FBI corruption probe picked up evidence Bill Clinton paid through backdoor, GOP senator says

As part of a political corruption probe, the FBI obtained evidence that former President Bill Clinton was being paid through a backdoor arrangement with an allied consultant, according to a 2017 document released Tuesday by Senate Judiciary Committee Sen. Chuck Grassley. 

The Iowa Republican senator raised the issue in a hearing with Attorney General Pam Bondi and questioned whether the FBI and Justice Department fully investigated the findings. 

The document, which was provided to Grassley by a whistleblower, includes a case update drafted by then-Supervisory Special Agent Tim Thibault about the Washington Field Office’s public corruption investigation into Virginia Democrat Gov. Terry McAuliffe linking former President Clinton to the case. 

“McAuliffe case – Steven Sullivan, Chief Financial Officer of Teneo was interviewed in New York City. Info provided seemed to confirm, Teneo was used as a pass through for Doug Band to pay former President of the United States,” Thibault wrote.

You can read the document below:

“Doug Band was a Deputy Assistant to then-President Clinton and continued working for him post-presidency. Therefore, it’s pretty clear the reference to ‘President of the United States’ is Bill Clinton,” Grassley said in his opening statement.

“This information confirms there was an FBI case on McAuliffe, and it indicates the Clintons and their associates were relevant to it,” said the senator. 

“Did the FBI throw its resources behind this matter just like it did against Trump and his associates? Or did they sweep it all under the rug?” he continued. 

McAuliffe was under investigation by the FBI for his private business ties before he became governor in 2014. The governor’s lawyers confirmed that the bureau was probing him over alleged violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. McAuliffe insisted throughout the investigation that he never illegally lobbied for any foreign government. McAuliffe was a major fundraiser for Clinton while he was president. 

Teneo, the firm mentioned in the case update, has close ties to both Bill and Hillary Clinton, and its owner, Doug Band, is a close ally of the political couple. He worked for then-President Clinton in the White House Counsel’s office. After the government, he became a central figure in Bill Clinton’s post-presidency, helping to set up the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative.

A leaked memo showed that Band helped organize an aggressive strategy for President Clinton’s paid speaking engagements and consulting work while his wife served as President Barack Obama’s secretary of state, the Washington Post reported. Band came under scrutiny from Republicans for how Band encouraged Teneo’s clients to contribute to the Clinton Foundation.

The release of the document comes as congressional Republicans and the Trump administration have been digging into the ways that the federal justice system and FBI may have been weaponized against Republicans or protecting Democrats. 

In the latest example highlighted by CIA Director John Ratcliffe, declassified memos show that then-Vice President Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor intervened to prevent the dissemination of an intelligence report to policymakers because of its unflattering content about how Ukrainian officials viewed Hunter Biden’s business dealings in the country.