Sant Singh Chatwal with Hillary Clinton (Credit: Twitter)
As Hillary Clinton closed in on the presidential nomination in the spring of 2016, FBI field officers advised colleagues at headquarters to press her on the foreign donations flowing to the Clinton Foundation while she steered American foreign policy and whether she had used the charity as a campaign piggy bank.
But FBI HQ in Washington — a city in which the former secretary of state and first lady wields enormous influence — let the trail go cold.
Diego Rodriguez, assistant FBI director in charge the New York field office, (Credit: Bebeto Matthews/AP)
FBI New York Assistant Director in Charge Diego Rodriguez advised agents in Washington to ask Clinton several questions about the foundation, which are reproduced in full in documents released to the Senate Judiciary Committee by the FBI and published on Dec. 15. (p. 22) The questions reveal the concerns about foreign bribery that the Clinton Foundation case — codenamed “Cracked Foundation” — had uncovered. (p. 41)
Among the evidence available to investigators, according to their questions: A recorded conversation between Clinton and Indian hotel magnate Sant Singh Chatwal in which Clinton discussed donations to the foundation and her remaining 2008 campaign debt. The new documents confirm that FBI had at one time been “intercepting individuals associated with the Clinton Foundation.” (p. 23)
But when Clinton arrived to the FBI two months later, in July 2016, to answer questions about her use of a private email server in a separate investigation codenamed “Midyear Exam,” D.C. agents asked nothing about the allegations of pay-to-play with foreign governments or use of the global charity as a slush fund.
(…) Chatwal, a longtime family friend and donor, served as a trustee to the Clinton Foundation, a chair of the exploratory committee that preceded Clinton’s 2008 presidential run, and even clinched an invitation to Chelsea Clinton’s wedding, according to a 2016 book by investigative journalist Peter Schweizer called “Clinton Cash,” which helped kick off the Cracked Foundation investigation.
Forbes estimated Chatwal’s properties to be worth $750 million in a 2006 profile.
He pled guilty to laundering straw donations to Clinton’s 2008 campaign committee in 2014, forfeiting $1 million in a deal with the Department of Justice.
“That’s the only way to buy them, get into the system,” Chatwal had told an FBI informant in that case.
The FBI had recorded Chatwal discussing straw donations in 2010 and sought to expand that investigation to the Clinton Foundation, but FBI headquarters would not allow it, the documents state. (p. 5)
(Read more: The Daily Caller, 12/27/2025) (Archive)
Excerpts from Senator Grassley’s letter and timeline of events – 12/15/2025:
(…) According to emails obtained by my office, on July 20, 2016—111 days before the 2016
election—an agent with the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division (CID) stated that, “based on
the sensitivities surrounding the Clinton Foundation,” agents were prohibited from “subpoena[ing] additional records related to the Foundation, the Clintons”; “conduct[ing] any interviews related to the Foundation or the Clintons”; and “shar[ing] any of the Foundation bank account info with any other offices.” Emails also show that the FBI “[did] not want to create any impression we are investigating the Clinton Foundation or the Clintons. Internal FBI emails from January 12, 2017, show that the direction came from “higher, i.e., the DD (McCabe).”
Bill Sweeney (Credit: public domain)
Records provided to my office show that on September 26, 2016, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) obtained a search warrant for the laptop of Anthony Weiner, whose wife, Huma Abedin, was a political aide to Hillary Clinton during her time as Secretary of State, in connection with a child exploitation investigation. During the course of their investigation, the SDNY discovered information on the Weiner laptop connected to the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of classified information. According to the records provided to my office, on November 1, 2016, the FBI’s New York Field Office (NYFO) former-Assistant Director in Charge (ADIC) Sweeney, requested that the Clinton Foundation investigative team be allowed to either review the Weiner laptop or be provided a briefing by the Weiner review team, which allegedly FBI HQ initially refused.
Randall Coleman (Credit: public domain)
For example, according to records provided to my office, on November 7, 2016, then Executive Assistant Director (EAD) Coleman noted that “[i]t 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.” Accordingly, it appears that the Clinton Foundation investigators, at that time, had to depend on the MIDYEAR team, which included Peter Strzok, for information.
Cody Hiland (Credit: public domain)
Furthermore, on July 24, 2017, under the Trump administration, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Arkansas (USAO EDAR) and FBI Little Rock reopened their investigation into the Clinton Foundation. During the course of their investigation, in November 2017, the US Attorney for the EDAR, Cody Hiland, requested information from then-head of DOJ PIN Ray Hulser and then-Acting Chief Anna Lou Tirol about “who made the decision to shut the [original] case down.” Documents provided to my office also note that Hulser provided Hiland with a timeline that “omitted ALL references to interference from DOJ and FBI leadership.”
Emails provided to my office also show that during the course of their reopened investigation, in July 2018, attorneys at the EDAR requested additional information to determine “whether sufficient probable cause exists to submit a search warrant affidavit for the Weiner laptop related to violations of 18 U.S.C. 201(b) and 201(c), 18 U.S.C. § 208, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1343, 1344, 18 U.S.C. § 1956, 1957, 18 U.S.C. § 1962 and perhaps other statutes.” EDAR attorneys also stated that for their team to make the assessment, “our office has determined that there is a need to be given access to some of the information described in the OIG Report that was released on June 11, 2018. This is necessary in order to determine if additional information related to these potential violations is currently possessed and already within the government’s knowledge.” According to emails, the request “ruffled some feathers” and the EDAR didn’t “receive[] any response from that request.”
Jonathan D. Ross (Credit: public domain)
Emails from September 2018 also indicate that Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) Jonathan Ross at the EDAR had concerns about support from Main Justice and PIN regarding the Clinton Foundation investigation, stating that “[b]ut as we have previously discussed, there appear to be conflicts of interest for the leadership there related to the 2016 [Clinton] investigations that undermine any confidence we might normally have in looking to them for assistance.” According to documents provided to my office, prosecutors at the EDAR recommended in July 2019 that a referral be made to the DOJ OIG regarding the “manner in which the investigation had been conducted,” and that they did what they could do “about the interference by DOJ and FBI leadership at the time with the FBI’s [Clinton Foundation] investigation.”
The above are just some examples of interference that occurred when agents and prosecutors investigated the Clinton Foundation. In order for Congress to conduct proper oversight of past DOJ and FBI conduct, please provide the following no later than December 29, 2025:
1. Provide the report titled “Anthony Weiner Laptop Review for Communications Pertinent
to Midyear Exam” dated November 15, 2016.
2. Provide all records related to the search warrant affidavits for Anthony Weiner’s laptop.
3. Provide all records related to the “yellow sheet of paper, at least 7 separate domains viewed on the device that were affiliated with the Clintons,” which was provided to a NYFO ASAC by a NYFO SA Forensic Examiner.
4. Provide all records related to the decision to withdraw the third 2020 search warrant for the Weiner laptop including copies of all documents attached to the FBI EC titled “Withdrawn Search Warrant – Western Digital Hard Disk Drive, MODEL WD2003FZEX, S/N WMC6N0D5ZNA9.”
5. Provide the document titled “Investigative History, Status, and Recommendations Concerning the Clinton Foundation.”
6. Provide all emails related to the Clinton Foundation investigation and Anthony Weiner laptop to, from, or cc’ing Cody Hiland, Jonathan Ross, John Huber, Andrew McCabe, Diane Upchurch, Randy Coleman, Ray Hulser, and Anna Lou Tirol.
7. Provide all records requested in the July 5, 2018, email titled “Request for information related to DOJ OIG report issued June 11, 2018.”
8. Provide all emails and records in Exhibit 1, as well as records produced in conjunction with this letter, in unredacted form.