(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) After the Durham Report unveiled major failures to properly investigate the Clinton Foundation, a U.S. Tax Court judge has decided to revitalize a whistleblower case alleging IRS improprieties involving the foundation’s finances, Just the News reported.
Tax Court Judge David Gustafson has already denied IRS requests to drop the investigation against the Clinton’s charity—widely suspected to be a de-facto slush fund and influence-peddling operation.
But special counsel John Durham’s final report, released earlier in May after a four-year-long investigation, gave Gustafson the justification he needed to issue a recent ruling that the investigation proceed.
In the ruling, Gustafson gave John Moynihan, a whistleblower and former federal agent, and Larry Doyle, a corporate tax compliance expert, until the end of June to update their accusations against the IRS. The agency will then have until July 28 to respond.
The duo testified in front of a House committee in 2018 that the Clinton Foundation acted effectively as a foreign lobbyist by accepting donations from foreigners to influence U.S. policy while Hillary Clinton served as secretary of State during the Obama administration.
The foundation “began acting as an agent of foreign governments early in its life and throughout its existence,” Moynihan said to the House committee, noting also that the Clinton Foundation took the liberty of operating in a way beyond the scope of a 501(c)3 tax-deductible charity.
“As such, the foundation should’ve registered under FARA [Foreign Agents Registration Act],” Moynihan” continued. “Ultimately, the foundation and its auditors conceded in formal submissions that it did operate as a [foreign] agent; therefore, the foundation is not entitled to its 501(c)3 tax-exempt privileges as outlined in IRS 170 (c)2.”
But since that time, the IRS has attempted to drop the case, and little progress has been made in the investigation.
Gustafson’s determination to pursue the case comes in the wake of the Durham Report, which revealed that the Clinton Foundation was used as a way for foreigners to contribute to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign while garnering future influence should she have won the election.
“Beginning in late 2014, before Clinton formally declared her presidential candidacy, the FBI learned from a well-placed [source] that a foreign government was planning to send an individual to contribute to Clinton’s anticipated presidential campaign, as a way to gain influence with her should she win the presidency,” Durham wrote.
