Years after FBI corruption inquiries into the Clinton Foundation were shut down, the IRS under President Trump opened a criminal tax investigation into the charity but abruptly cut off whistleblowers in 2019, according to newly released memos and emails.
Internal records show IRS agents met repeatedly with whistleblowers John Moynihan, a retired DEA financial crimes analyst, and Larry Doyle, a tax compliance expert, who had submitted more than 6,000 pages of evidence alleging financial improprieties, foreign influence, and commingling of personal and charitable business. According to the whistleblowers’ meeting notes, one IRS investigator reportedly said their materials indicated “the entire enterprise is a fraud.” The notes also show the men were formally signed on as cooperating witnesses.
The whistleblowers alleged the foundation acted as a foreign agent and misused nearly $2.8 billion in revenue. They filed multiple Form 211 applications seeking whistleblower awards if taxpayer funds were recovered. IRS notes confirm the Clinton Foundation and its affiliate, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, were central to the probe, which extended to U.S. Attorney’s Offices in Texas and federal investigators in Dallas and Newark.
Despite early momentum, with agents requesting a secure server to handle thousands of pages of evidence, the investigation stalled by mid-2019. Whistleblowers say they were suddenly told, “we can’t talk about the CF,” a reversal they allege came from higher up. Internal emails reflected confusion, with some IRS attorneys unaware a probe was even active, while packages of whistleblower evidence went missing and later resurfaced.
Moynihan and Doyle, who also testified before Congress in 2018 that the foundation should have registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, are still pressing their claims in U.S. Tax Court.
