Matthew Whitaker, then-chief of staff to ex-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, delivered a written directive from Sessions to a federal prosecutor asking for a review of a past probe into the Clinton Foundation, contradicting denials from the DOJ that no such written documentation existed, according to the Daily Beast.
The watchdog group American Oversight released a letter Friday that it received via a Freedom of Information Act request that shows that the Justice Department was incorrect when it “swore under penalty of perjury” last year that the letter didn’t exist, Austin Evers, head of the watchdog group, said in a statement. The DOJ has maintained that instructions about the review of the probe were only given orally in meetings.
Sessions wrote the letter in November 2017, asking Utah U.S. Attorney John Huber to review the Justice Department’s probe into the Clinton Foundation and the Uranium One contract. Whitaker emailed the letter to Huber on Nov. 22, saying “as we discussed.”
It’s been known that Huber was looking into the sale of Uranium One to a Russian-owned company, a deal that conservatives claim Hillary Clinton did not oppose as secretary of state because of donations to her foundation.
NEW: Jeff Sessions caved to Trump's authoritarian demands. We obtained the signed directive from Sessions to a federal prosecutor ordering a wide-ranging investigation of Hillary Clinton. https://t.co/whiwbVudOm pic.twitter.com/1KGGrMIunG
— American Oversight (@weareoversight) March 9, 2019