FIVE FBI INVESTIGATIONS

Connecting Success Factors to Bennett
The Dubious Phone Call and Time Wasting Project

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• The handling of classified information on the Clinton email server

• Whether the Foundation was used to peddle influence

• Whether illegal Chinese donations were taken by a Clinton intimate

• Whether John Podesta's brother acted as a front for illegal lobbying

• Anthony Weiner's sexting relationship with a 15-year-old.

The folks at TPG will have to answer to my Whistleblower Complaints on the truly odd collection of RFPs emanating from companies connected to Richard Blum, William McGlashan, CBRE, Regency Centers, Trammel Crow, Lennar, Catellus.
My story is about witness murders, private equity, mergers and acquisitions linked back to the Matter of Bennett v. Southern Pacific lost in 1989.  It was a winnable case as long the witnesses testified.  

Another DOJ official with longstanding ties to Podesta - he was the former Bill Clinton chief of staff's lawyer during the Monica Lewinsky scandal - was caught in Wikileaks emails giving his friend a 'heads up' on a congressional hearing on Clinton's server.

'There is a HJC [House Judiciary Committee] oversight hearing today,' Peter Kadzik wrote in 2015, 'where the head of our Civil Division will testify.' 

The assistant attorney general told Podesta the DOJ lawyer testifying was 'likely to get questions on State Department emails.

'Another filing in the FOIA [Freedom Of Information Act] case went in last night or will go in this am that indicates it will be awhile (2016) before the State Department posts the emails.'

Podesta copied another senior campaign staffer on a response email that said the hearing would provide 'additional chances for mischief.'

Kadzick was the same DOJ official who provided lawmakers with a statement this week on the FBI's examination of the new Clinton emails. 

South Carolina Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House's Benghazi committee, told Fox he has 'many differences' with the Justice Department official, but he isn't worried about a conflict of interest.

'Peter Kadzik is not a decision maker, he is a messenger,' Gowdy assessed.

Trump criticizes Podesta for his connection to Kadzik

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The FBI's investigation into the Clinton Foundation is just one of five its pursuing that directly or indirectly involves former President Bill Clinton and his wife, the Democratic nominee for the White House.

A probe of Anthony Weiner's sexts to a 15-year-old led the FBI to stumble upon new emails from his estranged wife Huma Abedin's account that linked back to the original, Clinton classified information review. Comey said last week that he authorized agents to reconsider that case as it reviews the recently discovered emails. 

The FBI is also looking at a $120,000 donation that ex-Clinton aide and Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe received from a Chinese businessman who has given to the Clinton Foundation in the past.

Lobbyist Tony Podesta, co-founder of the Podesta Group, a shop he started with his brother John, the chairman of Clinton's presidential campaign, is caught up in an investigation of a corrupt Ukrainian politician his firm advised. 

Tony Podesta is also a bundler for the Clinton campaign. 

The progress of the Clinton Foundation investigation and the one into McAuliffe were first reported by the Wall Street Journal. 

The FBI does not generally comment on investigations, so it is possible there are more under way. 

FIVE FBI INVESTIGATIONS: HOW CLINTON'S INNER CIRCLE ARE CAUGHT UP IN WEB OF 'CRIME' PROBES WHICH THREATENS TO SHADOW HER IF SHE WINS

Almost all of Clinton's inner circle - the cast of advisers known as Clintonworld - and many of their family are caught up in an FBI dragnet.

 The scale of investigations under way is unprecedented in electoral history.

There are five separate investigations:

Here we examine who is caught up and how. 

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What does she know: Huma Abedin has been Clinton's shadow for 20 years but now finds herself off the campaign trail and facing new FBI interest

Huma Abedin: secrets and access - and perjury?

Probes: Clinton emails; Clinton Foundation 

Who is she: Currently vice-chair of the Clinton campaign she was has worked with Clinton for 21 years, since she was 19, as among other things, intern, 'body woman', chief of staff and senior adviser. 

Huma Abedin is now represented by attorneys as the FBI begins the lengthy process of examining a laptop seized in the inquiry into her estranged husband's sexting relationship with a 15-year-old.

It is the most recent  stage in the Clinton emails investigation in which the FBI has looked into whether Clinton and her staff broke strict laws on the handling of classified material while she was Secretary of State through their use of the now notorious Clintonemail.com server.

The case appeared to be closed in July when James Comey, the FBI director announced that Clinton would not be prosecuted. It was later made clear there would be no other prosecutions.

However last week's bombshell announcement that new emails were being examined put the focus squarely on 40-year-old Abedin.

Although the decision had been made not to prosecute, that was on the basis of the existing evidence at the time. But if the search finds new evidence of breaking laws about the handling of classified material, there is nothing to stop a prosecution of Abedin - or anyone else.

That, however, is not the only potential for a brush with the law for Abedin.

The FBI investigation into the Clinton Foundation also drags her into the spotlight.

The probe, the Wall Street Journal reported, is into whether the Foundation was involved in financial crimes or influence-peddling.

That would directly draw in Abedin. Her overlapping series of roles while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State has been unmasked by emails published either as a result of lawsuits against the State Department, or hacked from John Podesta's account.

She was at various times Clinton's White House deputy chief of staff; her senior adviser; a consultant for Teneo Holdings; working for the Clinton Foundation.  

It was also revealed that while she was at the State Department where she was Clinton's gatekeeper, Abedin received emails from Doug Band - Bill Clinton's right-hand man at the Clinton Foundation - asking for help and access for 'friends' or 'friend of ours'.

And finally there is the possibility of a federal perjury case.

The discovery of a laptop during the Anthony Weiner sexting investigation by the FBI appears at odds with testimony she gave under oath as part of a deposition in a federal case that she had passed on all relevant devices to the FBI. 

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Best of friends: Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe with Hillary Clinton as she headlined a fundraiser for the PAC he controls. It then gave $500,000 to the wife of the now FBI deputy director for her own political ambitions

Terry McAuliffe: Clinton cash from China

Probes: Clinton Foundation; links to foreign donations 

Who is he: Currently Democratic governor of Virginia. Has previously been prolific Clinton fundraiser and chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and chairman of Hillary's failed 2008 run for the White House. 

McAuliffe was a board member of the Clinton Foundation from at least 2004, so he will surely be caught up in investigations conducted by the FBI's Washington DC field office into whether it was used as a front for influence-peddling.

But the overlaps between him and the Foundation go further than that and into his own campaign for governor and related campaigning.

The Washington Post reported in 2015 how he and the foundation had 120 overlapping donors, who had given him, his campaign or his political action committee $13.8 million.

That political action committee then went on to fund another campaign - that of Dr Jill McCabe, whose husband Mark is currently the deputy director of the FBI. He was the assistant FBI director when Jill McCabe was running for state senator in Virginia.

The PAC controlled by McAuliffe, which had received money from Clinton Foundation donors, gave Jill McCabe more than $500,000, prompting her husband to stand back from the Clinton Foundation investigation.

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Chinese government front? Wang Wenliang, the billionaire McAuliffe at first claimed he had never met, filmed entering a fundraiser attended by the governor at Clinton's home

Part of the $13.8 million is, however, involved in a second FBI investigation which focuses on McAuliffe personally regarding donations of $120,000 from a Chinese man called Wang Wenliang. 

The FBI is investigating whether donations made were in breach of a ban on foreign governments influencing US elections. Wenliang, a billionaire according to Forbes, is a member of the one-party state's parliament - as well as a donor to the Clinton Foundation.

He is also a US permanent resident and his donations came through a US firm.

This weekend's tidal wave of revelations also shed new light on an FBI investigation into the donations. 

McAuliffe's attorney was reported by the Wall Street Journal to have said that the investigation focused on whether he had previously failed to register as an agent of a foreign entity.

In May, when the revelation of the FBI foreign donations probe emerged,  McAuliffe denied ever meeting Wenliang. Then he backtracked - saying 'I did not deals' - when told by his staff that there were 'likely' several meetings.

DailyMail.com revealed footage of him going to a fundraiser also attended by Wengliang.

The venue was Hillary Clinton's Washington DC home and the attendees included Huma Abedin. 

The governor's lawyer told the Wall Street Journal the probe is focused on 'whether he failed to register as an agent of a foreign entity'.