(Ken Silva, Headline USA) An FBI informant made an illegal donation to the 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign on behalf of a foreign national, but the informant’s handlers ignored the law-breaking action and steered their investigation away from Clinton, according to Special Counsel John Durham’s recently released report on the FBI’s baseless Russiagate investigation.
Durham said in his report that the FBI informant was working on a counterintelligence matter for the bureau, when he or she learned that a foreign government official with known criminal ties was trying to connect with the Clinton campaign.
“A Foreign Government-3 insider (“Insider-I”), who was known to the FBI to have foreign intelligence and criminal connections, had solicited [the informant] to set up a meeting with candidate Clinton because Insider-I wanted to propose ‘something’ that [the informant] understood to be campaign contributions on behalf of Foreign Government-3 in exchange for the protection of Foreign Government-3’s interests should Clinton become President,” Durham said.
Durham said the informant and the foreign insider were going to go to a Clinton fundraiser in November 2015, but the informant ended up not going to the event.
The informant did attend a January 2016 fundraiser, but said the foreign insider “got cold feet” and didn’t go. Durham noted that a separate FBI document about the incident said that the foreign insider was told by the Clinton campaign not to attend.
In any event, the informant made a $2,700 donation on behalf of the foreign insider to the Clinton campaign without the knowledge of FBI handling agents.
“When interviewed by the Office about this contribution, one of [the informant’s] FBI handlers could not explain why this apparent illegal contribution was not documented in FBI records. Although the handling agent at the time asked [the informant] about the payment, there is no indication that the agent documented the contribution in the [informant’s] source file,” Durham said of the illegal campaign contribution.
“Moreover, despite the CHS telling the handling agent that the CHS was going to Insider-1 ‘s house ‘after the event to update [him/her],’ there was no follow up by the handling agent to document that in the source file.”
Durham said that the FBI never opened an investigation into this apparent foreign influence operation. In fact, the handling agent subsequently told the informant to stay away from all events relating to Clinton’s campaign, he said.
According to the special prosecutor’s report, the informant’s handler sent him or her the following message: “Do NOT attend any more campaign events, set up meetings, or anything else relating to [Clinton’s] campaign. We need to keep you completely away from that situation. I don’t know all the details, but it’s for your own protection.”
Durham concluded this portion of the report by comparing the FBI’s lack of investigation into the Clinton campaign with its overzealous probe of Donald Trump.
“Contrasted with the FBI’s rapid opening of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI appears to have made no effort to investigate the possible illegal campaign contribution … or the Clinton campaign’s purported acceptance of a campaign contribution that was made by the FBI’s own long-term CHS on behalf of Insider-I and, ultimately, Foreign Govemrnent-3,” Durham concluded.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
