Clinton campaign questioning FBI's release of files from 2001 investigation

The FBI said on Tuesday it released 129 pages of heavily redacted files from its 2001 investigation into former President Bill Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich because at least three Freedom of Information Act requests were made regarding the documents.

Rich was a hedge-fund manager and financier indicted on several counts of tax evasion while in Switzerland; he never returned to the U.S. On his last day in office, Clinton pardoned Rich, and it later came out Rich's then-wife, Denise, was a donor to the William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park and the Democratic Party. The FBI closed its investigation into the pardon in 2005, and no charges were filed. The FBI said in a statement the agency's Records Management Division "receives thousands of FOIA requests annually, which are processed on a first in, first out basis. By law, FOIA materials that have been requested three or more times are posted electronically to the FBI's public reading room shortly after they are processed."

FBI Director James Comey has been under fire by Democrats and Republicans since last week, when he told Congress the agency was looking at emails that might be related to the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private server. Many have accused him of meddling in the election, which is one week away. On Twitter, Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said that "absent a FOIA litigation deadline, this is odd. Will FBI be posting docs on Trump's housing discrimination in '70s?"

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