FBI Arrests 22 Clinton Foundation Employees Days After Reopening Investigation-Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
The FBI arrested 22 Clinton Foundation employees for illegal activities just one day after reopening an investigation into the foundation’s practices.
The Truth:
The FBI reopened an investigation into allegations of “pay-to-play” politics at the Clinton Foundation in January 2018. But rumors that the FBI arrested 22 Clinton Foundation employees on the first day of the investigation are false.
The Hill reported on January 4, 2018, that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had ordered the Department of Justice to review Clinton Foundation practices. The review was to explore whether donors received any policy favors in exchange for their donations to the foundation. It’s also exploring whether the foundation’s tax-exempt assets were used for political or personal purposes:
One witness recently interviewed by the FBI described the session to The Hill as “extremely professional and unquestionably thorough” and focused on questions about whether donors to Clinton charitable efforts received any favorable treatment from the Obama administration on a policy decision previously highlighted in media reports.
The investigations was in its early stages by January 9th. But it didn’t take long for news of the Clinton Foundation review to become intertwined into the long-running Clinton body count conspiracy theory. The theory goes that the Clintons have murdered political opponents over the years during their rise to power.
An article appearing under the headline, “22 Clinton Foundation Employees Arrested on First Day of New Investigation,” appeared at fringe websites with domains registered in Panama (a known hotbed of fake news websites). One of those domains, PatriotUnited.club, was registered on December 22, 2017, about a week before the Clinton Foundation story went viral.
Aside from those red flags, the story credits the scoop to Attorney General Jeff Sessions himself. And if Sessions would have actually announced that 22 Clinton Foundation employees were arrested, it would have been a major news story with every mainstream publication covering it. That’s especially true since the fabricated report claims the Clintons were behind 100 murders, including a senator.
Given all that, we’re calling reports that the FBI arrested 22 Clinton Foundation employees “fiction.”