A FBI memo says that when James Comey was about to take over as the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan in 2001 he expressed strong interest in Bill Clinton's last-minute pardons. | Getty Comey 'enthusiastic' about Bill Clinton probe in 2001, FBI memo says

FBI Director James Comey—blamed by many Democrats for costing Hillary Clinton the presidential election last year—was excited about pursuing a criminal investigation into President Bill Clinton's most controversial pardons more than a decade ago, newly released FBI files show.

A FBI memo about the grand jury investigation into Bill Clinton's last-minute pardons of fugitive financiers Marc Rich and Pincus Green says that when Comey was about to take over as the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan in 2001 he expressed strong interest in the case.


"Incoming U.S. Attorney, SDNY, James Comey was briefed on 12/12/2001 by AUSA [Assistant U.S. Attorney's name redacted] USA Comey is enthusiastic about this investigation and supports the proposed investigative plan set forth by AUSA [redacted,]" the FBI message said. The name of the author of the memo was also deleted from the record released publicly but the memo was sent to top officials in the criminal investigative division at FBI headquarters and at the FBI field office in New York.

Hillary Clinton campaign aides cried foul in early November after a smaller set of 129 pages of records related to the FBI’s investigation of the pardons were posted on the law enforcement agency’s website just days before the election. FBI officials said the records were part of a routine response to Freedom of Information Act requests regarding the Clinton Foundation.

The Justice Department inspector general’s office announced last week that it is examining that FOIA release as part of a broader inquiry into how the FBI handled various election-related matters, including public disclosures about the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

The FBI’s probe of the Rich and Green pardons focused on whether they obtained the clemency in exchange for $450,000 Rich’s ex-wife, singer Denise Rich, donated to the Clinton Foundation, as well as other contributions. Bill Clinton denied any quid pro quo. No charges were ever brought.

A July 2002 memo to then-FBI Director Robert Mueller says investigators were exploring “potential federal violations of bribery, obstruction of justice, money laundering, conspiracy and campaign finance law offenses.”

“The investigation has revealed a tactful, secret, lobby campaign [redacted] and other people with unique influence with President Clinton and his administration,” the memo says.

Online web archives indicate the latest batch of 509 pages of records was posted sometime between Monday and Wednesday of this week. An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment on the timing of the new release and on Comey’s reported enthusiasm for the decade-old pardon case.

Comey’s keen interest in the pardons of Rich and Green is understandable given that as an assistant U.S. attorney in New York in the late 1980s and early 1990s, he headed up the investigation and prosecution of the two men on charges of tax evasion and evading U.S. oil sanctions on Iran.

“I was stunned when President Clinton pardoned them,” Comey said in a 2008 letter to Congress.

Comey took over the investigation of the pardons in 2002 when U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White, who launched the pardon probe, left the government. Comey left for Washington in 2003 when he was named deputy attorney general. The probe was finally closed down in 2005 by interim U.S. Attorney David Kelley, four years after it began.

An FBI memo from November 2004 described the scope of the investigation and the effort expended.

“Hundreds of interviews were conducted in multiple FBI field offices, and numerous witnesses testified in two successive grand juries,” the memo to FBI New York Special Agent in Charge Frederick Snellings said. “While some evidence has been obtained to support [the FBI squad’s] theory of contributions from [Marc] Rich in exchange for the pardon, the investigation, at the present time, is expected to receive a declination of prosecution from the Southern District of New York in the near future.”

Some of the records released this week provide intriguing hints about other probes that may have involved the Clinton Foundation. For instance, the just-disclosed file includes a 2009 federal grand jury subpoena from New Orleans. The document, seeking records but not testimony, is heavily redacted. It is not clear whether the subpoena was issued to the foundation or related to the foundation in some other way.

It is also unclear what crime was being investigated at the time, although a filing code on the 2009 subpoena suggests it relates to a probe into fraud against the government.

A Clinton Foundation spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.