FBI probing whether its own agents obstructed or interfered with politically sensitive cases

The FBI is investigating material uncovered in “prohibited access” case files to determine whether its own agents or leaders may have obstructed criminal or congressional investigations involving major political figures such as Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden or their family associates, officials tell Just the News.

The inquiries have been under way for several months, the officials said, and they have turned up unusual pieces of evidence buried in digital case archives showing that, on occasion, some FBI employees memorialized concerns about conduct by FBI supervisors or case agents in politically sensitive probes. 

These writings are often called "memos to file" as insurance in case wrongdoing is discovered, the employees have some degree of deniability. 

Grand jury has been empaneled, reviewing evidence, sources say

Some of the evidence is being prepared for a bombshell notification to Congress later this month while other pieces are being reviewed by a federal grand jury, the officials said. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley in June urged the FBI to probe how the bureau under former Director James Comey used a segregated system of politically sensitive cases known as the “prohibited access” case files.

The evidence in those files spans nearly a decade and involves several major political scandals, including Russiagate, allegations of Clinton and Biden family corruption and even the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, officials said, speaking only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.

For instance, FBI Director Kash Patel’s team recently located a document showing then-Executive Assistant Director Randall Coleman wrote a “memo to file” the day before the 2016 presidential election where Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton laying out the unusual behavior of FBI managers after fresh evidence in Clinton’s classified email scandal was discovered on former congressman Anthony Weiner’s laptop in the fall before that election.

FBI's McCabe stalled probe of how Clinton's secret emails landed on Anthony Weiner's computer

The Coleman memo makes clear that then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was briefed in detail about the discovery in late September 2016, but there was a long delay in taking any action. That delay became a major controversy in the final days of the 2016 election and the Department of Justice Inspector General two years later would excoriate FBI Director James Comey and McCabe for their handling of the entire case.

While the details of the FBI’s failures in the Clinton email case — codenamed "Midyear Exam" — have been chronicled for years by the IG and Congress, the recent discovery of Coleman’s "memo to file" has raised concerns that a senior FBI executive was so concerned about what he witnessed inside the FBI at the time he felt compelled to write a memo for the record.

Coleman’s Nov. 7, 2016 email, obtained by Just the News, details how the New York FBI’s top agent, Assistant Director Bill Sweeney, alerted leadership about the Weiner discovery and then how the FBI’s headquarters slowwalked the matter for nearly a month, prompting an awkward notification from Comey to Congress about the Weiner laptop discovery mere days before the election.

“On 09/28/2016, EAD Randall Coleman received a call from AD Bill Sweeney indicating team of Agents investigating Anthony Weiner sexting case had discovered emails relevant to Clinton email investigation,” the memo states. “AD Sweeney advised team had halted further review and would be requesting guidance from FBIHQ. EAD Coleman agreed and advised he would notify FBI General Counsel James Baker and DD Andrew McCabe."

“Coleman telephonically contacted DD McCabe at his office number to advise him of the circumstance described by AD Sweeney. DD McCabe advised he had already been made aware of matter," The memo continues. "On or about 10/03/2016, EAD Coleman verbally advised OGC Baker and Associate Deputy Director David Bowdich of the matter described by AD Sweeney in a ‘sidebar’ meeting after normal DD daily update meeting. OGC Baker advised he was not aware of the matter and would need to look into it further,” the memo added. “It was determined by DD McCabe and EAD Steinbach that any follow on investigative activity concerning the emails located on Anthony Weiner's laptop would be reviewed by the MIDYEAR investigative team."

You can read that memo here.

Obama's A.G. Yates on Clinton probes: "Shut it down"

Officials said Patel’s team – aided by FBI computer network managers – have located other documents that raise similar concerns about the FBI’s behavior in the email case as well as a separate criminal case pursued by three different FBI offices into pay-to-play allegations involving donations to Bill and Hillary Clinton’s family foundation and actions taken while she was President Barack Obama’s secretary of state.

Officials said the Wiener laptop evidence not only affected the Midyear Exam probe, it also included evidence key to the Clinton Foundation probes in Little Rock, Ark., New York and Washington.

Just the News reported last month a timeline uncovered by Patel’s team showed that all three FBI offices were obstructed in their efforts to probe the corruption allegations involving the Foundation. The timeline indicated that McCabe interjected himself into the decision-making of those cases and a top Obama Justice Department official ordered the probes stopped.

“Shut it down,” then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates is quoted in the FBI timeline as ordering.

Convicted former agent helped Biden-related Chinese company

A third body of evidence that the FBI began pursuing earlier this year involves disgraced former Special Agent Charles McGonigal, and possible assistance he gave to CEFC Energy, a Chinese firm with direct connections to Hunter Biden. That evidence exploded into full view last week when the DOJ Inspector General released a report.

McGonigal, the former special-agent-in-charge of the FBI Counterintelligence Division in New York, leaked information to “Person B” – an unnamed businessman who worked for the Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC – even as the FBI was secretly investigating the Chinese company, according to the new report by Acting DOJ Inspector General William M. Blier.

McGonigal was sentenced in December 2023 for money laundering related to a Russian oligarch and in February 2024 for receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from an Albanian government official. He met with prosecutors in November 2023 and “acknowledged during the proffer interview that he shared information with Person B about the CEFC investigation and anticipated arrests arising from it.”

The DOJ watchdog said that “Person B was a consultant to foreign governments and businesses on international investments, and, in addition to his work for CEFC China, Person B was a non-governmental advisor to the Prime Minister of Albania.”

The watchdog report assessed that “although the full extent of the harm from McGonigal’s leaks of sensitive investigative information to foreign subjects and targets will likely never be fully known, we determined that the impact of McGonigal’s conduct on the CEFC investigation, a significant FBI criminal investigation, was substantial.”

During that time, Hunter Biden pursued business deals in China, including with CEFC, and received millions from Chinese government-linked entities. He raked in millions thanks to these associations from 2013 to 2018. Eventually, DOJ would charge and convict Patrick Ho in 2019, a Hunter Biden associate at CEFC, with bribery and money laundering. He received a three-year sentence and was released in 2020.

CEFC was a multibillion-dollar Chinese conglomerate founded by Ye Jianming, a Chinese Communist Party-linked business tycoon who subsequently disappeared in China but with whom Hunter Biden had attempted to work out numerous deals. Chinese state-run media identified Ye's involvment in a corruption case in 2018, after which he disappeared. China allowed CEFC to go bankrupt.

Hunter Biden's associated businesses are also believed to have received $5 million or more in payments from CEFC in 2017 and 2018, and Ye Jianming’s deputy, Patrick Ho, also agreed to pay Hunter Biden a $1 million legal retainer after Ho was arrested. Ho agreed to the $1 million retainer with Hunter Biden for “counsel to matters related to U.S. law and advice pertaining to the hiring and legal analysis of any U.S. law firm or lawyer,” according to an “attorney engagement letter” located on Hunter Biden’s laptop.

The first call Ho reportedly made after his arrest in late 2017 was to Joe Biden’s brother, James, who has said he thought the call was meant for Hunter. Ho had tried reaching out for help because Hunter Biden agreed to represent him as part of his efforts to work out a liquefied natural gas deal worth tens of millions of dollars.

Files related to FBI's targeting Trump for fake Russian collusion were hidden away

FBI officials told Just the News they have also found extensive documents in the “prohibited access” files involving the now discredited Russiagate probe targeting President Trump and his aides.

In his letter to DOJ and FBI in June, Grassley said he feared the “prohibited access” system may have allowed the FBI to thwart congressional oversight or keep agents from discovering relevant evidence in criminal cases.

“As I’m sure you are aware, the impact of parking records in a way that impedes, or in some cases prevents, responsive records from being produced to Congress pursuant to a valid request and during the course of court litigation, whether criminal or civil, is wide-ranging and potentially catastrophic to constitutional requirements,” Grassley wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Patel. “Indeed, if the FBI has failed to take steps in the past to access records in ‘Restricted’ or ‘Prohibited’ status, the FBI has not fully responded to many years of my oversight requests.” 

You can read that letter here.