This ruling was part of an ongoing case involving whistleblowers who have long alleged wrongdoing on the part of the charity that bears the name of former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Judge David Gustafson pointed to a “gap” in IRS records and said that the agency’s claim to have never criminally investigated the Clintons’ charity “was not supported by the administrative record and thus constituted an abuse of discretion.”
Although most of the details of the case involving the Clinton Foundation and two whistleblowers, Lawrence W. Doyle and John F. Moynihan, have remained sealed, Gustafson authorized the release of his April 22 ruling, which remanded the case back to the IRS Whistleblower Office, to investigative reporter John Solomon’s outlet Just the News.
“The WO must further investigate to determine whether CI [criminal investigative division] proceeded with an investigation based on petitioners’ information and collected proceeds,” the ruling stated. “It seems clear we should remand the case to the WO so that it can explore this gap.”
Just the News noted that the judge also declined Doyle and Moynihan’s request to accept a deposition from an Arkansas state official or to compel discovery in the case. Gustafson determined that to do so would have been “outside the scope of proper discovery” and cast cold water on any hopes of a revelatory trial.
“Petitioners evidently look forward to a trial in which they hope to prove wrongdoing and tax evasion by the target entities and to prove dereliction of duty by the IRS,” he stated. “There will be no such trial in this case.”
All the same, the ruling serves to perpetuate long-standing allegations that the Clintons were using their foundation to launder money for political favors from foreign entities.
In December 2018, Doyle and Moynihan, who are respected forensic financial investigators according to Just the News, testified before Congress that they had filed an IRS whistleblower complaint against the organization.
The two alleged that the Clinton Foundation had engaged in illegal foreign lobbying when it accepted donations from overseas while trying to influence U.S. policy.
The charity “began acting as an agent of foreign governments early in its life and throughout its existence,” Moynihan stated before a House panel.
“As such, the foundation should’ve registered under FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act). Ultimately, the Foundation and its auditors conceded in formal submissions that it did operate as a (foreign) agent, therefore the foundation is not entitled to its 501c3 tax-exempt privileges as outlined in IRS 170 (c)2,” he said.
The Clinton Foundation, in response, declared itself to be “one of the most heavily scrutinized charitable organizations in the world” which had nonetheless “demonstrably improved the lives of millions of people across America and around the world, while earning top ratings from charity watchdog groups in the process.”
Of course, it doesn’t help matters much that between Hillary’s missing emails, the Uranium One scandal and the fact that the charity’s donations plummeted after she left the State Department, it’s easy to form a picture of some corruption, at best.
Some allegations and rumors have warped into outlandish claims and theories that are far from proven — and in some cases, have even been disproven — but when it comes to the Clintons, it’s true that scandals seem to follow them wherever they go
Before the deleted emails and Clinton Foundation allegations, there were allegations of drug running in Mena, Arkansas, while Bill was governor, accusations that he enlisted state troopers to help him with his illicit extracurricular activities, the Whitewater scandal, and of course, accusations of rape.