the Foundation, and we were told 'NO' by FBI HQ," the declassified timeline read.
In December 2025, Grassley released a second tranche showing the investigation lingered past the 2016 election – only to have DOJ officials raise statute-of-limitations concerns and declare they "wanted to close this chapter and move forward."
Today's EC proves the predication was there from day one.
While agents were being told to stand down on Clinton, the same DOJ and FBI launched Crossfire Hurricane – a full investigation into a presidential campaign – within days of receiving an unverified tip.
Nobody was prosecuted.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel received Grassley's letter this morning.
The grand jury former Attorney General Pam Bondi stood up to investigate a decade of law enforcement abuses against Trump is still seated.
Sally Yates went back to private practice in Atlanta, where she now charges corporations to navigate government investigations.
Andrew McCabe walked out of the Justice Department with no charges, a book deal, and a CNN contributor contract.
Both ordered line agents to kill a criminal case backed by 12 pages of documented evidence.
Now Kash Patel holds every document she thought was buried.
Grassley just proved the evidence always existed.
Sources:
- Margot Cleveland, "Breaking: New FBI Clinton Doc Reinforces Deep State's Dual Standard Of Justice," The Federalist, April 27, 2026.
- Chuck Grassley, Letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel, Senate Judiciary Committee, April 27, 2026.
- John Solomon, "New memos show how corruption probe into Clinton Foundation was killed," Just the News, December 14, 2025.
- John Solomon, "'Clinton Corruption Files': Bondi, Patel unleash new evidence about former first family foundation," Just the News, November 12, 2025.
- FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash), X post on declassified Clinton Foundation memo, August 16, 2025.
