The Justice Department has launched a new inquiry into whether the Clinton Foundation engaged in any pay-to-play politics or other illegal activities while Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonConservatives pound BuzzFeed, media over Cohen report BuzzFeed story has more to say about media than the president Trump knocks BuzzFeed over Cohen report, points to Russia dossier MORE served as secretary of State, law enforcement officials and a witness tells The Hill. 
 
 FBI agents from Little Rock, Ark., where the foundation was started, have taken the lead in the investigation and have interviewed at least one witness in the last month, and law enforcement officials said additional activities are expected in the coming weeks. 
 
 The officials, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the probe is examining whether the Clintons promised or performed any policy favors in return for largesse to their charitable efforts or whether donors made commitments of donations in hopes of securing government outcomes. 
 
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 The probe may 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. 
 
 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 witness discussed his interview solely on the grounds of anonymity. He said the agents were from Little Rock and their questions focused on government decisions and discussions of donations to Clinton entities during the time Hillary Clinton led President Obama's State Department. 
 
 The FBI office in Little Rock referred a reporter Thursday to Washington headquarters, where officials declined any official comment. 
 
 Foundation spokesman Craig Minassian took a more muted response, saying the new probe wouldn't distract the charity from its daily work. 
 
 “Time after time, the Clinton Foundation has been subjected to politically motivated allegations, and time after time these allegations have been proven false. None of this has made us waver in our mission to help people," Minassian said. "The Clinton Foundation has 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." 
 
 The Wall Street Journal reported late last year that several FBI field offices, including the one in Little Rock, had been collecting information on the Clinton Foundation for more than a year. The report also said there had been pushback to the FBI from the Justice Department. 
 
 A renewed law enforcement focus follows a promise to Congress late last year from top Trump Justice Department officials that law enforcement would revisit some of the investigations and legal issues closed during the Obama years that conservatives felt were given short shrift. It also follows months of relentless criticism on Twitter from President Trump, who has repeatedly questioned why no criminal charges were ever filed against the “crooked” Clintons and their fundraising machine. 
 
 For years, news media from The New York Times to The Daily Caller have reported countless stories on donations to the Clinton Foundation or speech fees that closely fell around the time of favorable decisions by Clinton's State Department. Conservative author Peter Schweizer chronicled the most famous of episodes in his book "Clinton Cash" that gave ammunition to conservatives, including Trump, to beat the drum for a renewed investigation. 
 
 Several GOP members of Congress have recently urged Attorney General Jeff Sessions to appoint a special counsel to look at the myriad issues surrounding the Clintons. Justice officials sent a letter to Congress in November suggesting some of those issues were being re-examined, but Sessions later testified the appointment of a special prosecutor required a high legal bar that had not yet been met. 
 
 Officials also said the Justice Department was re-examining whether there are any unresolved issues from the closed case into Clinton's transmission of classified information through her personal email server. Former FBI Director James Comey James Brien ComeyDems revive impeachment talk after latest Cohen bombshell Dem calls for Cohen to testify before Senate panel over explosive report The Hill’s 12:30 Report: Day 27 of the shutdown | Cohen reportedly paid company to rig online polls, boost his own image | Atlantic publishes ‘Impeach Donald Trump’ cover story MORE in 2016 concluded Clinton was “extremely careless” in handling that classified information and that there was some evidence of legal violations, but he declined to recommend charges on the grounds that he could not prove Clinton and her top aides intended to break the law. 
 
 His decision was roundly criticized by Republicans, and recent revelations that his statement was watered down by edits and that he made the decision before all witness interviews were finished have led to renewed criticism. 
 
 A senior law enforcement official said the Justice Department was exploring whether any issues from that probe should be re-opened but cautioned the effort was not at the stage of a full investigation. 
 
 One challenge for any Clinton-era investigation is that the statute of limitations on most federal felonies is five years, and Clinton left office in early 2013. 
 
 Updated 7:35 a.m. on Jan. 5. ||||| Tweet with a location 
 
 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| Justice Department officials are taking a fresh look at Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she served as secretary of State, The Daily Beast has learned. 
 
 An ally of Attorney General Jeff Sessions who is familiar with the thinking at the Justice Department’s Washington headquarters described it as an effort to gather new details on how Clinton and her aides handled classified material. Officials’ questions include how much classified information was sent over Clinton’s server; who put that information into an unclassified environment, and how; and which investigators knew about these matters and when. The Sessions ally also said officials have questions about immunity agreements that Clinton aides may have made. 
 
 A former senior DOJ official familiar with department leadership’s thinking said officials there are acutely aware of demands from President Donald Trump that they look into Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of State—and that they lock up her top aide, Huma Abedin. 
 
 For instance, Trump tweeted on Dec. 2, “Many people in our Country are asking what the ‘Justice’ Department is going to do about the fact that totally Crooked Hillary, AFTER receiving a subpoena from the United States Congress, deleted and ‘acid washed’ 33,000 Emails? No justice!” 
 
 “ If the White House asks you to look into it... The answer is to tell the White House to stay out of investigations and prosecutions, especially when it comes to your political opponents. ” — Matt Miller 
 
 The former official said tweets like this present two challenges for department leadership: looking into the matter in a way consistent with normal Justice Department approaches, and trying to avoid the appearance that they are trying “to put Huma in jail.” 
 
 A spokesperson for the Justice Department declined to comment for this story. 
 
 It’s an open question as to whether Justice Department officials would have the same level of interest in Clinton’s server without a political directive from the White House, the former official said. 
 
 Last week, the State Department released emails, in response to a lawsuit from the conservative group Judicial Watch, showing that classified material was on the computer of Abedin’s then-husband Anthony Weiner. Sources told The Daily Beast that Justice Department officials were looking into the Clinton emails before those documents were released. 
 
 Stephen Boyd, who heads the Justice Department's Office of Legislative Affairs, appeared to hint at the department’s interest in Clinton’s emails in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte on Nov. 13. In the letter, Boyd wrote that that Sessions “directed senior federal prosecutors to evaluate certain issues” the chairman was concerned about. He also wrote that those prosecutors would “make recommendations as to whether any matters not currently under investigation should be opened,” and that they would send those recommendations directly to the attorney general and his top deputy, Rod Rosenstein. 
 
 Brian Fallon, formerly a spokesperson for the Justice Department and Clinton’s presidential campaign, said he suspects DOJ officials are engaging in perfunctory steps “to give Trump and his allies something to talk about and point to, and something to give Fox News to devote segments to.” 
 
 “I think that even that is extremely dangerous, and that the Justice Department should not be opening itself up to the perception that it is bending to political pressures from the White House,” Fallon continued. “The Justice Department is supposed to operate independently of the White House, and even if this is just a perfunctory step that they’re taking to try to appease the president, that in and of itself is an abuse of the DOJ authority.” 
 
 Nick Merrill, Secretary Clinton’s communications director, had this to say: 
 
 “As Trump begins the new year with Steve Bannon calling his campaign treasonous and indictments and guilty pleas piling up, he resorts to diversion and distraction like clockwork, with the help of his attorney general. Few matters have been more scrutinized than emails, and it was determined that there was no wrongdoing. Trump’s behavior shows a profound disrespect for the rule of law and an unprecedented abuse of power—with his attorney general following suit at every turn. It tarnishes our justice system, and should be deeply troubling to all Americans.” 
 
 Clinton’s use of a private email server—which the FBI previously investigated, and declined to recommend for criminal prosecution—became a huge issue on the campaign trail. Trump mentioned it at just about every campaign rally, frequently followed by chants of “Lock her up!” from his supporters. On July 5, then-FBI Director James Comey made an unprecedented public statement blasting Clinton’s use of the server, but then explained why the bureau wouldn’t recommend she or any of her associates be prosecuted. 
 
 Over the summer, Trump made the email story a central campaign narrative. And at the Oct. 9 presidential debate, he threatened to incarcerate Clinton if he won the election. 
 
 “If I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation,” he said, referring to her emails, “because there has never been so many lies, so much deception.” 
 
 “It’s just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country,” she replied. 
 
 “Because you’d be in jail,” he retorted. 
 
 In the weeks after that exchange, the email story dominated the news; on Oct. 28, Comey sent a letter to Capitol Hill—which promptly leaked—saying the investigation was reopened. Then, on Nov. 6, two days before the election, Comey followed up with another letter explaining that he actually hadn’t found new information in additional emails. Republicans were irate that Comey backtracked. Clinton’s camp was irate that he’d said anything at all. In less than two weeks, the FBI director had pulled off a vanishingly rare Washington feat: upsetting everyone. 
 
 And though Trump (obviously) became president, many conservatives still argue the Justice Department didn’t adequately investigate Clinton. The president himself, with lots of encouragement from the crew at Fox & Friends, has lobbed a host of critical tweets at the Justice Department on the issue. 
 
 “Crooked Hillary Clinton’s top aid [sic], Huma Abedin, has been accused of disregarding basic security protocols,” he wrote on Tuesday morning. “She put Classified Passwords into the hands of foreign agents. Remember sailors pictures on submarine? Jail! Deep State Justice Dept must finally act? Also on Comey & others.” 
 
 Conservatives said the revelation that Justice Department officials are looking at Clinton’s email server comes as a relief. 
 
 “Clearly, that’s the least they can be doing, is asking some of these questions,” said Tom Fitton, who heads Judicial Watch. “I think there’s enough there to re-initiate an investigation.” 
 
 “It’s certainly a positive development,” added Fitton, whose organization sued for the release of thousands of Clinton emails and deposed her top aides. “It’s part of what we’ve been demanding.” 
 
 “ It’s about time they’re doing a review of this whole mess. ” — Mark Corallo 
 
 Mark Corallo—a former spokesperson for Trump’s legal team and the John Ashcroft-era Justice Department—also said it’s a good sign. 
 
 “People should be encouraged that the new leadership at the Justice Department is actually interested in a nonpartisan, above-board Justice Department that treats every citizen equally,” he said. “And we can hope that this means they are dedicating themselves to cleaning up the Justice Department and the FBI, sanctioning any FBI agents or DOJ lawyers who are found to have violated their ethical and legal responsibilities, and restoring the trust of the American people.” 
 
 “It’s about time they’re doing a review of this whole mess,” he added. 
 
 Matt Miller, a spokesperson for the department during Holder’s time there, vehemently disagreed. He said the news is evidence that Trump is undermining the independence of the Justice Department. 
 
 “The president’s ongoing campaign to tear down the wall between the Justice Department and the White House seems to be working,” he said. 
 
 “If the White House asks you to look into it, the answer is not to look into it for the sake of looking into it,” he continued. “The answer is to tell the White House to stay out of investigations and prosecutions, especially when it comes to your political opponents. You’re just encouraging a bully. If you encourage him to do that, he’ll just keep bullying you.”
– There's a case brewing in DC, and the DOJ is on it. Actually, it's an old case being given new life, seeking potential illegal activities tied to the Clinton Foundation while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state. The Hill first reported Thursday on the reinvigorated inquiry, with a witness and law enforcement sources saying that FBI agents have been poking around in Little Rock, Ark., where the foundation was established, and conducted at least one interview (the New York Times notes several apparent interviews with "people connected to the foundation"). The officials say the probe will look into whether there was any pay-to-play action going on during Clinton's State Dept. tenure (between 2009 and 2013) in the Obama administration, as well as whether all tax laws were adhered to. The foundation has been under the microscope before, but that probe fizzled out in 2016, per the Washington Post. "Time after time these [politically motivated] allegations have been proven false," a foundation rep tells the Hill. Meanwhile, officials note the DOJ is also re-examining whether there was more to the Clinton email server that hadn't been thoroughly wrapped up before that case was closed. The Daily Beast reported Thursday that a source said to be an ally of AG Jeff Sessions detailed a new effort on the emails front that includes finding more out about the classified correspondence allegedly sent via Clinton's server, as well as who knew about the info there. Newsweek notes President Trump has spoken in the past about diving deeper into Clinton's emails, though it adds it's unclear if the DOJ's actions are linked to his demands. Nick Merrill, Hillary Clinton's spokesman, calls the new looks at Clinton a "sham" and points the finger at Sessions for "doing Trump's bidding by heeding his calls to meddle with a department that is supposed to function independently."