the federal bureau of investigation on tuesday released files related to a years-old probe involving former president bill clinton, further stirring democrats<u+2019> anger over the agency<u+2019>s disclosure of newly discovered emails possibly related to hillary clinton. the heavily redacted case files released were part of a 2001 probe into mr. clinton<u+2019>s pardon of billionaire fugitive marc rich. fbi officials said the release wasn<u+2019>t intentionally done during the last days of the election campaign. the fbi posted the documents to <u+201c>the vault,<u+201d> its website for publishing responses to requests under the freedom of information act, or foia. the bureau receives thousands of such requests a year but posts online only those that have at least three different requesters. the documents recount the initial concern that launched the investigation into mr. rich<u+2019>s pardon<u+2014>that it had not been handled through standard channels for pardon requests<u+2014>and they note that a grand jury was convened to hear evidence from witnesses. both facts were known at the time. mr. clinton has said the rich pardon was in the best interests of justice. the timing of the release upset democrats, coming days after fbi director james comey disclosed that agents had found a new cache of emails that could be related to the closed probe into hillary clinton<u+2019>s use of a personal server when she was secretary of state. democrats have been furious that mr. comey<u+2019>s explosive but vague disclosure came so shortly before election day, and the latest release added fuel to that fire, in part because it involved such an old case. clinton campaign spokesman brian fallon tweeted: <u+201c>absent a foia litigation deadline, this is odd. will fbi be posting documents on trump<u+2019>s housing discrimination in the 70s?<u+201d> mr. fallon was referring to allegations of bias against donald trump<u+2019>s real-estate company. rep. adam schiff of california, the top democrat on the house intelligence committee, said mr. comey<u+2019>s disclosure of the newly discovered emails , contained in a letter to lawmakers on friday, was now prompting the public<u+2014>rightly or wrongly<u+2014>to second-guess almost any fbi action. <u+201c>it opens you up to a lot of concerns that you are being unfair, that you are trying to affect the outcome, and causes people to ask whether you are disclosing things about one candidate and not another,<u+201d> mr. schiff said. <u+201c>those conversations shouldn<u+2019>t even be taking place.<u+201d> the fbi issued a statement saying it had followed the standard procedures for providing documents requested under foia. <u+201c>these materials became available for release and were posted automatically and electronically to the fbi<u+2019>s public reading room in accordance with the law and established procedures,<u+201d> the statement said.. democrats have spent the last several days angrily charging that mr. comey violated longstanding justice department policy when he sent a letter to congressional committee chairmen revealing the revival of the email probe 11 days before the election, and before investigators know if there is anything significant in the newly discovered files. democrats are also questioning whether the fbi is guilty of a double standard since it hasn<u+2019>t revealed details of any investigations involving mr. trump. the bureau hasn<u+2019>t confirmed whether there are any such probes. in late october, the fbi vault also posted documents responding to a foia request regarding donald trump<u+2019>s father, fred trump. <u+2014>damian paletta and carol lee contributed to this article. write to devlin barrett at devlin.barrett@wsj.com
fbi releases documents from 2001 probe into a bill clinton pardon  - wsj
devlin barrett