Executive Summary
A Review of Various Actions by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice in Advance of the 2016 Election
• Decisions to enter into “letter use” or “Queen for a Day” immunity agreements with three witnesses;
• The use of consent agreements and “act of production” immunity to obtain the laptops used by Clinton’s attorneys (Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson) to “cull” her personal and work-related emails; and
• The handling of Clinton’s interview on July 2, 2016. With regard to these investigative decisions, we found, as detailed in Chapter Five, that the Midyear team:
• Sought to obtain evidence whenever possible through consent but also used compulsory process, including grand jury subpoenas, search warrants, and 2703(d) orders (court orders for non-content email information) to obtain various evidence. We found that the prosecutors provided justifications for the preference for consent that were supported by Department and FBI policy and practice;
• Conducted voluntary witness interviews to obtain testimony, including from Clinton and her senior aides, and did not require any witnesses to testify before the grand jury. We found that one of the reasons for not using the grand jury for testimony involved concerns about exposing grand jurors to classified information.
