Another FBI bomb: Agency releases Bill Clinton pardon case files days before vote

Politics

Another FBI bomb: Agency releases Bill Clinton pardon case files days before vote

The FBI has unexpectedly released a heavily redacted 129-page report over the ex-President Bill Clinton’s pardon of trader Marc Rich — an investigation that closed in 2005 without charges. The agency published the documents on Monday, and then publicized them via an FBI Twitter account on Tuesday, moves that had Hillary Clinton campaign officials wondering about the timing and motives behind the documents’ release. The FBI said the documents were posted shortly after they were processed, as with Freedom on Information Act materials requested three or more times.

Rich was indicted on federal charges of tax evasion in the United States, and a fugitive from the Department of Justice. In a controversial move, Bill Clinton pardoned him on his last day in office on Jan. 20, 2001. The FBI opened its investigation into the pardon later that year. Rich’s ex-wife Denise Eisenberg Rich, whose name was redacted from the FBI files, “has been a major political donor to the Democratic Party, and these donations may have been intended to influence the fugitive’s pardon,” reads a bureau note requesting that a preliminary investigation be opened.