Declassified memo shows DOJ leadership, McCabe shut down Clinton pay-to-play probe

FBI Director Kash Patel has released evidence showing that Obama administration officials purposefully sought to shut down an investigation into the Clinton Foundation in 2016 despite having proof of a pay-to-play, quid pro quo scheme involving Hillary Clinton.

The evidence consists of a timeline memo written years ago by a DOJ lawyer assigned to the FBI by then-Director James Comey.

“No matter where agents turned to get support to investigate Clinton’s alleged corruption, they were thwarted,” Just The News, which was given a copy of the memo, reported on Wednesday.

Officials like then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates sought to “shut it down” despite proof obtained at the time by career FBI agents of a Clinton Foundation pay-to-play, quid pro quo scheme.

FBI agents uncovered evidence of pay-to-play at the Clinton Foundation in 2016.

DOJ leadership & McCabe ordered them to ‘Shut it down.’

We’ve now declassified the memo. This is proof of political interference at the highest levels. pic.twitter.com/MC6xxar5Y7

— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) August 16, 2025

According to former special counsel John Durham’s report, the investigation was launched “based on source reporting that identified foreign governments that had made, or offered to make, contributions to the Foundation in exchange for favorable or preferential treatment from Clinton.”

Despite this evidence, the now-declassified timeline memo reveals that the Obama DOJ “indicated they would not be supportive of an FBI investigation” into the Foundation on Feb. 1, 2016.

Personnel from the FBI’s Little Rock office then raised concerns that a redacted Obama administration official “may not want to be a party to the briefing because of conflicts of interest.”

The personnel “expressed these concerns due to the possibility that” the redacted Obama administration official was “a supporter of the Democratic Party and possibly the Clintons.”

During a meeting of investigators on Feb. 17, 2016, officials were alerted to a confidential human source (CHS) “who possibly had [further] information on the matter.”

Yet then-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe “directed that no overt investigative steps were to be taken on the CF investigation without his approval.”

Investigators were also “‘directed not to open or recruit any new CHSs, and no additional overt investigative steps were authorized.”

According to the Durham report, Paul Abbate, then the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, described McCabe’s behavior during the meeting as “negative,” “annoyed,” and “angry” about the investigation into the Clinton Foundation.

“Why are we even doing this?” he reportedly asked of the investigation.

A month later, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Arkansas told investigators that then-Deputy Attorney General Yates had “ordered” federal prosecutors to “shut it down.”

A couple of months later, in July, Comey cleared Clinton of all wrongdoing regarding her notorious use of an unsecured private email server to transmit classified intelligence.

“Although we did not find clear evidence Sec. Clinton or colleagues intended to violate laws governing handling of classified information, there is evidence they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.”

— James Comey 7/5/2016 pic.twitter.com/HV3Fcmj4WX

— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) February 10, 2024

He said that although her email practices were “extremely careless” and “there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information,” he believed “no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.”

Yet weeks later, he enthusiastically greenlighted the launch of the Russian collusion delusion hoax and conspiracy theory, officially named Operation Crossfire Hurricane.

“The differences in how the Justice Department and FBI handled cases related to Clinton and Trump were stark — publicly exonerating Clinton for her mishandling of classified information when using a private email server as secretary of state and not even allowing the Clinton Foundation investigation to get off the ground, while launching a sprawling and baseless Russia collusion inquiry into the Trump campaign and the candidate (and then the president) himself,” Just The News notes.

Former special counsel John Durham noted in his own report that “the immediate opening of Crossfire Hurricane as a full investigation contrasts with the care taken in connection with the investigation of the Clinton Foundation and other matters.”

Senior Staff Writer
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V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.

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