Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. (YouTube)

(CNSNews.com) -- As deputy FBI director, Andrew McCabe received a phone call on August 12, 2016 -- less than three months before the presidential election -- from the Obama Justice Department, in which he apparently was pressured to shut down the FBI's investigation into the Clinton Foundation (CF), an organization that some critics allege was used as a multi-million dollar pay-for-play operation to buy access to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

On Friday, April 13, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) at the Department of Justice issued a report on McCabe, detailing how he had "lacked candor," even under oath, on four occassions that dealt with a leak to the Wall Street Journal. For this misconduct the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility recommended that McCabe be fired, which Attorney General Jeff Sessions did on January 29, 2018.

However, the OIG also reports that the FBI was investigating the Clinton Foundation in 2016, an election year involving Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. She already was being investigated for her illicit use of a private email server -- by McCabe and other FBI agents -- when she was Secretary of State under President Barack Obama.

The OIG report states, "McCabe told the OIG that on August 12, 2016, he received a telephone call from PADAG [Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General] regarding the FBI’s handling of the CF Investigation (the “PADAG call”).

Hillary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton. (YouTube)

"McCabe said that PADAG expressed concerns about FBI agents taking overt steps in the CF [Clinton Foundation] Investigation during the presidential campaign.

"According to McCabe, he pushed back, asking 'are you telling me that I need to shut down a validly predicated investigation?'

"McCabe told us that the conversation was 'very dramatic' and he never had a similar confrontation like the PADAG call with a high level Department official in his entire FBI career."

Why is a top official from the Obama Justice Department apparently pressuring then-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe to shut down the Bureau's investigation of the Clinton Foundation?

Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, who was fired by President Trump in January 2017 for refusing to enforce administration policy. (YouTube)

Commenting on the matter, J. Christian Adams, an attorney who formerly served (2005-2008) in the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, said, "This is a top-level DOJ official who called the FBI and said shut down the Hillary [Clinton] Foundation investigation."

"What kind of Justice Deaprtment do we have, that a couple weeks before the election, that presidential political appointees are calling the No. 2 guy at the FBI, essentially saying, give Hillary a pass?" said Adams. "That's in the OIG report! That's the real bombshell!"

The Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General serves under the deputy attorney general. In 2016, the deputy attorney general was Sally Yates.

She was fired by President Trump on Jan. 30, 2017 because she refused to enforce the administration's policy on limiting immigration from certain countries.

Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch. (YouTube)

The Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General in 2016 was Bill Baer. But it is not known whether he was the person who called McCabe on Aug. 12, 2016.

Baer was initally selected by President Barack Obama in 2012 to serve as assistant attorney general for the Antitrust Division. Baer currently works at the law firm Arnold & Porter.