The Justice Department has begun a new probe into whether the Clinton Foundation engaged in pay-to-play politics or other illegal activities while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, The Hill reported Thursday.
Lead FBI agents in Little Rock, Arkansas, where the Foundation is headquartered, have already interviewed at least one witness in the last month, according to the report.
The officials told The Hill agents are examining whether the Clintons promised or performed any policy favors in return for donations to their charitable efforts — or whether donors made commitments of donations in hopes of securing government outcomes.
The probe might also examine whether any tax-exempt assets were converted for personal or political use and whether the Foundation complied with applicable tax laws, the officials said.
The Justice Department is also reportedly re-examining whether there are any unresolved issues from the closed case into Clinton's transmission of classified information through her personal email server.
The renewed law enforcement focus follows a promise to Congress from the Trump administration that law enforcement would revisit some of the investigations and legal issues closed under President Barack Obama that conservatives felt were given short shrift.
The issues of impropriety, however, were raised in reports from media outlets ranging from The New York Times to The Daily Caller, The Hill noted — adding conservative author Peter Schweizer's "Clinton Cash" also fueled demands for a renewed probe.
Meanwhile, The Hill also reported former FBI Director James Comey's original 2016 conclusion Clinton, as secretary of state, was "extremely careless" in handling classified data on her private email server was edited by subordinates to remove five separate references to terms like "grossly negligent" — and to delete mention of evidence supporting felony and misdemeanor violations.
Comey also originally concluded it was "reasonably likely" Clinton's nonsecure private server was accessed or hacked by hostile actors, though there was no evidence to prove it. But that passage also was schanged to a much weaker "possible," the memos show.
The full draft and edits were released on the website of Senate Homeland and Government Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., providing the most complete public accounting to date of Comey's draft and the subsequent edits.
According to The Hill, the full draft shows Comey originally wrote May 2, 2016, there was evidence Clinton and top aides might have violated both felony and misdemeanor statutes, though he did not believe he could prove intent, The Hill reported.
The FBI has told Congress the edits were made by subordinates to Comey and then accepted by the then-director before he made his final announcement July 5, 2016, he would not pursue criminal charges against Clinton.
"The edits to Director Comey's public statement, made months prior to the conclusion of the FBI's investigation of Secretary Clinton's conduct, had a significant impact on the FBI's public evaluation of the implications of her actions," Johnson wrote in a letter to new FBI Director Christopher Wray.
"This effort, seen in light of the personal animus toward then-candidate Trump by senior agents leading the Clinton investigation and their apparent desire to create an 'insurance policy' against Mr. Trump's election, raise profound questions about the FBI's role and possible interference in the 2016 presidential election," Johnson wrote, The Hill reported.