It Exists: DOJ Finds Letter Ordering Scrutiny of Uranium One, Hillary Clinton

After it claimed no such document existed, the Justice Department just unearthed a letter Matt Whitaker delivered to the Utah U.S. attorney directing a review of how the department handled the Clinton Foundation and the Uranium One issues.

Then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions wrote the letter on Nov. 22, 2017 for Utah U.S. Attorney John Huber. Matt Whitaker, who was Sessions’ chief of staff at the time, emailed the letter to Huber that day, writing, “As we discussed.” He also sent Huber a copy of a letter the Justice Department’s Congressional affairs chief sent to the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee on Nov. 13 of that year.

The existence of a letter documenting Sessions’ directive that the DOJ revisit probes of Trump’s top political foe is a surprise because a department lawyer said in court last year that senior officials insisted it didn’t exist. The liberal nonprofit American Oversight obtained the letter through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request they filed on Nov. 22, 2017––the same day Whitaker emailed Sessions’ letter to Huber.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/doj-finds-letter-it-said-didnt-exist-ordering-scrutiny-of-uranium-one-hillary-clinton

From:faiz.shakir@gmail.com

To: john.podesta@gmail.com

CC: jpalmieri@hillaryclinton.com

Date: 2015-04-29 21:17

Subject: Re: Sadia

Well, you are her Godfather whether you knew that or not. And I think the

rule of godfather is you follow orders or people get hurt. So we'll be there

On Apr 29, 2015 7:01 PM, "John Podesta" <john.podesta@gmail.comwrote:

> Have to have Sadia visit Brandywine St. For dinner soon. Can't wait to

> meet her. Love to Mom.

>

> On Wednesday, April 29, 2015, Faiz Shakir <faiz.shakir@gmail.com> wrote:

>

>> hey Jennifer and John, apropos of nothing except fatherly pride, I

>> thought I'd share a couple of photos of our daughter Sadia with you.

>>

>> We're not sleeping much, but we're doing fine despite it.

>>

>> Hope you both are doing well and enjoying Brooklyn

>>

>>

>>

From:faiz.shakir@gmail.com

To: john.podesta@gmail.com

Date: 2015-11-19 18:00

Subject: Re: What did you think of the speech?

I, and many many others in this building, appreciated the courage of HRC

standing up for refugees at a moment when some Dems were going soft. That’s

first and foremost. You could have followed the Schumer path and you

didn’t. Not sure if people on the outside appreciate that, but we certainly

do.

I think the “radical jihadism” language works well. As you know, I wouldn’t

have picked the fight over “radical islam” to begin with. I’m always happy

to just concede that it’s a real thing and define it as a marginalized

strain, which she did do today. I told Reid this, and I suggest it to you

as well: you just don't want to be on the slippery slope of sounding like

an imam who is defining what true islam is. From a policy perspective,

there's a radical strain. Moreover, I like making the Muslim world feel

like they need to activate to separate themselves and define themselves

(which is happening). By the way, every time Reid has spoken out in defense

of Muslims, it has our most popular messaging of anything we do.

Really appreciated the Saudi hit on feeding radical ideology. I wish we

could have a project on building a progressive Islam. Would require

advocating for and lifting up progressive leaders in that nation to speak

about it/ to do online campaigning around it/etc. We tend to be overly

focused on the violent strains of the radicalism. But even if there weren’t

violence, the fact that too many who are for subjugation of women, against

gays, against Jews and Christians, etc – is a serious problem for our

future. Unfortunately, if you sounded progressive in the Middle

East/Pakistan, you'd be putting yourself at security risk.

Areas of concern:

Saying no to 100k troops on the ground, leaving the door open to

McCain/Graham’s 10k desire

I personally would be a little harsher on saudi, uae, jordan, etc for

leaving the fight in syria, but I understand that's thorny

On Thu, Nov 19, 2015 at 2:29 PM, John Podesta <john.podesta@gmail.com>

wrote: