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Lynch’s role has come into question after Bill Clinton boarded her plane on the tarmac in Arizona for what he described as a chat about grandchildren. Days later Lynch recommended that Hillary Clinton not be prosecuted.

Agents within the FBI were keen to investigate the Clinton Foundation but were blocked by their own bosses and by senior officials at the department of justice, according to The Wall Street Journal. FBI officials in four field offices — New York, Los Angeles, Washington and Little Rock, Ark. — were collecting information about the foundation to see if there was evidence of financial crimes or influence-peddling, sources told WSJ.

Details obtained by the newspaper show that justice officials repeatedly voiced scepticism about the evidence in the FBI’s investigation, and told agents to limit their pursuit of the case. In February, FBI officials made a presentation to the justice department, which dismissed the investigation as not having strong evidence. FBI officials called the meeting “stern” and “icy.”

The FBI was told by the justice department that it had been denied the use of aggressive investigative techniques, such as subpoenas, formal witness interviews, or grand jury activity. But the FBI officials believed they were well within their authority to pursue the leads and method, the WSJ said. The row is complicated by the fact that the wife of Andrew McCabe, number 2 at the FBI, received a $467,500 campaign donation last year, when she was running for Senate, from a supporter of the Clintons who used to be on the board of their foundation. Jill McCabe lost the race in November, despite the donation from the political-action committee of Terry McAuliffe, the governor of Virginia.

A spokesman for the governor said: “Any insinuation that his support was tied to anything other than his desire to elect candidates who would help pass his agenda is ridiculous.”

Jill McCabe told the WSJ her husband had no role in her campaign.

In February, he was put in charge of investigating the Clinton emails. Others further down the FBI chain of command said agents were instructed not to pursue the case on the orders of McCabe. Others familiar with the matter deny that McCabe or any other senior FBI official gave such an order.